מנא מנא תקל ופרסין

 Silence was never an option    

Esther 3.5

First, I apologize for not posting for the past few weeks. I had planned to post at least once a week, preferably twice, and I kept at that for a while. But life has a way of happening: I’ve been busy at times, sad at other times, and sometimes just lazy.

I’ve also been frustrated and slightly concerned about things I swore off truly caring about years ago—namely, the United States and politics.

For our citizenship is in heaven, and by it we… well, my status as a U.S. citizen is useful to me only insofar as it was for Paul: it gives me certain privileges and rights others lack. That’s it. Other than that, I really don’t care. I don’t care about America or its future. That isn’t to say I don’t have a political party (I’ll give you two guesses and promise you’ll get both wrong) or that I don’t have what I feel are well-reasoned positions and even solutions to a lot of contemporary issues. The hubris, I know.

Simply put, I used to be very politically active. The problem was that it is very easy—and I say this both from personal experience and observation—to lose oneself in politics. While many seem shocked that religious leaders have no apparent issues with President Trump’s deplorable antics, I’m not surprised. The more politically active you become, the more that desire wrestles for your total attention. And as a carpenter from Nazareth once put it, “you cannot serve two masters.”

I realized, after hurting numerous people I cared about and reckoning with the fact that, if I were honest, I was more passionate about local elections than the elect, that it was time to cut off the offending right hand.

And much like when I disabled social media for years, I found I did not miss it at all. In fact, the longer I went without that right hand, the freer I became, and the more clearly I was able to think because I was not beholden to either the right or the left.

Which is why, in gentleness, I have something for the right and the left. First, to my friends on the left: Trump Derangement Syndrome is real. I have friends and family who despise Trump so much that they have lost the ability to think with clarity. The things they say make my brain hurt. The problems they lay at his and the Republicans’ feet continually shock me. 

For example, when I was four or five, I crawled into my parents’ bedroom and dragged my right knee over an exposed nail. It was one of the worst wounds I ever suffered. To this day, I still have a thick scar where I was cut. It wasn’t until recently, after a long lecture from a relative about everything wrong with the world and how it is Trump’s fault, that I realized this incident was Trump’s fault, too! Never mind that it happened about forty years ago; clearly, it’s on him as well.

I kid because I love. If the above paragraph upsets you, then I’m talking specifically to you. Take a chill pill. If you’re a Christian, or once considered yourself one, think about how deeply this hatred is feeding a dreadful root of bitterness that is poisoning your life, relationships with others, and with God.

I say that because sometimes things need to be said. Including those on the right. Currently, I'd say, especially to those on the right. 

• The Iran war is wrong.
• The President is behaving like a toddler (to be nice), and his recent actions, along with those of members of his administration, are unacceptable if you are of the Christian persuasion.

On the wrongness of this conflict: without entering into the sticky subject of whether war is ever justified, in this situation, it is not. We’ve been given no definitive reason for the attack or any explanation for why it was acceptable to break off negotiations and attack a sovereign nation. It says a lot when a dyed-in-the-wool MAGA cohort and counter-terror official Joe Kent resigns because there is “no credible threat” from Iran.

Remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? Remember the countless hours and days the Bush administration spent making its case to Congress and the UN before declaring war on Iraq because they supposedly had WMDs? Say what you want about the Iraq War and Bush: at least they made the effort to try to convince the public that we needed to go to war. Here, there has yet to be a single presentation showing any type of credible threat to our national security to justify this undeclared war.

The actions of the President are, at best, embarrassing. Love him or hate him, Trump has always been an entertainer who excelled at pushing the limits and getting away with it because, well, it’s Trump. But he wasn’t the president then. I don’t even care about America, but I am embarrassed to be an American when I see the idiocy he is sharing on social media. And that doesn’t even touch on the wrongness of his recent comments on Iran.

As a Christian, I was very offended by what he said on Easter about Iran, and let’s be honest: everyone knows that if a Democrat had said something like that on Easter, the evangelical community would have been quick and loud to condemn it. But for some reason… There is only silence.

His post a few days later, threatening to annihilate a civilization, is inexcusably wrong. I don’t want to say it was evil, but it was as wrong as wrong can be.

Which leads me to this final thing that must be said: the AI image of Trump, which he evidently created, shared, and then deleted, is disturbingly wrong.

Let’s set aside, for a moment, the fact that the leader of the free world thinks it is a good use of his time, while the country is at war, to have AI generate images of himself in a positive light and then share them on social media. That is a different topic. The Messianic nature of the image is unacceptable.

And the excuse, that he thought he looked like a doctor honoring the Red Cross, is, well, laughable.

Listen, guys, here’s the thing: silence is not an option. Napoleon said that one person speaking is louder than ten thousand who remain silent. There are lots of friends out there who have been loud and proud about Trump, and they’ve all suddenly gone quiet.

Now is not the time for silence. Now is the time to speak up and be honest. Are you afraid to admit that someone you support has made a mistake? I make mistakes every day. So does everyone I know. And not saying anything, during this present darkness, is a mistake.

Speak up and be honest. Either say you’re fine with Trump waging an unwarranted war and depicting himself as Christ, or say this is wrong. 

Because the silence is very loud and speaks volumes.