Barney Wiget's Blog, page 29

A Thank You Letter to Donald Trump for Helping Me Be a Better Christian (Part 1 of 3)

The Bible isn’t just a collection of biographical sketches of spiritual heroes. Some of the stories are in there to warn us about the consequences of persistent bad behavior. The narratives of people like King Saul, the prophet Jonah, the Apostle Peter, and most glaring of all, Judas the betrayer, all declare the message: “Don’t do it like that!”

A few friends have asked me why I don’t ever point out the successes and good qualities that our president Donald Trump brings to the table. Well, it’s taken me some time to think of something but the following is an imaginary letter thanking him for at least one good thing he’s done.

(While the letter itself may be imaginary, if not a tad bit satirical, it does truthfully represent my view of the president.)

Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to thank you for helping me be a better Christian since you’ve been in office. For nearly 50 years now I’ve been following Jesus the best way I know how. When I say I “follow” him, I mean I try to follow his lead and do what he commands in both my thoughts and my actions. He’s my Prototype of virtue, justice, and loving God and people.

He said that he only does what he sees the Father doing (John 5:19). Similarly, I try to do what I see Jesus doing. He’s the complete package of what a human is supposed to act. In that sense he is making me “more human” everyday. I admit that I am a far from perfect practitioner, but I won’t quit.

Here’s where you fit in and how you inspire me to be more like Jesus. God is using you to get to me by way of aversion to your typical behavior. That is, I look at the way you conduct yourself as a man, a husband, a business man, and now as a politician, and I want to do the opposite of pretty much everything I see as I steward the life I have left in service of God. Thank you for being a daily reminder me of the kind of person I don’t want to be.

Mr. Trump, I know I’ve been hard on you throughout your campaign and your time in office, but in the spirit of gratitude I want you to know how much I appreciate your contribution to my quest toward Christlikeness. If Jesus is the perfect model of morality, I consider you to be the perfect anti-model. As such you provide a visual of most everything I hope to rid myself of. As a man who delights in flouting moral, social, and political norms, you’re crowding me to Christ. As I watch you, in addition to praying for you I find myself praying more for my own sanctification.

Additionally, I have to admit that before you came on the political scene, I’ve always been woefully negligent in praying for our leaders as Paul commands us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2. It seems that I’m not the only one. I’ve learned from conversations with other Christians that a lot of us are praying for our country and our leaders more than ever! I believe that due to your regrettable personal behavior, your evisceration of many just policies and large-hearted ideas ever conceived, and ineptitude as Commander in Chief, you’ve driven us to our knees! Thanks for that.

Mr. President, your appallingly loose relationship with the truth inspires me to be a more careful truth-teller. It’s impossible to miss the Matterhorn-sized pile of balderdashes that you have piled up all over the landscape. If anything good can come from such pathological dishonesty is that it warns me to immerse myself in the truth and display it whenever and wherever I am.

I can only hope, Mr. President, that you know somewhere down deep inside that “alternative facts” are, by definition, not facts at all. You seem to be able to lie about the time of day while standing under a clock and have no compunction about calling starboard “port,” and port “starboard.” You lie when there’s no reason to lie, which makes one wonder if it’s an involuntary impulse and possibly incurable. I hope not.

That said, I thank you for the reminder of how obviously and desperately sad one’s life can become that is not tethered to some standard of reality. Thank you for inspiring me to be a person of truth.

Mr. President, the way I generally pray is that you would come to the Savior who is waiting for you with open arms. I pray also that the Spirit would help you develop a moral sensibility (i.e., a conscience) which is something that you don’t appear to possess. I don’t know if you were born without an ethics chip in your brain or if you had it and lost it due to a life of wealth, comfort, and entitlement.

Anyway, when I pray for you to be saved from sin I also pray that we (our country), whether by impeachment or losing this year’s election will be saved from you.

Sir, I’d like to cite a few more ways you have helped me be a better Christian. So, please excuse my breaking this up into two parts lest it become too long and tedious. Until then…

A Thank You Letter to Donald Trump for Helping Me Be a Better Christian (Part 1 of 2)

The Bible isn’t just a collection of biographical sketches of spiritual heroes. Some of the stories are in there to warn us about the consequences of persistent bad behavior. The narratives of people like King Saul, the prophet Jonah, the Apostle Peter, and most glaring of all, Judas the betrayer, all declare the message: “Don’t do it like that!”

A few friends have asked me why I don’t ever point out the successes and good qualities that our president Donald Trump brings to the table. Well, it’s taken me some time to think of something but the following is an imaginary letter thanking him for at least one good thing he’s done.

(While the letter itself may be imaginary, if not a tad bit satirical, it does truthfully represent my view of the president.)

Dear Mr. President,

I’d like to thank you for helping me be a better Christian since you’ve been in office. For nearly 50 years now I’ve been following Jesus the best way I know how. When I say I “follow” him, I mean I try to follow his lead and do what he commands in both my thoughts and my actions. He’s my Prototype of virtue, justice, and loving God and people.

He said that he only does what he sees the Father doing (John 5:19). Similarly, I try to do what I see Jesus doing. He’s the complete package of what a human is supposed to act. In that sense he is making me “more human” everyday. I admit that I am a far from perfect practitioner, but I won’t quit.

Here’s where you fit in and how you inspire me to be more like Jesus. God is using you to get to me by way of aversion to your typical behavior. That is, I look at the way you conduct yourself as a man, a husband, a business man, and now as a politician, and I want to do the opposite of pretty much everything I see as I steward the life I have left in service of God. Thank you for being a daily reminder me of the kind of person I don’t want to be.

Mr. Trump, I know I’ve been hard on you throughout your campaign and your time in office, but in the spirit of gratitude I want you to know how much I appreciate your contribution to my quest toward Christlikeness. If Jesus is the perfect model of morality, I consider you to be the perfect anti-model. As such you provide a visual of most everything I hope to rid myself of. As a man who delights in flouting moral, social, and political norms, you’re crowding me to Christ. As I watch you, in addition to praying for you I find myself praying more for my own sanctification.

Additionally, I have to admit that before you came on the political scene, I’ve always been woefully negligent in praying for our leaders as Paul commands us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2. It seems that I’m not the only one. I’ve learned from conversations with other Christians that a lot of us are praying for our country and our leaders more than ever! I believe that due to your regrettable personal behavior, your evisceration of many just policies and large-hearted ideas ever conceived, and ineptitude as Commander in Chief, you’ve driven us to our knees! Thanks for that.

Mr. President, your appallingly loose relationship with the truth inspires me to be a more careful truth-teller. It’s impossible to miss the Matterhorn-sized pile of balderdashes that you have piled up all over the landscape. If anything good can come from such pathological dishonesty is that it warns me to immerse myself in the truth and display it whenever and wherever I am.

I can only hope, Mr. President, that you know somewhere down deep inside that “alternative facts” are, by definition, not facts at all. You seem to be able to lie about the time of day while standing under a clock and have no compunction about calling starboard “port,” and port “starboard.” You lie when there’s no reason to lie, which makes one wonder if it’s an involuntary impulse and possibly incurable. I hope not.

That said, I thank you for the reminder of how obviously and desperately sad one’s life can become that is not tethered to some standard of reality. Thank you for inspiring me to be a person of truth.

Mr. President, the way I generally pray is that you would come to the Savior who is waiting for you with open arms. I pray also that the Spirit would help you develop a moral sensibility (i.e., a conscience) which is something that you don’t appear to possess. I don’t know if you were born without an ethics chip in your brain or if you had it and lost it due to a life of wealth, comfort, and entitlement.

Anyway, when I pray for you to be saved from sin I also pray that we (our country), whether by impeachment or losing this year’s election will be saved from you.

Sir, I’d like to cite a few more ways you have helped me be a better Christian. So, please excuse my breaking this up into two parts lest it become too long and tedious. Until then…

Jesus or Ayn Rand?

Twentieth century philosopher Ayn Rand wrote:

“Every man—is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life… In the name of [the cross] men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors… If I were a Christian, nothing could make me more indignant than that.”

To Rand, unconditional love is immoral, and loving “the least of these” is a waste. Her philosophy frames the economic and political philosophy for many Americans, including many of our present day policy makers. Sadly there are those who claim allegiance to Jesus who relate more to Rand’s unmistakably anti-kingdom ideology of “Objectivism” than to the teaching and example of Jesus, whose meekness-filled subversive way is utterly opposite.

Rand Objectivists are reminiscent of the angry mob that preferred Barabbas’ violent revolutionary approach to Jesus, who rules from a cross and makes peace through sacrifice. They mistake his meekness for weakness and failed to appreciate that he chooses to express his omnipotence through love.

This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.

Needed: A Denser Dose of Discernment (John 7:45-53)

I ran across a passage in John 7 that reminded me of current day propagandizing schemes designed by powerful people to hold on to their power. We’ve looked at how propagandists lie with impunity, question our intelligence, and speak to us with condescension and cursing. They traffic in conspiracies and wives tales––not to mention the equally erroneous tales of husbands!

The conversation between the spiritual leaders and the guards reveals one last tactic…

They answer valid questions with ridicule.

Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”

They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Remember your elementary school teacher who always said that there is no such thing as a stupid question? Apparently these spiritual giants didn’t ascribe to that maxim.

Though Nicodemus tried to bring logic into the conversation, they shot him down by answering his question with ridicule. They responded to reason with reproach––another favorite propagandist tactic. They mock their opponents’ reasonable questions. They might as well have said, “What a stupid question from such a stupid man!”

Nicodemus: Maybe we should look at what is actually legal?

 The Priests: What are you, some hick from the north? This just shows how seriously uninformed and dumb you are!

Unless it supports their own theory, propagandists don’t do “fact checking.” Instead they put the kibosh on the conversation with a Twitter-sized meme: You’re just a gullible lazy-thinking Galilean! You ‘re obviously ignorant of the truth should go back and read the Bible.

If they had any concern about the facts, as opposed to “alternative ones,” they would know, first of all, that Jesus wasn’t from Galilee, but Bethlehem in Judea. Secondly, since both biblical prophets Jonah and Nahum came out of that northern territory, their claim was false. Prophets did come from Galilee. Propagandists will do whatever they have to in order to hold on to their power, including bending, folding, or mutilating the truth!

Brings to mind this verse:

“ Intelligent people want to learn, but stupid people are satisfied with ignorance.” (Proverbs 15:14 Good News Translation)

“Then they all went home.” (John 7:53)

Such a sad epitaph to a tragic story. They just turned and went home. Nothing was settled. The evidence didn’t penetrate the thick skulls of the spiritual experts. They cared nothing for what God actually wants or what the Bible actually says. According to their own calculus, by painting those duped believers into a corner, they gave them a philosophical beat down. There’s nothing more to do but go home, smug and self-satisfied.

They won! Their power was still in tact, so they high-fived each other all the way back to their comfy houses in the suburbs. While they succeeded in protecting their right to be right, sadly, their win was their loss. They won the argument and lost their souls. They went home, locked the door against Jesus and his gospel, and prepared for their next round.

In conclusion:

I believe that we Christians are in need of a denser dose of discernment and a commitment to critical thinking regarding our present day promoters of propaganda. I fear that the susceptibility of Jesus’ “little flock” to “thieves, robbers, and hired hands” disguised as shepherds is greater than our submission to the “Chief Shepherd of our souls.”

It might be said of us as it was of God’s people in Moses’ day:

“They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!” (Deuteronomy 32:28-29)

My dear brothers and sisters I urge you to beware of deceitful hucksters and swindlers (spiritual and political) who, like the priests and Pharisees in Jesus’ day, only seek to win and protect their privilege and power. Don’t be so handily duped by those who make their rent on three card monte. Get back to Jesus, consult the Spirit, and read Scripture with fresh eyes!

“This is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)

Oh To Be Philosophically Limber (John 7:45-53)

We’re talking about the incident in which the Jewish moralists sicked the temple guards on Jesus to bring him back to face trial. When they came back empty-handed, the things the leaders spoke to their minions was representative of propagandists protecting their privilege of all times (including ours!).

I would have otherwise called these tactics of propagandists: “How to Win Elections and Insult People,” but since we Christians don’t get involved in politics I’ll just stick with the title above. You can make your own applications of the story.

Personal applications notwithstanding, propagandists of all ages and in all social contexts question your intelligence, mold the facts into their own image, and…

They come across in an elitist and condescending way.
“This mob that knows nothing of the law.” (John 7:49)

The irony mustn’t be lost on us that propagandists repeatedly lie and obfuscate while claiming the higher moral ground!

They preach from their pulpits and sermonize from their stumps that their opponents are “just a mob of stupid people, a band of idiots!” To make themselves look good they must make their enemies look bad. Those in possession of a bully pulpit are masters at caricaturing others as a lower life form.

We know better than you, so, unless you agree with us, you should just shut up! You can’t possibly understand how things work, so let us do the heavy lifting and then rely on us to tell you what’s up!

They paint their opponents into a corner with overreaching language and condescending name-calling, until they’re so belittled they fit inside the file of fools they’ve concocted for them.

It’s not the best argument, but the loudest argumentative voice that wins (or loses, depending on how much truth matters to you). It’s sad how the one whose argument appeals to our worst angels that wins debates. Those who spew the vilest put downs, with the snappiest memes, in the most condescending tones are the ones who get the most cheers and “Likes” on social media. The content of their argument has nothing to do with it. The best click bait is the brashest and most brazen trope. It matters not how logical or Scriptural it is.

Don’t get me wrong. I like “winning” debates as much as the next guy, especially about things I think are important. I work hard at not shutting down someone with the other opinion just so I can walk away feeling the adrenaline surge of victory, but I admit that there are still some Pharisaical cells floating around in my system. Like anyone else I suppose, I battle equal portions of conceit and insecurity everyday.

In order to be philosophically limber, it’s important for me to follow a routine of mental Yoga each day. If I’m not careful, I can speak down, talk past, or pontificate over people, and thus bring not goodness to people or glory to God.

At the end of the day, truth, civility, and morality will prevail, but a lot of damage is done before day’s end!

Jesus followers, on the other hand, are not “proud, but [are] willing to associate with people of low position.” And [they’re] not conceited.” (Romans 12:16)

The propagandists in this story show yet another manipulative tactic…

They make pronouncements as though speaking for God.
“There is a curse on them.” (John 7:49)

They think of themselves as specially endowed with, if not divine authority, a special qualification to make damning proclamations: They’re not only stupid, but God rejects them and they’re under a curse! Oswald Chambers said, “No one damns like a theologian, nor is any quarrel so bitter as a religious quarrel.”

Those who claim special status of, let’s say, being specially “Chosen” assume the sovereign responsibility to lead the people to the Promised Land, even make it great again! Other propagandists wait for their toadies to make such claims and then don’t deny it. Whereas John the Baptizer, who admitted he wasn’t the Christ, this sort of self-proclaimed superhero will take all the fawning and praising they can get!

Good angels and honest people refuse to be worshipped (Revelation 22:9 and Acts 14:15), but who who fail to disabuse their flattering worshippers do so at their own peril. “They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man. Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.” (Acts 12:22) Just sayin’

Jesus followers, on the other hand, “bless” instead of “curse” their enemies (Romans 12:14). They reject flattery (Daniel 11:32) and are careful not to think of themselves too highly (Romans 12:3).

Stay tuned for the final post on this passage…

Propagandists and Play-Doh (John 7:45-53)

In my devotional reading of the story of the chief priests and the Pharisees sending temple guards to arrest Jesus I felt like I was reading today’s news. When the arresting officers came back empty handed the great spiritual experts (only in their own eyes) want to know why.

I encourage you to read the exchange between them first and then pause to see if you don’t get a similar impression that some of our present day powerful propagandists are channeling the priests and Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

You probably know that these so-called spiritual leaders were on the take from their Roman occupiers. They were paid dearly in prestige, power, and cash to bilk their own people and to keep insurrections down to a minimum. Their problems with Jesus were far more than theological. They led a pretty comfy existence at the expense of selling out their own people and when they heard that some of them were talking like he might be Messiah (John 7:26), who would undoubtedly get them in dutch with their bosses, they hit the roof and took off to arrest him. When he slipped through their fingers, they decided to discredit him with lies and propaganda. (Sounding familiar yet?)

Anyway, when the guards returned without him it was game on. Apparently the propagandist’s tactics of lying, scapegoating, name-calling, denial, conspiracy-peddling condescension, and such are nothing new.

They made up their minds about Jesus and attacked the intelligence and character of anyone who disagreed with them. Out of fear that their golden goose would fall out of the sky dead they closed their eyes and ears to the obvious conclusion that Jesus was who he said he was. They may have won the argument but lost their souls in the process.

Let’s glean from the story how powerful propagandists protect their position. First…

They question your intelligence.
“You mean he has deceived you also?” (John 7:47)

Are you really that stupid that you could get taken in by this man? You’re “deceived.”

It’s noteworthy that rather than check Jesus out for themselves, which might have forced them to change their minds about him, they resort to attacking those who have personally experienced him. Changing their minds and risking their position is something these folks of yesteryear (and this year) are not willing to do. When lies serve them better in the short run they have no interest in knowing the truth.

Solomon wrote: “Prayerful answers come from God-loyal people; the wicked are sewers of abuse.” (Proverbs 15:28 – The Message Bible)

Jesus followers, on the other hand, don’t “let any unwholesome talk come out of [their] mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” (Ephesians 4:29)

They mold the facts into their own image.
“Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? No!” (John 7:48)

Whether from a pulpit, in front of a TV camera, or on the campaign trail those who’ve mastered the art of truth-twisting, preach their half-truths with swagger over and over again. And voila, before your unsuspecting, undiscerning eyes the lie morphed into the truth!

The fact is, “many of the rulers” did believe in Jesus (John 12:42) and they knew it. (Nicodemus was standing right there; albeit a bit mum at the moment.) Saying that there were no such people didn’t make it true. It just made it sound true. That’s really all that matters to the professional propagandist. Sell it! Whatever you have to do, sell it! No matter what it is, people will buy it if you convince them that they need it. It’s all part of the art of the deal.

They weren’t after the truth. They cared more about protecting their privilege and power. They were more loyal to their tribe that to the truth. Loyalty is not as noble as integrity if we’re loyal to something or someone ignoble. Integrity, on the other hand, can never be anything but noble.

You probably noticed that we have no shortage of proficient reality benders in our world, and they’re not all secularists, communists, or Republicans! There’s lying and then there’s pathological truth decay. These confidence men and women treat the truth like Play-Doh and rely on their own concoction of “alternative facts.” Fact checking websites weren’t available to them, but it wouldn’t have mattered, because propagandists––professional “spin” artists––have no real interest in the facts.

Most disturbing to me is that of all people, those who claim to follow the Truth (as in “The Way, Truth, and Life”) should care most about what is true and not just what is most palatable and convenient for them at the moment. Overlooking the common good, many so-called Christian truth-benders shape their view of reality to suit their own lust for comfort and to maintain their privilege over the underprivileged.

They sneer at reality when it doesn’t suit their immediate and long term interests. If incriminating facts exist they dismiss them, label them fake news, and go on lying. They create fact-free zones which, those who have something to lose, fear to challenge. They act like consumers of information walking through a cafeteria, choosing the facts they like and walking past the ones they don’t.

They use the truth, deny the truth, and manipulate the truth and try as, Jim Wallis says, “to discredit any notion of the truth that is a threat to their power.” The consequences of the denigration of truth is hardly abstract… If truth frees us, as Jesus said, then lies incarcerate us. They tear at the moral fabric of individuals, churches, communities, parties, and nations. People have to have something solid to hold onto in this chaotic world.

Adolf Hitler, maybe history’s most notorious propagandist, said:

“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way round, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”

In reference to those Hitler so successfully duped, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

“Against folly we have no defense. …reasoning is no use; facts that contradict personal prejudices can simply be disbelieved — indeed, the fool can counter by criticizing them, and if they are undeniable, they can just be pushed aside as trivial exceptions… We shall never again try to convince a fool by reason, for it is both useless and dangerous.”

Jesus followers, on the other hand, “speak the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15)

Stay tuned for the next post on this passage…

Libelous Labeling

Labels are too small to explain any person. Each divine image-bearing human is bigger than any one label can contain. Keeping others small makes the labeler feel large.

Life is too nuanced for any creatively constructed human to fit tidily into a prefab, hard-and-fast classification.

Anyone who believes that marriage should only be between a man and woman is automatically branded “homophobic.” A person against abortion is anti-feminist and chauvinistic. Environmentalists are all “tree-hugging hippies!” (A friend of mine actually said this). And those who fight systemic injustice on behalf of the poor are “socialists.” These assumptions may or may not be true, but individuals must be judged on an individual basis rather than painted with the broad brush of prejudice.

The implication is that this is the sum of them. They’ve been labeled and filed. They’re one-dimensional. And there’s no way they be anymore that their label.

This sort of libelous labeling (or would it be labelous libeling?) isn’t how the meek roll.

This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.

Wanted: Meek People To Put In Charge

“The meek inherit the earth.”

The meek live as though they possess nothing and are therefore the most likely candidates to inherit everything. They don’t conquer or take over the earth, instead they “inherit” it from their Father who knows that these are the kind of people he can trust with his planet.

Scott Bessenecker says: “A life lived in simplicity, humility and obscurity will be a very handy asset at the end of the game when God is looking for meek people to put in charge.” 

An immense swath of the Western Church prides herself on power, wealth, and political influence. She rejects the foot-washing basin for bravado and the towel for pomposity! She may not be going on actual crusades to conquer the heathen in the Holy Land, but this triumphalist antithesis of the spirit of meekness is alive and well in many Christian circles.

The meek, on the other hand, lobby for the lowest seats and are therefore often placed in the highest ones. Their love for the most unlovable qualifies them. They’re more concerned with justice for the most vulnerable than they are with their own status.

This is an excerpt from a book I hope to publish in the near future on the Sermon on the Mount called: What In The World? Some Moral, Social, and Politically Disruptive Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

As such, I’d appreciate your feedback on this post and others to come in order to make the final copy publish-worthy.

Forgiveness, the Healthy Choice

We cannot go back and undo the damage of yesterday, but we can undo the damage it is causing today. We do that with the act of forgiveness. Steve Arterburn

When we forgive people who’ve hurt us, we cut the cord that binds us to one another and unhook ourselves from their bumper. We’re not letting them off the hook before God, but getting ourselves unhooked from them! As I release them, it sets me free, and eventually the venom of my hurt loses its toxicity.

Extending forgiveness doesn’t mean I’m saying what someone else did was okay, but I’m choosing to be okay myself. The word “resentment” means to “feel (it) again,” because resentment keeps bringing the pain to the surface over and over again.

So forgiving small things is easy—like when the neighbor didn’t pick up after their dog and I stepped in it. Or like the time a barber used the wrong number clipper on me and made me look like a Marine. I can release flyspeck hurts with one swing of the forgiveness swatter. But it’s the elephant-size offenses that require a more insistent and painstaking approach.

– Originally published in The Other End of the Dark: A Memoir About Divorce, Cancer, and Things God Does Anyway (the profits of which go to Freedom House, a home for trafficking survivors).

Windmills, Lightbulbs, and Toilets–Oh My!

WINDMILLS

If anyone has an interpretation of this message in tongues we could sure use it to untangle this excerpt of President Trump’s speech in West Palm Beach, Florida on December 21st:

“We’ll have an economy based on wind. I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I’ve studied it better than anybody. I know it’s very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly — very few made here, almost none. But they’re manufactured tremendous — if you’re into this — tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything. You talk about the carbon footprint — fumes are spewing into the air. Right? Spewing. Whether it’s in China, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything — right? So they make these things and then they put them up.”

I’ve made an all out college try to decipher this from a number of angles: grammatical, linguistical, and even political. Even with my extensive experience at untangling difficult texts in the Bible I just can’t seem to get the gist of his thought here. There are nouns and verbs and punctuation marks, but they don’t seem to actually, you know,  go together.

He’s studied it “better than anybody” and yet he comes up with windmills spewing gases into the atmosphere––a “tremendous amount” of fumes mind you. (“Spewing!” Is that even a sentence?)

I have to admit, Mr. Trump does have a handle on air. It’s “ours and theirs. Right?” I can’t improve on that, so let’s move on to something much “lighter”:

LIGHTBULBS

This is what our president said in a Michigan rally (Are your ready for this?):

“We’re even bringing back the old light bulb. You heard about that, right? The old light bulb, which is better. I say, why do I always look so orange? You know why, because of the new light, they’re terrible. You look terrible.”

So, because he doesn’t look good in orange, LEDs are out! Makes perfect sense to me. We obviously don’t want our president to look like he’s been drinking too much carrot juice when he appears on Fox News. No doubt the station got rid of all their LEDs the moment he complained that no amount of makeup could make up for his discoloration and give him the dashing appearance he appears to want to appear in.

TOILETS

Though I’m not too keen on toilet talk myself, I guess it would be OK since the most powerful man in the world took time out of his busy schedule to make a proclamation about bathroom thrones.

Again in the Michigan rally:

“Now we’re doing it with a lot of other things. Uh, dishwashers, and uh, you know. I won’t tell you one of the things because every time I tell you they do a big number on it. You know the one I’m talking about, right? Sinks, right? Showers? And what goes with a sink and a shower?

At that point the crowd chanted: “A TOILET!” (Obviously a real classy group!)

“Ten times, right? Ten times!” he shouted.

So right then he does a flushing motion while saying something that sounds like “bah, bop,” and says:

“Not me of course, not me, but you. You. But I never mention that.”

Now that’s “classy”!!!

On December 6th from the Roosevelt Room in the White House President Trump further opined on this lofty topic:

“People are flushing toilets 10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once. They end up using more water. So, EPA is looking at that very strongly, at my suggestion.”

I don’t know, but somehow it seems a little outside the job description of the leader of the free world to be having meetings about toilets, let alone the EPA looking at it “very strongly.” (I’m not at all sure that one can look at something “strongly,” but that’s beside the point.)

This passage has been on my mind lately. This might be a good time to share it.

“Anyone with good sense is eager to learn more, but fools are hungry for foolishness.” (Proverbs 15:14)

If verbal gaffs and clownish thought patterns were his only flaws, I would resist and desist from my criticisms. The fact is, these are just a few of the dozens of things that make Donald Trump the person in the White House most unqualified for the job in my lifetime, if not ever.

What strains credulity most for me are two things. The first is that this shows his complete disregard for the “house” in which God gave us to live and the science of climate change. At one point he actually claimed that the concept of global warming was “created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive”! (No dignifying comment from me here.)

Later he said:“What I’m not willing to do is sacrifice the economic well-being of our country for something that nobody really knows.”  The future be damned, for as always it’s about the money! I’m not at all sure that he actually doubts the science of climate change. More plausible is that since there’s no chance that in his lifetime it will affect  his bottom-line or popularity, he just doesn’t care.

Taking the public’s time with contemptuous comments about toilets and lightbulbs is just his insulting way of showing his complete disregard for environmental concerns. Maybe let someone else work out the science of flushing and put that brilliant mind of his to stuff like the big picture of environmentalism, climate change, health insurance, North Korea, foreign countries’ election interference…?

The other thing that I can’t wrap my head around is that there are so many Americans (especially the Evangelical ones) who either cheer their heads off at his disjointed bellowing and Junior Highish toilet talk or pretend it doesn’t matter.  Maybe daytime fight-fest TV programs get a pass on vulgarity and senselessness because, well, their audience demands it. I don’t know.

What I do know is that we should expect something far better from the person occupying the highest office in the land––in the world! When you vote next year, I truly hope you will.