Unlike
Trump and the Government,
the One
True God Never Shuts Down
by Pastor
Paul J. Bern
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It
has happened again. Usually when the federal government shuts down,
it's because Congress and the president can't pass a federal budget
on time. This time around the shutdown is all about money all right,
but never before has there been a shutdown inside the Beltway over a
single item within the overall federal budget like there has been
over president Trump's border wall. I have seen photos of the 4
“sample walls” president Trump has had constructed along side one
another in the southern Arizona desert. You can't even see through
them! Some drug cartel could be building a ramp or a ladder on the
other side, and the Border Patrol wouldn't be able to see that until
people were already coming over the top. This is idiotic!
OK,
so let's all visualize this for a minute. Two Border Patrol agents of
the USDHS hypothetically spot several men climbing over the top of
president Trump's 'wall'. But when they apprehend them, 25 or 50 more
come over the top right behind them. The only sure way to stop all
those people at once would be to shoot to wound a few, in the hopes
of causing the rest to stop where they are out of pure fear of being
shot themselves. Unfortunately for the Border Patrol, not to mention
any Christian worth his or her salt, they're not allowed to do that
unless they are fired on first by one of the migrants. As you may
know, that rarely if ever happens.
Moreover,
if I were a Border Patrol agent, I wouldn't be able to hold on to
that job for very long, because I simply refuse to shoot anyone who
presents no danger to myself, nor to anyone else. And I sure as hell
couldn't shoot at children, nor could I allow a single one to die
while in my custody like ICE and the Border Patrol have. And yet this
is exactly what our government is doing. They're murdering children,
and this has either got to stop or the American people will be forced
to rise up against their own government. In that event, anyone who
refuses to rise up against such evil make themselves complicit in
these crimes against humanity.
The
other aspect to Trump's government shutdown has been the 800,000 US
government employees who have been left without a paycheck. Worse
yet, some of them are compelled by law to work without pay in such
circumstances as this. Imagine what this means to these federal
workers! Employees are required by law to work without pay during a
government shutdown. That means they can be arrested for not showing
up to work unexcused, and the same goes for even trying to quit. So,
it is quite evident based on these rather ugly facts that the federal
government is not a very nice employer at all. On further thought, it
makes me wonder why anyone else would want to work there in the first
place. For the “benefits”? I find no 'benefit' whatsoever in
being potentially complicit in the slaughter of innocent children who
pose no threat to me.
What
this means from the employees' point of view is their own government
– their employer – can't be trusted to pay them on time because
Uncle Sam can't keep his house in order. And, it's all because the
government (allegedly) doesn't have enough money to go around. Maybe
if the Pentagon wasn't spending all those trillions of dollars in all
those clandestine wars being fought overseas, there would be money
for a border wall. And even then, we don't want a wall, all we really
need is a tall fence. We need border security, granted, but a $5
billion solid concrete wall really is way over the top. A fence made
of aluminum bars 16 to 20 feet tall with razor wire at the top could
be built for a fraction of the $5 billion president Trump is
currently demanding, and I'm sure Trump knows that. He's holding out
to see how much he can squeeze out of Congress, but I doubt that the
Lord approves of the way the president is going about it.
By
laying off 800,000 people, while causing another 400,000 to work
uncompensated, Trump has essentially taken the country's workers and
management hostage in an effort to gain a political advantage. To sum
this up, then, president Trump is being unfaithful to those the
government employs, and by extension to the rest of America. The
Bible has a lot to say about unfaithfulness. Faithfulness is
considered to be a virtue, as the prophet and Psalmist David wrote in
Psalms 117:2 – “For
great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord
endures forever.”
In comparison, president Trump's faithfulness to pay his workers on
time is conditional to his political demands being met. Now that it's
been established that Mexico isn't going to pay for the wall at
America's southern border, Trump is trying to force his employees to
cover the tab instead. This has got to be the ultimate in unfairness
in the workplace. Don't get me wrong, president Trump, I admire and
respect some of the things you've done or are doing, such as your
recent decision to pull out of Syria. But engineering a mass layoff
for political advantage really is way too much.
Contrast
the government shutdown to what God has said through his prophet
David regarding this matter: “Your
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through
all generations. The
Lord
is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does.”
(Psalm 145:13) Unlike president Trump, who has to run again in 2020
if he wants 4 more years – and if
he wins at the ballot box – God never has to run for reelection. He
has ruled and reigned for all eternity, and always will. Only once
did 1/3 of the angels challenge his authority, everyone knows what
happened to them. Moreover, God remains faithful to each one of us on
a personal basis, as the apostle Paul wrote, “No
temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And
God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so
that you can endure it.”
(1 Corinth. 10:13) The word 'you' in this context meant the entire
church at Corinth, but it was also meant individually to each member
as well.
Again it is written in 1st
Thessalonians 5:23-24, “23)
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24) The one who calls you is faithful, and
He will do it.” As of
this writing, with the partial federal shutdown firmly in place,
Donald Trump is the last man on the face of the earth who could be
called blameless at this point. Not only is he being unfaithful to
his employees first, and his constituency second, he has put the
entirety of his trustworthiness as Chief Executive into question.
What has the Bible said about this? The apostle Paul wrote, “Now
it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove
faithful.” (1 Cor. 4:2)
In its original context, the apostle Paul was writing about those in
charge of churches being trustworthy people of good repute. These
words were intended for what Paul called “bishops and overseers”.
Interestingly enough, the titles 'pope', 'father' and 'pastor' aren't
in the Bible anywhere, but that's another topic for another time.
Although I would be
quick to agree that running a country's government is nothing at all
like running a nonprofit, the person in charge of that charity – be
it a church, a battered women's shelter, or whatever needs to be a
faithful and trustworthy individual. This clearly extends to
governments, which are supposed to be nonprofit entities but
obviously are not (such as $21
trillion missing from the Pentagon, etc). One of the things that
define faithfulness is those in charge being faithful to the
positions they have been entrusted with by the electorate. This
means, among other things, paying your employees on time. So this
part of my weekly message is primarily directed at president Trump,
but the shutdown in Washington is not all Trump's fault. The rest of
the blame lands squarely in the laps of Congress, who have yet to
show any willingness whatsoever to negotiate with president Trump in
good faith. As of this writing, no such thing has happened, and the
government will probably remain shuttered until after the first of
the year. While resolve abounds in Washington DC, faithfulness is
sorely lacking. Let everyone involved from the president on down get
this country running again ASAP, and let's put an end to all this
pointless posturing – on both sides!
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