Psalm 37
The United States is awaiting the Inauguration of Donald Trump as President. His Presidency is not universally applauded by the electorate. Americans are apprehensive about the future the man has in store for them. Some do not trust Donald Trump because they view him as a morally depraved individual with no conscience. It could be said the Republican party has revealed it's own soul in the acceptance of this man.
I thought that it would be informative as well as an eye opening meditation to compare the values of Jesus Christ, King of Heaven, with the values of Donald Trump, Supreme Leader of the United States.
To provide the values of President Trump I will let him speak for himself.
Being either the leader of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Supreme Leader of the United States requires paying some attention to the subjects of the realm. By taking the social issues of the day we can examine what a 'Godly' response to the lot of the citizens is and what an 'un-Godly' response to that same situation looks like by comparing what Jesus would do with what Trump would do.
As luck would have it I found that the hard work had already been done for me in an article by Carol Kurvilla posted in the Huffington Post titled "10`Donald Trump Quotes That Should Horrify His Evangelical Supporters". Thank you Carol. The writer brings both the words of Jesus the world's Savior and the words of the Supreme Leader of the United States together side by side for easy comparison about how to treat human beings. Don't miss it, this is an eye-opening insight into the nature of good and its opposite.
It should be of little surprise to those who have the Spirit of Christ that the religious right would support Donald Trump. Read the article in the Huffington Post. The issues are real life and death issues for human beings and the response to each of these issues reveals just what human beings mean to the speaker. I'll give you a hint. The Son of Man was always on the side of the poor and the social outcast. You may already know how Trump feels about those same people.
The social issues must be addressed. If we can rectify the injustice that would be good. But as the people who revolted from England understood there is dormant in the hearts of all the seeds, incipient counter-values, which have the capacity to return society to the condition it is in now. I call those seeds desire and greed. The seeds of societal destruction are spiritual seeds. The problems confronting society are spiritual. In order to succeed we need to change what we regard as our values, we must be born again. Taking care of your neighbor is part of what it means to worship Christ.
The values of Christ and the Kingdom of Heaven have nothing in common with the values of Donald Trump and the political initiatives of the United States. As we have seen Christ seeks to lift up those who are downtrodden and forgotten. A just society would do that. You cannot avoid seeing the needs of humanity which go unattended by society when you walk the streets.
The following two examples illustrate the difference between the Spirit of this Age, and the Spirit of Christ.
In the Motor City Muckraker the testimony of a Police officer against himself should be appalling to ordinary good hearted people. Trump's rhetoric on the path to Supreme Leader has legitimized sentiments like this. It should frighten you. Read it and see the Spirit of Donald Trump at work.
Here is an account from the lips of Christ. The Parable of the Good Samaritan. This story told by Jesus of Nazareth was one of many he spoke to point out the hypocrisy of the religious class. If you're not familiar with the story I'll fill you in but go ahead and read it.
Okay, in the story a man gets mugged and severely beaten and left to die on the side of the path. This is a familiar scene in any big American city. After the mugging down the path comes the religious right of the day, a priest and later one of his helpers, and they examine the man's condition like Nazi physicians and decide not to help him based on their religious beliefs.
But then, a Samaritan, whom the people that ran the religious scam of Jesus' day considered unclean, came by and had compassion on the man. He tended to his needs, took him to a place to recover and regain his health and saw to it that the man who cared for the injured was compensated. There is no record of the Samaritan being repaid.
The two illustrations, the one from the Motor City Muckraker and the one from the lips of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, illustrate how the Spirits of this age and the Spirit of Christ are incompatible.
Which side are you on? I stand with Christ against the inhumanity of this age. I intend to pass on into the next age. My prayer is that I may be faithful to my neighbor and to the earth. As you can see the values of Christ Jesus have nothing in common with Donald Trump's values. We're in for a rough ride, keep the faith baby.
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