Eleazar & Phineas, son & grandson of
Aaron the priest (Num. 25:7) E
Hannah, mother of Samuel L
Hieu, abbess, Yorkshire c. 657
President Biden made big splashes last night with his “non-political” address to the nation. WGN’s political commentator, who is no conservative, said the speech was clearly political.
Biden called out those who identify as super-MAGAs as an existential threat to our democracy. They are radicals, extremists. I am not a MAGA person myself, unless you mean, maybe, just maybe, “make America good again.”
The President made it clear that, to him, there is a great divide now between the far-right extremists he fingered and the rest of the citizenry. His vision of the far-right threat is “an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.” Apparently, pro-lifers are super-extremists.
One’s view of the nature of nature is ultimately determined by one’s view of creation. There are two main views: God made the world and us; or we just happened, like the claim Aaron made to Moses about the golden calf: “So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!” (Ex. 32:24) This is modern idolatry.
There are those who support abortion, transgender surgery on kids who may say at the same time, “God made us all special.” But that god keeps his distance, indifferent or smiling from afar as we bend and manipulate nature without limits other than whatever we want.
I would not grieve if neither the current president nor his predecessor ran for office again. I pray for candidates of moral integrity, who understand the Constitution, are willing and able (like Robert P. George) to reason with ideological opponents, dedicated to the sanctity of human life, who can define what men and women are. That seems so basic, commonsense. And, yes—he or she should believe in commonsense, and not lie about the opposition (e.g., “Don’t say ‘gay’”). We need no more idolaters, thieves, murderers, adulterers, liars, or coveters in high office. (Or Tweeters.)
No party is fully black or white; no regime is clean for long. The Bible is one long history of persistent sin in high places. Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had broken away from the divinely-sanctioned royal line of David and was in the grips of Ahab and Jezebel. God raised up Elijah and Elisha to speak to Israel; he then saw the rise of the usurper Jehu, who at Jezreel ordered the death of Jezebel and slaughtered the sons of the Ahab, then killed the relatives of Judah’s king Ahaziah.
Jehu also slaughtered the followers of Baal and turned their temple into a latrine. He eradicated Baal worship, for a time, but allowed the worship of the golden calf. Hosea prophesied during the reign of one of Jehu’s descendants, before the fall of Israel to Assyria: “yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.” (1:4) And so he did. Judah was not far behind. What was learned in Exile endured long enough for a Child to be born into a faith ripe for its fulfillment.
There is a God who sees America’s present moment, its past, and its future. It is not for us to say which is the greatest nation on earth. Great is the nation whose God is the Lord. Everything else is a golden calf. There is no political path to fidelity which does not place politics below faith and family. Meanwhile, Assyria is watching, waiting.
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