Barney Wiget's Blog, page 40

Don’t Attack the Hostages!

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Sometimes we Christians forget who the enemy is and we attack the hostages rather than the hostage takers with the sword of our mouths. The Spirit’s sword serves as a surgical scalpel to heal damaged souls as well as a weapon of war to defeat the enemy of our souls. It cuts through the most calloused conscience to make repairs in the diseased heart. But we must keep it scabbarded when we’re tempted to hurt someone with it.

Derek Penwell said, “Jesus didn’t die so that we could win bar bets with other religions about who understands God best.” Just because we can win arguments with people about God doesn’t mean we’re supposed to. He didn’t hire us to be his defense attorneys. You might be smarter, a better debater, and even more adequately informed than your “victims.” But it doesn’t please God or bring people closer to him when we assault them with “sharp” arguments.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

Problems with Unbridled Power and Privilege

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Kings, Prophets, and Presidents: A Warning about Power Abuse (Part 4 of 4)

“Christian faith is about truth, and whenever you try to mix power and truth, power usually wins. Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.” Cal Thomas

Woe to those who plan iniquity,

    to those who plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they carry it out

    because it is in their power to do it.

They covet fields and seize them,

    and houses, and take them.

They defraud people of their homes,

    they rob them of their inheritance. Micah 5:1-5

Here are some nauseating realities about unbridled power and privilege: Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of abusing their power to sexually assault children, CEOs like Harvey Weinstein and Roger Ailes, news personalities like Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose and Bill O’Reilly, and entertainment stars like Kevin Spacey, Bill Cosby, Louis C.K. have harassed and/or assaulted women, not to mention R. Kelly who is being accused of abusing underage girls for decades and the New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who has been charged with prostitution and human trafficking. And who can forget the nineteen women who allege that President Trump harassed or assaulted them? Oh, and he bragged about how he could do anything he wanted to any woman he wanted!

In the first part of this series we looked at two kings who abused their power, David and Ahab. We went on to focus on Donald Trump’s relentless abuse of his presidential power. Then we looked at the Church’s prophetic mandate to speak truth to power. In this final post let’s brave a peek at the temptation, if not compulsion, to abuse whatever privilege and power most of us have. Since power abuse isn’t exclusive to kings and presidents, let’s get a little more up close and personal and see if the Spirit doesn’t do a little meddling into our business.

It’s easy to say, “Yeah, I hate power mongers! We should put them all in prison and throw away the key!” But is it possible that, like David, we don’t smell our own B.O.? Is it possible that we, like both David and Ahab, are blind to our complicity in some form of injustice to the race? Like those kings, are we so accustomed to our privilege that we are tone deaf to our neighbors who have less agency than us?

In our last post we talked about speaking truth to power. Is it possible that we, in some ways, are the power that needs to be spoken to? Could it be that the Spirit has been pointing out our own similar sins in his still small voice and when we turned a deaf ear he graduated to shouting, “Can you hear me now?” Almost everyone has some power or privilege that can be exploited for his or her own advantage and at the disadvantage of others.

The privileged inherit most of the power and the powerful end up with most of the privileges. Power corrupts and privilege is blind.

You may not hold political office, possess celebrity status, or don a sheriff’s badge. You may not be a boss or have a humungous stock portfolio, but most of us have some sort of God-given, God-aided social position or aptitude that affords us opportunities to serve our less fortunate neighbors in some way. And I use “neighbors” in the way Jesus did, to refer to all our human counterparts. When we use our privilege and power to get things we don’t really need (like Davd) at the expense of our neighbor who does need them (like Uriah and Naboth), are we not sinning against them and offending God?

The degree to which we use our power and privilege to neglect, reject, or objectify others instead of honoring and caring for them is the measure of our faithful stewardship before the Lord.

Watch this fantastic 6 minute video !

Someone said, “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.” Think about that for a minute before reading on.

Before we let ourselves off the hook too soon, remember that David (a good man) was at first oblivious to his own sin of power abuse when Nathan confronted him. CS Lewis said, “What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.”

Our life advantages tend to blind us to one sort of unimagined privilege or another. It might be racial, socio-economic, gender, or another sort of privilege. Gregg Boyd says, “For all our insistence that America is the land of equal opportunity, there is in fact a stratified ‘pecking order’ of privilege that is largely structured by one’s access to power, social class, ethnicity, and even gender.”

Check out Boyd’s article here.

Someone said, “Privilege is when you think something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to you personally.” When you are used to having all the toys at your disposal and get angry about sharing them with the other kids in the classroom, that’s more than selfishness, it’s entitled privilege.

In relation to racial privilege, Boyd said, “The majority of white people don’t ‘get it.’ What’s worse, the majority of white people don’t know that they don’t ‘get it.’ Worst of all, the majority of white people don’t really know that there’s anything to ‘get.’” I would add to that the only thing worse than that is when they refuse to get it and swear up and down that there’s nothing to get!

I wonder how it would change our idea of the people we so blithely label, “illegals” and so indifferently reject as guests in our country if we sampled for one month the penniless and precarious circumstances from which they come. I think most of us wouldn’t be so quick to sneer, “This is ours here. That’s yours there. We’ll keep ours and you go back to yours. And by the way, if you were more industrious, you’d get a job back in your country and make something of yourself!” Please!

“It is much harder to caricature, insult, and denounce people as evil fools when you are three feet away,” says Tim Keller. “But today fewer and fewer of our relationships are face-to-face.”

The Takeaway: Of all people, we ‘Christian’ people should be the first in line to surrender all unjust possibilities of privilege for the sake of the unprivileged. We must steward whatever form of power we possess in such a way as to reflect the personality of the One who allowed us to have power in the first place. And we must insist on electing officials with those same priorities!

Ready, Fire, Aim!

Witnessing angry is like giving someone a good kiss with bad breath! Ralph Moore said that our ability to reach people for Christ comes “in direct proportion to our ability to stop judging and to begin caring.” Surely you’ve heard the adage: “People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.” I’m not talking about counterfeit caring for the purpose of winning a soul. I mean genuine compassion and love.

“Winning over someone” isn’t the same as “winning someone over.” It’s Pharisaic pride that seeks to win debates about Jesus rather than win people to him. Coming out on top in a theological debate usually just pushes people further away from God. The holiest thing we can do is surrender any compulsion for verbal jousting as an evangelistic tool. (It’s purely coincidental if it sounds like I learned these things from any debacled evangelism attempts of my own!)

Ready, Fire, Aim! is not a good strategy for witnessing. The swing-first-and-ask-questions-later method is nothing if not painfully reminiscent of the ancient crusaders who slashed everything in their path and blamed it on Providence. We’re supposed to serve people not stab them with the truth.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

A Train Wreck!

Dear brothers and sisters, I appeal to you to jump off the Train of Trump before its inevitable crash!

Whatever it was that motivated you to board it to begin with––the visual of another Clinton in the White House, a swamp draining, or a funny ret hat––it’s time to deboard. It’s time to quit running interference for this runaway train. Those who stayed for too long on the Nixon Train regretted it later.

I beg you, much sooner than later, to stop defending our president lest you find yourself––switching back to the earlier metaphor––crashing along with him.*

“Another horn sprouted up, a little horn… There were human eyes in this little horn, and a big mouth speaking arrogantly.” Daniel 7:8**

“Normal people,” says David Brooks, “have moral sentiments. Normal people are repulsed when the president of their own nation lies, cheats, practices bigotry, and allegedly pays off porn star mistresses.” To Brooks’ Readers Digest list of Donald Trump’s depravities I might add his coldhearted jailing of children in cages at the border, his incessant childish Twitter spasms, his ridiculous and unsupportable claims to be smarter than everyone else in the room. Not to mention his praise of murderous autocrats and notorious bigots, and denying real crises (like climate change) and fabricating unreal ones (like criminals and drugs pouring over our porous border). I could go on and on. The charges just keep piling up.

“They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” Jeremiah 6:14

This wound is serious, my brothers and sisters.

In order to stay on a train driven by a morally defective engineer one has to all but remove the chip that God installed at birth, aka a “conscience,” telling themselves it’s enough that Mr. Trump gives them conservative judges, pretends to care about the unborn, and talks about religious liberty (as though he has any religion of his own).

I suspect––no, I know––that Jesus followers are already perceived as “abnormal.” So please, please, my dear Christian friend, get off this train lest your perceived abnormality becomes irreparable hypocrisy and you further denigrate the testimony that the rest of us are scampering to rebuild (Romans 2:24).

“Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.” Jeremiah 6:15

Moral corrosion like molten lava incinerates and overruns everything in its path. No one is morally dexterous enough to turn off his or her conscience at the office and turn it back on at home. “Supporting Trump requires daily acts of moral distancing,” says Brooks, “a process that means that after a few months you are tolerant of any corruption. You are morally numb to everything.” That’s my fear for the Church, that we’re rapidly becoming “morally numb.”

The otherwise cagey bigamist eventually gets caught when he confuses which of his wives’ birthday lands in November. Things catch up to you eventually, and Mr. Trump’s train is careening toward an abyss.

Everyone who can read can read the signs along the tracks alerting us that the trestle around the corner is out. My friends, get off the train that is heading for an inescapable crash. It may be today, tomorrow, or the next day, but this locomotive is going down, taking its riders with it. Don’t hold on till the bitter end and continue undermining the testimony of the Body of Christ.

As frightening as it is to disembark while the train is running, waiting for it to implode at the end of the line is far worse.

“Repent” means to change your mind in such a way as to change your actions. Please begin changing your mind and remove your support of Donald Trump today.***

“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” 1 John 2:17

*No, I’m NOT implying you’ll go to hell if you support or defend Donald Trump––though I’m not in a position to make any guarantees. I AM implying, on the other hand, that choosing to stick with him you risk severe damage to your conscience, a ton of embarrassment when he is finally exposed, and worst of all, having to turn in your MAGA hat for one that reads: “We Made America Worse After All!” 

**No, I’m NOT saying Donald Trump is THE Antichrist. But as John said: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:18

***While I have no recommendations for alternative trains at this time, I beg you to at least get off this one! Read the signs, consult your biblically informed conscience, and ask the Spirit for courage to take the leap. We can do better than this. We’ll have to work to get it, but we can do better!

 

“God’s Gestapo”

“Our Religion Can Beat Up Your Religion!” isn’t the best header for your church sign.

Argumentative mode usually does more harm than good. We might just be derailing them rather than putting them on the right track that leads to Jesus. Plus, just when we think we’ve locked the argument down with our bullet-point logic, someone comes along with more logical points and better debating skills. That’s a lose-lose.

“If evangelism by frontal-assault works,” suggests Jim Henderson, “then let’s all start carrying large signs that say, ‘You are lost. You are bad! Ask me for help!’” We’re not “God’s Gestapo” or witnesses for the prosecution, hired by God to bust everyone for their sin.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

The Conscience of the Country

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 Kings, Prophets, and Presidents: A Warning about Power Abuse (Part 3 of 4)

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. Elie Wiesel

The stories about Kings David and Ahab abusing their power are the basis of these few posts. Though this practice was not characteristic of David throughout his reign, Ahab and his wife Jezebel were serial power abusers.

It was prophets (Nathan and Elijah) that confronted them about their exploitive behavior and brought them back to their senses. Who can know whether or not either king would have repented without these brave ambassadors for God? Typically, power abusers will persist in their sin with impunity unless someone risks it and speaks the truth to their power.

Last time I gave my take on just a few of President Trump’s abuses of power, the most recent of which was how he hurdled over Congress to declare a national emergency in order to get his wall built. Whether or not you agree with my assessment of his presidency in general or this action in particular, read on.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Proverbs 31:8

Many of us have applied this passage to our pro-life activism and actions on behalf of the unborn, and rightly so. But there are many others who need an advocate for justice, people “who can’t speak for themselves.” Justice is perverted not only when the powerful take advantage of the powerless, but when no one speaks truth to the powerful and calls them to account.

Pope Francis said, “Our defense of the innocent unborn needs to be clear, for at stake is the dignity of a human life, which is always sacred, regardless of his or her stage of development. Equally sacred, however, are the lives of the poor, those already born, the destitute, the abandoned and the underprivileged, the vulnerable infirm and the elderly exposed to covert euthanasia, the victims of human trafficking, new forms of slavery, and every form of rejection.”

Part of what it means to speak up for the vulnerable is to speak truth to those who exploit them. God sent prophets to kings in the Bible days and still sends people with a prophetic mission to the “powers” today.

I wonder if we have too narrow a view of that “prophetic mission.” As Nathan and Elijah stood up to their kings, who could very well have removed their heads for so brazenly rebuking them, the Church today has a mandate to speak, either TO power if we have that level of access, or ABOUT power when it runs afoul of morality and exploits the weak.

With respect to Jim Crow laws Martin Luther King Jr. wrote: “I have watched white churches stand on the sidelines and merely mouth pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities.”

“The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s often vocal sanction of things as they are.”

I wonder how King would evaluate today’s Church.

Our president brings his own cadre or preachers into the White House for a meal, a pep-talk, and a photo-op. In my opinion these men and women of God go not merely affirm to and sanction, but also to confront him and his policies. They should, as Stephen Mansfield says, “maintain prophetic distance and to be guardians of a moral vision for life and government.”

Though I agree with those who criticize Republicans in Congress for not standing up to the president, I don’t know what it’s like to be a congressman. But I do know what it means to be a son of God and ambassador for Christ, and I’m often ashamed of the Church for its “weak and ineffectual voice” in relation to our president’s outright interminable abuses of power. “If liberty means anything at all,” said George Orwell, “it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Either by their public defense of Mr. Trump or their self-indicting silence, certain prominent evangelicals — including Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Robert Jeffress, Paula White, and James Dobson — are effectively blessing a leader who has acted in ways that are fundamentally incompatible with very basic Christian ethics. They, in my opinion, squander their moral authority and undermine our testimony.

“For those who are the guardians of morality,” writes Mansfield, “and whose role it is to call for stronger character and deeper souls, to support Trump publicly without distinguishing between the virtues and the vices is nearly an act of idolatry.”

I don’t believe, as some do, that Mr. Trump has hijacked the country. But there’s no doubt in my mind that he has identified and exploited our darker impulses and marshaled them effectively to further his own fame and power. He is only a symptom of a deeper moral malady in our country. And the saddest part of it all is that much of the Church remains silent, or worse, reports for duty as some of his staunchest rally-goers. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to have to tell my granddaughters than “Stormy Daniels” was a meteorologist and that the children who were caged at the border were playing hide and seek!

Whoever rebukes a person will in the end gain favor rather than one who has a flattering tongue. Proverbs 28:23

The president surrounds himself with people who are more apt to fawn over him than tell him the truth. Instead of speaking truth to power they partake of the power and get their picture taken with it. I can only surmise that they thought having a place at the table meant an opportunity to eat his the table.

“The self-righteous upsurge of party loyalty that blots out conscience and absolves every criminal tendency in the name of Class, Nation, Party, Race or Sect . . . are putting conscience and personality to sleep and turning free, reasonable people into passive instruments of the power politician.” Thomas Merton

Next time we’ll talk about how we as Christians manage our own power and privilege. In the meantime, what do you think?

Do you agree that it is the responsibility of the common Christian speak truth, if not TO power, ABOUT it? If not, on what Scriptural basis do you have for your opinion?
What have you done to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves?
What advice would you give to a Christian who is invited to counsel the president?

The Best Apologetic

I don’t know about you, but Jesus won my heart, not by force but by fascination.

Note to self. Do what Jesus did!

Healing people is always a better gospeling technique than hurting them. Peter showed what he could do with a sword and Jesus showed what he could do with a touch. Definitely an improved method of outreach!

Jesus’ “enemy love” is always a better apologetic than the sword-swinging aggression of Peter. Compassionate service wields a power to affect people in ways that argumentative tactics never can. Jesus delayed his arrest to heal an enemy and later put a pause on dying in order to welcome a thief into his kingdom! That’s how God makes friends.

This same spirit of selflessness marks authentic Good News-tellers. It’s less about defending Jesus with a weaponized Bible than demonstrating him with the power of love.

– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends

Less Prickly

Disease and divorce have given me more than a greater sense of mortality and frailty. They’ve taught me more about my solidarity with the human race than I ever learned in my former life.

Up until recently I spent most of my white middle class male life with people that look and act pretty much like me. In these last few years I’m finding myself in greater proximity with people who walk a path quite unlike mine. Now that I have a much wider range of friends than I’ve ever had it’s incredibly sanctifying for me, that is, if your definition of sanctification is to be more well-rounded and less prickly.

Prickly people are more judgmental than those whose sharp edges have been rounded through their own pain and through proximity with others who are in pain. Proximity, I’m told, breeds empathy. Getting to know people who are different than me helps me criticize them less and empathize with them more.

– 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).

Presidential Power Plays

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Kings, Prophets, and Presidents: A Warning about Power Abuse (Part 2 of 4)

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” Abraham Lincoln

Power abuse is nothing new to humanity. Man’s inhumanity to man is as old as humanity itself, especially with respect to the powerful-over-the-powerless.

Anyone who doesn’t have sociopathic tendencies hates to hear about the parent who abuses his children, the man who forces himself on a woman, the celebrity who leverages his fame for sexual favors, the policeman who uses his badge to bully the public, the priest who uses his position to harm children, the boss who exploits her employees––to say nothing of corrupt judges, human traffickers, political demagogues, and spiritual leaders on a power trip.

The stories of David and Ahab serve as negative examples of monarchs who used their position to get what they wanted when they wanted it, and murdered the witnesses to cover it up. To be fair, what was a lifestyle for Ahab was for David a momentary failure, albeit a grave failure.

By way of contrast, Samuel, the prophet-judge who near the end of his life of service addressed the nation:

“Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.”

“You have not cheated or oppressed us,” they replied. “You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.” 1 Samuel 12:3-4

[Can you imagine our man in the Oval Office, or many other politicians for that matter, at the end of his/their term in office even possessing the gall to ask for such a performance review, let alone earning this sort of response? Just sayin’.]

Samuel was a man of integrity and used his social/spiritual capital to benefit his people rather than exploit them. His sons, on the other hand, leveraged their privilege and took advantage of their countrymen. They “did not follow Samuel’s ways… [instead] turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.” 1 Samuel 8:3

“Justice,” as I understand it is the right use of power, privilege, or position. It follows then that abusing whatever power, privilege, or position we have over others “perverts justice.”

The International Justice Mission says, “Injustice is what happens when someone uses their power to take from someone else the good things God intended them to have: their life, their liberty, their dignity, or the fruit of their love or their labor.”

If God is a God of justice, then when we do justice we’re acting like him. Since he uses his ultimate power to benefit those over whom he has power, it follows that it is our responsibility to wield our limited power to help rather than harm our neighbors, especially those with less agency than ours.

When the powerful take advantage of the weak, God takes the side of the weak. Ron Sider says, “God is not biased. Because of unequal needs, however, equal provision of basic rights requires justice to be partial in order to be impartial. (Good firefighters do not spend equal time at every house; they are “partial” to homes on fire.)” He fights FOR the exploited and AGAINST the exploiter, FOR the victim and AGAINST the victimizer. And commands us to do the same.

Timothy Keller shares a definition and consequences for justice when he says, “The strong must disadvantage themselves for the weak, the majority for the minority, or the community frays and the fabric breaks.”

I turn now to a discussion of our man in the Oval Office. Let me be clear, I make no claim of equivalence between presidential and prophetic or monarchial roles. I absolutely do NOT expect our POTUS to fill the shoes of prophet or king in America. Nevertheless, I believe we can justifiably draw some parallels between them with respect to how modern public servants should and shouldn’t conduct themselves.

While I could go on a tirade regarding Mr. Trump’s innumerable abuses of presidential power, I’ll just call to mind a small sample of them. I do have respect for his office but, as you may have guessed, I can muster little-to-no respect for him as a person or president. In my opinion he is a classic relentless power abuser.

Donald Trump has routinely used his clout as a wealthy celebrity, real estate mogul, and now politician. Take for instance how he admitted to routinely leveraging his fame to sexually harassing and assaulting women, how he ridicules his political opponents, fires anyone disloyal to him, and the list goes on. It’s evident, at least to me, that this millionaire’s son has he’s been on an entitled power trip his whole life. Anyone below him on the social register without the agency to defend themselves is fair game. To say nothing of how he habitually exploits his bully pulpit to spew vitriol, vengeance, and hyper-nationalism over social media and in his MAGA rallies.

It wouldn’t be difficult to draw a parallel between Ahab’s childish sulking when Naboth rejected his business offer and our “Great Negotiator’s” immature mocking and belittling attack tweets against those who stand up to him. There is more than a slight similarity between Ahab’s boldfaced lies in the process of stealing Naboth’s vineyard and our president’s relentless torrent of “alternative facts” in order to advance his agenda at the expense of those with less clout.

[I’m aware that most politicians are pretty good at lying. But from where I sit, Mr. Tump has perfected it to an art.]

There is at least one disparity between those kings and our POTUS. Neither David nor Ahab “fired” the prophets who called them on the carpet. When it was well within their power to have Nathan and Elijah put to death, instead they took it on the chin, humbled themselves, and repented. That’s where their path and our president’s diverge. Since he routinely ridicules his opponents instead of admitting he’s wrong and since he never asks for forgiveness, it seems like a long shot that our POTUS will ever respond to correction in any sort of teachable way and actually repent of his abuse of power.

For a current case in point, which should be no surprise especially in light of the incidents I mention above, I cite Mr. Trump’s recent declaration of a national emergency without congressional approval in order to get the money to build his wall on our southern border, a project that is designed as a monument to his ravenous ego, and an alarming abuse of executive power.

“When a political leader only seeks more and more unaccountable power, when his language and action is consistently used against the most at risk, that’s a moral, not just political, problem….The real national emergency that we face in America, is not a fictitious ‘invasion’ on our southern border, but Donald Trump himself.” Jim Wallis

Next time, we’ll talk about what can be done about unleashed unaccountable power.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Do you feel I’m being unfair to the president?
In your opinion are my comments out of step with Scripture in some way?
How would you propose to respond to an abuse of power in government or anywhere else for that matter?

Authentic Attention

The neighborhoods I frequent in order to make friends with God host many men and women who have long conversations with themselves and scream at invisible antagonists. Their minds are mush from birth, from abuse, from profuse amounts of inebriants, or all of the above. These are sinking shipwrecked humans with not much left of the vessel. Demons hide in the hull of many of these precious souls.

Though obscured by their psychoses, they still bear the mark of the Creator’s image, and are loved in heaven, where – if they arrive there someday – their minds and social capabilities will be reassembled and perfected. In the meantime, they need to be told that the Perfecter loves them. But maybe more than that, they’re dying (literally) to be shown authentic and affectionate attention.

– 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).