Author: Mark Jennings

Pro-Trump evangelical Kenneth Copeland laughs manically over media calling Biden’s win – YouTube

“And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows in her midst. Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken. The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 22: 23 – 31

These words recorded in the book of Ezekiel, which are better than 2500 years old, apply today—because people are people. I’ve linked this biblical passage to some ‘teaching’ from an old, powerful, laughing fool millions call a prophet of God. Copeland called down curses to end the COVID in Jesus name; COVID is still around killing lots of people. This man of braggadocios falsehood has no fear of anything, and neither are his mask-less followers who have too much faith to fear the virus Ken has cursed. In the faithful ‘Christian’ sense, as demonstrated by this behavior, the virus just kills those who lack a sufficient amount and quality of faith. God loves some more than he loves the others.

Being wrong (in a scientific, objective falsifiable sense anyway) apparently has no perceived negative consequence for the faithful (at least for now.) Copeland is a very rich man, and he is thick as thieves with the New Apostolics—a godfather of sorts who claims to have regular conversations with the Almighty. Thousands of imitators have risen from his example. The poison of this ‘movement’ has infected the Church as this yeast works its way through the dough. We believe these people even if we are not consciously aware of them; and when we are (aware of them) the cognitive dissonance has reached the level of absurd—we fear them despite these slick tricksters being so despicably and predictably wrong all the time. It pains me that I am largely a pariah among the faithful since I would dare speak against those who’ve prophesied so clearly about the One in which so many have placed their hope. Dare I say, the LORD has not spoken? One heresy; let’s move on to more of my heretical positions, shall we?

Trump has lost the election (cue the laughter;) but he has a plan. He is free the lie to the people and doing so serves a very important purpose; his millions of devoted followers, who seem to have lost the power of discernment, will ensure that Trump maintains power within the GOP. Trump knows this; future candidates will have to “kiss the ring” to gain his endorsement. The latest information has it that a clear majority of white evangelical ‘Christians’ support Trump come hell or high water. Their ‘prophets’ have them snowed into thinking our hope lies in #DiaperDon; and many still maintain the prophecies concerning Trump remain true. As you hear it in my language, I am beyond angry. This ‘prince’ of ours feeds on us; and our prophets empower him to do so. The Christian Right has sold itself to the lies of State Power. And no, I will not join you as I’ve become convinced that there must be division before there can be healing.

Jesus had a radical message for the religious leaders of his day. Those leaders had settled into the Roman system of oppression while feathering their own nests.   Jesus preached division just as the Old Testament prophets preached separation between clean and unclean. The lines between which have been redefined to suit today’s anxieties. This question of separation has become akin to the Judaizer debate in the book of Acts. We continue on to insist the others must become like us to be acceptable to God—this, frighteningly enough (as it has ample historical precedence) lies along racial lines (as well as along ideological ones defined by our prophets.) The Others need to bend the knee, to become circumcised in a way, to assuage our fear and to bolster our confidence that we are right in our faith. Just what does it mean to be right? From what ought we separate?

Firstly, and for example, I don’t think that ceremonially there is a ‘right’ way to worship God. We have it in our heads, since it has grown in our minds as a form of entertainment, that gathering and singing certain songs, is the way to worship God. It is not that it is wrong in itself, but everything has its season; right now, we are in COVID season. Now Christians, like horse’s asses, are insisting this is THE way to worship God and by extension thrown a host of other cautions to the wind as we assert the right to worship God. Need I remind you that God’s Word says He desires mercy not sacrifice? How many have died as a result of you all asserting your rights to congregate (and many pictures have you largely mask-less) and breath the virus into each other’s lungs to then take it out into the world to infect others? Many, whom you are charged to be a witness, rightly see this behavior as merciless. Do your feelings trump mercy?

Secondly, the Bible talks about truth, a lot. How is it that when our prophets are obviously wrong, we still fear them? How is it that we follow them and the herd to embrace someone like Trump—whose divisiveness, racism, misogyny, cruelty and dishonesty is clearly demonstrable? It is beyond evident that his claims concerning the election are false; he can lie to his followers to his own benefit but he (and his agents) cannot make stuff up in Court—there are consequences (thankfully still) for lying there. This is why most of his cases have been dismissed—the is no merit to them. But our ‘prophets’ have ‘smeared whitewash’ for him and so we fear losing our investment. Is ‘truth’ what we make it (by faith)? Or is truth something larger (and intensely frightening)?

We are sitting upon a large pile of death. We stand separated amid death and suffering screaming at each other so the other will come to our side so there can be unity. Can there be unity under a banner of lies? We can’t even agree about the science of Covid as the virus is spread by those little viruses hitching a ride on the particulate matter we exhale from our lungs. We don’t even have the common courtesy to do our best to limit the risk to others. We don’t even have the discernment to hold our President to his own spoken and written words and the thousands of obvious lies therein to instead cry about ‘fake news’ and how they’re out to get him. (Seriously, how stupid are we?) Truth is lost.

We claim to be ‘Pro-life’ but back the man who oppresses the sojourner—this man’s policies literally made hundreds of orphans. (But who gives a shit right? They’re foreigners, brown people at that.) We back the man who stoked the violence to stir you all up for ‘law and order.’ We back the man who unashamedly told police officers to not be gentle, that it’s okay to rough them up a little. We back the man who insists the State has the right to kill.  It’s just us and ‘them;’ the ‘thin blue line’ enforces this separation to the death of many.  Tell me why, pro-lifers, why you are better than twice as likely to die by police action as a black man than as a white one? It’s fear and all the racist bullshit I still hear from people I talk to. (There is no way a black man is better than twice as dangerous as a white man.) We claim to be ‘pro-life’ but we back a man who has all but shut down access to asylum. Legal immigration has become prohibitively expensive. We extort money from the alien and cheered when our champion put a religious test (meaning that some are more ‘equal’ than others under the law) on immigration. We deny certain people, viewed as dangerous (and/or inferior,) justice to assuage our fear and empower our princes to ‘protect’ us.

Yes, the ‘sacred’ number of 30,000 has been reached but as look out into our neighborhoods, I see thousands of broken people. This is breaking me. It breaks me that even those who don’t have a religious reason to back Trump do so because they believe he will put more money in their pocket. We look aside from all Trump’s own looting to listen to all his bullshit about ‘draining the swamp’ (i.e. ending the kleptocracy.) Trillions are flowing up, and marvelously so under Trump’s watch, to the world’s richest people who have the money to write the laws which direct all that money upward. Trump distracts you by getting you to believe the poor brown people are the cause of your economic malaise. Yeah, we’re pro-life alright. Dare I say, for starters, if we were really ‘pro-life,’ we’d let go of all the military pork to let the economy re-direct those resources to the poor—but who going to vote for closing the base or bomb factory near you? Dare I say, if we were really pro-life, we’d let go of all that nonsense about Israel being the lynchpin of all our eschatological hopes for Jesus’ return. Yes, I mean it and here is (one of the many reasons) why.

Jesus, when being tempted by Satan to throw himself off the Temple, did not give Satan the knowledge of the way it was all going to go down; it is not wise to give your enemy the battleplan before the battle. If Jesus wasn’t wise enough to inform Satan that either He couldn’t be killed or that God would simply raise Him back to life, then that knowledge would have very likely changed Satan’s strategy to screw things up, would it not? Likewise, do you honestly think God told our ‘prophets’ and ‘teachers’ to write down the battleplan for the ‘big seven’ for all to see, wouldn’t Satan be seeing all that as well? The only way out of this would be to deny Satan freewill; but then you’d have God on the hook for all the rivers of blood which will flow according to all the ‘Left Behind’ fantasies. It is all so unnecessary and destructive.

Simply consider Jesus’ example (1 Peter 2: 21,) He said the time is in the Father’s hands and not to worry about it (Acts 1: 6-8.) His example showed that God designs things to happen according to people’s character—we are not actors running a script, but agents called to work for justice and mercy.  I have faith that His plan will work because He knows us. When we stubbornly make up stuff to engineer the ‘big’ future, we put ourselves on the hook for all the blood and injustice which comes by our hubris. When our ‘prophets’ write us a script to ‘work’ for, I’m positive they did not hear from God because that script leads us to embrace the hope for a bloody future, ignoring the plight of our brothers and sisters being oppressed in violation of decency, freedom, and international law. I believe Satan is a likely author of all the ‘Left Behind’ stuff so we’d support many unjust and merciless policies in the name of God. As I see it, Satan’s devices are working well to drag us into the filth.

Trump has been compared to Cyrus who provisioned the Jews to return to Jerusalem. I am in the minority by agreeing “there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Yet, my peers put heavy emphasis on Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capitol despite the oppression of real people in the occupied territories. For this, all Trump’s lies and cruelties are apparently overlooked. The ‘Left Behind’ stuff is a big part of why we support Trump; as well as general fear (of others) and greed. Trump’s rise was built on a mountain of lies, so it is no surprise that such an apparatus brought us a liar (and a thief.) Built on a career of bankruptcies, lawsuits, destroyed businesses, and lies, Trump, in character, is currently stealing our confidence in the system which allows those with differing opinions to live with each other. There can be no abiding such a man if you haven’t lost your mind (and your heart.)

If we are going to get through this, we cannot allow one man to dictate truth. We need to ditch the fear of being called out when we are wrong—it is a vital, corrective process. It is a truly weak person who cannot tolerate being questioned but we elected such a person to be our representative. Calling each other out is the very process by which we can get closer to the truth and maintain the greatest amount of freedom for all of us. This is scary, I know. ‘Certainty’ might be comforting but it is a sure path to grave error and profound hubris which leads to great suffering. (There is hope; the Court system has been doing a great job defending us from the Trumpian ‘truth’ of unfounded accusations.)

In conclusion, using the device of repetition to hammer this in, I would say that if we are to heal, we must separate ourselves from the lies of our prophets and princes. We must retrain our ability to discern the deceivers from the deceived so we may shun the former while having mercy on the latter. Feelings are endlessly feckless and manipulatable; our heads need to return to the game. We need to separate from the fear which compels us to embrace those who offer ‘certainty.’ There are no easy answers when people are involved. We need to separate ourselves from pining for an authoritarian ‘solution’ to protect us from that which we (are manipulated to) fear. Do not fear (Luke 12: 4.) We need to separate ourselves from the ‘prophets’ who are tearing us to pieces by spreading the lies which lead us to evil. We need to separate ourselves from those who trust in ‘chariots and horses’ (i.e. State Power. See Psalms 20: 7) to solve moral problems to rather lead by example (James 5:10) through working for justice and mercy for all. “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you” (John 13: 15.) Again, Jesus did not advocate for the cynical use of State Power to solve moral problems, He taught us to lead by example, to act justly, and to show mercy. It is sad the seculars are clearly leading this call.

Admitting fault is the difficult path; will we be willing to admit we were wrong when the whole ‘Christian Right’ thing implodes, and ‘we’ lose power?  Without repentance there can be no healing; there can only be hatred, blame, shame, and mutual indignation for all.  Isn’t this the antithesis of what the Christian faith is about?

I’m not a journalist; I just editorialize on current events as seen through my worldview while gleaning from a deliberately broad number of sources. The above email, I get several of these kinds of appeals a day, is the most recent evidence which shows the whole Trump apparatus are shameless… putting it nicely… ‘misrepresenters.’

A little poking around a local source, we find out that, lo and behold, the Trump outfit did win this case concerning extending the deadline until identification could be confirmed. Hurray. Yes, the ballots were invalidated, and rightfully so—rule of law prevailed. This is exactly why counts should always be finished and certified, legal challenges should occur after elections for judges to examine and make rulings on the law, and any cases of fraud be turned over to law enforcement to maintain the integrity and our faith in elections. Again, hurray, because if we really want to screw up our country in a big, big way, just undermine our trust in the validity of our elections.

However, it is, firstly, jumping the gun to state maleficence was behind the extension. Given the small number of ballots involved with granting the extension casts doubt upon the notion that those who allowed it in first place believed they could throw the election by doing this. The MAJOR WIN described in the email appeal for money was little more than the ordinary grind of policing the election process—the decision does not affect the plain fact that Biden won. To say that Team Trump is the only one defending the integrity of the election is a brazen insult to the thousands of people who defend the election process, vital to maintaining peaceful transitions of power and legitimacy, as a moral imperative and a sacred duty.

Secondly, it is highly misleading to imply to those who’ve sold themselves to the idea that it is (only?) democrats who engage in fraud and deceit that somehow this MAJOR WIN means Trump has a chance at legitimately winning the election. The repeated calls for money and activism to protest not only the process, but the results, of the election, bears with it a serious risk of violence and civil unrest.

These PATRIOTS have long been primed to believe the only way Trump could lose is through massive fraud and deceit by deep state democrats. Trump has lost but maintains, without providing evidence, that massive fraud MUST be there. Many, a dangerous number of people, believe him. In such an environment, where mere accusations without the backing of evidence to substantiate the claim, the notion that Trump, and his apparatus, are the ones defending the integrity of the election would be laughable if it weren’t so terrifying.

Trump was hired to break the machine, and he is doing one hellava job. Thanks to all the lies and tantrums from our Toddler-in-Chief, our fundamental belief in sharing power in ritual transfers of such determined by our, so far, enduring laws and traditions is under an existential threat. Much rests in the heavily engineered and AI (social media) peddled lies that Trump is working hard to defend us and freedom. The evidence is abundant, from this human’s perspective, that Trump is working for Trump. If he must burn it all to the ground to ‘win,’ he’ll do it. Trump’s lack of character in stoking the fires of Q-anon, by his channeling of grievances and resentments to keep the hopes of millions of the faithful alive that he may maintain power, thus proving the ‘prophecies’ to be true, demonstrates this.

May ‘we’ and ‘he’ not succeed. My prayer,

Father forgive us for we do not know what we do. We’ve squandered our intellectual faculties and forgone our moral responsibility to examine the evidence to take the lazy road, funneling into echo chambers which prop up the illusion of freedom, peace, and the safety of no acceptable challenges to our belief. Our neglect has atrophied our ability to reason and compromise with each other to some mean of truth—accepting the top-down, ‘God’ given structure of governance. We seek not to make disciples but subjects.

Now as we see it, there is just ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Just as the machines reason to truth, so now do we. It’s just numbers. Inside our sacred sanctuaries, our threatened numbers bear the warrant for action—there is no other legitimate side as we believe the ‘others’ are for, and bring, death and chaos. We’ve convinced ourselves that we are the persecuted and not the persecutors. Hence, we, in our proclaimed righteousness, shall not submit to the system which allows murder to continue, while failing to recognize we are all murderers in dire need of your mercy.  

Forgive us for we have been deceived by the (self-appointed) holiest among us that we must mobilize behind a racist, misogynistic, narcissistic liar to make the ‘others’ acquiesce to the truth that we (and God) care about everyone. We fail to recognize that in backing such a man, we’ve told the worst within us that it is good and necessary to be self-centered racists to maintain the order of the way things ‘ought’ to be. We’ve forgotten that you Father have the power to make us all behave but, in mercy and love, you don’t. Forgive us for taking it into our minds that we must take power into our own hands to correct your (perceived) mistake. May our hearts be wounded and broken.

Father please give us the mercy we do not deserve.

Latest revision on the explanation of the Trump-Belshazzar coin

As described in Daniel5, Belshazzar, eldest son of Nabonidus (whose army had been defeated by the Persians in 539 B.C), threw a party honoring the gods of Babylon using the sacred articles which had been looted by his forefather Nebuchadnezzar from the temple in Jerusalem. Babylon’s walls were strong so there was nothing fear—so he thought. During this party, under the Persian threat, a finger appeared to write on the wall the famous words, ‘You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting,’ forecasting Babylon’s fall. Belshazzar was done for. The Persians took the city.

On June 1, 2020, the Whitehouse was also under siege. President Trump had walled up the ‘People’s House’ and hid in a bunker due to the protests inspired by continuing police brutality which had been exacerbated by incompetent leadership and an economically devastating shutdown over the virus. Perhaps in an attempt to show strength, Trump decided to use federal, in large part, unidentified assets, to force protesters out of Lafayette Park, using tear gas and rubber bullets, so he could engage in a photo op, with Bible in hand, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the ‘Church of the Presidents.’

We may debate the legality (and brutality) of the purge, but the photo op itself showed no reverence for the object displayed, the Bible. Trump read nothing, offered no prayer, just posed. Just like Belshazzar showed the articles from the Temple in Jerusalem, those ‘objects’ were just displays of what had been conquered, Trump waved a Bible about as symbol of what supposedly this fight is all about, the forces of chaos and rebellion against those of the Christian Right which represent order and rule of law, as something you would sell on a shopping channel. The cultural statement was clearly made, the Bible is just a symbol for something much larger—that ‘something much larger’ is political and involves force. The Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, described this event as the ‘abuse of sacred symbols.’ Trump abused a Bible, as ‘left-wing’ Christians such as myself see it, as an object for political benefit. As of this revision, Biden and Harris have made their speeches and calls to unity while Trump continues to cry ‘Fraud!’ without providing evidence. Treating an actual crisis as a PR problem, as both Trump and Belshazzar did, is not leadership. It is completely empty and lacks honor.

The depravity displayed at the photo op at St John’s will, I firmly believe, be in tomorrow’s history books as reference to that event frequently occur in editorials and various articles in magazines as time moves on. It is far more appropriate to link Trump with Belshazzar than to link him with Cyrus as many Christians do. The ‘prophets’ who predicted Trump’s domination are either apologizing, doubling down, or are, for the time being, remaining silent as they try to figure out what to do to keep their following.  The ‘writing is on the wall’ for Trump and those ‘prophets.’ They have no case, no evidence; all they can do is make a lot a noise and take as many with them as they can. Those who will continue to side with those depraved people making ourselves complicit, much in the name of the Christian religion, to their complete disregard for honesty, decency, and restraint. This kind of thing has happened many times before.

The 176^thanniversary of the ‘Great Disappointment’ occurred a few weeks ago. When the Rapture didn’t occur then, to the ruin of many, a falsifiable belief was replaced by an unfalsifiable one. I predict we will do the same thing today. If Trump, by some miracle, wrests the electorate to himself by hook or by crook, then the hopes, and the prophecies, will be seen as vindicated by the hand of God as decided and affirmed by the people of God. Whatever craziness and depravity to follow will be seen as affirmed by the will of God as the means to a ‘greater’ end. If we are able to kick him out, which looks to be almost certain, then the faithful will suppose something to the effect that the forces of darkness, those who would ‘hurt God’ and ‘hurt the Bible,’ prevailed against the children of light thus fulfilling, in the minds of many, a certain eschatological view (dispensationalism) Christians are working very hard to make happen. Today’s prophets and apostles will have explanations for their failed prophecies and will have marching orders to follow—no matter what. The faithful will continue to have great faith. Trumpism is here to stay. Fear the one who take this chaotic movement which coalesced under Trump’s banner and cleverly used it to elevate himself to dominate. This is why I will continue to say we are being weighed in the balances–right now.

I made this investment in this coin to tell a story that needs to be told—to speak out against this bad man (and the movement which carries his name.) The coin serves as a scaffold to make an historical connection between all those who would use religion and its sacred symbols to forward their own interests regardless of the age. Today is no different. People are still people who are seduced by empty (and, in this case, blasphemous) displays. Evidence of our collective seduction may be soon to come. I cast my vote and will continue to speak my mind. No matter the political outcome, I will remain a ‘jackal among ruins’ until we collectively repent of our selfish, racist, justice-denying authoritarianism—so our nation can be truly healed.

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm82: 3-4.)

I went to bed on election night thinking I needed to brace my spirit against an emboldened and ‘mandated’ Trump who would continue, in office, to do unspeakable damage to this country and to literally billions of human beings. I woke up the next morning to new hope—though this is far from over.

I received a report that one of my fellow Christians went to bed that night feeling that all was well but woke up the next morning to then become distressed at the turn of events. What happened? Things were not well. I suppose with a sigh, that which I predicted in a previous post was said, something to the effect that, “All that has been said about the End Times says that things are going to get worse.”

I really have a hard time wrapping my head around this. There is absolutely nothing rational I can find in such a claim. How is it that so many have come to believe Trump was going to stave off The Anti-Christ? I suppose FoxNews and Trump’s faithful friend (and frequent contributor on said network) Robert Jeffress is pretty damn powerful. The fantasy has been molded and hardened into something solid. Jeffress did make a claim that Trump was here to ‘buy us time’ to save more of the lost. I guess if you believe that, it is terrible isn’t it?

In how many different ways need we show Trump is a horrible, depraved human being? Now he, to no surprise, is going scorched earth. Remember that four years ago, he claimed that there were a couple million illegal votes cast against him in his election against Hillary. In his almost four years as POTUS, his administration has failed to produce any evidence of this. Now he is making the same claim, and his people believe him. He couldn’t care less about what it is doing to this country and our faith (a very, very, important faith if you care at all about peace) in the integrity of elections. Without any evidence, he supposes (as one Republican put it) a massive conspiracy akin to one in a James Bond movie. As others have said something to the effect that if Trump had to burn the world to the ground to be King of the Ashes he’d do it. As QAnon now has a voice in Congress, we seem to be more than willing to be persuaded by all the lies to cheer as he does it.

A good man would not lie as he does—constantly. A good man would see beyond himself, and even sacrifice himself for the good of others. A good man would see, and admit, there is no evidence of significant fraud (it’s a very small fraction of a percent) and urge calm and patience as every vote is counted according to establish elections laws. It is laughable that this man is seen by millions as being for ‘law and order’ as he does his best to stir up chaos, division (and violence) to his own benefit. In our books on leadership, the qualities espoused within them are antithetical to those qualities Trump possesses. Yet better than 70 million of us choose this for leadership. It is almost unbearable to me as I fear my predictions that Christians will have doubled down on their investment in this bad man who going to do his best to burn it all.

It seems we all may be weighed in the balances and found wanting.

May God have mercy on us for embracing the wicked.

An updated description of the Trump-Belshazzar commemorative coin on E-bay.

As described in Daniel5, Belshazzar, eldest son of Nabonidus (whose army had been defeated by the Persians (in 539 B.C), threw a party, honoring the gods of Babylon using the sacred articles which had been looted by his forefather Nebuchadnezzar from the temple in Jerusalem. Babylon’s walls were strong so there was nothing fear—so he evidently thought. During this party, under the Persian threat, a finger appeared to write on the wall the famous words, ‘You have been weighed in the balances and found wanting,’ forecasting Babylon’s fall. Belshazzar was done for. The Persians took the city.

On June 1, 2020, the Whitehouse was also under siege. President Trump had walled up the ‘People’s House’ and hid in a bunker due to the protests inspired by continuing police brutality which had been exacerbated by incompetent leadership and an economically devastating shutdown over the virus. Perhaps in an attempt to show strength, Trump decided to use federal, in large part, unidentified assets, to force protesters out of Lafayette Park, using tear gas and rubber bullets, so he could engage in a photo op, with Bible in hand, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, the ‘Church of the Presidents.’

We may debate the legality (and brutality) of the purge, but the photo op itself showed no reverence for the object displayed, the Bible. Trump read nothing, offered no prayer, just posed. Just like Belshazzar showed the articles from the Temple in Jerusalem, those ‘objects’ were just displays of what had been conquered, Trump waved a Bible about as symbol of what, supposedly, this fight is all about, the forces of chaos and rebellion against those of the Christian Right which represent order and rule of law, as something you would sell on a shopping channel. The cultural statement was clearly made, the Bible is just a symbol for something much larger—that ‘something much larger’ is political and involves force. The Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Budde, described this event as the ‘abuse of sacred symbols.’ Trump abused a Bible as an object for political benefit. This benefit may yet be realized, as the election (as of this writing) is too close to call.

The depravity displayed at the photo op at St John’s will, I firmly believe, be in tomorrow’s history books. It is far more appropriate to link Trump with Belshazzar than to link him with Cyrus as many Christians do. The ‘writing is on the wall’ regardless of the election’s outcome. The question remains if the people of the United States will choose to side with this depraved man thus making ourselves complicit, much in the name of the Christian religion, to his complete disregard for honesty, decency, and restraint.

The 176^thanniversary of the ‘Great Disappointment’ occurred a few weeks ago. When the Rapture didn’t occur then, to the ruin of many, a falsifiable belief was replaced by an unfalsifiable one. I predict we will do the same thing today. If Trump wins the election then the hopes, and the prophecies, will be seen as vindicated by the hand of God as decided and affirmed by the people of God. Whatever craziness and depravity to follow will be seen as affirmed by the will of God as the means to a ‘greater’ end. If he loses, then the faithful will suppose something to the effect that the forces of darkness, those who would ‘hurt God’ and ‘hurt the Bible,’ prevailed against the children of light thus fulfilling, in the minds of many, a certain eschatological view (dispensationalism) Christians are working very hard to make happen. Today’s prophets and apostles will have marching orders to follow—no matter what.

I made this investment in this coin to tell a story that needs to be told—to speak out against this bad man. The coin serves as a scaffold to make an historical connection between all those who would use religion and its sacred symbols to forward their own interests regardless of the age. Today is no different. People are still people who are seduced by empty (and, in this case, blasphemous) displays. Evidence of our collective seduction may be soon to come. I cast my vote and will continue to speak my mind. No matter the outcome, I will remain a ‘jackal among ruins’ until we collectively repent of our selfish, racist, justice-denying  authoritarianism—so our nation can be truly healed.

“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” (Psalm82: 3-4.)

We’ve made an investment. A photo-op occurred (cannot include photo because of copyright laws but the photo is accessible on Bing easy enough) on January 3^rd of this year at a megachurch in Miami. There is little to differentiate between the figures (Paula White front and center) above—they are all positioning to be our new lords. Jesus said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes and like greetings in the marketplaces and have the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Mark 12: 38-40 These leaders are all in this together.

As the chaos and lies continue, our Dear Leader turns his attention to reelection with tale of how this system is rigged against him. It is his only concern in this modern retelling of The Tale of Two Cities. There are two different worlds colliding; those who should take up the case of the downtrodden and uphold justice are desperately trying to shore up the defenses to protect their investment. Your investment in the fortunes of Israel (whom our Chosen One appears to support,) its corrupt leader, in hopes that your efforts will spur the return of Christ to Earth who will say, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ This is a tale of self-elevation. All of our leaders have the same aim in mind.

Dream City Church in Phoenix was packed with the faithful. The faithful believe this is our man. Who am I to argue? Who am I to quote scripture about upholding the cause of widow, orphans, and foreigners? Who am I to quote scripture on the value of truth, honesty, integrity, justice, and mercy? Does it matter anymore? You have your prophets, your apostles, who have taught us to follow a man who flagrantly obliterates all of those values listed above as our hope for the return of Christ to Earth to set up his kingdom. You have great faith.

Who am I to quote scripture on Jesus telling us specifically that His Kingdom was not of this world? Why should I even list the scriptures? You have your commitments and you have your passions as you all have packed in there to feed the ego of our Shiva. What does it matter? I am ashamed because I know many of your hearts are in the right place; you’ve just been bamboozled by the greatest collection of technologically enabled con-artists this world has ever seen. I am ashamed because we share the same title, Christian, follower of Christ (I just don’t acknowledge your prophets and apostles.) I am ashamed because our name, and the name of the True One we are supposed to represent is being coupled with the name of the most corrupt, incompetent, amoral, selfish, vain man who has ever held the office of President. I am ashamed because I refuse, on principled grounds, to engage with my brothers and sisters on Facebook to relegate myself to the yesterday of blogs, to talk you down from the ledge. I am held back by principle.

I hear your fear. I see your reluctance to say anything bad about what may be God’s chosen path. Because you don’t know. Do you? Sermon after sermon… either milquetoast appeals to kindness and hope, meeting the needs of those around with a warm smile, or prognostications of Jesus coming on the clouds to conquer the world (as Trump serves as a kind of sick revisiting of John the Baptist.) All during the greatest cultural upheaval since 1968? There is nothing wrong with warm smiles, or hot meals. But we do not seem to understand the magnitude of what is happening; so much for being ‘as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves.’ Your leaders have you paralyzed and compliant. Know this: history is not kind to the complicit.

Look it up: we are God’s hands on Earth. Is ours a God of Mercy? Or is ours a God of Wrath? Is our God an ‘ends justify the means’ kind of Being or has He taught us to ‘do the right thing’ (despite how we might see it turning out) kind of Person? These, I believe, are the questions we should be asking. I hope that once again, after all this implodes, and we are amply disciplined for our ignorance and arrogance, we will start asking these kinds of questions once again. Will we again stand for truth and justice? Or will we keep doubling down for power and control?

We are at the Turning Point. One turn was made at Lafayette Park, another at Tulsa, and the latest in Phoenix. What will rise from the ashes? You decide.