Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Matthew 7:14-15.
I can't get behind someone based on possible, incidental agreement with some of his policies, but whose character is atrocious, lacking any moral or ethical guidance, and the complete opposite of what Jesus Christ taught about character to his followers. I'm one of them, and that makes it difficult for me to even listen when Trump speaks, and impossible for me to even think about voting for him for President of the United States, a country whose constitution, laws, and government his actions show that he despises and hates, and a Christian faith, it's confession, repentance and grace, which he absolutely refuses to acknowledge.
Apparently Jesus did not think that the church he was establishing, based on the gospel he preached and taught during the three years of his public ministry in the Jewish provinces of Galilee and Judea, was immune to the intrusion of false prophets. He spoke multiple warnings against them, and his Apostles, who wrote this all down, helped Christians identify false prophets intruding into the congregations of Christians.
For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who, long ago, were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny our only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. [Jude, v. 4]
That's a pretty clear warning, and way of identifying ungodly intruders in the church. Politics has most definitely intruded into some elements of the American church, most notably into conservative Evangelicalism. This is not a new thing, it became an organized, deliberate effort on behalf of partisan, Republican politics prior to Reagan's election in 1980, when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set up organizations to divert money from church mission causes into right wing political campaigns.
It became licentious when Trump, bragging about his ability to sexually humiliate and assault women because he was a celebrity and could get away with it, became the political inamorata of the religious right. When some Evangelical leaders, and some of their followers, embraced Trumpism, and Trump, ignoring or giving him a pass on his openly immoral worldliness, they opened the door to an intrusion of ungodly perversion of their church's mission and purpose. In spite of their best efforts, Trump has refused to follow their doctrine of conversion, failing to acknowledge his sinful nature and recognize Christ's sacrificial death on the cross by denying his sinful nature and his need to have God's forgiveness.
The Apostle John, in his first church epistle, chapter 4, verses 2 and 3 labels this kind of denial of one's sinful nature, and refusal to acknowledge the grace received as a result of Christ's death on the cross, as the spirit of the Antichrist. I'll let that sink in before moving on.
Matthew, the former tax collector and outcast, who was one of the original twelve apostles, says that false prophets can be identified by their "fruits." meaning by the outcome of their works or their lifestyle. At one point, he records a conversation Jesus had with a lawyer who was a member of the Pharisee party, what amounted to a theological "test" of his knowledge of the scriptures.
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?"
Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and the greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments." [Matthew 22:34-40, NIV]
I put the emphasis in bold on those words, because in this short passage, Jesus is actually equating these two commandments, tying them together, and literally making one of the core theological points of the Christian faith. He's saying that loving one's neighbor as one's self is the way that one demonstrates that they love God with all their heart, soul and mind. And he says that the essence of one's faith, "all the law and the prophets," hang on these two commandments.
At another point, recorded in Luke 10:25-37, Jesus relates a parable to illustrate the answer to the legal expert's question, "And who is my neighbor?" The parable, known as the Good Samaritan, goes to a very dramatic length to show that Samaritans were included in that definition, and that God expected a demonstration of love for the Samaritans as a demonstration of love for himself.
Samaritans, sort of like the Haitian immigrants who have come to the United States after a series of natural and political disasters left their country in a state of anarchy, were actually hated by their neighbors, the Jewish residents of Palestine in the provinces north and south of theirs. They were of mixed racial and ethnic heritage, a remnant of the poor inhabitants of the land left behind when the Babylonians conquered in 586 B.C. They were pagans, isolated from the restored Jerusalem temple. They were so despised and hated, that Jewish people who were traveling from Jerusalem to Galilee would take a much longer route, going east of the Jordan River then north through desert country, in order to bypass Samaria, adding dozens of extra miles to an already difficult trip.
Jesus, by intentionally making the Samaritan the example of the neighbor, against two other characters who were both Jewish religious leaders, also made the point that he did not consider any ethnic, religious, racial or social boundaries as barriers between human beings. And when Jesus traveled from Jerusalem to Galilee, he took his disciples through Samaria, deliberately encountering and engaging with the people.
In Considering What is the "Lesser" of Two Evils, Note That Jesus Says Failing to Love Your Neighbor is the Greater Evil
There are a couple of things to catch here. One, this is not an optional virtue, or a choice for Christian practice, it is a commandment. Christians are to love God with all of their heart, soul and mind, in other words, all of their being, and they are to demonstrate this by loving their neighbor, who is, by Jesus' definition, all of their fellow human beings, most particularly all those with whom they come in contact with and with whom they share community.
So it's a correct conclusion to call what Trump and Vance are doing to the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio evil. Clearly, they are not loving their neighbor, and that means they are showing contempt and disrespect to God as well. How does that sit with hypocritical Evangelical leadership?
And if you're considering the Pope's remarks, calling the election a choice between the "lesser" of two evils, then it is very clear, by this Biblically supported doctrine, that Trump and Vance are guilty of being the greater evil.
"They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
The lies being spread about the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, obviously prepared talking points by Trump, an outright lie brought up in the debate, and being promoted through social media tells us everything we need to know about Trump and Vance, and the hypocrisy of their entire political platform. If what Jesus said was true, and loving one's neighbor as one's self is truly a mark of the genuine sincerity of one's Christian faith, then this despicable incident, the spin they've tried to put on it and the callous and inconsiderate way they have continued to treat the Haitian people in Springfield is an example of hating one's neighbors.
The "fruit" they are bearing is certainly not compatible with true Christian faith and practice. Telling that kind of lie, bringing that kind of terror into the lives of people who are actually contributing to the revival of a dying community has nothing to do with Christianity, it's purely evil.
Is that the kind of hatred and bigotry Evangelicals want as their own image? Because that's what standing with Trump is going to get you.
The kind of hatred they are fomenting against this Haitian community in Springfield, many of whom are Christians themselves and who attend local churches, is the same sort of hatred against multiple ethnic and racial populations found in their Project 2025, their blueprint for taking over the United States and making it a "Christian nation." As the Bible says, you will know them by their fruits. Well, the fruits of Trump and Vance involve perpetrating the same kind of hatred on anyone they deem not to be part of a white, Christian America. Read the plan. Though it was developed by the Heritage Foundation, there's nothing Christian in it, in the biblical sense of that term. It's not Christian at all, it's Satanic.
We've Been Through All This Before
All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick, and you looked after me, I was in prison, and you visited me.
Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you, thirsty, and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger, and invite you in, or needing clothes and we clothed you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?"
The King will reply, "Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." [Matthew 25:32-40 NIV, emphasis mine]
Last year, busses from Texas would roll into downtown Chicago and discharge their passengers, 50 or 60 at a time, people who had managed to cross the border and apply as an asylum seeker, having escaped some kind of terror or oppression at home, only to have to face being forced on to a bus headed somewhere up north, to one of those "liberal, Democratic" cities.
Maybe Governor Abbott, and those nice, conservative politicians down there in Texas do deserve some credit for showing a little bit of humanity. At least they didn't separate parents from their children, mothers from their babies, such as the Trump administration did. Putting them on a bus to an unknown destination, in the winter, without warm clothing or other provision seems more hostility to me than hospitality.
So they began arriving up here, in this northern city full of liberal, "godless," Democrats. Even though it was a surprise at first, and no one ever really knew what each day would hold, in terms of how many would show up, they were welcomed here. All kinds of community groups, churches (yes, even in this "godless" northern city full of Democrats we have churches, lots of them, some of them liberal, too) came out to help the city and county officials tasked with finding places for these people to sleep, food to eat, medical care, things they needed for their children, all those things that Matthew mentioned in his gospel narrative.
It was a little overwhelming at first. There were people sleeping on the floor in most of the police stations, many churches had multiple overnight guests, and we worked things out as best as we could. People brought food, tons of it, and clothing, shoes, coats, blankets, cleaning supplies, in large quantities. Gosh, how is it that the people in this northern, "godless," Democratic city were that generous. And when the city and county were running low on funds, people stepped up to help with that, too.
I'm not sure how many of these people we cared for here in Chicago and in the surrounding area, but I've heard estimates at 100,000. It took a couple of weeks, but once the effort got organized, housing was located, empty apartments, empty school buildings, the Catholic church did some arranging in several of their closed schools to house people, and slowly, the floors of police stations and hotel rooms rented by the city and county emptied out, and people found places to live. The influx of asylum seekers also helped with a shortage of labor in the area, not all of the available jobs were filled but there were enough to help most of these people become much more self-sufficient as they wait for word on their asylum status.
Remarkably, the crime rate in Chicago has continued on its downward trend, something that began several years ago, and the influx of asylum seeking immigrants has not had any affect on it at all. Children have been accommodated in local schools, and best of all, none of the people who came here as refugees have had to experience the violence and brutality they were exposed to before they left home. Whether they are able to return home or not, is unknown, but in this northern, liberal, "godless", Democratic city, they are welcome and safe.
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
The Christian thing to do, according to the Bible, which Evangelicals claim as inerrant, infallible and the "sole authority for the faith and practice of the Christian church," is not to vilify, frighten, arrest or deport these people, who are also, by biblical definition, our neighbors. It is to do exactly what those "godless" liberal Democrats did in those northern, Democratic cities did. It is doing for the Lord by doing for the least of these, whom he calls his brothers and sisters. So that would make those godless, liberal, Democrats in that northern liberal city, by biblical definition, the sheep on the right.
The goats are still in Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment