“Tonight, I say this to our Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) June 9, 2022
“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice…” Exodus 23: 1,2
I’ve been told more than a few times by people who claim to be spirit-filled Christians that, putting it nicely, I’m outside of the will of God because I oppose Trump and the Republicans. As I’ve argued like a broken record, the evangelical church is inextricably tied to the GOP now. What was aired in the news last night was just a taste of the dishonor, treason, violence, and real peril to our Republic displayed on January 6, 2021. Good Christians have too much invested in God’s plan for America to turn back now.
It is absolutely appalling, beyond words to fully express, to witness the utter depravity in those engaged in the coverup to defend Trump’s ‘Big Lie.’ FoxNews would not cover the hearings because its investment in the ‘Big Lie’ (and all the associated lies) is too great. The people want lies. Lies in turn bring in lots of money and prestige to those willing to spread them. (I doubt if they lose any sleep over this.) As Laura Ingraham admitted, FoxNews is giving the people what they want.
We now live in alternative universes. Tucker Carlson said on his program opposite the hearings, “They are lying, and we are not going to help them do it.” Lying about what Tucker? There was clear evidence, for our own eyes to see and our own ears to hear, concerning the gravity of what happened that day. Yet, we are to believe the ‘real’ reality put forward by Tucker’s guest that, “There was no insurrection. There was a riot, a small one, that got a little out of hand.” A little out of hand? People died. And that’s just the start of it.
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around just how depraved this is. We are called to close our eyes and shut our ears to the evidence, to embrace the ‘Big Lie’ that the election was stolen, even when people in his own administration, we saw them and heard their testimony which said in summation, the ‘Big Lie’ is bullshit. There is no objective evidence to support the stolen election claim. None. Yet, because we’ve been told by God that Trump and the Republicans are God’s choice to ‘Make America Great Again,’ we are to believe the words of a man who made ‘30,573 false or misleading claims over 4 years,’ that the election was stolen. Despite having no evidence, the evil man inspires and encourages a slithering mass of conspiracy theories to fulfill his vacuous need for power and attention. Trump is a morally empty man who continues to spread destruction through his lies. (He would throw anyone, even his own daughter, under the bus to defend them.) In Trump World, only Donald Trump and those he currently (as this could change at any moment) sees as his supporters are telling the truth. Everyone else is a is liar. The evidence (or lack of) does not matter anymore. Honor and integrity are dead.
Ever wonder at the depth of our division? The ‘Big Lie’ led to the violence on January 6, 2021. The ‘Big Lie’ has led to deep wounds which are still being inflicted upon this nation and has caused deep divisions within the church as it continues to offer its implicit and explicit support of the man who continues to poison us all. FoxNews and the evangelical church is engaged in a coverup—it’s what the ‘Save America’ people want. No matter the destruction sown by those we revere, to the point of placing all our faith in them, no matter the evidence, no matter the hurt, the faithful will not turn on their investment. For example, those faithful to the Apostle of La Luz Del Mundo convicted for sexual abuse said that the state had doctored the evidence. The witnesses be damned. The evidence be damned. The people will support whoever they’ve invested their faith into—no matter the evidence of the evil they bring. People like Tucker sooth the consciences of those who want to believe things contrary to the evidence—people like Tucker are paid well to obfuscate and deliver an ‘alternative’ story.
To a much lesser degree of evil than La Luz, my own former church is engaged in a coverup. Pastor Tim Westerberg, in sermon after sermon, as more than a few are torn apart in this blog, admonishes those who sow division in the church—people like me. He acknowledges that division exists but intentionally obfuscates and misplaces the source. He bullies, shames, and tries to intimidate to shut people up because it is a threat to his sense of order. In his last sermon on June 5, 2022, in a rant around the 53-minute mark, Tim complains about those going around ‘sniffing armpits’ and then throwing ‘hissy fits’ on matters he personally finds trivial. This tells me he is all in for nationalism—and apparently so does most of the church. (So, what are you whining about? You won.) According to Tim, those ‘sniffing armpits’ are sowing division in the church thus sullying our witness to the world. The actual source of the division does not matter; our commitment to and investment in nationalism must be defended at all costs. To the faithful, the people citing evidence pointing out the lies are the problem.
This the same kind of thing as occurred in all the coverups in the SBC; the people hurt do not matter—the mission, or more accurately, the appearances matter. Tim is covering up both the seriousness and source of the national lie, which comes from, essentially, one evil man who is backed by the GOP. The ‘Big Lie,’ to which the evangelical church is complicit (as it has deeply woven itself into the GOP,) is ripping this nation and the church itself to pieces. Again: Evidence be damned. Truth be damned. Tim, in all his projections and obfuscations, is implicitly saying that those who speak against him, and his church, be damned. Appearances are everything. So, everyone plays pretend as we cover this up—the mission is too important to bother with considering the evidence. The ‘truth’ of what we’ve placed our faith is greater than what the evidence (or lack thereof) may say otherwise. The evidence threatens our sense of righteousness and our struggle for political control—all to God’s glory of course.
This is so dreadfully hurtful to those who care about the evidence and the resulting destruction, all the people hurt and killed, the offence to the process of seeking justice, the undermining of the process which enables the peaceful transfer of power, the murder of honor and integrity, that lies and treason cause. But not to worry, the objectors will be driven out—the leadership will continue to tell all the faithful what they want to hear. Make America Great Again.
The chances are good that he will get a standing ovation at his celebratory service on June 12th. Dishonor will continue to be honored.
(But then, I live in an alternative, godless universe, don’t I?)