Eight years ago, while politically unwise, Hillary was correct in her “basket of deplorables” comment. To Hillary, I want to be clear- ππ‘ππ«π ππ«π π§π¨ π©ππ¨π©π₯π π°π‘π¨ ππ«π πππ©π₯π¨π«πππ₯π. Still, the things that people value can be utterly deplorable. What the last eight years have sadly demonstrated is that many of our neighbors and fellow believers have abandoned any desire to embrace the noble and have chosen the shameful. Rather than value Jesus’ summation of all of scripture that we are to love God and love our neighbor, they have chosen to worship a political and fascist god and spread fear and hatred of their neighbor. But the story isn’t finished yet.
On far too many occasions, I have consumed a meal that was bad for me. Afterwards, I said to myself “Never again” but soon forgot and it wasn’t long before I ate that meal again. If I chose to continue with that diet, over the course of a lifetime, it would have destroyed my health. Fortunately, I knew those meals were unhealthy. I changed my diet, and my body recovered. The good news is that our friends who have celebrated and promoted reprehensible values are still alive and can change course. They can still push themselves away from that table and reject the garbage they’re consuming. They can choose to abandon the selfish and unsustainable policies and the dishonest and bullying tactics of the political idols they’ve been following. They can still renounce their golden calf, repent, and turn to Jesus. In short, while they have breath, they can leave those disgraceful lies behind and seek to “π·π ππ’π π‘ππ¦, πππ£π πππππ¦, πππ π€πππ βπ’ππππ¦ π€ππ‘β π‘βπππ πΊππ.”- Micah 6:8
It’s true that I no longer recognize many of the friends I used to love spending time with. Most have either told me that I’m going to hell or have stopped talking to me. I don’t understand their easy use of blatant lies; their enthusiastic support of hatred; their defense of fascism and violence; their acceptance of conspiracies; their seeming comfort with racist ideologies that contradict the scriptures they used to love. When others say that my old friends are despicable, I can no longer make excuses for them. I’ve made excuses for years, but my bag of excuses is empty.
Scripture tells us that in our anger, we should not sin. It never says we can’t be angry or disappointed. It never says that we should ignore harm being done because we don’t want to confront the ones doing the harm. It says we should “π ππππ π‘βπ π‘ππ’π‘β ππ πππ£π.” When Jesus described the religious leaders of his day and their followers, he used words like:
-hypocrites
-ravenous wolves
-workers of lawlessness (evil doers)
-brood of vipers
-blind guides and blind fools
-he says they neither know the scriptures nor the power of God
-whitewashed tombs
-he says that they defraud the widow
-he says they are unmarked graves
-children of hell
-your father the Devil
-he asked, βHow will you escape being condemned to hell?β
He said of their followers and communities that they were:
-worse than Nineveh
-an evil and adulterous generation
-akin to being demon possessed
-faithless and twisted
-worse than tax collectors and prostitutes
In his penultimate act of saying βI’ve had enoughβ, he pulled out a whip and turned over tables in their place of worship. I won’t use any of the derogatory words that Jesus used. I won’t go on their Facebook pages or into their churches and make a scene, even though I think that many today are far worse than the religious wolves in Jesus’ day.
I am reminded that while Jesus clearly detested the religious hypocrisy and religious fascism that was prevalent, one of his last statements was “πΉππ‘βππ, ππππππ£π π‘βππ. πβππ¦ πππ’π‘ ππππ€ π€βππ‘ π‘βππ¦ πππ πππππ.” Certainly, the Pharisees, the religious crowds, and the government they sought to influence knew the details of what they were doing. I think that Jesus was acknowledging a sad reality. People are all too easily deceived. They were then, and they still are. We are reminded that “πππ π€π, ππππ π βπππ, βππ£π ππππ ππ π‘πππ¦.” It’s my hope that they will recognize that their false gods are not worthy of their allegiance and that alliance is harming their neighbors, their reputation, and the spread of the gospel. No, they aren’t deplorable. They are beloved by their Creator as much as the people their deplorable values are harming, but their choices have been devastating and must be opposed.
