Of Mad Values and Wicked Weapons

"For your hands are defiled with blood,
   and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
   your tongue hath muttered perverseness.
None calleth for justice,
   nor any pleadeth for truth:
they trust in vanity, and speak lies;
   they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They hatch cockatrice’ eggs,
   and weave the spider’s web:
he that eateth of their eggs dieth,
   and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper.
Their webs shall not become garments,
   neither shall they cover themselves with their works:
their works are works of iniquity,
   and the act of violence is in their hands.
Their feet run to evil,
   and they make haste to shed innocent blood:
their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity;
   wasting and destruction are in their paths.
The way of peace they know not;
   and there is no judgment in their goings:
they have made them crooked paths:
   whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace” (Isaiah 59.3-8).
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That man has spent the week in the Near East, where he has attempted to spread his contagion of wickedness.

He has committed himself and our country to a new course: “We will not preach. We will not speak to you of ‘American Values.’”

That’s good, cus’ our values suck.

Human rights? Look at what we have done in our own borders. See what violence we have forever and always perpetrated against African Americans. See how we treat women. Watch how we kill mentally ill people. Listen to our hateful speech about LBGT.

More recently, look at what that man is doing to immigrants. Look what he wants to do to Muslims. Have a look at the latest GOP health care bill. Peruse that man’s latest murderous budget.

Perhaps we should all be relieved that he isn’t going to lecture anyone about values.
The new buzzword, the latest “value” is “transactional.”

During his Near Eastern visits, the man donned his plaid sport coat and made his sells pitch. “Help us create new jobs and put our people back to work.”

“‘How,’ you ask? Our skilled workers build the deadliest weapons known to man. Purchase our wonderful weapons. What a bargain we’ll give you. Help us flood the planet with weapons of mass destruction.”

These latest “transactions” tells us all we need to know about our values. OUR values. OURS.

We have heard a good deal of criticism of the man. But have we heard one cross word about this transactional offer?

Nope. Politicians are happy. Laborers are happy. Hell, even Christians are happy. More money with which to line our pockets. So what if it has blood all over it?

What kind of nation does this? What kind of nation creates jobs by selling weapons of mass destruction? What kind of people kill others to feed their own little babies?

Not a decent nation. Not a Christian nation. No, a wicked, wicked nation. A wicked, wicked nation marching toward the besom of destruction.

Mine is not simply a voice of complaint; one that points out the flaws and does nothing about it.

No, I am a preacher. And I resist this evil with the only tool I know—the “foolishness of preaching.”

I plead with and admonish those who profess to be disciples of Christ. You must not be taken in by this blasphemy. You must stand up and lift your voices loudly. You must demand an end to this madness. Demand it by e-mail. Demand it by phone calls. Demand it in marches. Demand it in the voting booth. Demand it in the name of Almighty God.

Cry aloud: “Stop! We will not abandon the sick and needy. We will not support governmental abuse of strangers or the harm of millions of innocent children. We will not stand with those who seek to grow our economy by weaponizing the planet. We will have none of this, lest our hands be stained with the blood of martyrs; for we know the Lord will hear their complaint.
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“Stop the madness now.”

"I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain… and they cried with a loud voice, saying,
“How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6.9-10)