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I am writing this one day before Election Day 2012, so no one can say I’m doing it as a matter of “sour grapes,” whoever may win the presidency after all votes are counted – if, indeed, all votes are counted. Consider this a preface to a more elaborative commentary to come that has been on my mind for months. This is only a rough draft, with editing to be done later.
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Quit blaming God, homosexuals, women who want control over the health of their own bodies, and the U.S. president, who happens to be black, for the natural disasters and other unpleasantness and tragedies that our country – and the rest of the world, for that matter – has endured over the past decade or so, prompting many to believe the end of the world is at hand.
Perhaps we should blame that man or woman in the mirror. We have become a nation of liars and hypocrites. If God were indeed vengeful, He (or She) would have every right to cast every plague possible upon us.
(And, by the way, I am a member of the Christian faith. I have sinned in many ways and fallen short of the glory of God. But I believe in Christ and in the principles He taught. I believe in His salvation if I truly repent and not repeat the sins of which I have committed.)While professing Christians rush to their medicine cabinets to find some smelling salts amid the Hydrocordone, Xanax, Valium and Ambien bottles after reading that last paragraph, let me point to an intriguing few verses from the Holy Bible that could imply that God is concerned about our sins for much more than our views on abortion, gays and gay marriage:
1 Timothy 1:9-10English Standard Version (ESV)
8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers,[a] liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound[b] doctrine …
Or another translation:
1 Timothy 1:8-10
Common English Bible (CEB)
8 Now we know that the Law is good if used appropriately. 9 We understand this: the Law isn’t established for a righteous person but for people who live without laws and without obeying any authority. They are the ungodly and the sinners. They are people who are not spiritual, and nothing is sacred to them. They kill their fathers and mothers, and murder others. 10 They are people who are sexually unfaithful, and people who have intercourse with the same sex. They are kidnappers,[a] liars, individuals who give false testimonies in court, and those who do anything else that is opposed to sound teaching.
The Good News translation of verses in Romans 1 indeed refers to homosexuality, but seems to include other things as well:
28 Because those people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do. 29 They are filled with all kinds of wickedness, evil, greed, and vice; they are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, and malice. They gossip 30 and speak evil of one another; they are hateful to God, insolent,[b] proud, and boastful; they think of more ways to do evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no conscience; they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or pity for others. 32 They know that God's law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.
The particular commentary that I now write is not a defense or criticism of homosexuality. In fact, it has little or nothing to do with it. I use it as a starting point because so many Christian evangelistic ministers and pastors seem to emphasize it more often than any lying, jealousy, murder, fighting, deceit, gossip, hate and other so-called “sins.”
Oh, many will deny racism; others will proudly defend their position of blaming everything on “the nigger president.” I now live in the deep South, and that sentiment of far too many people is prevalent. They don’t want to believe facts; they had rather believe lies that are fed to them.
The point is: Look at the sins and vices that are equal to homosexuality in Bible teachings. I’ll wait while you study the above verses again.
The “Law” is good if used appropriately. If people refuse to keep in mind the true knowledge about God, he has given them over to “corrupted minds, so that they do the things that they should not do,” the Good News translation says.
Note that both passages refer to lying, deceit, malice, gossip, speaking evil of one another, having no conscience, not keeping promises. The 32nd verse in Romans 1 says, “They know that God’s law says that people who live in this way deserve death. Yet, not only do they continue to do these very things, but they even approve of others who do them.”
Right-wing preachers will tell me this only refers to homosexuality, but other passages, including the Ten Commandments, found in the Old Testament, bears out that many of us, and I am including myself, could be found guilty if we were put on trial.
All sins are created equal.
Lying is high on the list of evils that meets God’s disapproval, according to what we’ve just read from the Bible. Especially since the year 1999, this nation has seen our political system go to hell with lies, white and very darkly black, deceit (essentially the same thing), hatefulness, speaking evil of one another (especially during the past four years), having no signs of conscience (the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and who cares?), and not keeping promises.
Even the most ignorant of people, and based on many conversations I’ve had, there are plenty of those, know that the major problem with President Obama has been that he is black.
When someone has uttered a blatantly false statement about Obama, I usually ask where they got their information. It’s amazing how many of them try to avoid giving an answer to that question, even when it’s asked repeatedly. Most usually can’t or won’t tell me, and some simply say it’s just the way they think. They usually end up mad at me.
The Republicans vowed as soon as President Obama was elected that they would do everything in their power to make sure that his presidency failed, no matter what damage their ensuing resentments and failure over four years to do anything to benefit the country’s populace (including their constituents) would cause. They voted against measures that could have provided work for many, but said that they knew how to create jobs if they were in power.
If they knew how to create jobs instead of shipping them overseas, why didn’t they do it? Where were these millionaires and billionaires who could have been building factories or creating new jobs for the ones that were lost?
Plain and simple, they were playing the deception game because they didn’t want anything to appear that a black president could accomplish anything. The Republicans, and shamefully, even some Democrats, lied and essentially slandered Obama, wasting their time, energy and resources for their own selfish purposes, not giving a damn about the public they were supposed to be representing and helping.
During his campaign this season, the Republican candidate for president was like a puppet on a merry-go-round horse that had been stuffed into a moving roller coaster car. No one could keep up with what he believed, what he actually planned to do to help the country – i.e., where on earth he was going and how he was going to handle the strings of the puppeteers who were pumping money into his campaign to get the black guy out of office. He wanted more money for the military, but rarely spoke about how he would help the heroic veterans of two wars and their families.
Republican leaders across the country tried to deny people, especially Democrats, black, Hispanic and even the poor white, the right to vote in a land that is supposed to be a democracy.
Unkept promises and lies. We’ve heard many of both over the past decade. Do super storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and such portend God’s ending the world as we know it? God would be justified in doing so. Many of us deserve it.
How many of us – and I am including myself, are guilty of the sins that, according to that chapter in Romans, “deserve death”? Forget the worn-out arguments about homosexuality and the abortions some poor women felt the need to have for whatever reason, especially rape or incest.
Look at the real problems that preachers don’t preach about: How many lies have we told today? What have we said about our neighbors that reflects poorly on them, whether our statements based on gossip or our own maliciousness was true or not?
How many promises have we made to others – and ourselves – that we have failed to keep, sometimes on purpose? Do we hate anyone who is different than us (and we’re all individually different in some way), or do we live and let live? Do we really prefer war and enemity over peace and love? Do we judge others but don’t want to be judged ourselves?
Perhaps we could change a lot of things for the better if Christians would be more Christian and members of other faiths would practice the positive elements of their teachings instead of denying them and considering themselves to be justified.
I do not believe that the tragic Superstorm Sandy, other destructive hurricanes or any other natural disaster are God’s way of getting back at us for our “evil” human ways.
But on the other hand, it is something to think about. If we keep going on the same path we’ve been traveling, God only knows what kind of hellish darkness awaits us, and maybe He doesn't care any more.
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