Recently I had a friend comment on one of my Facebook postings eventually using heavy conspiracy loaded language. Something about busloads of Chinese men crossing the border. babies being beheaded, nails in people, and “an evil, globalist, agenda that’s marching forward.” I have been deeply troubled by this, partly for the well-being of the friend and partly because this kind of fear-laden worldview based on other’s lies can lead to real awful consequences.
People who live in a world of dark fearful unreality invented by liars may eventually become part of great evil. Here I am thinking of a diminishing QAnon or even a large segment of MAGA. If refugees who are not criminals can be torn away from family, sometimes beaten, held in terrible conditions and members of these two groups, QAnon and MAGA, can find excuses or even applaud, they have lost at least a part of their humanity.
The same can be said of Christian Nationalism whose unreality is the loss of the biblical understanding of living under the cross rather than seeking worldly power. I read a statement by a member of X who had begun to form this question about those who were yielding to untruthful concepts.
“My opposition to Christian nationalism in the form in which it is promoted by some circles is NOT a resistance to Christian principles in public spheres, or to the Kingdom of Christ coming to earth. It is because of the persons who would be implementing it. This week, I was called "Anti-Christ" by one of its proponents for my view. Imagine, if you will, what would be done by that person to people like me if they had the authority to implement their views. Then imagine what would happen to you when you (inevitably) disagreed.”
Those are questions rattling around in my heart and mind lately. I was once, when in the PC (USA) writing about their antisemitism and the LGBT community’s insistence on changing the denomination’s adherence to biblical standards on marriage, accused of hatred. I never hated and still do not. Now I am being accused of hateful speech because I am writing and posting about the mistreatment of refugees. And I feel somewhat like Stetler; the question needs to be asked- if all of these people living in their unrealities become the leaders, and many of them are already, what will finally be their treatment toward those who disagree.
I have already written a great deal about MAGA people who consider themselves prophets and supposedly with God speaking through them are
prophesying prison and death for many who disagree with both Trump and his followers.
But here is my greatest concern, that those who have followed Jesus for so long and have been faithful are being seduced by the lies and that this is changing them pulling them away from their faithfulness. Pulling them away from truthfulness and I am concerned, too soon from the One who is Truth. The many leaders, including religious leaders, who are telling lies to God’s people, either political lies or religious lies, are hurting God’s people, hurting the sheep of His pasture.
To keep walking amid darkness is soul deadening. Some have already found imaginary enemies to hate and desire their death or imprisonment. Some are imagining enemies who control the world and are forgetting the real enemy of their soul that goes about seeking the destruction of their soul and the destruction of the Church. God has a command in His word about the conspiracies circulating in Isaiah’s day:
“You are not to say it is a conspiracy! In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy. And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it. It is the Lord of Hosts whom you should regard as holy. And He shall be your fear, and He shall be your dread. And He shall become a sanctuary.” (Isaiah 8:12-a14)
Isaiah goes on to speak of God’s judgement on Israel but finally in verse 9:2 is the promise of light—the true light. “The people that walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.” This is the light that we need now and our walk in that light does not include harassing and hurting strangers. It does include speaking the truth, both of His gospel of salvation and its effect on our love and care for others.
This is a slight rewrite of a post I wrote in 2008 while still in the Presbyterian Church USA. My thoughts are now mostly refocused on a different idolatry in the Church- that is the worship of nation, power and ethnicity. But mainly I am concerned for the comfort, joy and faithfulness of those seeking purpose and courage in the midst of a frightful time. My favorite book by C.S. Lewis is the last one in his sci-fi trilogy, That Hideous Strength. It pictures perfectly, I think a society moving toward authoritarianism and the church gathered together with both weakness and faithfulness within that society.
In the book That Hideous Strength, C. S. Lewis describes a group of people who, in one way or another, have become refugees from their own homes. They are taken under the wings of the Director whose name is Ransom. They are living in the presence of evil as they watch a group of diabolical utopians tear apart their familiar world, a small but ancient college town.
The beauty of this story is that the gathered people live as a family expecting to do great things in the presence of great evil. But the most important thing they do is follow the directions of the Director whether that is doing kitchen or garden duty or running risky errands for Ransom. In the end it is the wizard, Merlin and all the powers of heaven that confront and destroy the evil as those in Ransom’s house simply watch with some wonder.
The Church in the world, the ancient city of God, those gathered under the care of Jesus often face evil and faithlessness. But it is faithfulness and obedience that is required. The words of Holy Scripture are His directions.
“But you, beloved ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they were saying to you, ‘In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’ These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who are doubting; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 17-25)
Adding to this, idolatry in the Church, I understand that there is some division among Christians in the United States over ICE's (really the Trump administration's) treatment of refugees. Many catholic and protestants protest, but too many charismatic and evangelical Christians are either aloof to or are in agreement with ICE's treatment. And it should be pointed out that in some cases the charismatics such as Paula White are prosperity Christians and have moved either to the outer ring of mere Christianity or have moved far beyond the fold of Christ proclaiming that they will become little Christs.
The division has begun to grow where some evangelicals are more concerned with faithfulness to President Trump than to the Lord of the Church. It isn't that they are not concerned with faithfulness it is just that they have become so concerned with political power (for some good causes of course) that Jesus has been overshadowed. They have forgotten the Kingdom and the Power is His.
Karl Barth in his day certainly saw the Church bow down to a leader and wrote:
"Along with the external oppression of the Church she can be summoned to consider that God is at liberty to take away the light of the Gospel, if we do not want to have it otherwise. Even as He once removed the 'candlestick' from the North African Church, which was as much the Church of St. Augustine as the German Church is that of Luther. It would then be fruitless and a silly thing to fight, by means of the instruments of Church-politics, against the sign given us in maybe one last moment in which all that mattered would be to cry aloud unto God, in the presence of this certainly fearful signal, that He might not be altogether weary of His rule amidst the great disloyalty of modern German Christianity [American Christianity] and 'Churchianity,' and that He might be disposed to make us more loyal to His Word, by means of His Word, than we and our fathers [and mothers] have been."
Nonetheless there is joy, comfort, and peace in faithfulness and obedience to only one Lord, love for one another, care for those misused, the needy, the refugee, the troubled, even the rebel.
Today, in the United States, some are unaware of where we are living. Concerns over the killing of unborn children, the sadness that biblical marriage is pushed aside in so many ways, not just in the gay community but the many who forgo marriage and simply live together or go from pardner-to-pardner troubles many and should. But there is a deeper darkness spreading among us. A chilling darkness that places us very near the gates of hell. Christ loved us and died for us even when we are sinners—we have forgotten the love and compassion of our Lord. We have forgotten kindness.
When my husband began his journey downward with Alzheimer’s I did not understand at first his new world. My ignorance too often caused problems. I encouraged him to watch movies and television with me. I had just ordered a movie that as a ten-year-old had begun my journey to Jesus. The movie QuoVadis is the story of the early Roman Christians and their horrific persecution. As we watched, one of the first big scenes was of Nero’s wife performing a huge pagan rite. My husband got very angry, “this isn’t a Christian movie,” he said. I had to turn it off he didn’t understand the sitting.
One of the next things we watched was a news program on PBS. There was a segment about how the pythons were taking over the Everglades in Florida. As they showed the huge pythons my husband jumped out of his chair, hid behind it and started throwing pillows at the TV. And then I knew his world was now so different then mine. I needed to protect him from the horrors that frightened him although to me they were not horrors. And such is our world today. Because we belong to a loving, compassionate, forgiving Savior we cannot ignore the pain of the strangers in our midst.
They are experiencing horrors that we can only see or read about.
Yes, some are criminals but most are not. They are being nabbed and carried off to such places as Alligator Alcatraz where both alligators and pythons which roam the outskirts of their prison are not just images on a video. (Every time I have read or seen videos of this detention center, I think of my husband hiding behind his chair.) I hear Trump laughing that the prisoners if they try to escape will need to learn how to zig-zag when running. And Laura Loomer, Trump's confident, suggesting that now the alligators will have at least 65 million dinners. There are 65 million Hispanics in the United States.
And what I’m trying to say, to write, is that we are living amid the beginning of terrible times. We can live as though nothing’s wrong; we can live as though all of these strangers deserve what is happening to them. But God’s laws and God’s love is greater than any nation and his word is filled with admonitions to care for the stranger, the needy.
There is a beautiful scene in the movie Quo Vadis where Peter leaving Rome is stopped by words from Jesus telling him to go back to Rome, “my people in Rome have need of thee.” He will go and die with the Christians in the arena. I believe the Lord wants his people in the United States to care about those who are truly being kidnapped off of the streets, farms and churches and sent away. At least speak up and pray.
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how we as Christians should react to leaders who are authoritarian—who cause hurt to the vulnerable. I’ve been thinking about this because I keep grieving over the horror stories I have posted on my Facebook page—stories of those immigrants, some citizens of the United States, some in the process of becoming citizens, some who have lived here for years but are not citizens like the dreamers, they have been harshly, sometimes violently, even illegally arrested by ICE. And this leads me to a man Jesus referred to as a fox.
In the book of Luke, the Pharisees tell Jesus he should leave the area he is in because Herod (Antipas) is going to kill him. Jesus tells them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I reach my goal. Nevertheless, I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem.” Jesus goes on to grieve over Jerusalem and warn them of their loss.
How has Jesus characterized Herod, a king, a wicked one, and why. Leon Morris in his Tyndale commentary on Luke writes:
The fox was used by the Jews as a symbol of a sly man, but more often for an insignificant or worthless one (SB). It was sometimes a symbol of destructiveness. T.W. Manson says , “To call Herod ‘that fox’ is as much as to say he is neither a great man nor a straight man; he has neither majesty nor honour.’ The expression is thus contemptuous. Herod is the only person Jesus is recorded as having treated with contempt.
This picture of Herod is also an explanation of why Jesus used the term fox. Morris reminds his readers that when Jesus during his trial was sent to Herod, he never spoke a word to him. Herod was not worthy of Jesus words. Herod was a man who simply encased himself in pride and offered up human life if it bettered his life. He allowed John the Baptist to be beheaded for the sake of not losing face with his dinner guests. He had James killed and was ready to kill Peter because he found it pleased the Jews. He allowed the people listening to his speech to praise him as a god and was judged by God.
In this case Jesus is not only the Savior, the Redeemer, as usual he is the model. In this interaction Jesus simply outlines His planned actions, healing, casting out demons and going forward with the purpose his Father had given him, to suffer and die at Jerusalem. Herod has no meaning, no part, good or bad in Jesus’ holy calling. Just continue on with the Father’s plans but be honest about the adversary.
On the other hand, Jesus faced the religious authorities with truth. The truth of their sinfulness and their needs. They burdened their people, they changed the word of God with tradition, they failed to grasp who Jesus was. But Jesus didn’t treat them with contempt—he named them but with truthful names that spoke to their sin and their need to repent. They were empty tombs full of dead men’s bones, they were greedy and wanted power and wealth. Jesus cared for them, contended with them, pled with them, brought some of them to faith in himself. His response to them was not different then his response to all who are hard hearted against the redemptive work of God.
When they attempted to maim or kill Jesus he simply disappeared out of their reach and went on toward his calling.
Jesus’ disciples had to also come to terms with how they should respond to authoritarian rulers and leaders. Their first confrontation was with religious authoritarian leaders. They were told to no longer preach in Jesus’ name—to no longer preach the reality of His death and resurrection. Two things here, in preaching the gospel it was necessary to speak of those who had wickedly and foolishly killed Jesus. And authoritarians do not like to hear of their own sins, just the sins of others. They do not like to see the goodness and righteousness that is gifted to Jesus’ followers.
So, what is the disciple’s answer to those who demanded their silence concerning Jesus?
But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)
The disciples made three important points here: not only would they obey God rather than these leaders but would place on the leaders the burden of decerning how people should act when God’s authority is attacked. Thirdly when knowledge of truth is seen and known we are compelled to speak out about it. More importantly when it is knowledge that concerns the truth of who Jesus is and what He calls His followers to, whether that is speaking of salvation or helping the needy we must speak truth.
Undoubtedly the strongest words in the New Testament concerning Christians and their obedience to authority comes from Paul in the book of Romans:
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.
For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise of the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.
Paul goes on to write of obeying for the sake of the authority’s wrath but also because of your own conscience’s sake. He adds to this the need to be obedient by paying taxes.
I add the statement about taxes because I want to take a bit of a rabbit trail in order to come back and seek more clarity on the word of God. During my years of writing about some racists groups who were called Identity because they thought the white races were ancestors of ancient Israel and the Jews were literal children of Satan I discovered that they did not legally marry or pay taxes. They had clearly divorced themselves from the government by not participating in any civil requirement. They considered the government illegal calling it ZOG—Zionist Occupation Government.
This is exactly what is happening with the extreme right, they do not consider the government legit and wish to rid themselves of what they call the establishment or the deep state. So, considering the word of God and its admonishment to be in subjection to the authorities there is a need for obedience. And yet there are nuances because obedience to God is the greater obedience.
And there is another part of this admonition, a description of the main duty of the authority. That is that the ruler bears toward the law breaker God’s wrath. But and this is very important, the Christian is not under God’s wrath. In exegeting these passages F.F. Bruce in the Tyndale commentary on Romans writes:
For the sake of conscience. The Christian has a higher motivation for obeying the ruler than the unpleasantness of the consequences of disobedience, the Christian knows that such obedience is in accordance with God’s will, and by rendering it will preserve a good conscience in relation to God.
What must be added to this is that a law or action, given by an authority which requires disobedience to God must be disobeyed in order to also preserve a good conscience in relation to God. This is where the two kingdoms split, one earthly, one pervasive of both heaven and earth, eternal, and the Christian is placed in a worrisome position. When to obey and when not to obey.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer suffered this decision. A pacifist he joined the military since some top generals were against Hitler and were actually helping Jews flee Germany—for this crime Bonhoeffer was arrested. He was martyred but it is still unknown whether it was because he was part of the plot to kill Hitler or simply because he was part of the plot to work against Hitler. But nonetheless he suffered these questions of obedience as many others have throughout history.
So, here are several of my thoughts on Christian obedience to authoritarian leaders. Jesus is the first example. Jesus in the midst of lies, oppressiveness and persecutions continued on obedient to his Father—nothing deterred Him from the purposes of God, the redemption of sinners. In fact, the Scripture states that it was with joy he continued. (Hebrews 12:2) In living through this he ignored the one, that fox, who gave no meaning either bad or good to his purpose. He contended and pled with those opposed to Him, speaking truth because evil in humanity must be addressed not hidden, not ignored. Speak truth for the sake of both victim and the oppressor.
Jesus did not call for an army of angels available to him but endured His calling of suffering. (Matthew 26:53)
The disciples were obedient when it was necessary, but disobedient when ordered to not preach about Jesus. They also spoke the truth unafraid to name evil when necessary. The first martyr Stephen called his listeners stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and always resisting the Holy Spirit. (Acts: 7:51) Paul when attempting to explain the gospel to the proconsul Sergius Paulus but was being thwarted by a magician accused him of being full of deceit and fraud and called him son of the devil, and enemy of all unrighteousness. (Acts 13: 6-11)
Also the disciples refused to be unlawfully misused by authorities. When Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison and the authorities discovered they were Romans fearfully told the jailer to have them leave. But Paul insisted that instead they come themselves and release them:
“They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now they are sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” (Acts 16: 37)
Biblical truths allow us to speak truth about evil, to point out unlawfulness used against victims, to attempt to draw evil doers away from their lifestyles, their hunger for power, their greed and abusiveness. And since we are all sinners, we must turn that speech towards ourselves as well.
And while we cannot obey orders that cause us to disobey God, we must obey orders that do not cause evil to others. This is the final understanding of our actions and attitudes toward authoritarian leaders, we are a people living under the cross. Speak the truth, do not be afraid to name evil, but pray for and plead with those who hurt the vulnerable. Attempt to protect and speak up for the vulnerable. Go on, with joy, following the One who has called you to this moment. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you a racist? I hope not. I loved my father, but he was a racist and I hated that. I hated his actions and words when it came to race. Generally, he was a good father, but then he wasn’t because he tried to teach his daughters lessons that no child should learn. And I didn’t learn them but once I complied with them and have regretted it ever since. He took me and my future husband out to eat. When I picked out a table next to a black family; he told me to move and I did.
Now our nation is being troubled by a racist, Steven Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Advisor. The man who wants ICE to start deporting at least 3000 immigrants a day. So what proof is there that Miller is a racist?
Over the years that I have worked in ministry to new religions and cultic groups as well writing a great deal on racism and antisemitism I have used some material written by the Southern Poverty Law Center. They have also used some of my material on antisemitism. While we don’t agree on the definition of marriage they do a fantastic job on research about racism and antisemitism. Their material on Steven Miller is excellent.
I will put a link here that shows why he can be called a racist, but I also intend to quote from their material.
In their article, one of several, they speak of his early bent toward racism, but it is his e-mails sent to Breitbart’s editor I want to highlight. This went from 2015 to 2016. I will quote:
“The emails show evidence of Miller’s indulgence and sharing of the racist source material he relied upon to define the ethos of his immigration policies. Throughout the emails, Miller promotes literature, conspiracy theories, and policies supported by white nationalist and anti-immigrant hate groups.
In a Sept. 6, 2015, email to Breitbart’s McHugh, Miller suggested that they write about Jean Raspail’s, “The Camp of the Saints,” a racist French novel popular among white nationalist and neo-Nazis.
The novel is popular within extremist circles because of its dramatized depiction of “white genocide,” also referred to as the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. According to this theory, white people of European descent are being systematically displaced in the Western world.” When Raspail died in June 2020, VDARE author Steve Sailer, who Miller linked to in his emails to McHugh, publicly mourned his loss.”
I am familiar with the book, The Camp of the Saints, it is often referred to by racists. When I read that this was in Miller’s e-mails I knew for certain that he is a racist and his deportation polices which he uses to advice President Trump are couched in his racism. SPLC continues with their article:
“The novel utilizes an apocalyptic plot in which Indian refugees invade France, and their failure to assimilate or adopt French cultural norms ultimately leads to the domination of the white population. The main antagonist is referred to as the “turd eater.” In one section of the novel, a white woman is raped to death by a group of brown-skinned refugees. Additionally, another part of the novel depicts the killing of a pro-refugee leftist by a nationalist character because of the leftist’s support of race mixing.
Miller recommended that Breitbart write about the novel in response to Pope Francis’ expressions of sympathy for refugees. Miller wrote, “you see the Pope saying west must, in effect, get rid of borders. Someone should point out the parallels to Camp of the Saints.”
This is a mixture of charismatic interest in end-times tales and, not mentioned in the quote, interest in militias and the hanging of enemies. This corresponds to many in the religious MAGA movement who are prophesying what they call the Haman affect when enemies will be hung. This is such ugly stuff. What is certain is Miller is not only interested in removing immigrants from the United States, he is interested in removing brown people from the United States.
A long time ago Congress could have fixed laws that would have protected the “dreamers,” those brought to the United States as children who have lived here for many years, gone to school here, worked and paid taxes, raised families and contributed to their communities. They could have and still can continue giving temporary visas, extending them, to those who are fleeing persecution and severe poverty such as the Afghans, Haitians, and Venezuelans.
“Jesus Christ is God’s answer to racism. Paul admonishes the Galatians that they are to make no distinctions among those belonging to Christ; they are to be as one: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:27-28). In the Book of Revelation, where Christ is pictured as both “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah” and “a Lamb standing, as if slain,” the 24 Elders sing to His glory: “For Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Rev. 5:9-10).
The church, those redeemed not by race but by the blood of Christ the Lamb, understand Christ as both lion and lamb, both sacrifice and King. Wilhelm Niemoller, one of the members of the Confessing Church in Germany during the time of Hitler, wrote of what it meant to confess Christ as the only Lord under that regime: “One of my friends concluded a sermon of his in 1934 or 1935 by saying: ‘O Lord, Thou alone art our hope, apart from Thee, I know none!’ He was arrested, put on trial, and later released. The enemies that listened to him had noticed that the Third Reich was put in a difficult position wherever the ‘One Word of God’ made its appearance.”
It is a truthful statement to say Miller is a racist his policies are tearing Americans apart. And hopefully it is a truthful statement to say I will never comply with racism again.
…
My lazy day of eating too much and watching videos on YouTube turned into a worrisome amount of information about at least some in Homeland Security and ICE, and an American agricultural program referred to as H-2A visas. This left me with deep concerns about what is occurring in my country, greater concerns than I’ve had about just ICE and Immigrants.
I first watched an ICE raid on a market, Glenn Valley Foods, in Omaha Nebraska. Although several other news stations did a report, reporter Ali Bradley for News Nation, was given exclusive rights to report and film the whole event.
Toward the end of the report Bradley interviewed the owner of Glenn Valley. The owner, Gary Rohwer insisted that he had verified all of his workers as legal. He stated that the workers were like family, and he just could not believe that they were undocumented.
However, Rohwer stated “Well I understand there’s a program we can work with Homeland Security and we can get visas from them along with a list of employees that we can interview and the ones that we want we give them a visa and its squeaky clean. And Homeland signs off on it.”
I found this statement strange—how could Homeland Security give out visas in that manner.
Later in the day I watched another video. People Breaking Immigration Law are not who you Think, which I did not realize was going to explain a lot about the first video. It was about the H-2A program and how it was affecting both local farm workers and those immigrants who were given visas to work in the United States. The video is produced by More Perfect Union, and it explains how the H-2A program is being used by some corporations to not hire local workers, (against the law) and the misuse of temporary migrant workers. There is suspicion that it is also being used to do away with any migrants seeking citizenship.
Some of the complaints of local workers is that the agricultural corporations fire them and wait to hire temporary migrant workers. The temporary workers have many complaints. Poor crowded housing, long work hours without overtime, insistence that they pay for their travel expenses which is also, under the program, against the law. Probably the biggest problem is they cannot ask to stay in the United States-they will.
If this program is being used to place Mexico and other countries, with brown skinned peoples outside of American citizenship, then it well become racist for several reasons. The owner of Glenn Valley Food kept saying that his workers were family and mentioned that they had families there. In other words, they were part of the community—This is the better idea for our country. To make farm workers less than members of our community and in some ways almost slaves is racists.
Antonio de Lorea-Burst, communications director with the United Farm Workers, states in the video, “Theres a very nightmarish vision of the agricultural economy that effectively sees the entire labor force being composed of guest workers who are permanently excluded from citizenship who are denied basic labor rights and I think they see this moment as an opportunity to get closer to that.”
The President has even encouraged the farm workers to go home and then apply for a workers visa.
Today a friend on Facebook reposted a comment by Trump:
“Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace. In many cases the Criminals allowed into our Country by the VERY Stupid Biden Open Borders Policy are applying for those jobs. This is not good. We must protect our Farmers, but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!"
I think this is simply another setup to remove immigrants and replace them with temporary workers who will have no rights and will not be a part of our communities. They will be outsiders who we will use to make sure we have plentiful food. But they will not contribute to our schools, our church communities, our gatherings as citizens. We will be less than we should be and if we are Christians we will sinfully contribute to the dehumanization of others.
Because of my posting of A Near Wicken Speaking Spells on Facebook yesterday, I want to do just a small amount of clarification here. Casey Means, the Trump candidate for the next Surgeon General, is truly into new age and other beliefs. If Means is doing moon rites she may be into witchcraft. However, that is not for certain, witches practice a nature religion and generally worship a goddess. However, some see the goddess as simply a symbol while other see her as a reality. For information from my blog check here
I am concerned about the medical abilities of the several candidates
for health offices, but I know we can’t question their religion. We are after
all the United States of America where we still, hopefully, experience religious
freedom.
My father-in-law lost his first wife in a horrible accident on an icy Oregon road. A few, years later he married again, a Christian woman who was a cook at a Christian school. She was a nice lady, who loved her husband and cared for him though years of dementia. But she did have one quirk, she was a racist. When setting behind her in a car my husband teased her, your neck is kind of pink. But really it was red. When she stated that she believed the Japanese really deserved to be interned during the second World War, we asked why they didn’t intern the Italians. Her first husband was Italian. She stated it was because the Japanese were sly.
Just this morning I read an article from Christianity Today about the internment of Japanese Americans during the second World War. The author, Raymond Chang, writes about visiting one of the internment camps and also about the livelihood and property lost by the imprisoned Japanese. In Chang’s article, “We Should Not Be Silent This Time he writes of those who were Christians:
They gathered in makeshift chapels and worshiped in the camps, finding solace in the stories of exile in Scripture and trusting that God’s promises were greater than the fences that confined them. They called on the God of justice and mercy, and God met them there.”
I keep asking these questions, to myself as well as my reader. If you had a neighbor or friend who was an Afghan who faced the almost certain possibility of being deported back to her homeland where she would most certainly be killed, either because she is a Christian or because she had helped the United States government in their war against the Taliban, would you help her? Protest! Hide her! Go to jail to protect her! Would I, I keep asking.
One of my favorite heroes is Sophie Scholl, a member of the White Rose movement during the nazi years. The White Rose, a Christian group, wrote pamphlets about the injustices, the persecutions, happening during those years. They would leave their writings anywhere and were caught leaving them at the university of Munich. Most of them were beheaded for their actions.
The director of the movie about Sophie Scholl and the White Rose movement made this comment about her:
“I admire her courage. She turned down the ‘golden bridge’ offered her by the integration officer Robert Mohr—thus practically signing her own death sentence. I find that quite startling: how does such a life—affirming positive-minded young woman like Sophie Scholl come to terms with the fact that her life is being taken away from her? And of course as an atheist I ask myself: Is it easier to face death as a believer?”
nd so I keep asking the questions. There is the gay man, not a gang member, sent to the terrible prison in El Salvador. One congressman keeps asking Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, if she can just find out for Asylee’s mother if he is still alive. She won’t. There is the little girl with brain cancer, a US citizen, sent with her parents to Mexico, at first no time for the seizure medicine she needs—and no right to stay in the United States with her parents until her treatments are finished. No mercy for anyone.
But there is mercy from God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—who overshadows his people and carries them. So too we are called to have mercy as his children. But still the questions?
I have written some about an orphanage in Baja that me and my family often visited because my husband’s brother worked there. He was eventually to marry a lovely Danish woman who also worked there. I at one time went to visit her when she was sick and by herself. I found myself in an uncomfortable position.
I at that time was working in a ministry dedicated to apologetics and trying to help friends and families of what we then called cult members. My expertise was mostly working with those whose family members were involved in cultic and abusive churches who insisted they were Christians. I became aware while at the orphanage that just such a situation was developing there. A pastor was treating other workers as though they had no meaningful goal or purpose. They, in reality, were begging for freedom—they were not even allowed to have a key to a storage room where the equipment they used was kept.
It seemed that most of those upset were the Mexicans who lived and worked there. One of my concerns was that during the meeting to sort out the problems, leaders, some Americans, kept insisting there must be unity because Mexico was being taken over by communist who were already coming near Baja. So the implication was all will be lost if you don’t all listen to your leaders and stay in unity. In such a situation the real problems don’t get discussed or taken care of, rather it is suggested that it is an exceptional time which must be addressed in a different way.
Over the years there were changes and the orphanage thrives. But this use of fear words can be used by leaders to gain power over others. Timothy Snyder in his book, On Tyranny puts it exactly right:
Listen for Dangerous Words:
“Be alert to the use of the words extremism and terrorism. Be alive to the fatal notions of emergency and exception. Be angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.”
Those words are very familiar to this time and this place. Yes, we do have extremist groups and we have experienced terrorism. But not to the extent President Trump and others keep pushing. For instance, in her book, Start With Welcome, Bri Stensrud writes:
“President Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly emphasized, ‘The majority of the people that move illegally into the United States are not bad people. They’re not criminals. They’re not MS-13.’ Most immigrants come to the United States to pursue educational and economic opportunities and have little to gain by committing crimes.”
The United States, sadly, has a history of maligning and hurting immigrants. After the Chinese had worked at some of the most dangerous jobs on the railroad, particularly in California, they were banned from the United States. Both Catholics, the Irish and the Jewish people were discriminated against. The Japanese were, as most know, interned in camps during the second World War. Most of them lost their homes and business. And of course, just recently some Haitians in Ohio were falsely accused of eating their neighbor’s pets. It is too easy to pick on the vulnerable.
Snyder points out the times authoritarian leaders and governments use the scare words to take away freedoms from their people. There was the Reichstag fire in Germany, for the next twelve years Germany was no longer a democracy because of the “emergency.” Putin used such “emergencies” to gain total power in Russia. The fear words will be used. Already we hear that millions of terror groups, gangs, have been sent into the United States, We are at war with them and it is an “emergency.”
So where does the Christian stand in all of this?
Under the cross which means for now speak the truth and as some are saying care for the weak, the hurt, the accused, the slandered and yes even the enemies. Honor rulers but with truth. It is not honor for rulers to allow them to lie and never refute the lies because Scripture tells the believer to both speak truth and honor rulers.
And then there is this:
The Lord is my shepherd.
I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green
pastures;
He leads me beside quit
waters.
He restores my soul;
He guides me in the path of
righteousness
For His name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the
Valley of the shadow of death,
I’ve gone on a lot of trips and vacations. Two stand out in my mind. The first I’m thinking of was my second trip to England. My husband went on a plane with choir members, going to Avon, and then Cambridge to sing. I went several hours later on a plane to a different airport in England and went the next day by coach to Avon. (the trains were down one day a week although I can’t remember which day.) We met there; I went to their concert in an ancient church. He attended a play with me, fell asleep during it and then left with the choir for Cambridge the next morning. I went by train to Oxford, spent hours in Blackwells’ bookstore, went to service at King’s College, walked to the Inkling’s favorite pub hoping to see it a second time. They were closed. We met again and went together to Wales. One of the joys of this trip was traveling by myself and finding out I could do well by myself.
The second trip was a trip together by car across the United States visiting a daughter and her family and some of our friends. That meant, first an old friend from school in Pattonsburg Missouri, our daughter in Chicago: her husband was attending Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; Grand Rapids to visit one of my husband’s best piano tuner apprentices and back through West Yellowstone to visit two pastors, a husband and wife. The wife had encouraged my husband in leading Bible studies which he did until Alzheimer’s made it impossible. That was probably my favorite vacation, no cares just joy. (Well, okay there was that almost tornado.)
I’m writing all of these memories after reading Timothy Synder’s 16 chapter in his book, On Tyranny. He writes:
“Learn From Peers in Other countries:
“Keep up your friendships abroad, or make new friends in other countries. The present difficulties in the United States are an element of a larger trend. And no country is going to find a solution by itself. Make sure you and your family have passports.”
I admit I really haven’t kept up my friendships abroad. And at my age, 84, I doubt if I will need a passport, but I think it’s a good idea for many. I have relatives that are using theirs for identification which is also a good idea. (I do know God surprises us sometimes with the future.)
One thing Snyder is reminding the reader of is the turn toward the extreme right in several countries. Remember both communism and fascism is some of Synder’s academic expertise, as well as the history of all of those movements in Europe including Russia and the Baltics as will as Ukraine.
For those who don’t want to hear this I will quote Synder anyway:
“The fact that most Americans do not have passports has become a problem for American democracy. Sometimes Americans say that they do not need travel documents, because they prefer to die defending freedom in America. These are fine words, but they miss an important point. The fight will be a long one. Even if it does require sacrifice, it first demands sustained attention to the world around us, so that we know what we are resisting, and how best to do so. So having a passport is not a sign of surrender, On the contrary, it is liberating, since it creates the possibility of new experiences. It allows us to see how other people, sometimes wiser than we, react to similar problems. Since so much of what is happening now is familiar to the rest of the world or from recent history, we must observe and listen.”
Now I want to add my own observation to this and recommend some slightly different thoughts. First of all there is Rod Dreher’s thoughts in his books The Benedict Option and Live not by Lies. I think what he has to say about resistance while living in the United States under oppression is really helpful. The problem is he only sees that problem coming from the left, not at all from the right. So besides reading Dreher also read The Dispatch’s “A Confessing Church For America’s Weimar Moment” by Paul D. Miller. This will cover resisting both the extreme left and extreme right.
And besides this read, read about what is happening in the United States- yes read both sides but read good articles by both sides, that is one reason I am suggesting you read Dreher and Miller.
And then if you are a Christian read deeply of the redemptive sections of the Bible, of the forgiveness, the righteousness of Jesus which becomes ours in Christ. And also read deeply of the call to discipleship, the call to live holy, to love enemies, to be blessed in poverty and persecution, to follow in the way of the cross. Read Matthew 5-6. Read all of Philippians in the New Testament. And think on these words of Paul.
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ
More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I might gain Christ.” (Phil 3:7-8)
The Dispatch today under their heading, Worth Your Time, pointed to an article in the publication Aeon. The article “The Last Letter” with the extra words, “Condemned to death by firing squad, French resisters put pen to paper. Their dying words can teach us how to live.” The essay is of course sadly poignant. Its purposed meaning, how to live, well thought out. It did however remind me of a very old small booklet I have from around the same the same period, Dying We Live, its editor’s words of explanation,
“Letters by prisoners in Germany on the verge of execution: ‘No cause of sorrow but rather great joy.”
Most of these letters are by Christians or at least religious persons. One of the first letters is written by a confessing pastor, whom I have written about before, Paul Schneider. He was the first Confessing pastor martyred. But there are so many more.
There are several thoughts that occurred to me reading the Aeon article and once again browsing through Dying We Live. There are clues among these letters to the times we are living in. Negative reasons that answer our questions about whether it is the beginnings of authoritarian rule or not. There is an understanding that community and family ties are so necessary. And then there is affirmation that for the Christian that to be in Christ, under the rule of insufferable leaders, is to be safe. Tomorrow is everlasting in a forever loving, just Kingdom.
My first thought, negative reasons, that tell us if we are in the beginning of authoritarian rule, slips in between the letters written. Not everyone even knew about the letters or the people who sent them. Not everyone understood or believed that anything was amiss. Life was going on as it seemingly always did. If you did not wish your children to attend church or be confirmed, there was no thought that belonging to the Hitler Youth groups was replacing your commitments. If you were dragged out of your house, or church or off the street and sent to a detention center usually no one would notice. (You just might be some criminal after all) Of course, if you were Jewish you were named a trouble maker, the enemy, vermin, and sent eventually to a concentration camp in a distant country where no one could communicate with you. People just quit reading, or listening, or asking questions and then said they just didn’t know.
But in the beginning some knew. Mostly Catholic. The disabled and ill, did not come home but were sent to an institution of sorts—they were disposed of. But an outcry helped it to end for a little while.
There was concern that Germany needed more babies, but healthy, Aryan babies, as many as possible—babies for Hitler. If you think you are exceptional and have no qualms about faithfulness in sexual faithfulness than yes, many, many more babies. This was one of the reasons for pastor Schneider’s arrest, he decried the officials for promoting easy sex for the sake of having many Aryan babies. But mostly it was just government issues—until the safeguards of democracy were gone.
Concerning the idea that community and family ties were so important to those who were writing those goodbye letters and those receiving them one only need to read the letters. And read the endings, to mothers and wives, to children and husbands and friends. Encouragement for the days ahead and thankfulness for the past with family. Even pastors and priests writing to their “brethren” with encouragement.
“Dear brothers, Now I must in the end take the other road. The death sentence has been demanded, and the air is so filled with hatred and animosity that presumably it will be announced and carried out today.
I give thanks for all the kindness, loyalty, and help, especially as accorded me in these last difficult weeks. I ask for forgiveness for many things that have been wrong and unjust, and I ask for some help and care for my aged, sick parents. …
May the Lord keep you all. …"
And a protestant advising his wife and comforting her:
“My last thought my dearest wife, will be that I consign you, my dear ones, to the mercy of the Savior, and my spirit to his hands. I want to die thus rejoicing in my faith. And I would have you for your part, my dear Barbie, remain ‘the ever cheerful Frau von Haeften.’ Joke and laugh with the children, fondle them and be merry with them; they need your gaiety of spirit—and be assured that nothing could be more in keeping with my wishes.
So I salute you, my dearest ones, with the old greeting, ‘Rejoice!’ Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice … And the peace of God shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ.”
And then this: there is affirmation that for the Christian that to be in Christ, under the rule of insufferable leaders, is to be safe. Tomorrow is everlasting in a forever loving, just Kingdom.
There is some questions, to God, why the suffering, is the whole nation being punished, is there fairness on God’s part. But mostly in these letters is the longing for the eternal home and the clasping of the Savior’s arms. The knowledge that their tomorrow will be eternal without darkness.
There is knowledge of deep evil, but more deeply still knowledge of the holiness, light and love that belong to God. We have not known for the most part such deep evil but we do know Him who carries His people in the midst of any evil. If it comes He is here.
The students who majored in Philosophy at Sacramento State University, because at the time few in number, could often be likened to close-knit groups. Pranks were important. I couldn’t participate in the class on ethics so it was taped for me. The professor at one point was teaching on the philosopher Nietzsche, the other students made a pact to pretend they loved Nietzsche’s ideas, and told me their plans. When I got the tape I laughed and laughed, the professor was astounded and disappointed. But they finally told him the truth.
Now we face some of those ideas, ideas, about the “will to power.” The anti-democratic events happening right now in the United States include, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who was mistakenly sent to an awful foreign prison in a country where his life was threatened and two officials of the first Trump presidency being threatened, by the president, with an investigation by the DOJ because they disagreed with the him. The events are too often based on the dark desire for revenge and enemies. But Timothy Snyder’s booklet On Tyranny replaces the darkness with some light. He tends to use fellowship against tyranny. In his 14th chapter Snyder writes:
“Contribute to good causes:
Be active in organizations, political or not, that express your own view of life. Pick a charity or two and set up autopay. Then you will have made a free choice that supports civil society and helps others to do good.”
I want to quote a few more of his suggestions in this chapter.
“The anticommunist dissidents of eastern Europe, facing a situation more extreme than ours, recognized the seemingly nonpolitical activity of civil society as an expression and a safeguard of freedom.”
Snyder points out that “one element of freedom is the choice of associates, and one defense of freedom is the activity of groups to sustain their members.”
He writes, “Háclav Havel, the Czech dissident thinker, gave the example of brewing good beer.”
It seems that all or most of the organizations I have belonged to were formed to either promote the goodness of Christianity or stand for the truths of Christianity. My last two, Apologetics Resource Center and then in the Presbyterian Church USA, Voices of Orthodox Women, (VOW), which was formed to counter “Christian” women worshiping Sophia and doing communion with milk and honey.
But in all of that I think beer making might be a very good thing. And, in fact, a group of men in a Presbyterian Church in Loveland Colorado, where VOW held their board meetings, made beer together and it was very good beer.
Christian or not the members in these groups did sustain each other and friendships were deep. And their love for Jesus grew because of their friendships—that is part of freedom.
I have visited the Inklings pub, The Eagle and the Child, in Oxford. There they gathered and read their works to each other and forged deep friendships over good ale and probably tea. They kept away what C.S. Lewis would call Britian, and France and China. Looking for peace, not power he wrote in That Hideous Strength, “When logres really dominates Britian, when the goddess Reason, the divine clearness is really enthroned in France, when the order of Heaven is really followed in China—why, then it will be spring.”
He goes on to say “we’ve got Britian down but who knows how long we can keep her down.”
So the United States is rising, that hideous strength is rising here, but stay in fellowship with those you care about, doing those things you care about with the gifts given by a gracious Creator.
I have probably told this story before but I will use it to point toward the advice Timothy Snyder gives in his 14th chapter of On Tyranny. It is probably the closest I have ever come to aiding a conspiracy theory. But know, no, no conspiracy here, just an interesting day in the life of a young telephone operator.
When I first moved to Sacramento, just out of high school, I worked as a telephone operator and at a time when we still used boards where lights flickered and you pushed a line into the hole where the light was and said “Operator.”
I did this one rather lazy afternoon and got a request, and honestly, I cannot remember whether it was Frank Sinatra calling John F. Kennedy or vise-versa. It was before that election!
I quickly closed the circuit, listening to a call would cost you jail. But I did tell the operators on both sides of me who I had just placed a call for and to whom. They immediately plugged into the call. The board repeated itself in front of each operator. When they hung up, I heard one of the operators, under her breath, say, I thought we lived in a democracy. I will never know.
Now we have all kinds of problems with those who would like our information, and no, this isn’t about the recent foolish actions of the leaders of defense, intelligence and the state department using an unprotected means of sending classified material. But they should probably listen to Snyder.
“Establish a Private Life:
“Nastier rulers will use what they know about you to push you around. Scrub your computer of malware on a regular basis. Remember that email is skywriting. Consider using alternative forms of the internet, or simply using it less. Have personal exchanges in person. For the same reason, resolve any legal trouble. Tyrants seek the hook on which to hang you. Try not to have hooks.”
Now I don’t find any of this relevant for me at the moment. I admit that at one time I had a mailbox at the post office which I used to write for information from racist groups because I didn’t want them to know my address since I was writing articles on them at the time. The only two unsettling things I received was information that a person I was writing about was actually a lizard man—this was from another person who thought he was doing research. And then there was the empty envelope with a very large knife in it, that was troubling.
But recently I have realized that several public figures, many Christian, have and are receiving threats, and some congresspersons do not speak up about their concerns because they fear for themselves and their families. David French is one Christian in particular. When he was speaking out against Trump in the 2016 election among other threats, he and his wife received, a picture of their young Ethiopian daughter placed on a picture of a gas chamber. The point is to keep your private life separate from your public life.
There is also the horror of people being taken off the street, accused of being gang members, without the right to prove they are not. I have written of some who are very close to me who are frightened because one of them only speaks Spanish although an American citizen. They both got passports so that they would always be carrying identification with them.
As Snyder writes, “What the great political thinker Hannah Arendt meant by totalitarianism was not an all—powerful state, but the erasure of the difference between private and public life. We are free only insofar as we exercise control over what people know about us, and in what circumstances they come to know it. During the campaign of 2016, Americans took a step toward totalitarianism without even noticing by accepting as normal the violation of electronic privacy. Whether it is done by American or Russian intelligence agencies, or for that matter by any institution, the theft, discussion, or publication of personal communications destroys a basic foundation of our rights. If we have no control over who reads what and when, we have no ability to act in the present or plan for the future. …”
But Christian let me add the future is in His hands so we in our faith have reason to act or plan for the future. And part of that is caring for those who live in fear, who have needs, who seek the safe harbor.
I have decided that I need to write again an article that
features the false prophet Julie Green because of something I heard her prophesying.
This is about MAGA also and the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). But first I
want to write about what splits the darkness we are experiencing. I was so troubled this morning and praying
about all of this darkness, both right and left, and God dropped a word in my
heart, that is beauty, the beauty of Christ.
Jesus’ beauty outweighs and outlasts all of the darkness.
When we first moved to our house 39 years ago, I went
searching for Christmas tree bangles. I found some Christmas balls, each with a
large rose on them. The Song of Solomon speaks of one who says, I am the Rose
of Sharon, the lily of the valleys. While this book of the Bible speaks of the
beauty of human love, it holds beautiful images of Jesus and His Church. He is
as a beautiful rose. He is also the Star of Balaam’s forced prophecy.
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; A
star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel, …
The rest of the prophecy speaks of the history of Israel but
as the great composer Mendelssohn, a Jewish convert, saw and wrote, There
Shall a Star From Jacob Come. The beauty of Jesus will eventually overcome
this darkness.
What is fostering the darkness, the lies, the lack of care
for the poor, sick, stranger and prisoner. Well of course Satan is always the
originator as is human depravity, but there are several movements that are
seemingly merging and pushing the present evil agenda. One is political MAGA,
one is a combination of Christian nationalism and the NAR. Within MAGA are many
who are only secular Christians who don’t understand the truths of scripture
and among Christiam nationalism are many who twist Scripture and the creeds of
Christianity.
To show how much the political and the religious is merging
is a prophecy by Julie Green a false prophet connected to both NPR and MAGA.
She has, as I have written before, spoken at Clay Clark and Michael Flynn’s Reawaken
Tour. As I have pointed out before Donald Trump’s son Eric is also a part of this
tour. Green has enveloped herself in much of the MAGA movement by being a part
of the tour—she is well known and undoubtedly an influencer.
Where the political and her prophecies meet is with some of Trump’s
battles against his perceived enemies. Now
it is the judicial system as he is involved in several court cases in his
attempts to deport immigrants without due process, etc., etc. She just a few
days ago spoke this, about Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts, which is
supposedly God speaking through her. She
began by calling American leaders swamp rats, and then turns on Roberts:
“Justice Roberts, I will say your name again, you think
because you have chief in front of your name and you are protected by the deep
state that you can rule anyway you want or the way your puppet masters tell you
and you will get away with it. Your days in the Supreme Court protected from your dark acts and your past against
this nation well be exposed and I will remove you because I am the Judge over
all the earth.
And you will no longer sit as a justice in the supreme court
but in a jail cell where you belong while you await a trial to be sentenced for
treason.
I will show the world
your dark secrets and how you committed treason on your … and helped steal the twenty-twenty
election by your order from above to throw out or discredit any election fraud
evidence and you passed this message along to the judges' nationwide through
your secret servers- can throw out and damage and destroy the truth at all costs.
I will show how you padded your pockets and how you are deeply connected to the
sex trafficking world and that is why you have your position today.
But someone has everything they need to take you out completely,
video and audio evidence along with numerous emails There all coming out to
take you out justice Roberts. Justice is coming for you and your sentence is
about to be handed down.”[1]
Now I could speculate that Green has links to people who
have some vile plans or her illusions and hatred for leadership in the supreme
court, and her idolatrous view of Trump—she has God calling him his David—is so
great that she is able to form her own vile story. Whatever it is, this is
extremely evil. She goes on to predict that this will happen to many judges and
includes what she calls the establishment.
Besides these kinds of threats and they are threats, is the way
Green destroys the word of God. She continually gives her followers courage using
God’s promises. But then, with her prophecies and explanations causes the words
to have no real meaning.
Please understand that religiously focused MAGA people and
some in the NAR are enraptured with the possibilities of her and other NAR
prophets. The money systems, supposedly,
will collapse and the “true” believers will gain all of the wealth and power
while all other leaders sit in jail or are killed. This is the root of evil. The
temptation that Satan offered Jesus in the wilderness. He is now offering it to
a misguided and broken people.
The Church, ensconced in the beauty of Christ, called to a
life under the cross must stand away from the evils of these movements but
stand soberly telling the truth and praising the purity, beauty and holiness of
Jesus.
If you are not troubled by Trump, by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, by supposed prophet Julie Green insisting that judges, if they oppose Trump’s rulings, should be impeached, or as Green suggests imprisoned, possibly even hung, then you are walking in the shadow of those who once destroyed a democracy in 53 days
If it does not strike you as strange that Trump is insisting that the pardons that Biden gave to the January 6th Committee is not valid perhaps you have not followed the Committee’s process as they investigated the attempted coup on that 6th. Perhaps you did not hear the testimonies of the police who were badly hurt—who cannot work now because of those attacks. Perhaps you do not realize that Trump wants to jail many members of the committee. Democracies do not jail members of committees for hearing and listening to witnesses.
In the book of Mattew in the Bible one is told of the great judgement when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory. Jesus speaks of this. First, Jesus already knows that there are both sheep and goats and He divides them putting the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left.
Notice Jesus doesn’t divide them that way because of their good or bad works. The sheep have already been made sheep. That was Christ’s work on the cross. The goats formed themselves into goats, C.S., Lewis would have called them humans becoming monsters such as one meets in a nightmare.
But there are rewards and punishments—the sheep, because they were sheep, gave the hungry something to eat. They gave the thirsty something to drink. They invited the stranger in. They clothed the naked and visited the sick. They went to those in prison.
The goats did none of this!
And Jesus equates the good to others as good to Himself. The lack of caring of others with the lack of caring for Him.
There is a Kingdom, present and yet still coming. There is a King present and yet still coming. I have no doubt that those gifted with His grace will at least eventually see that a stranger went off to a prison in a foreign land and he did not deserve it. Bring him home! I have no doubt that those gifted with His grace will embrace the good judges who want the stranger who had been tortured to be free. I have no doubt that those embraced in the King’s grace because of His cross will, since His throne is set on kindness, truth, and justice, seek only kindness, truth, and justice.
We all experience grief, loss, the feelings of abandonment and even betrayal. I’ve experienced some of that. Losing my mom and dad, a grandma, aunt and uncle, in the midst of birthing four children. I never wanted the telephone to ring again. The last two, children, would come a bit later.
And then there was the time we thought all that we owned would be lost. My husband went with a group of men, camping with the Royal Rangers. An organization much like the Boy Scouts. A young boy went off by himself, fell into the river, and drowned. A hungry lawyer and a hungry reporter brought the whole thing to trial insisting it was the church’s and Royal Ranger leader’s fault. I still remember our friends, we two couples, frighted but prayerful, eating together, playing monopoly, they cheated because I was beating—we laughed until tears ran down our faces. And the next day the end of the trial, the verdict was not guilty, and the jury came down to hug the defendants.
And then there was the time my Church, Journey now Hope, was taken by the PC (USA) denomination because we left in protest of their immoral rulings about marriage and ordination. We lost everything, except our faith. And the next Sunday in a borrowed church communion was blessed. Except my husband had trouble going up to the cup-he was scared he would get lost—and that brings me to my final loss I will write about before I get to my main subject.
My husband had Alzheimer’s, and the first few years were blessed. We shared so much together. We walked, and sung together, visited friends, even made a trip to the bank since my husband could no longer ride his bicycle there. At the time it was the oldest bank in Sacramento, only one. My husband knew everyone there. I took him in to say goodbye and they crowded around him saying goodbye. And then that last week …
Hospice gives you a booklet to help you understand all the signs of death. The legs becoming blotchy, and that final breathing like a fish puffing. That last week he never opened his eyes, did not speak but once, and did not eat or drink water--he could not. And over a few weeks before he had pulled out the hair on his eyebrows and mustache. We sang to him and read scripture, I think he heard.
And then one morning sleeping, after he was gone, God gave me a dream, I was looking out my front window and he was walking up the steps. He had long hair and thick eyebrows, a mustache and even a beard—all of it white. And then I woke up.
And this is to say in the midst of sorrow and grief God gives comfort, hope and peace.
It has been hard to write about this next subject that Timothy Snyder writes about in his On Tyranny. It includes protests and some of them I am bothered by. That is the ones that end with the protestors being violent. I know that is not God’s will. But I know that there have been some that are centered in His righteousness.
Snyder writes:
Practice Corporal Politics.
“Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.”
Now I agree with this but there is another way also. The East German Christians protested but they also prayed in their churches. They still followed the Barman Declaration that the Confessing Churches in Nazi times held to. I cannot remember where I read it but as they prayed in their churches and the tanks drove through the streets, many of those in the tanks left them and went into the churches to also pray and that had a great deal to do with how the wall fell.
In Romania the Reformed Churches, in protecting a pastor, were a strong part of the protest, and I have a wonderful movie titled the Singing Revolution in which in Estonia the country virtually, while protesting, sang their way out of the overlords of the Soviet Union.
And very recently the protesters of Hong Kong were greatly carried along by Christians and in the great crowded streets a Christian song was often sung. Hong Kong's protesters adopt Christian hymn as their call to action. This protest was brutally put down, many protesters believed they needed to go into exile, some are still in prison but God has not forgotten.
And that once again brings me to the subject of grief. If we do not grieve the continuing loss of democracy and the many people who are being affected by the loss we will fall into apathy—so we must at least try to understand and grieve with those who grieve.
I just saw an article on Google news that I thought would be funny, "Signs you are in a bad Mexican Restaurant." It wasn't funny, just very good information and made me start thinking about some of my experiences eating Mexican food and wanting some. First of all, l as I have written in my blog Tacos with Grace, my family has eaten a lot of American homemade tacos. but I am thinking about in Mexico.
Years ago when we were often traveling to Baja where my husband's brother worked in an orphanage, I took one trip alone via a bus and then with the lady who founded the orphanage. I came back across the border with a Mexican American couple. They stopped at the outdoor fish market in Ensenada. That was where I had the best fish tacos I have ever enjoyed. And they are eaten with cabbage not lettuce.
Another enjoyable time was when a friend at the orphanage took me and my husband to a stand that served carnitas. My husband had been there before and told me the owner looked like my dad and he did despite the fact that my dad was a mixture of English and Scottish. The carnitas were wonderful, but the funny thing was that on the way my friend, Valerie told me that the first time they went there they became very sick the next day. I did not get sick and neither did anyone else.
Another story connected with the orphanage which I think I have told before was about a house across from the orphanage where the family operated a small cafe. One day my husband and his brother decided to go in and order some food. They entered and sat down at a table and ordered dinner. They were served but found out afterwards that the family had closed the restaurant but simply served them anyway. Such was the great hospitality.
I didn't intend to let this lead into another posting on Timothy Snyder's book On Tyranny but I think I shall. Chapter 12:
Make eye contact and small talk.
"This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life."
This has a lot to do with the hospitality I mentioned above. The orphanage while filled with Mexican children was helped and aided by many different nationalities. at times it could seem like a large Christian conference although at the time it was a very rugged place to be, For instance when we went we always carried a large amount of clothes, canned food, and used tiny motel soap which they used in their washing machines. The orphanage has since grown and modernized as has Baja.
But Snyder's other words about a culture of denunciation may seem unnecessary for now but not so. Today I listened to a video with Jonah Goldberg and Sam Harris. I only listened to the shorter version since I am not a member of Harris's site. It was about the actions of Vance and Trump toward Zelensky and also about senators who needed courage. One of the reasons they needed courage was because some of them have been threatened including their families. That is one of the reasons some have not spoken up.
