A lot has been written and much more will be written about the times in which we live. This era will be studied with amazement, bewilderment and shaking heads. How could America have elected a twice-impeached convicted felon to another term as president of the United States?
To use economic and cultural issues as excuses for the election of such a person whom previous iterations of conservative politicians have held as unholy, corrupt and not fit for office has confounded many of us.
Earl Chappell
The politics based on extortion, threats, fear and personal loyalty have replaced the politics of legitimate, intense, thoughtful debates that lead to meaningful solutions and improvements to societal problems. This is a day of a politics that seems to render our Constitution grossly inadequate thanks to a group of spineless, morally bankrupt, double-tongued people parading around the Capitol of the United States as legislators and maintainers of one of the three main “checks-and-balances” branches of our government.
There certainly are no “Profiles in Courage” in this group of politicians who have succumbed to threats and extortions, which are the fear tactics used by bullies and ruthless autocrats. When a group of politicians have to threaten others in their group to achieve an outcome, one should know something is very wrong.
“There certainly are no ‘Profiles in Courage’ in this group of politicians.”
Founded on lies
From the beginning of this ruthless phase in America in the election cycle of 2016, we the people were presented with a candidate who claimed only he could fix our problems, that he would use only the brightest and best in his administration, that he knew more than the highest ranking officers of the armed forces and the top professionals in many other occupations, and that he never had a reason to ask forgiveness.
Many in the ultra-conservative religious class have flocked to this man with unbelievable tenacity as they literally worship the ground on which he walks. Erecting a statue to this man, beside which many have had their pictures taken, has not caused any of his Christian admirers to think about the golden calf in the book of Exodus in the Bible. He also has led chants in Christian groups in which vulgar words are used. It seems the polite American society most of us knew when we grew up is now but a footnote in history.
We are confronted with a group of vulgar and dishonest people who claim they are all for religious freedom, that they are fighting for all Americans, and on and on. A destruction of our government institutions, institutions that have taken centuries to build and work to help us form a more perfect union, is now in progress. The super-wealthy class seems to have bought our democratic republic and is now turning it into a fascist oligarchy.
While claiming the need for drastic fiscal austerity, they are trying to increase the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars to continue to service the wealth of the super-rich while gutting major programs that benefit the vast majority of our working-class and poor citizens as well as the needy and impoverished around the world.
“Lies never will produce the desired result of a more perfect union.”
The Old Testament warns us about those who willingly teach, spread and believe lies. The end is not pretty. Lies never will produce the desired result of a more perfect union.
January 6
Just check the change in reactions of those spineless politicians who accurately described the events of January 6, 2021, then versus their descriptions now. Anyone with a media source on that day witnessed the horror as Capitol police officers were attacked with flag poles, fire extinguishers, hazardous sprays of various kinds and many other implements of personal harm. The gallows erected on which the mob yelled for the hanging of the vice president was not a joke. Several thousand rioters came very close to altering the course of our government that day.
However, because of the apparent lack of deadly force (except in the one instance of the killing of one woman) being used against such rioters, the lesson learned by many that day was that intimidation and force could one day allow a relatively small group to successfully seize the power of the governing structure of our nation to twist it to the will of men with evil intent. America fell way too easily for a continuation of useless culture wars and the ruse over the price of groceries as if inflation, even high inflation, never had been experienced before in the recent history of our country.
Two simple commands
The gospel message of Jesus is as complex as it is simple. It is complex in that human beings are very slow to understand the true nature and simplicity of what it means to follow Jesus, the Christ (the Anointed One).
Jesus reduced the law to two basic commands: To love God and to love our neighbors. Possessing all authority, Jesus gave us our instructions, known as the Great Commandment, as how we should live out our lives following him. At the end, Jesus said his followers proved they loved him by the way that they loved each other. Because he did not exclude anyone from his love, why should we?
Even though Paul instructed Timothy about those whom he should avoid, he did not instruct Timothy to stop loving them. I have observed that the fruit of the Spirit may be found throughout all humanity, even in those whom many in society choose to hate and disparage. Giftedness may be observed throughout our very diverse and wonderful human population. We have been instructed not to judge but to love each other. There are no exceptions.
Those who tore into the Capitol on that fateful day in 2021 — many wearing Christian symbols while beating up those who were lawfully present and charged with protecting our Capitol and the legislators therein — demonstrated no love for their fellow human beings. Suggesting otherwise is dishonest at the very least.
What the Bible says
In no place in the New Testament does Jesus instruct us to take over government or to even align ourselves with government authorities. He modeled the existence with which his followers may be associated with the governing authorities, none of which was a “Christian” takeover of government to force its way upon people. In Romans, Paul exhorts Christians to obey the governing authorities, essentially as they administer the laws over the geography of their influence.
“In no place in the New Testament does Jesus instruct us to take over government.”
Issues that deal with abortion, punishment for crimes, LGBTQ, religious denominations, religious doctrine, immigration, poor people, equal justice and so forth will be debated until Jesus returns. However, Paul gave some sound advice when he encouraged believers to mind their own business.
Perhaps I have been slow to realize the in-your face un-Christ-like nature of the MAGA movement. It is a movement centered around us as Americans and me as an individual. Politically, it is centered around the person of only one man, who is not anything like Jesus.
As a young person, I learned early in life that my focus is not on me, but on others. I learned to care for the well-being of others. I learned how to love others, even if I did not particularly like them or their actions.
I still find it very difficult to exhibit Christian love to those whose actions exhibit a spiteful and hurtful nature toward others. In fact, I was taught a saying that the word “sin” contains in its middle letter the root of sin. It amazes me how much of what I learned when I was a youth is not even discussed today.
Unlike Paul, who tackled directly the problems in the early church, many preachers today try to avoid the tough doctrinal and societal issues so as to avoid the wrath of members in their churches. They seem to be as spineless as the politicians they try to protect.
Good news
“Gospel” means good news. If gospel has come to mean anything else, it is not the gospel. If a minister of the gospel is preaching hatred toward a particular group of people, then that group is not hearing the gospel of Jesus and that preacher is not preaching the gospel of Jesus. It does not take much discernment to detect the difference between the application of hate and love.
If a person or group of people are bent on hurting others, as is definitely happening now with the profuse use of personal threats, attempts at extortion, and illegal mass firings from jobs, following Jesus is not on their minds. There is no love in this equation.
I foresee a really rough stretch of road ahead for us, especially when we truly realize how far in the ditch we have fallen and how far from Jesus we have gone. There is one preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ who is being maligned and savaged by the Religious Right. His teachings have opened up the gospel such that Jesus followers know exactly what is involved in following Jesus. Through his teachings, one can sense a keen message of Christian unity, fellowship and love that not only permeates throughout his various gatherings of Christians within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area but is building a following throughout the world. The spiritual food Andy Stanley and other leaders of his kind offer is what is needed in such times like these.
We Christians should have no fear about today or tomorrow because we have full trust and faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Earl Chappell is a longtime Bible study leader and teacher at First Baptist Church of Norfolk Va.
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