By Pastor Norm Omodt, Retired
Chatfield, MN
Sometimes I feel a need to express what’s on my conscience. This is one of those times. I have sometimes voted Republican, though usually not in recent years. But I am hopeful for a respectful Republican candidate for President. We certainly don’t have that now. Some issues are more personal to me than others.
Right now, Trump is defying the orders of the Supreme Court. In June the Supreme Court halted Trump’s attempt to end the DACA program. Yet Trump is now abandoning that order. As a Christian it makes me sick that Trump’s White Supremacy and deep prejudice and racism has to keep triggering his cruelty toward immigrants, especially now to these young people, “Dreamers,” who mainly are educated, some employed as nurses and teachers, and certainly have little knowledge of the country they were from as a small child. I think most Christians of whatever denomination know this is wrong. When did we ever want a cruel President? – Bear in mind that the sin of prejudice easily leads to other sins.
From the beginning Trump accused Obama many, many times of not being a citizen, just to establish himself as a very cruel person! So if one is a bother to Trump, look out! It’s working for him! Do we not remember when our government was compassionate to welcome immigrants, some seeking asylum, and recognizing our need for good workers. As Scriptures says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And if one cannot love them, then at least “Do Justice!” That is stated in the Bible about 100 times.
We have witnessed the funeral for John Lewis, who fought so hard against those who undermine voting rights for everyone. Now at the same time we have a President that is doing just that! Can we believe it, he doesn’t want everyone to have the right to vote? It’s one of the ways he attacks our Democracy. Shameful!
We know Trump is charismatic and politically clever – to divide our country from the beginning. And he calls his rally followers “My people.” And has even said, if I lose the election, “My people will demand I stay on in the White House.” I suspect we all have noticed that Trump’s underlying goal is that rich white men be in control of the government and society! It’s what we see, of course.
Some might say, can’t you say something good about Trump? Well, he was quite good at recovering after three bankruptcies, though he left the workers penniless and walked away with a couple million. He’s quite good at golfing (366 days). He’s good at continuing the momentum in the economy established by Obama. He’s especially good at lying, like about 20,000 times. (Probably more than all Presidents and Prime Ministers together in the last 50 years!). He’s also good at stirring up hate, so much that some “hate groups” (hundreds identified by the FBI) have called Trump their “hero.” We know most terrorist are home-grown.
Well, vote for whoever you wish, of course, but do vote everyone! I encourage you to vote your conscience, as I certainly must. And I for one, certainly hope that after Trump, the Republican Party will find its way back to its ethical and moral grounding again!
GERALD BOYUM says
I have always wondered why people who consider themselves good Christians, and certainly a “man of the cloth”, would even consider a vote for a Democratic Socialist candidate unless they are completely oblivious to what’s happened to this so-called Democratic Party. Unfortunately, a lot of good, well-meaning people have had the wool pulled over their eyes for a long time now.
It has been hijacked by the radical Left starting in 1968 with the riots at their national convention when they purged the party of anti-communists. Now with the likes of Bernie Sanders, AOC, and others, they have openly declared themselves as “Democratic Socialists” as if the word “Democratic” somehow changes the real nature of socialism: anti-God, anti-Christian, “hate America” because it refutes everything that they stand for, anti-family, anti-capitalism, etc. The primary source of Democratic Socialism is godless Marxism which has failed, sometimes catastrophically, whenever it’s been tried.
On the other hand, America was founded by people who believed in a Creator God and used Biblical/Christian principles in writing two of the greatest documents written by men: Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. But instead of focusing on what has made America great and how to preserve and promote these institutions, they are trying to destroy what America has stood for and erase its heritage- that’s what all this rioting, burning, looting, defunding police, and tearing down statues is all about. Saul Alinsky, communist and community organizer (aka communist agitator): “The issue is never the issue; the issue is always the revolution.” In other words, the cause of a political action (BLM?) is never the real cause. Women, blacks and other “victims” are only instruments in the greater cause, which is political power that will be required to bring about their utopian fantasy of universal equality.
Matt. 7:15 talks about prophets, but it could also be applied to others in authority such as teachers, pastors, media, politicians, etc.
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Today, we have political activists masquerading as “free press” journalists when they are functioning as a propaganda arm for the Dem. Socialist Party. It should go without saying that the press and education system are critical in ensuring that citizens are well-informed to ensure the success of the democratic processes used in our constitutional republic.
The Bible has more to say about this key issue: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Psalm 33:12).
Billy Sunday, former baseball player turned evangelist in the late 19th century, said that “You can’t sit in church and pray ‘Thy kingdom come,’ and then go out and vote for someone who supports an ideology that is involved with doing everything they can to prevent it.” He was talking about saloons then, but his words definitely apply to the situation today.
Finally, it should be noted that Dem. Socialism/Leftism with its foundation of Marxism violates all ten of the Commandments. We all fall short on this issue; however, violations of the Ten Commandments are imbedded in their ideology starting with the first. Examples are:
1. You shall have no other gods before me. Man or his institution is God .
2. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. To deny God is to take His name in vain. To ,misrepresent God, to call other gods God or to deny the deity of Christ is to take the Lord’s name in vain. Leftism/Marxism does this and much more. They hate truth and those who tell the truth.
3. You shall not murder. Abortion, euthanasia, “pro-choice”. “reproductive rights”, “death with dignity”. Does anything more need to be said?
4. You shall not steal. With class warfare as its catalyst, leftism embraces redistribution of wealth which must be stolen from those who have earned it.
5. You shall not bear false witness. “The ends justify the means” and lying is a standard procedure. Bearing false witness about those who oppose leftism is par for the course.
6. You shall not covet. Leftism uses our inherent covetous as a driving force behind their economic policies. It creates a political climate of economic envy and class warfare which gives government the cover to take wealth from those who produce and redistribute it to those who don’t.
In sum, leftism is the ultimate folly because it represents man’s futile attempt to disrupt God’s natural order. It is the unholy idea given by God’s first enemy with the sole purpose of destroying that creation.
As Satan “masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14) so too does leftism/Dem. Socialism masquerade as good. It is packaged in flowery euphemisms and feel-good sound bites that promise “equality”, “tolerance” and libertine notions of “social justice”. Smart people learn from their own mistakes. Really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.
Thomas E.H. says
@ Gerald,
Biden defeated the Democratic Socialist candidate in the primaries. What you you basing your entire post on if your premise is wacky?
Ken says
Your conscience is nothing but lies. The hate and division comes from Obama and his shadow government and fake news. As a pastor what you wrote what would that do to lead a person to Christ? Perhaps you should listen to the holy sprit and then you will know what you wrote is not true. We are suppose pray for our leaders not curse them!! The word curse is in the bible 165 times.
Thomas E.H. says
@ Ken
//The hate and division comes from Obama and his shadow government and fake news. //
What divisive actions and hate do you attribute to Obama?
David R Webb MD says
Divisive? Who?
Barak Obama was divisive only in the sense that if you were already opposed to any of his ideas or couldn’t possibly abide the thought of a Democrat’s being President, you might consider yourself “divided” from him. For example, Rush Limbaugh, who declared as soon as Obama was elected, that his primary goal was to make the Obama Presidency a failure. Or Mitch McConnell who similarly declared his primary mission was to make Obama a one term President. Obama’s consequent failure to deliver on his promised “hope and change” was largely attributable to his desire to be inclusive and his ready willingness to compromise.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has deliberately, cynically, perhaps cleverly, adopted a divide and conquer strategy for his administration and his reelection campaign, seeking to put us all into “Never-Trumper” and “Whatever-Trumper” camps. He has openly embraced hate groups such as QAnon, Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and the like, while attempting to smear anyone and all who disagree with him as “socialists,” radicals,” or, ironically, “fascists.”
In his book, “It Can’t Happen Here,” Sinclair Lewis wrote, “the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.”
In 1944, John Thomas Flynn wrote in “As We Go Marching,” “But when fascism comes it will not be in the form of an anti-American movement or pro-Hitler bund, practicing disloyalty. Nor will it come in the form of a crusade against war. It will appear rather in the luminous robes of flaming patriotism; it will take some genuinely indigenous shape and color, and it will spread only because its leaders, who are not yet visible, will know how to locate the great springs of public opinion and desire and the streams of thought that flow from them and will know how to attract to their banners leaders who can command the support of the controlling minorities in American public life.”