The View From a Canadian Pew
On the agenda of the new administration in the United States is the rooting out of corruption at all levels of government. Such an enterprise, as noble as it is, must start at the top. The biblical prinicple is to check to see if there is a telephone pole in one's own eye before trying to remove a splinter in the eye of another.
All political systems are, at their core, corrupt. We, as citizens, elect those we believe will best represent us, those who will put our needs and the interests of our country first.
But to get into that position of power, money is required. To get that money promises are made. The biggest contributors to election campaigns have the biggest agendas, agendas that are not always the same as that of the politician, and that are not often in the interests of the electorate.
The desperation to gain the power of public office often creates alliances that work against the public good. Once that person is elected he, or she, must “pay off” the debt owed, not necessarily the debt to the constituency that he or she represents, but first of all that which is owed to those who gave the most money. That is corruption. That is bribery.
When Donald Trump first ran for public office, the so-called religious right invested heavily in his campaign. The price for their support was his promise to push forward its agenda, including the overturning of Roe vs Wade. It was easy for Trump to sign away abortion rights with the flick of his big black marker. He gave away nothing—states and their governing authorities would find ways, if they chose, to work around the problem. The religious right sold their souls. They have done so again in support of Trump's second term, But this time there are bigger players behind the scenes—and these players don't even pretend to be righteous.
But it is the religious right that most concerns me. I have said it more times than I can count: You can’t legislate righteousness. I understand the concern. The death of unborn children is genocide at its worst. But passing a bill, overturning a ruling by a court, may change the rules but it cannot change the heart. And working toward heart change is the business of the church, political power is not.
Ancient Israel never really learned the lesson. They often turned from trusting God and being all that God wanted them to be, to looking for help from pagan nations, from Egypt and Assyria. The end result was their destruction and captivity. The religious right, for the part they have played in seeking help to solve a spiritual problem by aligning themselves with an administration that is pagan, has gone the way of Israel. And the end result is inevitable.
And this is what I believe we are beginning to live out today.
Yes, I believe God is sovereign. I believe that God has allowed this current administration to be put into place. But Trump is not Moses, as Franklin Graham declared (to his shame). Trump will not lead his people to greatness, out of captivity. Rather he, and his “friends,” will lead his people into captivity.
America will not be great again, unless it returns to God. The same is true of our own country.
America has signed its death warrant at the ballot box. Alienating its friends and allies, bypassing the rule of law, abandoning its commitments, dismantling institutions that work for the greater good of the nation and the world, deporting people very like those who built the nation and made it great in the first place, aligning itself with bullies and dictators—in whose interests are any of these? Certainly not in the interests of people like you and me.
I lived through the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and was an eyewitness to the dismantling of democracy in that country and the destruction of a nation. There are similarities to his actions that are eerily like those of the Trump regime. Others have likened what is happening in the United States to other events in history. They have reason. Like so many, we don’t know our history, and if we do we do not believe that history can, and does, repeat itself. Humanity has not changed at all and by virtue of that fact its history will continue to be repeated.
Greed rules. Power corrupts and absolute power still corrupts absolutely.
I am not a prophet. I am not very politically astute. But I know evil when I see it. God is sovereign. He has allowed these events, and He will bring good out of all of this. For Israel their disobedience and the resultant consequences brought about repentance and restoration.
Perhaps that will be the same result for His church today, for this new Israel.
The mission of God’s people is to speak and live out the gospel. Only a change of heart will change behaviour. Righteousness is not imposed by governments. It is imparted by faith. God is its designer. Jesus is its giver. The Holy Spirit is its teacher.
And while the events happening in the world today, particularly in the nation of our friends to the south, will concern us and will effect us, our task as believers has not changed. More than ever before we must hold up Christ and the power of His death and resurrection to a world that is perishing. Only He can bring about the changes we so desperately need.
