A lot of Christian conservatives are using the
accusations made against Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter as a way
to say how unsuitable Biden is as a candidate for president. As many of my
friends know I am not voting for either President Trump or Biden, but
nevertheless there is something grossly wrong with Christians using this
accusation. I will explain.
So first of all The
New York Times reporter, Katie Robertson, writing
about the the New York Post story stated,
“Coming late in a heated presidential campaign, the article suggested that
Joseph R. Biden Jr. had used his position to enrich his son Hunter when he was
vice president. The Post based the story on photos and documents the paper said
it had taken from the hard drive of a laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter
Biden.” Robertson in her article, “New
York Post Published Hunter Biden Report Amid Newsroom Doubts,” goes
on to explain that Hunter Biden supposedly left a computer at a shop with
documents on it suggesting “that the elder Mr. Biden, as vice president, had
directed American foreign policy in Ukraine to benefit his son, a former board
member of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.”
Continuing Robertson writes, “The article named two
sources: Stephen
K. Bannon, the former adviser to President Trump now facing federal
fraud charges, who was said to have made the paper aware of the hard
drive last month; and Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, who
was said to have given the paper “a copy” of the hard drive on Oct. 11.”
Now there are all kinds of reasons to be concerned
about this story. But for those Christians using the story there is a far
greater reason not to affirm it and it has to do with how we perceive those who
applaud and love those who persecute Christians.
Recently World
Magazine published an article about a man who is persecuting some Chinese
Christians in the United States. The
article, “Pressure
campaign targets Chinese pastor in Texas: A Chinese tycoon’s media blitz has
forced leading Chinese Christian dissident Bob Fu into hiding”, was written by Mindy Belz. She begins her
article:
Protesters
remained outside the Midland, Texas, home of Bob Fu 10 days after law
enforcement placed Fu and his family in protective custody due to threats. The
protesters carry signs claiming the founder of ChinaAid and pastor who once was
forced out of China by its Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government is “a CCP
spy.” They have refused to tell local media where they are from or whether they
are being paid.
As Belz continues she
explains that Guo Wengui, a Chinese business man is the one targeting Bob Fu
and others.
On Bob Fu’s web site China Aid is a statement by China aid
about this persecution. Part of the document states:
On
Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, multiple of his followers instructed by Guo showed up
outside Fu’s home in Texas while he was out of town. His family however was
inside and are now fortunately under protection by local law enforcement. In
response, Guo issued another video where
he threatened, “We will send another 100 to 200 comrades to your house
tomorrow. We will see how much power you have in the U.S…. We will not start
another campaign until we are On. Guo’s followers have surrounded Jianmin’s
house in Los Angeles for five days. His wife and two children are too
frightened to leave. Also targeted is Pastor Zhang Boli, a Tiananmen leader
still on the CCP’s “Most Wanted” list.
Bob Fu and the others mentioned in Guo Wengui’s video are under direct threat
by the actions this man. He has mobilized his followers and encouraged violence
against those he loosely and deceitfully deems a “CCP spy.
Now enter the two men who
are the source for the supposed damaging information on Hunter Biden. They both
have ties to Guo Wengui the man persecuting Chinese Christians in the United
States. . Bannon was arrested for fraud while on his business partner Wengui’s 35,
million dollar yacht. And Giuliani is also connected. In a Daily Beast article,
“Chinese
Billionaire’s Network Hyped Hunter Biden Dirt Weeks Before Rudy Giuliani”
there are tweeted pictures of
Wengui and Giuliani hugging and smoking cigars together.
Why
would Christians, those who belong to Jesus the very truth, want to use the
words of people like Bannon, Giuliani and their companion Wengui who within the
confines of the United States would persecute Christians? The Church is
becoming too involved with the world via politics.
I
believe the word of God is calling for more than ‘thinking about’ when it states:
… whatever is
honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is of good repute, if
there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things
(Phil. 4:8).
The
words are calling for a life lived within the confines of what is honorable,
right, pure, of good repute, excellence and what is worthy of praise. Ralph P.
Martin in the Tyndale commentary on Philippians writes, “The present
verse is governed by the verb think, logizesthe, which means more than ‘keep
in mind’ (Moffatt). It is rather ‘take into account (logos), reflect upon
and then allow these things to shape your conduct’.”
Believers
cannot uphold the words of worldly and immoral men and at the same time walk
within the confines of a life attuned to a lowly, truthful and pure Savior.
19 comments:
Without disagreeing with your premise, and without making any claims about the accuracy of what's been released, it seems to me that the bigger question about the allegations against Hunter Biden and Joe Biden is whether or not they are true. If they are true, then they seem to raise seemingly legitimate questions that are worth exploring. We can't always choose to sources of information, all we can do is try to determine what is true, is how it seems to me.
Craig, in a sense that is one of the reasons we need to not insist it as true, because of the moral character of those claiming to have such Knowledge. And I am addressing Christians who immediately grabbed it as a sure sign of Biden's bad character and misdeeds.
I agree that some (honestly on both sides) are much too quick to grab things which they believe help their side or harm the other side without doing the due diligence to determine the truth. Further, I agree that a questionable source should mean that more effort should be put into finding out what the truth is. I'd argue that if something is true, then the truth is not dependent on the source, but on the alignment of the information with reality. Yes, the moral character of the source should inspire more research, but not outright dismissal.
In this particular case, I would argue that the truth about the Bidens actions is worth pursuing regardless of the source of one set of accusations. I'd argue that, especially in light of those who uncritically accepted the Steele dossier when it first came out, one of the biggest problems of recent history is jumping to conclusions based on information that turns out to be false or incomplete.
Craig I agree with a lot that you are saying and I do believe it should be and is being researched by the FBI. My problem is with those who only read extremely conservative accounts and then post comments as if there is no question that it is true. And it does bother me deeply that it doesn't matter the character of the person giving the information if it agrees with the person's political views they will immediately affirm it and link to it.
Thank you for this piece Viola.
From Trump's own 'mouth', by every metric that can be used to compare Trump to Biden, Biden is orders of magnitude more suited for the Office than Trump is. They are not even in the same category. I say this as a patriotic American, as an amateur historian, as a highly trained Scientist, as a student of Scriptures, and as a disciple of Christ. Rarely are the cells in my body so in harmony with each other.
Jodie Gallo
Los Angeles, CA
In some ways, Jodie I see them miles apart but on the other hand Biden is betraying his Catholic faith so there is that. I hope eventually the cells in your body work in harmony- perhaps in the resurrection: )
Thanks Viola,
At least Biden has a faith to betray. Trump is the guy who violently dispersed civil rights protestors outside the White House for a photo op on the steps of a church holding a Bible. In a manner that betrayed the fact that he never held one in his hand before, except in a photo op.
Speaking of Catholic faith though, maybe you can figure out what Opus Dei is doing with Trump. They seem to be all over him.
Jodie
Viola,
I agree that people re posting these kinds of things based only on what they've heard from one side or the other is a problem. However, this certainly isn't a problem limited to one side of the political divide. I've spent a lot of time looking at the effects of worldviews and such this year, and I'm increasingly struck by the fact that it's less and less common for truth to factor in to these discussions. So, I'm much more interested in what's true, rather than who said it. If it's true, then I really don't care about the source.
Craig,
The source means everything. It's more analogous to finding the truth in a court of Law than to finding the truth in a physics lab. Goes to the credibility of the witness.
That is why we, as Christians, must be dedicated to being above all else truthful in things big and things small. We are witnesses to an unbelievable Truth; to be credible witnesses our reputation for telling the truth must therefore be above reproach. Sometimes credibility of the witness is all you've got.
The Russians, the Iranians, and Trump have a very poor record for telling the truth. Trump much worse than any president in US history. It's got nothing to do with politics or party afiliation. It's a character issue. As his niece, Mary Trump, so eloquently demonstrates in her book "Too Much and Never Enough".
It's a book every American should read.
For me that's the clash current events have set in motion. Not "truth" as in detailed fact checking, although Trump fails that test 20 times a day on average and nobody cares, but Truth as an essence of character.
It used to mean something in America, and it's gotten lost somewhere along the way. Ironically, to "make America great again" we have to start with "fire the liar".
Jodie Gallo
Los Angeles, CA
Jodie,
I agree that the source is important, yet I don't agree that the source defines the truth of anything. All I'm suggesting is that our goal as believers should be to seek the truth regardless of where we find it and regardless of how it affects out political agenda.
Craig,
It is true that if you can get your hands on the raw facts and data, finding the truth "regardless of where we find it" is agreeable. But most of the time we must rely, if not completely then at least in part, on the integrity of the witness to the raw facts and data. If the integrity of the witness is impeached, or even put in doubt, we must not rely on them to know the truth.
Jodie
Yet, the integrity of the witness doesn't change the truth of the matter, at most it changes our perception of things. In the Biden case, we're faced with accusations from sources that aren't the most palatable, yet without those sources we'd likely not be hearing the information we're hearing. It seems like the problem is trying to determine the truth of the information, not focusing on how much we don't like the original sources. It seems like much of our public discourse is shaped by narratives, rather than by truth. As Christians, isn't our allegiance to the one who is The Truth? Are we to ignore the truth solely because of the person who tells it?
Craig,
In the case of Biden there is no truth in the allegations whatsoever.
It's pure foreign propaganda geared towards influencing the American People's votes in favor of someone we know to being a liar, and we know who is the father of all lies. Someone who brags about sexually molesting women; who encourages his supporters to not protect themselves against the worst pandemic in over 100 years; who wants to deny health care to people who get it, all the while availing himself of a 100K dollar treatment plan when he got it; who cheats on his income tax and owes foreign interests 100s of millions of dollars; someone who disrespects the memory of America's war heroes and publicly takes the name of God in vain.
So there's that.
Jodie
Jodie,
I find it interesting that you'd make that claim so dogmatically. Given that one of the things Biden has been so adamant about is the fact that he had zero contact with any of Hunter's clients, yet it looks like that may not be the case. I'm not sure how trotting out a litany of bad things Trump has done makes the Biden allegations any less true or any more false.
But, thank you for demonstrating the point of my comments. As Christians, our primary allegiance should be to Truth and to the one who is The Truth, and because of that we should be trying to ascertain what's True not what aligns with our politics.
Jodie,
It seems from your response, that you have assumed that I am a Trump supporter. Unfortunately, my search for Truth, and my disdain for Biden, don't make me a Trump supporter.
Craig,
Perhaps our difference lies in our understanding of what it means to "ascertain what's True".
As Christians we should not lend any support or credibility to innuendo coming from questionable sources or worse, discredited sources. If someone known to be a liar says something to discredit someone else's reputation, part of seeking the truth involves not allowing gossip and innuendo to be promoted. The Scriptures are clear about this. We are not to pass on gossip, and gossip does not give us permission to "investigate". It is a form of lying. This is why we believe and define a person to be innocent until proven guilty. And the burden of proof lies with the accuser. Not with the listener.
Jodie
Perhaps it does.
I agree that we should not give credibility to anything questionable, yet how does one make that determination unless there is investigation? Are you suggesting that we simply ignore things from certain sources regardless of the Truth of the allegations?
Look, if you think that it's appropriate to disregard allegations based solely on your estimation of the credibility of the sources, without regard to the Truth or falsehood of the allegations, then feel free to live your life by that standard. I'd only hope that you would apply that standard equally when it comes to those you disagree with.
Craig,
Yes, I am saying you ignore allegations that come from questionable sources. Specially allegations that attack the character of people whose livelihoods depend on their show of character.
I'll give you and example. My Session allowed the Personnel Committee to conduct an investigation into our associate pastor on the basis of unfounded innuendo. Even though nothing was found, the mere suspicion was enough to incur the wrath of the Presbytery's Commission on Ministry. A Presbytery Investigative Committee proactively found him to have done no wrong and said so in writing. And yet the investigation destroyed his reputation and his ministry, and he was instructed to resign. He left the ministry altogether out of pain and sorrow. And so did hundreds of members of the congregation.
The act of "conducting an investigation" to "find the Truth" carried with it evil consequences that cannot be corrected.
You simply cannot and must not give a voice to questionable sources.
Jodie
Jodie,
What in interesting concept. The notion that Truth must be subordinated to the human perception of the trustworthiness of the source. That further, the mere presence of a source considered untrustworthy immediately discounts the possibility that the accused is potentially guilty. I further struggle with the notion that some sources are 100% objectively trustworthy, while others are 100% objectively untrustworthy. I also struggle with how those objective determinations are reached.
In the case of your associate pastor, while that anecdote is tragic, it literally places the potential damage to someones reputation over the possibility that that person is actually harming people. Since we're placing such value on individual anecdotes, I've got a couple as well.
An associate pastor at my current church was suspected of embezzling, the appropriate investigation ensued and confirmed the embezzlement of well over 100K dollars. While the associate lost his job, the entire process was based on the principle of restorative justice and both the church and the associate emerged stronger for the experience.
Another church I attended, had a senior pastor who was repeatedly arrested for soliciting sex in a public park. The situation was investigated, and again the goal was restoration and healing for the pastor and his family. It wasn't a perfect situation, but it wasn't inappropriately damaging to either party.
It's possible that the problem lies in how the investigation is conducted, rather than the fact that an investigation occurs.
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