When there are many words, sin is unavoidable,
but the one who controls his lips is prudent.
Proverbs 10:19 probably should be my “life verse.” I have not committed a lot of physical sins in my life – no adultery, violence, no bank robberies – but I have not avoided the sins of the tongue. One of my siblings asked me once, half in jest and half in exasperation, “Don’t you ever just shut up?” Jenni gets frustrated at my tendency to engage strangers in conversation while waiting in line at the grocery. I am a talker.
I haven’t always learned the wisdom of not talking (insert your joke here). Many of you will probably wish I’d held my tongue today.
During the last election cycle, I decided to speak out often about my strong feelings concerning the GOP candidate, Donald Trump. Because of his nomination, I renounced my registration as a Republican and because of my vocal opposition to him, I had friends renounce their relationship with me.
Since Trump’s election, I have been much more quiet about him. I’ve written about as many articles since his election as I wrote in a week during the campaign. I was often asked why I didn’t constantly trash Barack Obama, a man whose policies I disagreed with almost universally. The fact is that I am kind of old school on this. I think the president is due some deference from us because of his office – whatever his (or her) party.
But sometimes, when a president says something egregious, it is wrong to hold our tongues. I realize that some of you are passionate supporters of the president, but there is a point at which political support must give way to upholding righteousness. When a president of the United States commits blasphemy against our God, even a president whose policies we support, we must not give assent by our silence.
Donald Trump, yesterday at 4:30 AM, retweeted the words of Wayne Allyn Root, a right-wing conspiracy theorist with Jewish roots. Granted, these words were not Trump’s, but he gleefully and gratefully retweeted them. He made them his own. Root labeled Trump “king of Israel” and the “second coming of God.” Trump’s response was “Wow!”
Is there any other word for this than blasphemy?
Had Barack Obama done such a thing, evangelicals would be united in condemnation.
When people began to worship Paul on the island, he rebuked them and told them he was a man and not worthy of worship. Donald Trump applauded a man who compared him to the “second coming of God.”
I don’t care if you are a conservative Never Trumper like me or a swooning Trumpista like Jerry or Jeffress, such words should make any Christian shudder. We worship one God and we await the coming of the Savior to judge the world. Donald Trump is not our Savior. Politicians didn’t make America great and won’t “Make America Great Again.”
Righteousness exalts a nation.
If we turn a blind eye to the blasphemy of the President of the United States because he has appointed justices that we like or because he opposes a party we don’t like, we are not seeking righteousness and we are contributing to the moral and spiritual degradation of America. We cannot build a great nation by giving approval to evil.
Let us not forget who we are and whose we are.
They are focused on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:19-20
