The Day of January 6th 2021

A Question of Alignment

By: Tony Prather

So, today while scrolling the newsfeed on Facebook, I encountered a meme that read, “How many are willing to publicly say, ‘I stand behind President Trump’?” After briefly chuckling to myself about the ridiculousness of such an idea following Wednesday’s attempted insurrection, I was about to scroll on by. But that’s when I noticed who of my friends had posted this controversial banner. I know that I should not have been surprised, as this friend has made it abundantly clear where she stands politically many times over the last year, especially in the weeks leading up to the election.

Make no mistake, I am not at all thrilled with the Democratic President-Elect, Joe Biden. I do have a great deal of substantial concerns about his leadership. However, after all of the events that took place on the day of the certification of the electoral college votes, I am struggling to see just how it is possible for a sensible individual who is truly committed to a Constitutional America could support Trump and his colleague’s abhorrent behavior on that day.

My friend, whom I have always looked to with great esteem, has always been considered a highly religious and faithful follower of Christ from the first time I met her. I have often sought her counsel in matters of faith and felt a great deal of blessing by her encouragement.

But now, as I’m staring at this post, I find myself heartbroken to see that she has fallen prey, to a fictional narrative that drives to polarize our country and undermine the very fabric of who we are as Christians.

In the gospel of Matthew Chapter 7 verses 15 through 20, the author recounts Jesus warning of false prophets that will lead followers astray.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them.”

Jesus speaks here of men who will come to you under the guise of a like mindedness, with deceit in their heart. He points out that we will recognize them for what they are by the “fruits they bear”. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul will revisit this idea with more specific indicators of the “fruits of the spirit”, and I will address that in a moment as well. But before moving on, allow me to point out that Jesus, in the above text, goes on to say, a good tree bears no bad fruit, and a bad tree bears no good fruit. That is an extremely important distinction that we must never forget.

So many times, in my life, I’ve heard the expression, “Well, the ends justify the means.” as if to indicate that as long as the outcome is for the “greater good”, it doesn’t matter the backhanded and deceitful tactics employed to reach that outcome. To me, however, this statement from Jesus Christ himself, indicates that the means are just as important to consider as the ends. By their approach, we can discern their moral leadership. It specifically says that one who does not bear the fruits of the spirit is incapable of bringing about a greater good.

I’ve heard the argument that God can use anyone, believer or non-believer to bring about his will. I do believe that, but before you start crying hypocrisy, let me explain my thoughts. Yes, anyone believer or non-believer can be used to bring about God’s will with a caveat in the case against Mr. Trump. President Trump claims to do many of the things he does in the name of Christian values. I’ve seen him do things for the sole purpose of misleading faithful Christians as a part of his “act”. His ends and his means, when closely scrutinized are rarely evidence of a man who bears the fruits of the spirit. When your guiding intention is deceit, you are consciously working against God. He might use things that a person does to fulfill his will, but the great majority of the damage our President has done and continues to do over the next few days serves to mislead a cult-like following. The idea that his actions “could” be used to bring about good does not qualify him as someone deserving of a flock of followers willing to abandon family, friends and religious associations. Some of what I have seen and heard from pro-Trumpers, even the Christian ones, boarders on the idea of the golden cow referenced in Exodus. I’ll discuss more on that in a bit as well.

What are these “Fruits of the Spirit” that we should be looking for then? Going back to Galatians, which was briefly mentioned before, Paul identifies them in verses 22 & 23.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

These are not words that describe our president. As a matter of fact, in most circumstances, these words actively describe everything our President is not. Going back as far as his initial campaign announcement, I have seen nothing from him but pride, disrespect, name-calling, hostility, aggression, and an overall inability to exert any control over his temper or rhetoric. He says and does whatever he chooses without thought to consequence or impact to others. This week, in his last-ditch effort to avoid the impending eviction, I saw a man ask two different government officials to behave unethically. In Georgia it was asking the Secretary of State to adjust election results, and in Washington D.C., it was asking Mike Pence to overreach his authority in a ceremonial role to deny the Electoral College results. Meanwhile, many of his colleagues, who have aligned themselves with him went to great efforts to upend those same results. In another area of town, President Trump, relying on the rage and dissension of his followers, held a rally and antagonized them to storm the U.S. Capitol building by continuing to spew forth his unmitigated and unsubstantiated rhetoric that an election was stolen from him. In spite of the well-documented fact that he is the two-time popular vote loser who won his position at the White House on a technicality four years ago.

In Exodus the story is told of Moses going up to Mount Sinai and leaving Aaron in charge. He was away for 40 days and 40 nights. The people, who had just been freed from Egypt, began to lose faith. They were afraid Moses had become lost. In their need of a spiritual symbol, they asked Aaron to build them an idol. Aaron used all of the gold they had among them then melted it down and fashioned a great calf idol. The people began to pray to it and sing praises to it, not recognizing that they were abandoning their faith in God.

When I see so many people, especially people of faith embracing this man and his ideals and justifying their defense of him in the name of Christ, I cannot help but be reminded of the Israelites singing praises and praying to the golden calf. They have given over their reasoning and are blindly following a man who feigns alignment with their deeply held beliefs. Are these people struggling to maintain faith?

We have got to stop focusing on the wrong thing. President Trump does not deserve such a defense.

A final thought… On Wednesday, Trump sent his people to the Capitol after a riveting and action invoking speech, riddled with half-truths and blatant dishonesty, then he quietly retired to his quarters and watched from a safe distance without a single call to check on Pence or anyone else at the Capitol Building. He briefly made a statement of love and appreciation for those who had breached the capitol in his name, and half-heartedly told them to go home. He did not officially condemn the behavior for almost 30 hours after the onset of the upheaval.

This reminds me of several places in the Bible that describe what “love” is. Specifically, I am reminded of I Corinthians 13:6 where it states that:

“Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth.”

Now, in answer to the question, “Who is willing to say, “I stand behind President Trump”. I can only say, it’s hard to stand behind him when he is busy pushing everyone ahead of him to do his dirty work.

But in all seriousness, I am so confused how so many people of faith have been foolish enough to fall victim to this man and his rhetoric. Neither his words nor actions merit the type of loyalty and alignment with him that we find so many have committed to. It saddens me to see that people are so intentionally and stubbornly ignoring the facts placed right before them. No, perhaps Biden isn’t any better, but is that a reason to put your mortal soul on the line aligning yourself with someone who is so deceitful? Is it easier to consider yourself a victim than it is to just admit that you’re a fool? Just something to think about.