As we come to the end of an extremely tumultuous presidency and a devastating virus that has claimed close to a half million American lives, I am still feeling blessed because with life there is hope. I'm thinking about the insurrection that took place at the Capitol and its amazing how a lie told to millions can be the undoing of basic norms that many in this country took for granted. Even the Bible tells us that God "hates a lying tongue". Proverbs 6:16-19 says this: There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, ... seems like all
of these things can be checked off in that incident- so let's start with truth. The lying tongue that has inhabited the Oval Office for 4 years is the root cause of the Capitol insurrection, but its so much deeper than the actions or inactions of this former president. What he did was only feed upon and fuel the hatred, racism and fear of many in this country that, even though completely and totally unfounded, appealed to the tried and tested paradigm of divide and conquer. If you tell the privileged majority that these black and brown people are taking things away from you - that these people are the enemy and if you don't do something to stop them, you'll loose everything. Everything being, what a good white friend of mine called correctly- white privilege. He put it this way: For white people of privilege equality feels like oppression. So for years, we've talked about the fringe supporters- his base; that was in and of itself a lie. A 'fringe' element isn't 70 million people. Many of the supporters of the former president were comprised of a constituency of Americans that were totally committed to his demonic, wicked, racist supremacist ideology that has been woven into the fabric of this country since slavery and the perceived threat that people of color pose to the system power dynamic. So when peaceful protestors gather to protest the killing of black people being murdered on television by policemen time and time again, with no justice no charges no nothing...they are met with force unequal to the threat. When nazis, hate mongers and white supremacists take over the Capitol and attack the "symbol" of democracy because they don't like the outcome of a free and fair election, then proceed to steal classified documents, shout death threats to the vice president and speaker of the house, beat and kill a policeman and then we learn that this mob was assisted, enabled and supported by members of the government and even members of the congress- something is terribly wrong. And you'd have to hire someone to help you not see that. But the truth is this: this entitlement, supremacist ideology was there all along and none of this should have been a surprise. But its an inconvenient truth that this country has absolutely refused to call out but is now forced to acknowledge and can no longer sweep under the rug. So when you live and breathe a lie and validate a lie to hold on to what you see as your inalienable rights - where you refuse to call a spade a spade -which would have ended a cancerous presidency in the first impeachment trial- well, here we are. It has been faith in unfaithful men that don't have Godly wisdom, Godly love or anything remotely resembling Christian precepts, like helping the poor and feeding the hungry; putting God before selfish desires and love of money- the failure of our society is inextricably tied to the refusal to acknowledge and adhere to the commandments of God's word- the highest commandment of which can be summed up in this: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it:‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) You can't love your neighbor as yourself and storm the Capitol -call for death to others, steal 'sh..' that ain't yours, or even care that thousands of people are dying from a deadly virus you lied about on day one to keep the economy strong and yourself in office, then to add insult to injury, blasphemy to abomination - you stand in the Capitol having killed someone and have prayer! Really? But, know this though- God is a god of grace and forgiveness but we have to do our part. Acts 2:38 says: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. No repentance, no forgiveness. Only His judgment, and that's the truth. Until next week...