January 3, 2018

“A Fractured White House”

My daughter upon watching the evening news in which President Trump is blasting Steve Bannon, his former White House Advisor as “having lost his mind”, this same Steve Bannon reporting “treasonous behavior” in the Trump White House, Bannon referring to Trump’s son and son-in-law in their discussions of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia.  My daughter said, upon hearing these things, “This is so bizarre as to be unbelievable!  Who would have ever believed that such a thing could happen in America?  And now, it is happening so often, we feel like this is normal.”

She added, “If one of these guys suddenly murdered someone in cold blood, we might even think that is normal too, such is the news coming out of this White House!”  In fact, for those who remember, President Trump boasted that he could do just this thing, and get away with it, such was the love of his electorate for him.

My daughter is 23 and has only voted in two election cycles.  If this type of behavior continues for much longer in this administration and Presidency, who is to say if the rest of us will not also become so acclimatized to the outrageous that we may think this is “normal,” too!

There are several prominent psychiatrists who call this President “a sociopath” and remark on his self-centered narcissism, so that he uses persons to achieve a certain end and then discards them as quickly as he picks them up (as in the case of Bannon).  Woe be to the former loyal staffer who turns and criticizes his former boss!  They are instantly pilloried in the news, drawn and quartered by the President and immediately made an outcast in the larger society of Washington, D.C.  This is so bizarre as to be laughable were it not rather serious news.  It goes to the core of the mind and heart of this President.  He cannot accept the truth about himself if it disagrees with his belief of himself, so he rewrites the headlines of the day himself, tweeting some vindictive comment even more outrageous than what has been said about him.  It is a calculated way to force the public into questioning the source of any criticism of the President.  The public’s attention for new stories is so brief that whomever says the last word the loudest is the remark remembered until the morning news, when the whole sorry saga starts all over again!

Another recent remark which illustrates the narcissism of this President is his response to Kim Jong-un of North Korea.  In the prior new cycle of the day before, Kim Jong-Un, President of North Korea remarked that he has “the nuclear button sitting on his desk.”  Whereas, President Trump, not to be bested says, “My nuclear button is much larger than yours!”

In previous news reports, these two personalities have been compared to two school boys playing and boasting in the sandbox, except in this case these two grown men are boasting about nuclear weapons.

This is so ludicrous as to be laughable, except these two immature personalities sit in leadership positions in two important nations on earth and both have nuclear capabilities of destruction which potentially might destroy millions of human lives.

If this President is ever brought up for impeachment by a reluctant Congress, one point of discussion should be his fitness for duty, that is, “Is this man of sound mind enough to serve as the President of the United States?”  It is still amazing to me that we tolerate such outbursts as we have tolerated from President Trump!  Am I the only one in this whole world who is worried that this President may do something ‘half-cocked’ and stupid, just to satisfy his own spleen that could plunge our nation into a nuclear war?  Reasonable men and women generally act in reasonable ways.  Across their whole lifetime, in almost every way they perform in ways which are reasonable and sane to most persons.  Yet this President acts unreasonably in almost every occasion!  Who is to say that is a crisis of war President Trump will act reasonably and “sane” if he has never done so in the hundred occasions before?

I believe this constitutes a crisis of government.  Would to God that we had leadership enough in Washington, D.C. to see the hand writing on the wall!  I say as I have said since the beginning of this doomed Presidency, “God help us!  May God help us, all!”

Let us pray:  “God our Heavenly Father, hear the prayers we offer this day, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Through the Holy Spirit of Christ Jesus we implore you to hear and answer our prayers.  You know that we are living in bizarre and dangerous times.  However, we do not know what we should do about these things.  Therefore, we ask for help from you.  Where we are confused, may you bring clarity of mind and thought!  Where we are presented with bizarre half-truths and statements which don’t make reasonable sense, would you instead bring your truth, your justice, your righteousness to bear in these situations! Where we have been blind, let us see.  Where we are lost in confusion, let us be found in your light of the good news of Christ!  Where we no longer know in which way to proceed, lead us, Good Shepherd, but your powerful and wise right hand!

We rely upon you, O God, our God to straighten out this mess in Washington, D.C.  For your name sake and the sake of all your people around the world, raise up good leadership in our nation.  Replace the bad apples that stink with something so good that all may partake and be glad!  Throw out the rottenness which has infected our nation, polluted our minds and hearts and filled us with hatred and confusion.  Instead fill us with the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord!  Bring a new day of governance into this nation, one which will honor and glorify your name and the name of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Savior.  For the sake of the good news, and the proclamation of the gospel of peace in Jesus Christ prevail upon this government.  Bring the holy winds of your Spirit to judge, cleanse, redeem and sanctify this nation, our government and all your people everywhere, that we may with one voice praise and glorify your Holy, Righteous, Just and Compassionate Name.  Let us live in the truth, rejoice in the truth, breathe in the truth and die in the truth of your Holy Word, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be all praise, glory, honor and blessing, both now and forevermore.  Amen and Amen!

Let all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

“Amen!  We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!  We worship and serve no other God save you!”

The voice of one crying in this wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a highway for our God!”