Month: April 2018

When Christian Leaders Become False Prophets #courtevangelicals

Whenever I take long-distance road trips by myself, I tend to dial in Christian radio.  Not because I enjoy it, mind you.  I don’t.  Not by a long shot.

Rather, I use my driving time as an experiment in American religious ethnography — that is, the study of religious customs and culture.  (I readily confess. I am an academic nerd of the first order).

I am always struck by both the growing number of right-wing talk shows and news broadcasts, together with the complete absence of anything resembling progressive, liberal or even moderate news reporting.

A few years ago I mentioned to a close friend that whenever the United States finally crosses the line and slips into a dictatorial, fascist state, our new American Fuehrer will have a large network of ready-made news media at his disposal, naturally complimenting the already servile corporate, mainstream news.

That fascist, propaganda outlet will be Christian radio, together with Christian television and online media.

I am no prophet, but my cynical musings continue to take shape. (Read this fascinating Politico article, “Church of the Donald: Never mind Fox. Trump’s most reliable media mouthpiece is now Christian TV”).

A few days ago, John Fea’s very fine blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home, pointed out the development of Robert Jeffress’s “Path to Victory” website, which gives a good deal of attention to his many appearances on Fox News.

Jeffress is president Trump’s so-called “spiritual adviser” who, like many evangelicals today, has tragically confused the kingdom of God with partisan politics.  This confusion is a cancer that has spread all throughout American evangelicalism.  Sorting through this confusion is the primary motivation behind my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America.

Jeffress has the gall to describe his  website as “a brand new ministry platform.”  Whatever it may be, however, it is not Christian ministry.  It reminds me, rather, of the false priests and prophets (who seem always to be in the majority, both in ancient Israel and in America today) condemned by the prophet Jeremiah.

“From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain…They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  ‘Peace, peace they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No. They have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush.” (Jeremiah 6:13-15; also 8:10-12)

Again, I cannot help but recall the many ways that this very same confusion once worked to extinguish genuine Christian witness in Nazi Germany.

No, Trump is not Hitler.  But history does repeat itself.  Trump has successfully normalized abominable, inhumane, ignorant behavior, ideas and policies in our public discourse.

Men like Robert Jeffress are normalizing the betrayal of gospel truth for 30 silver pieces of glad-handing, White House receptions, photo ops and D.C.  gossip about the many ways in which evangelicals continue to serve as the best useful idiots inside the beltway.

Practice in Christianity, with Sǿren Kierkegaard #kierkegaard

In my opinion, Sǿren Kierkegaard’s book Practice in Christianity is one of the best handbooks on Christian discipleship ever written.  Personally, I far prefer Kierkegaard over Bonhöffer’s Cost of Discipleship.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Kierkegaard lived in Christendom. He knew very well what it meant for people to define their “Christianity” in terms of nationality and earthly citizenship.  Loyalty to one’s homeland, patriotism, military service, church attendance, mourning over the redemptive deaths of Danish soldiers, these were the liturgies and sacraments that defined a good Christian life in his world.

But Kierkegaard had the spiritual maturity and insight, not only to realize how corrupting the Christendom counterfeit could be, he also had the prophetic fortitude to loudly warn his compatriots of Christendom’s fiendish ability to snuff out authentic Christian witness.

For everyone who believes that society ought to be more hospitable and welcoming to Christianity, so that the church can enjoy greater privilege (and maintain its tax-exempt status); for all who imagine that the legislature and the courts can advance the kingdom of God, or that the rules of church discipline ought to be imposed on everyone in the public square, Kierkegaard observes:

 “As long as this world lasts and the Christian church in it, it is a militant church; yet it has the promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  But woe, woe to the Christian church when it will be victorious in this world, for then it is not the church that has been victorious but the world. Then the heterogeneity [the contrast] between Christianity and the world has vanished, the world has won, and Christianity has lost.”

The church militant is the body of Christ that understands this world is not home.  If we become too comfortable, we have forgotten our mission. Authentic discipleship always faces opposition.

Suffering with and for Jesus is the defining characteristic of genuine Christian living in this fallen world.  The true church, which is always the militant church, never forgets these things.

The Consternation Conference at Wheaton College

A collection of 60 or so “evangelical leaders” met for two days (April 17-18) for a by-invitation-only gathering at the Billy Graham Center, Wheaton College, Illinois.  The common concern was the future of American evangelicalism in the era of Donald Trump.

You can read what little is known about the closed-door conversations here, here and here.  Most of the commentary that I have found so far comes from Trump supporters, primarily members of Trump’s inner circle of “religious advisers,” who sound testy about the fact that others folks calling themselves evangelicals would dare to meet and bad-mouth their president.

I don’t know anything about this gathering beyond the things made available online, most of which is very biased.  However, allow me to venture a few opinions on what I imagine animated the debates:

First, remember that 81% of self-identified evangelicals voted for Trump. (I, on the other hand, am a proud member of the 19% club — that is, the minority of evangelicals who did not vote for Trump).  Given those statistics, I can’t help but wonder if a number of the Trump critics venting their displeasure at this conference were former supporters who have become disaffected.  Or was every attendee a 19-percenter?

I ask this question because I fear that the largest portion of anti-Trump animus today is fueled largely by the man’s “coarseness ” and the many accusations of sexual misconduct lodged against him.  Stormy Daniels has become a bridge-too-far for many who previously remained silent in the face of Trump’s many offenses.  (I hope I am wrong about this.  Also, I do not, in any way, intend to lessen the evils of sexual assault or adultery).

It is also important to note that white evangelical support for Trump is at an all time high right now, according to a  poll conducted by PRRI.  White evangelicals continue to show their true colors.

Second, I ask these questions because I find the scenario suggested by this evangelical consternation conference every bit as disturbing as I do the 81% of evangelical support for Trump.

The whole thing smells to me of the very same “sin of selective outrage” that I criticized soon after Sojourners published its “Reclaiming Jesus” statement.

As I asked before, where was the progressive evangelical lament during the Obama presidency and its many violations of human rights around the world?

Where was the conservative evangelical lament during the presidency of George W. Bush and his disastrous, illegal war in Iraq?

Forgive me if I draw little comfort from a gathering of anti-Trump, evangelical critics now lamenting at Wheaton College.  I know it sounds cynical, but my eyes do not see and my ears do not hear anything more than the prudish, parochial pretensions of Christian leaders who easily bit their tongues and plugged their ears — or maybe it didn’t even take effort; perhaps their eyes were already blinded and their eyes already plugged — to the Democratic and Republican war crimes, crimes against humanity, the trashing of international law and the shredding of the US Constitution committed by past presidencies.

It would be wonderful if this could be a much needed turning point for the cause of righteousness in the American church.  But I doubt it.  The whole affair smells of age-old partisanship in a new package.  It is the same misbegotten impulse of looking to Washington for the shaping of American values.

Politics is by definition a business of compromise.  No one sits in the White House who has not first learned very well how to compromise him/herself.  Only a church that remains deceived by the Faustian lie that Jesus Christ can somehow benefit from a politician’s endorsement laments over the way this president is tarnishing evangelicalism’s image.

I fear that the Wheaton gathering was only another face, perhaps the more “progressive” version, of Christendom complaining that it has too little grip on the reins of power in Washington, D.C.

When will we learn?

Durham, North Carolina First To Ban Police Exchanges With Israel (The Forward)

The first paragraph from today’s article in The Forward reads:

“The City Council in Durham, North Carolina, has voted unanimously to bar the city’s police department from international exchanges in which the officers receive ‘military-style training’ in a slap at such programs held with the Israeli army and police.”

This is excellent news. I hope that it is a first step in a nation-wide movement to delegitimize (as Benjamin Netanyahu loves to lament) the military policing tactics used by Israeli authorities.  They are criminal methods as employed within Israel and the Occupied Territories.  They remain abhorrent, criminal and immoral when exported elsewhere — as I mentioned in an earlier post about police lynchings in America.  It is a travesty that an international exchange program allowing Israel’s apartheid policing philosophy to infiltrate this country was ever condoned in the first place.

I encourage you to read the article if you want to know about Israel’s influence in our police academies.  I intent to write about this in the near future.  For now, here are a few additional sources (here and here).

The Meaning of Holiness, Part 2

Andromeda galazy

We discovered in Part 1 that the entire notion of holiness begins with the understanding of God as being entirely distinctive and unique because he is the one and only God.  Now in Part 2 I will explain how holiness as a description of God’s nature expands into holiness as a description of personal relationship.

As the Holy One, God can make things holy by bringing them into relationship with himself.  God is able graciously to bridge the chasm separating the fallen creation from himself and share his holiness with others.  People and places may become holy when God draws near.

For example, the famous burning bush that confronts Moses makes “the ground holy” because Yahweh is there (Exodus 3:5).  The land of Canaan

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becomes “the holy land” because Yahweh chooses to live there with his people, Israel (Psalm 78:54; Ezekiel 45:1; Zechariah 2:12).  Mt. Zion becomes a “holy mountain” because God dwells there in his temple (Psalm 2:6; 3:4; 15:1; Isaiah 57:13; Ezekiel 20:40; Joel 2:1).

The descendants of Abraham become Yahweh’s “holy people” simply because Yahweh chooses to bring them into an intimate, covenant relationship.  Yahweh repeatedly says such things to Israel as, “I am Yahweh who makes you holy” (Exodus 31: 13; Leviticus 20:8; 21:8, 15, 23; 22:9, 16, 32).

If you recall the Old Testament storyline, Israel’s holiness certainly did not consist in their being an especially obedient, law-abiding people (cf. Deuteronomy 7:7).  Quite the opposite.  Israel became holy for one reason and one reason only.  The LORD had decided that they and they alone would become his “treasured possession…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).

So, first, holiness is God’s alone by nature.  But, second, holiness becomes a relational term describing those whom God “sets apart” by making them his own.

In this regard, holiness is a gift of God’s grace, and he alone can decide how people come into and then maintain a relationship with him.  No one is free to waltz up to the Creator and say, “Hey, God.  I like the way I happen to think about you.  I have decided that we will become chums.”

Scripture tells us that such hubris is the road to ruin.  When people invent their own ways to approach God, disaster always follows.  Remember the crowds of Israelites watching at the base of Mt. Sinai, waiting for Yahweh to speak with Moses?  Moses was warned to erect boundary markers to keep the people safe – safe from the dangers of divine holiness.

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it.  Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death…warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish” (Exodus 19:12, 21).

Even when the Holy One reaches out to make contact with sinners like us, God alone decides how that relationship will work.  When, where and how may we come close?  Only God makes those crucial decisions.

No one approaches God willy-nilly, as they see fit.  And anyone who does not follow the Holy One’s instructions for that encounter will pay the price.  Remember Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who decided to get creative one day and mix it up in the way they offered the LORD incense (Leviticus 10:1-3).

They were immediately struck dead, and the LORD reminded everyone watching, “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.”

Destroying Aaron’s sons was not an act of whimsy or spite on God’s part.  Do I blame the fire for burning my hand when I stick it into the flames?  God is holy.  We may become holy only by answering the call to live with him and following his directions.  But he is the only One to decide how, when and where we can get close.

The possibility of relationship with God is his gift to give.  It is a gift of grace and mercy.  We can only receive it.  We cannot bargain over it, reshape it or negotiate new terms.

Thus, Jesus’ words are in lock-step with the graciousness of the Holy One when he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  This has always been a hallmark of the Christian gospel.  The heavenly Father adopts as his child anyone who surrenders to Jesus Christ, and to him alone, as Lord and Savior.  There is no other way available.

This is also why the apostle Paul repeatedly calls the members of his churches, no matter how stubborn and rebellious they may be, “holy ones” or “saints” (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1 for a selection).  Today’s “holy nation and kingdom of priests” is the universal church of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9-10).

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)

Official State Lynching in America #blacklivesmatter #policeviolence

Hardly a week goes by without another tragic incident where police kill an unarmed African American.  This week’s victim of unjustifiable, excessive use of deadly force (can I possibly be any more redundant in making my point?) is Saheen Vassell.

Saheen’s only crime was being black while walking on the sidewalk in his own neighborhood holding a piece of shower-head pipe in his hand.

For such threatening carelessness in 21st century America, he paid the ultimate price.

Watch this Democracy Now interview with Saheen’s mother and father as well as an eyewitness to the shooting.

The police pulled up in an unmarked car.  They (apparently) failed to identify themselves.  They did not address Saheen in any way. No warnings. No questions. No “put up your hands!” or “lay down on the ground!” or “drop what you are holding.” Nothing.

Two police officers simply began shooting.

Nothing but 10 shots fired at Saheen within seconds.  Saheen was unarmed.  He didn’t even have time to throw his deadly shower-head.

Saheed’s only crime was walking in public with a piece of pipe in his hand; something that most guys, including white guys, have done at one time or another.

But Saheen was black.  What else can we call this but an execution?

Such executions of unarmed black people are the current form of state sponsored lynching in America.  And no matter how outlandish the circumstances, the police officers involved are rarely punished and often go back to their job.

Actually, these crimes are not so new, are they?  Many lynchings in our country’s history have been sponsored by the state in one way or another.  Often the local police, sheriff, deputies, mayors, council members and other elected officials were the leaders of the Klu Klux Klan rallies executing the lynching.

Imagine the outcry if today’s victims of police brutality were middle-class whites; if week after week, month after month, year after year the American public was presented with graphic images of white men and boys pulled over and shot, strangled, beaten, detained and pistol whipped, their bodies pumped over and over again with lead bullets, five, ten, twenty times or more.

Aren’t the police pledged to “protect and serve” their communities?  As a youngster, I was always told that the policeman was my friend.  I could count on him/her for help.

I suspect that black mothers and fathers have rarely if ever felt secure in offering that assurance to their children.  In fact, watch this brief video showing the kinds of talks the African-American parents are required to have with their children, including their own stories of police abuse.

NO ONE should have to experience this kind of dehumanization anywhere at any time, much less in America.

Nowadays the mantra of “protect and serve” appears to be the police officers’ Orwellian twist on “shoot first and ask questions later.”  Protect yourself and serve your own interests, no matter how many innocent men and women you victimize in the process.

Apparently, the goal of police work today – not for all, I realize, not even for the majority (I hope), but certainly for far too many – is to stay well clear of even the remotest chance of bodily harm.  For example, watch this newly released video showing how the officers who killed Stephon Clark (for holding a phone in his hand in his own backyard) stood back and waited for 5 minutes (for fear that he was pretending to be dead) before they approached to offer medical assistance.

I am sorry, but that is not policing.  It is cowardice; cowardice mixed with an abhorrent lack of concern for a fellow human being.

I cannot help but wonder if the growing trend of sending US police departments to Israel for training with the Israeli Defense Forces (the IDF) has a role to play in all this.

Unfortunately, the IDF only enforces a military occupation of the Palestinian people.  The population they monitor is considered the enemy.  Protect and serve are alien concepts to the IDF. Brutality and lethal force are always the first resort when Israeli soldiers confront Palestinian men, women and children.

I fear the growing similarities between the IDF and US police may not be accidental.

Our police forces are increasingly militarized.  They look more and more like invading storm-troopers, not your neighborhood friend.  They seem to view our neighborhoods, especially neighborhoods with high concentrations of people of color, as hostile territory to be exited as quickly as possible.

Of course, police officers DO face danger and hostility on a regular basis.  We cannot forget that.  But something somewhere along the way (whether in recruitment, training, supervision, or leadership) has gone very, very wrong in American policing.

Every resident of every color in every neighborhood throughout this nation, in our cities and in the countryside, needs to stand up in protest.  We all deserve the same protections, especially against state-sponsored violence.

We need to scream and shout.

We need to demand accountability for the cold-blooded lynching of Saheen Vassell, Stephon Clark, and every other innocent, unarmed person whose life was cut short by a trigger-happy cop whose highest priority was not community service but self-preservation.

My Video Interview Discussing My Book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America

Last month I had the pleasure of recording a video interview at the Eerdmans Publishing offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  I describe the issues that led me to write my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America, and why I believe its subject matter is vitally important to the church in this country.

I hope you will click on the link above and take a listen!

My thanks to the wonderful people at Eerdmans who made this possible.

The Meaning of Holiness, Part 1

I can’t remember the last time I attended a church service or heard a Sunday message that dealt with the subject of holiness.

I have heard many messages warning Christians to stay away from sin. In these sermons, holiness is typically explained in terms of “being separate,” which usually translates into avoiding the dangers of The Big Three – sex, alcohol and money (more specifically, the sin of not giving 10% of my money to the local church).

I will summarize this popular understanding of holiness by quoting an old (inappropriate?) saying, “I don’t drink and I don’t chew, and I don’t go with girls who do.”

But such an approach to holiness grabs the wrong end of the stick, and a very flimsy stick at that.  It’s like grabbing a lizard by the tip of its tail and saying, “I’ve got it!” as you watch the greater part of the lizard scurry away to hide.

So, I thought I would write a series of 3 posts explaining (what I understand to be) the Biblical concept of holiness.  There are 3 aspects to holiness in the Bible.  Each post will deal with 1 of these 3 inter-related elements, explaining how they build on each other.

To begin with, holiness is not about us.  Holiness is about God, who God is and what God does.

The Bible insists that God is utterly unique.  There are no other gods around for comparison.  No one can suggest, for instance, that Yahweh is an especially tall god, as far as gods go.  Because there are no other gods.  How tall would a tall god be in comparison to an especially short god?  Such talk is nonsense, for there is only One God, and He is what He is.  That’s it.

The prophet Isaiah asked rhetorically, “To whom will you compare God?” (40:18). The answer is:  to nothing and to no one.  Yahweh is it.

God is the sole, absolute standard for Himself.  God defines Himself as He is. (Yes, I know. I am committing the modern faux pas of using masculine pronouns for God.  But that is how both the Old Testament and Jesus refer to our Father in heaven.)

God exists in a category of One.

Whatever we might compare God to is, by definition, not-God. We are left to fumble with the inadequacies of language, for no description of God will ever prove sufficient. We are limited to using analogies, metaphors and similes for our descriptions (e.g. “God is like such-and-such”, “God’s eyes see us”, etc.), and even these efforts only work, in a limited sense, because human beings are created as God’s image. (Now we are dealing with the theological pros and cons of the “analogy of being,” the analogia entis, which we may explore some other time.)

Some theologians have referred to God’s essential uniqueness as His “Wholly Otherness.”  Since Yahweh is the only divine Person inhabiting the category of “God,” Yahweh is Wholly Other.

THIS is where a proper understanding of God’s holiness must begin.  God is holy as the One who is Wholly Other.

Let me explain by way of borrowing the plot-line from Edwin Abbott’s famous story, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions.  Imagine living in a two-dimensional world.  That is, your universe has length and width, but no depth, no height.

Your world is like a flat piece of paper.  All of its inhabitants are also two-dimensional.  So, you walk to work each day as a stick-figure.  As you pass by, you wave to your neighbors, Mr. & Mrs. Circle, as well as the Straight-Line family and Madame Triangle.

One day, you all hear a friendly disembodied voice calling, “Hello!  How are you all?”

But none of you can see anything.  Where is that voice coming from?

“Hello,” it calls out again.  “My name is Mr. Ball!”

“Mr. Ball?,” you all wonder.  “We have never heard of such a thing. What in the world is a ball?”

The voice answers, “Well, a  ball is also a sphere.”

“What’s a sphere?” asks Madame Triangle.  “Is it like a circle?”

“Well, yes and no, but not really,” replies Mr. Ball.  “Why don’t I come visit you in Flatland and show you who I am,” he suggests.

Mr. Ball then proceeds to enter into Flatland.  But still no one sees a sphere.

At first, everyone notices a small dot that appears out of nowhere.  Then the dot morphs into a tiny circle.  The circle expands, becoming larger and larger.  Then it abruptly stops growing and reverses itself, becoming smaller and smaller. Finally, the circle becomes a dot again, and then vanishes all together.

“There you go,” cries Mr. Ball.  “I showed myself to you!  You have just seen me.  Now do you understand what a sphere is?”

Obviously, the answer is No.  Two dimensional creatures may perceive something of the three-dimensional creature’s “personal revelation” – in this case, an ever expanding and shrinking circle – but fully grasping or comprehending Mr. Ball’s self-disclosure is impossible for folks living in Flatland.  The difference between a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional existence are too great.

Mr. Ball is wholly other than Mr. & Mrs. Circle.

So ends my feeble attempt at describing the essential nature of divine holiness.  And when we combine God’s Wholly Otherness together with the alienation created by human sinfulness, we are left with a yawning chasm separating humanity from God that Sǿren Kierkegaard calls “the infinite qualitative difference.”

An infinite qualitative difference looms large between sinful human beings and our Wholly Other God.

Recall Moses’ experience at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19).  Yahweh is calling Israel into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Himself by way of a new relationship described in the Sinai Covenant (see verses 5-6).  It is a time of celebration as Yahweh “comes down” to reveal Himself more fully, more intimately and personally to the entire nation.

God is not angry with Israel.  He is not arriving to judge or to condemn a wayward people.  Not at all. Yahweh is giving Himself over to His chosen people, so that they may all enjoy deeper covenant fellowship together.  This is the beautiful “marriage ceremony,” if you will, between God and his chosen people!

Yet, as Yahweh appears atop Mt. Sinai,

“…there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled…Mt. Sinai was covered with smoke, because Yahweh descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder” (verses 16-19).

Yet, God is still not angry.  He is just showing up for the party.

Our heavenly Father is the Holy One, the One and Only God who was and is and is to come, Whose perfect ways are entirely beyond our fallible, frail, fallen human (in)ability to (mis)understand.

What can we do but fall down or tremble in awe and wonder to adore Him in His Holiness?

What else but to join in with the heavenly, six-winged seraphs who cry out,

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3)

The US Supplies an Air Force for ISIS and AL Qaeda

Last night president Trump bombed Syria without any congressional debate or approval.  Though you would not know it by watching our mainstream media, this is actually a big problem.  Here’s why.

First, the US Constitution prohibits the president from taking such unilateral military action.

Second, there is still no evidence that a gas attack took place in Ghouta, much less that Assad would have been involved.

If you did not know this, please listen to this analysis from Max Blumenthal (an independent, investigative journalism who focuses on the Middle East) who carefully unpacks the many falsehoods underlying the mainstream reporting on this matter.

Also, listen to James Jatras, a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State, make similar observations explaining how the US has effectively become the Air Force for Al Qaeda and ISIS.

Third, the AUMF (Authorization for the Use of Military Force), passed after the 9/11 attacks and now being used to justify whatever aggressive military action the US wants to take around the world, has become a blank check for perpetual war.

This cannot be allowed to stand.  Bombing Syria has nothing to do with “keeping America safe from terrorism.” If anything, it continues to have the opposite effect.

Fourth, we need to ask why the president ordered this attack one day before a team of independent investigators, who were already on the ground in the area, were scheduled to begin their study of the alleged gas attack?

Why couldn’t the president at least have waited a few days?  Is he hiding something?

Is this another “way the dog moment” where a president uses military action to distract from his domestic problems? (I am no fan of Rachel Maddow, but here she is asking very pertinent questions.)

Check out this frightening study that correlates Trump’s Twitter activity with the airing of the Fox program, “Fox & Friends” (also here, here and here on the Trump/Fox feedback loop).

Is it only accidental that Fox & Friends suggested that Trump should bomb Syria in order to distract from the release of James Comey’s new anti-Trump book?

Fifth, this attack on Syria is one more example of American hypocrisy.  Let’s not forget that we happily support, finance and arm oppressive dictators around the world when it suits our purposes.  Think of el-Sisi in Egypt, Santos in Columbia or Hernández in Honduras. (In all three cases, the US encouraged, supported and financed the military coups that put

Supporters of ousted Honduras’ President Manuel Zelaya protest outside the entrance to the international airport in Tegucigalpa, Sunday, July 5, 2009. After the Organization of American States, OAS, suspended Saturday night Honduras’ participation in the organization because of last week coup, (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

these men in power).

We also happily tolerate and encourage chemical attacks – when they truly do happen! – as long as they are carried out by our allies.  Don’t forget that the US supplied Saddam Hussein with the chemical weapons he used mercilessly against Iranian forces during the Iraq-Iran war (1980-1988).

In all those years, the US never stopped the flow of nerve agents we supplied to the Iraqi army.

Furthermore, the US does not bomb countries for “humanitarian” purposes but for geo-political reasons.  American neoconservative leaders began looking for ways to overthrow Assad’s government in Syria long before the last Iraq war (see here, here, here and here).  Why?  Neoconservatives are closely allied to the Likud party in Israel, the party of president Benjamin Netanyahu.  In effect, the US is acting as a proxy for the Israeli government in Syria.

So, the US has just bombed Syria for the very same reasons that it says and does nothing about Israel’s crimes against humanity now being committed against the people of Gaza.

Finally, people who say that they follow Jesus Christ are called to be advocates for peace and diplomacy.  Disciples don’t adopt this position because we think America is a Christian nation (it’s not), or because God is guiding US foreign policy (no one but God can know this), or because Trump is God’s chosen leader (if he is, then he was sent to punish America in the way that Assyria and Babylon were sent to punish ancient Israel).

Disciples of Jesus will always insist on honesty and fair play.  But these qualites are entirely absent from the American conversation on Syria right now, as the interviews (see above) with Blumenthal and Jatras reveal.

For now, America continues its clumsy tumble towards the junk heap of has-been empires.  The most pressing question now is how much damage, death, confusion and chaos will our struggle to maintain our historic, global dominance cause for the rest of the world?

The American church, especially its so-called “evangelicals” (that is, disciples who surrender themselves to be dominated by the Good News of Jesus’ life, ministry, death, resurrection and ascension), people who truly want to be like Jesus – which has always been the center of real Christianity – must ask themselves,

Why have we become cheerleaders for a modern-day Caligula; a licentious ego-maniac drunk with power; a man without conscience, entranced by the shiny baubles of war?

When the author of the New Testament book of Revelation described the whore of fall of Babylon and her fall – which was also Rome, which was also every subsequent world empire, including the United States of America – he warned those claiming to be Christian,

“Come out of her, my people, so that you do not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.” (Revelation 18:4-5)

When will American evangelicalism stop its complicity in US war crimes?

When will it rip off the blinders of patriotic nationalism and see this world through the eyes of Jesus Christ?

A line is being drawn between the true church and the false, between the wheat and the tares, between the church militant and the church acquiescent, between disciples with their eyes firmly fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2) and those blinded by the “worries and deceits of this world” (Mark 4:18-19) whose cheer-leading for wickedness reveals that they have abandoned their seat at the Messiah’s banquet table (Luke 14:15-24).

Stop the US March to War with Russia

As I posted yesterday, we are entering perilous times in the Middle East, and most of the American people are completely unaware of the false information being fed to them.  The similarities to the government lies about WMDs that “justified” the Second Iraq War are too close to ignore.

Take a moment to watch this analysis by Peter Ford, a former U.K. ambassador to Syria, as he explains why he does not believe that the so-called chemical attack in Ghouta ever occurred.  It is entitled:

Former UK Ambassador to Syria: Syrian Chemical Weapons Attack Was STAGED By Islamic Jihadi Propagandists, It Is Likely No One Died

Remember the run up to the last Iraq War?  Do not forget that our government lies to us all the time. Lying is one of the things all governments do in this world.

Of course, Mr. Ford may be wrong.  BUT AT THE VERY LEAST, President Trump has no business ordering a retaliatory strike against Assad before an independent investigation has been conducted!

Please, call your Congressional representatives (at 202-225-3121) urging them to sign the bipartisan Lofgren-Amash letter, reminding the president that, according to the War Powers Act, he must receive congressional approval before launching a strike against Syria.

Also tell them to insist on an independent investigation into the claims of a gas attack.  It still is not too late.

Here are a few additional headlines from today:

ASSAD ADVISER: SYRIA AND ALLIES PREPARING FOR POSSIBLE WAR (Jerusalem Post)

Trump says Syria attack “could be very soon or not so soon at all” (Reuters)

Jerusalem Responds to Russia: Iranian Aggression Is Destabilizing Syria – Not Israel (Haaretz)

Israel on High Alert, Prepares for Possible Iranian Retaliation After Strike on Syrian Air Force Base (Haaretz)

Top Israeli Defense Officials Push for Offensive Approach in Syria Against Iran (Haaretz)