“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4.3-4) One of today’s Just Reporting pieces concerns the ‘QAnon’ phenomenon that is running rampant among Caligula’s most ardent and, apparently, stupid disciples. One can be excused for wondering what such an absurd phenomenon has to do with the just society, or if such imbecilic doings should even be dignified by being reported and commented on. It is such a joke. Why not laugh rather than rant? It is certainly true, one-thousand times true, that the phenomenon is beyond absurd. There are simply no words that can adequately describe the moronic phenomenon. Perhaps the best we can do is simply pile up as many derogatory adjectives as we can think of—I have just gotten started with my “stupid,” “absurd,” “imbecilic,” and “moronic;” there will be more to follow. Nevertheless, inadequate as it is, we must declare the phenomenon to be the latest sign, in a long series of signs, pointing to the mad state or rebellion into which Caligula and his hordes have plunged our poor, weakened, and vulnerable nation. Truly, “madness is in their heart.” Yet, after all these adjectives--“stupid,” “absurd,” “imbecilic,” “moronic,” and “mad”—we would be remiss if we did not at least add this modifier: evil. It is with this adjective that we come to the phenomenon’s intersection with the just society. After promising Moses that after his, Moses’ departure, he would, from time to time, appoint prophets in Israel, Yahweh issued a stern warning. “But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?’ When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18.20–22). Whether a simple punker, a delusional sociopath, an AI parlor trick, or another cleaver and conspiring Russian agent, ‘QAnon’ is being treated seriously by a not un-sizable portion of Caligula’s mad hordes—looky there, I can use double negatives too! No doubt, many of them call themselves “Christian.” To their way of thinking, ‘QAnon’ is what scripture would call a prophet. We agree. He, she, or it is a prophet. If the sheer absurdity of his, her, or its “doctrine” were not enough to expose him, her, or it as a fake prophet, certainly his, her, or its now numerous false prophesies should have given away the game—which prophet was it that uttered their false prophecy that Obama would take away all our guns and set African Americas on a rampage through white America? How’d that work out? But the radical and rabid right was undeterred and undisturbed when such false prophecy failed to come to fruition. Clearly, we are not dealing with rational beings. ‘QAnon’s’ genius, however, is not to be found in prophesies declared in riddle. Rather, it is in his, her, its knowledge of his, her, its irrational audience. He, she, it perfectly understands that millions, tens of millions of Americans cannot endure sound doctrine. They are, as the true prophet, Paul, said so long ago, drawn by their own lusts to receive any one who confirms the madness that has already infected their poisoned hearts and delusional minds. Any fable will do as long as it confirms their twisted and demented logic. I believe that most of them are not stupid. Most of them are simply evil (I know, I know, I ping pong back and forth on this. That’s what madness does). In the final analysis, they know, I have to believe, that ‘QAnon’ is full of gibberish, mumbo jumbo, and that stuff that comes out the rear end. Yet, in their madness they prefer, as Paul witnesses, a fable to the truth. Caligula’s election confirmed it. The support he continues to garner seals it. ‘QAnon’ simply feeds the hordes whose appetite for madness is insatiable to yet a new level of delirious and delicious madness. The truth, if they could discern it, would not set them free. It would damn them to hell. They know this, even if they will not know it. This is evidence enough of their willful madness. So, you see, no society can be called a just society that has so many of its citizens adore and follow the latest version of the tried and true false prophet who offers madness. No society can be called “just,” or long endure, that has so many of its citizens crave fable over truth. For it is not only the false and presumptuous false prophet that “shall die.” Sadly, it is also his, her, its mad adherents that “shall die.” Can we say that our hope is not vain if we hope and pray that “the day of grace” has not passed them by, “both temporally and spiritually”? (See Mormon 2.15). I don’t know. I am no prophet. Just a simple preacher. So, I’ll leave it to the prophets to decide if the madness is terminal; whether “the day of grace” has passed; or whether “their damnation slumbereth” or has been fully wakened. But, as for me, my prayer will be, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 42.11) “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies… And many shall follow their pernicious ways… And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (2 Peter 2:1-3).
0 Comments
text
Following is the text for today’s homily, as translated by the King James Bible translators. As we examine the text, I will offer a more free-flowing translation that is, I like to think, still faithful to Isaiah’s message. His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. “Come ye,” say they, “I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. introduction In this text, Isaiah lampoons Judah’s leaders, political and religious. We will, as one would expect in a homily, explore why Isaiah subjects the political and religious leaders of his day to ridicule and criticism. What is it about them that he finds so ludicrous and profane? But, unlike the past, when we might have left the reader to draw his or her own applications, we will—consistent with our post-2016 election “revelation” that the day for soft spoken, cautious, inconclusive, and diplomatic exegesis is over—go beyond textual and historical examination, making direct application to America’s political and religious leaders—tragically, all too closely imitative of those of ancient Judah. triple whammy In offering his criticism of Judah’s political and religious leaders, Isaiah engages in the shunned literary practice of mixing metaphors. Isaiah likens Judah’s political and religious leaders to “watchmen,” “sheepdogs,” and “shepherds.” While the metaphors are mixed, the metaphors have much in common. Let us ask first, then, “What does a watchman, a sheepdog, and a shepherd have in common?” All provide a basic service. The watchman is a “public servant.” He keeps watch against the approach of danger, acting as a kind of early warning system. He ought to be alert. He ought to have the sort of knowledge that allows him to correctly identify danger. He ought to have the willingness and know-how to communicate the existence and nature of the danger in such a way that the public understands and acts upon his warning so as to keep safe of the danger. The “sheepdog” is also a “servant.” He serves the sheep and the shepherd. He, too, watches for dangers. He must know where and how to position himself in relation to the sheep so as to see any approaching danger. He must know a ravening wolf from a wandering dog or a straying lamb. He must know how to issue a warning when a carnivore is present or a lamb wanders from the safety of the fold. Finally, the “shepherd” is “servant” to the flock. He must know and do all he can to advance the safety and successful productivity and increase of the flock. He must be dedicated to the flock’s safety. The true shepherd will put the flock above himself. As watchmen, sheep dogs, and shepherds, how do Judah’s religious and political leaders stack up against these basic job descriptions? Not well. In fact, not at all. They are in no way qualified for the work to which they have been called—or have hijacked for themselves. On the rare occasion when there might be minimal qualification, there is a complete absence of willingness to fulfil the obligations associated with one who watches. Let’s have a look at Isaiah’s specific claims about the ineptitude and rebelliousness of Judah’s political and religious leaders. First, we learn that “Those assigned to be on the look-out are blind.”[1] !!! What good is a sightless lookout? Though danger may be everywhere—surrounding, even, the blind lookout—he is incapable of seeing it. But the blindness is not to be found only in the eyes. Isaiah charges that the blindness is also to be found in the mind. “Every last one of them are without understanding.” These watchmen are ignorant. Even if they could see an approaching danger, they wouldn’t know what they were looking at. They wouldn’t know danger if it bit them in the butt! They are incapable of telling the difference between friend or foe, good or evil. What a silly public, assigning, accepting, and supporting one as watchman who cannot see or discern a danger from a benefit, good from evil. But Judah’s vulnerability is even more serious yet. We have just scratched the surface of Jewish leaders’ flaws. They are more than sightless and inept. They are willful in their dereliction of duty. To drive this home, Isaiah shifts metaphors. He leaves the metaphor of the watchman behind and trades it in for one involving a “sheepdog.” However, we must remember that Isaiah is still speaking about Judah’s political and religious leaders. “All of them are mute watch-dogs, incapable of barking.” Even if they could see and discern the danger, they cannot or will not communicate it. Wolves approach the flock, but the watchdogs remain mute. We might imagine that their muteness flows from cowardice. They are, themselves, perhaps afraid of getting eaten by the big bad wolf. But Isaiah has other explanations for their willful dereliction of duty. First, “Dreaming in their sleep, they prefer snoozing (to wakefulness).” We might chalk their slumbering up to laziness. But there is something else at play here; something far more sinister. They are simply unconcerned about the safety of their charges. They are more concerned about their own comfort. Then again, there might be a bit of escapism taking place here. Though inadequately seen and understood, the dangers are intimidating and disquieting. To announce them requires a level of self-sacrifice that the dogs are not willing to suffer. Fantasy is to be preferred over reality, lies preferable to truth, self-delusion preferred over illumination. And yet, in spite of their inability and unwillingness to raise the warning cry, the dogs are guilty of yet deeper transgression against their trusts. “Dogs, with powerful appetites, they are never satisfied.” When they are not sleeping on the job, they are eating on the job. What do they eat? The sheep dogs, assigned to protect the sheep from being eaten, are, most likely, eating sheep! One thinks of Micah’s—a contemporary of Isaiah—critique of Judah’s leaders. And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment? Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones; Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.”[2] Micah’s imagery of Judah’s religious and political leaders as cannibals; flaying, cooking and gorging themselves upon the flesh of the people whom they were called to serve, makes Isaiah’s criticism look tame by comparison. We have already surmised that Judah’s political and religious leaders, whether represented by the watchman or the watchdog, were less concerned with those that they were called to protect than with themselves and their own comfort. But, Isaiah does not long allow our surmising to be in doubt. With his third shift in metaphor, that of the shepherd, Isaiah confirms what we previously surmised. “They are shepherds who know nothing, all of them only consider themselves. They mind only their own interests. Each, ultimately, turns to obtaining gain by unjust means.” Watchman, sheepdog, and shepherd, alike, care little or nothing about their charges. They only accept the position out of consideration for their own desires and interests. Their acceptance is only a personal power play. It puts them in a position that they can pervert societal norms so as to obtain personal gain, power, and prestige even though it means cannibalizing the body politic. So far, Isaiah has used his own words to describe the depth of Judah’s leaders’ betrayal. But Isaiah, the ever observant critic of society, has been listening to these leaders. As Jeremiah so often does, Isaiah brings their own words forward to stand as witness against them. “‘I will become a collector of fine wine, and get drunk on the strongest of beers. Each day will be like the proceeding, or even better.’” Now, the LDS reader is conditioned to immediately think, “‘Word of Wisdom:’ they are being accused of breaking the Word of Wisdom.” This tendency causes the reader to misunderstand Isaiah’s criticism, and miss about ninety-five percent of Isaiah’s discomfort with Judah’s leaders. The quotation serves to confirm all that Isaiah has said about Judah’s leaders. They are in it for themselves. Here, they hope to become well enough off that they can acquire a fine collection of wines—even today, a symbol of economic privilege and excess.[3] But, we must not get hung up on the alcohol. The alcohol is simply a “stand in” for materialistic privilege and excess. These shepherds are motivated by the acquisition of wealth, which, they believe, will bring ease. And they intend to get gain by any means possible. Not “means” is too foul; no “means” out of bounds. In all of this, we might think of wicked King Noah and his priests who get fat and rich off plundering their own people. “[Noah] placed his heart upon his riches, and he spent his time in riotous living with his wives and his concubines; and so did also his priests spend their time with harlots. He planted vineyards round about in the land; and he built wine–presses, and made wine in abundance; and therefore he became a wine–bibber, and also his people.”[4] Each day will be a party. The pesky cares of the world that haunt so many of their “subjects” lives are not allowed to intrude into their own privileged lives. Isaiah elsewhere surveys the privileged life Judah’s leaders live. “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.”[5] Again, the “wine,” and the “drunkenness” are far more than literal. They are metaphor for an appetite that is insatiably drive to consume, even at the expense of everyone around them. These deviant leaders do not simply “err” due to physical drunkenness, but through all the privilege their immoral and unethical conduct procures for them. The “banquet tables” that are “covered in vomit” inform us just how much they have acquired. Such parties are not cheep. And they are more for show than for “refreshment.” Not only is the public a mere tool that the leaders use and manipulate for their own ends, but they expect no negative consequences to follow: “Each day will be like the proceeding, or even better.” History suggests that they are right, at least in the short term. How often the wealthy live out lives of ease, while the poor suffer. The Psalmist is not unreasonably confused by such injustice. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth…. Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.”[6] God does tend to be “slow to anger,” and the populace, easily intimidated, stupefied by propaganda, or bought off with trinkets. Perhaps, too, they, like the watchers, prefer fable to reality. the more things change, the more they stay the same Well, now, that was a fun little romp through history. But we now come to that point when we must ask the essential questions. What would Isaiah say today about America’s political and religious leaders? What kind of watchmen, sheepdogs, and shepherds have they been? What kind of watchmen, sheepdogs, and shepherds are they currently? It is part of the corporate folklore that some years back LDS church leaders asked the seminaries and institutes of religion administrators what—given that so many young men, seminary graduates, were not serving missions, and so many young men and young women, seminary graduates, were not being married in the temple—what were they so ineffectively teaching the youth of the church? It may be just that, folklore. I am no folklorist, but I do wonder. Today, the United States is led by, likely, the most immoral, unethical, and downright wicked man ever to be called “president.” I have consistently identified him as Caligula, the infidel. I do not do so lightly, or with tongue in cheek. I am deadly serious. So, I wonder if those same church leaders are now asking themselves another question. What—given that 80% of “evangelical Christians” and 70% of Mormons voted for the devilish man, while they continue to support him in embarrassingly high numbers, with Mormons leading the charge—what the hell have we watchmen been teaching our people? How could the sheep have wandered so far from the flock of Christ? How did the doctrines we have so consistently taught, not keep them from becoming followers of Caligula, an evil and delusional man? What does the flock’s descent into the darkness of this man suggest about the doctrine that has been taught? What were we looking for from the perch of our watchtower? How did we miss the approaching assault for which he stands? Caligula’s initial election, made possible largely through “Christian” electoral support; and his continuing assault on all that is good and holy, through the continued support that “Christians” so enthusiastically offer him, suggests, in my humble view, that today’s American watchmen of all strips, religious and political, have not acted altogether differently than those of ancient Judah. If Isaiah were around today, he would have much the same critique of modern political and religious leaders that he had for those of his day. They have, and continue to be, ignorant and mute when it comes to identifying and clearly articulating the real dangers that face the ever-vulnerable sheep—sheep seemingly ever ready to self-inflict pain and suffer. The watchmen have not known what to look for. Too often, they have been distracted by mirages. If they have seen danger, they could not identify it as such. If they have seen and identified the dangers, they have willfully and selfishly remained mute. Too many political and religious leaders have, for most of my life, been almost universally mute concerning the dangers that the occasional, lone, brave, and isolated—and, always much maligned—watchman has issued. For example, in his so called “malaise speech,” President Jimmy Carter, offered a warning voice. In words written after weeks of self-exile, scripture study, and prayer—words that seem now prophetic—he offered, for example, the following critique of American society. “In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities and our faith in God, too many of us now worship self-indulgence and consumption.” Of course, he was dead on, if, still, too kind. The cancer of idolatry has run rampantly, and ruinously, through the American body. Yet, those such as the venerable and unholy Ronald Reagan, champion of idolatry, lampooned him for such holiness. Thus do the ungodly always stone the truth-telling prophets. Unforgivably, nearly all religious leaders have, to this day, remained mute about the silent and inevitable killer that idolatrous materialism represents—both to the individuals and the society at large. Some of them have gone even further, trading their mutism for loud proclamations that embraced the cancerous “prosperity gospel.” Pure gobbledygook it is: “personal material wealth flows from righteousness.” For their part, political leaders have nourished the cancerous growth with a steady flow of apostate doctrine masquerading as enlightened and “scientific” economic theory and policy—false prophets such as Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand among their champions. The all-powerful and all-wise economic and corporate world enthusiastically swallows such convenient theories as “scientific,” while skeptically and conveniently questioning other much more solidly scientific theories, such as global warming. Go figure. Like the compromised watchmen of ancient Judah, there are many reasons that might explain the modern political and religious leaders’ dereliction of duty—the duty to warn, rather than coddle the straying flock. Isaiah’s list of reasons for their neglect is applicable today. But it is his finale that seems most pertinent: the political and religious leaders, along with their organizations and institutions, have personally profited too much to put their golden calves at risk. Better not offend their sugar mamas and sugar daddys—see, I can mix metaphors as well as the next. Having taught religion courses to thousands of students over a 30 year career, I stand condemned with my fellow religious leaders for past dereliction of duty. The stats make the conclusion painfully likely that seventy percent of those I taught support an infidel. Did they not hear a word I said? How could they so thoroughly blaspheme the name of God? I have seen it coming for years. The idolatry has been completely out of control for some time now. Yet, I remained oh so careful, oh so polite in any discussion of it—so polite that the message, it was clear at the time and even clearer now, did not get through. Why did I only issue vague and properly diplomatic warnings? I had my reasons, of course. Some of them might have been well-intentioned. But others, I confess, involved a cowardly desire for self-preservation. I didn’t want to get in trouble. Yet, I should have been clearer and more forceful, more direct and even “confrontational.” Be that as it may, I have, as I expressed in my initial post-2016 election homilies, and from time to time since, seen the error of my ways. I repented. No more parables. No more still small voices. I have exchanged these for straight talk with a shout. The people, as I have said before, can no longer hear still, small voices. It is as though the muteness of their leaders has caused the flock’s hearing to fail. Or, perhaps, the materialism of their daily lives dampens all other sound. Whatever the cause of the deafness, I now speak with the voice of a clear, loud trumpet, rather than the sound of a delicate flute. Unfortunately, neither group, political or religious leaders, shows any signs of having learned from their past mistakes. Just as they have been mute about the dangers of idolatrous materialism and the society-destroying economic inequality, even now, today, when the danger that Caligula poses is as clear as clear can be, the watchers remain largely mute in the most cowardly fashion. When they do speak, it is too often with the same old failed diplomacy—at or just barely above whisper level. Their whispered warnings, emanating from the high perch of their watchtower, does not have a chance of carrying down to the people below. Just look at the “dumb dogs”! By nearly all accounts, even those of his party know full well the danger Caligula poses to all that we hold dear. Such views are frequently, but privately expressed. They know he is not to be trusted. They know he is the very definition of “liar.” In seeing him kidnap children from loving parents, they offer the mildest expressions of “discomfort,” being sure not to mention his name, lest they poke the angry orange beast. They hear him defend the tyrant, Putin, and attack his own intelligence communities, and then accept his ludicrous “double negative” explanation. As if he even knows what a “double negative is”! Then, brave souls that they are, these members of an equal branch of government offer up token and non-binding resolutions. They learn with alarm that, having met with that same tyrant in private, no one in his administration—a full week… two weeks later!—knows the first thing about what was discussed or what deals were made? Talk about a dictatorship! Yet, they offer nothing but expressions of “concern.” They refuse to pass legislation that would keep him from pulling a Nixonian type purge of those who investigate his highly questionable, and possibly treasonous relationship with Russia while they pretend to believe the liar when he says he has no intention of moving against them. They receive his racism with the mildest of reactions, as if it were but a minor character flaw that is to be expected in a white 70 year-old man. Wink, wink. They listen to him attack the freedom-maintaining press, and offer a shake of the head, a wry smile, and a “tisk, tisk.” They see a man-who-would-be-dictator flaunting every democratic norm, and then fall in lock-step, afraid of the beast and the hordes who adore Caligula’s sacrilege. Well, we could go on. We could go on, and on, and on, and on. We could fill dozens of pages, as we have done in our “Mad State of Rebellion” posts, with Caligula’s undemocratic and potentially treasonous behavior—if not against nation, certainly against God. Identifying the evils that flow from this narcissistic, egomaniacal, and sociopathic man isn’t rocket science, but simple common sense. It doesn’t require revelatory powers, just basic decency. Yet, too many of our religious and political leaders possess no such common sense or basic decency. But, in mentioning “the hordes who adore his blasphemy,” we finally come to the heart of the matter. Caligula would not now be emperor if not for them. Having not properly warned them beforehand, America’s religious and political leaders now are reaping what they have so wickedly sown. At the same time, they grovel in fear before the flock that they have been called to lead. Why, they have been exposed as nothing more than abject followers of the mob. No leaders at all, these blind, mute, ignorant, and self-serving watchmen. The watchmen, dumb dogs that they are, go mute to save their own skin, even as the sheep commit suicide by flaying, barbeque, and consumption by the unrestrained and corrupt legal, political, religious, and economy institutions so greedy for wealth and power and prestige. But, God will not be mocked. Yes, as we have concluded so often on the pages of this site, the people have the only kind of leaders that they will stomach. As the one-term president, Jimmy Carter, discovered so many years ago, they will not receive correction. They will not hear of repentance. Rather, as Micah so tragically observes, and Caligula so effectively demonstrates, “If a liar and deceiver comes and says, ‘I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and beer,’ that would be just the prophet for this people!” Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan was just such a false prophet. Now, Caligula offers them the same idol that a president of the other party, Bill Clinton, did twenty years ago: “It’s the economy, stupid.” And so, in Caligula, they have found their beloved prophet of Profit, the only God they truly love. “Well did Esaias prophesy of [them], saying, ‘This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”[7] At least America’s political and religious leaders are able to accurately discern at least this much: one must simply, only, and always tell the people what they want to hear. [1] The following lines of Isaiah’s passage found below, and in italics, represent the author’s translation. [2] Micah 3.1-3 [3] Google “Koch brothers and wine collection” sometime, if you want to see it in its most extreme and perverted form. [4] Mosiah 11.14-15 [5] Isaiah 28.7-8 [6] Psalm 73.3-10, 12 [7] Matthew 15.7-9 “Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain” (Ezekiel 22.27). With his typically petulant and irresponsible recklessness, he starts a trade war, costing farmers millions. He uses taxpayers’ dollars to try and buy off the farmers, and ward off any potential apostasy. He then boasts that he has come to the rescue. So, let me be sure I have this straight. The wolf calls wolves to eat the sheep. He then cries wolf and sacrifices a few other sheep to squelch the ravenous attacks. He then calls himself heroic savior of the sheep, though it was he, himself, that endangered them in the first place. O.K. Got it. But the madness does not end there. Oh, no. The victimized sheep buy what ought to be clearly seen as the little man’s cunning absurdity. Maybe the sheep aren’t wicked after all. Maybe they’re just a few brain cells short. He commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you, that ye may not be destroyed” (Alma 5.60). And Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exodus 8.32). Until God personally took upon him a tabernacle of clay and dwelt among men in hopes of revealing the full nature of his incomparable character, no Biblical revelation was more illuminating as to the character of God than that found in Israel’s deliverance from a painful Egyptian oppression. The entire Old Testament revolves around the rescue of immigrants, enslaved by the Egyptian Empire. Jesus’ revelation of God as recorded in the New Testament is founded on that great rescue, with Jesus reenacting that great Old Testament revelation of God as emancipator. Today, we look again at the story of Israel’s deliverance from servitude—a story so well known that its meaning is often lost in familiarity. We will find much that is familiar in our own day—perhaps uncomfortably so. After a brief survey of immigrant peoples,[1] who had entered Egypt several generations earlier, and after informing us that this immigrant group was “fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty,”[2] the writers of Exodus inform us that “there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”[3] We will want to stop here and review who Joseph was, and what it may have meant that Pharaoh “knew not Joseph.” Joseph was a highly successful and productive immigrant. In fact, he was politically instrumental in establishing policies that helped his adopted Egyptian nation through a period of very difficult economic challenges. Through his political influence, foreigners who suffered under the dangers of drought were granted refugee status in Egypt. Here, in their adopted homeland, these refugees flourished. After a lifetime of service to the Egyptian state, Joseph died. With time, he was forgotten. What, exactly, do we mean by “forgotten”? What are we to understand from the notice that the new king “knew not Joseph”? Does this mean, simply, that the new king never personally met or knew the man, Joseph? Based on what follows, this seems unlikely that this is how we are to understand the notice. Does it mean that he was unfamiliar with all that Joseph had done for the nation? Again, this does not seem likely. Does it mean that the new king knew of Joseph’s political accomplishments, but chose to ignore and even diminish their importance? Why would he do so? Does it mean that the new king chose to ignore or even deny Joseph’s immigrant status? Does it mean that the new king could not bring himself to acknowledge the important and dynamic contributions of this non-Egyptian immigrant? However we think of Pharaoh’s not knowing Joseph, it seems best to see Pharaoh’s not knowing as a rejection of the man, his immigrant confederates, and their dynamic contributions of Egyptian society. This is clear from the new king’s subsequent policies and actions. His not “knowing” Joseph is something more than “personal.” It is ethnic. Pharaoh, it seems, is what we would today call a “racist,” a “bigot,” a “xenophobe,” a “nationalist.” For this reason, the new Pharaoh chose to ignore and deny Joseph’s significant contributions as an immigrant. To acknowledge such contributions would undermine the new Pharaoh’s program. What was that program? Intimidation. Genocide. Slavery. Oppression. Pogrom. Pharaoh instituted a new policy concerning foreigners. We might call it a “zero tolerance” policy. “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply….Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.” So it was that Pharaoh afflicted the immigrants—vulnerable, in large part, because of their lack of legal standing and protections—enslaving them and making “their lives bitter.” The immigrants were put to work building “for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. A “treasure city” is a domestic fortified site that serves to protect food stuffs, military equipment, or royal treasuries. The construction and upkeep of such cities is often reflective of economic booms, with their attendant luxurious excess of goods and “investment potentials.” This notice concerning the building project to which the immigrants were put to work is a reminder that the oppression of foreigners and other extralegal populations is often motivated by economic concerns. Certainly, in the United States, the most virulent periods of xenophobia have been during times of economic inequality, and have served to maintain a privileged population’s prerogatives. But, the physical oppression of slavery did not go far enough toward accomplishing Pharaoh’s programmatic ends. He was not simply building up a slave labor force in order to build a few cities. He was intent on putting an end to the influence and even existence of the threatening immigrant population in his nation. Therefore, he developed a policy of separating children, male children anyway, from their parents. This took the form of infanticide. “When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women… if it be a son, then ye shall kill him”[4] With the death of this ignorantly arrogant Pharaoh, and the instalment of a new ruler, the oppression continued. It had hardened into a multi-generational pogrom. This world superpower assumed it was safe in carrying out its extreme policies. Who would or could oppose it? It would find out soon enough. There was a truly Super Power more than capable of resisting Egypt’s national hubris. “And the LORD said, ‘I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.’”[5] And, as all know, deliver them He did. After nine “plagues”—calls to repentance, really—the superpower’s leader remained stubbornly unrepentant. Why should he repent? He hadn’t done anything wrong. Simply worked to make his nation great again. But with the tenth and final plague, the law of restoration finally caught up with him and his complicit citizenry. As the nation had carried out the separation of immigrant parents from their male children, so now he and his people were separated from their firstborn sons. “And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.”[6] Sadly, but irrevocably, what goes around, comes around. Well, the rest is history, as they say. The immigrant slaves were freed. Yahweh won the final battle against the superpower’s world-class military machine. But there is another chapter to the story that must be told. Yahweh took this disparate pack of ex-slaves out into the forbidding desert, where they would have to learn to rely upon him alone for their survival. In this wilderness, he came down and met with them at Sinai. He delivered just laws with which individuals and society were to bind themselves. Over and over, he reminded them that their privilege and responsibility to form a just society was based upon their previous experience as oppressed immigrants. They must never forget where they came from. They must consider their experience in all they did. “But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.” “And because he loved thy fathers [the enslaved immigrants], therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in his sight with his mighty power out of Egypt…” I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Thou shalt have none other gods before me." “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.” “Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.” “And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, ‘What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you?’ Then thou shalt say unto thy son, ‘We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand…’”[7] Well, we could go on, but you see the emphasis. However, we should mention one other obligation that their slavery and deliverance brought upon them. This new nation, formed from disparate groups, was never to return to Egypt by establishing Egypt-like public policy or engaging in Egypt-like behavior toward immigrants. They were not to treat immigrants as they had been treated. “The LORD your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not persons, nor taketh reward: he doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment. Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”[8] “Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”[9] “Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”[10] “And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”[11] “Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger, as for one of your own country: for I am the LORD your God.”[12] “And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee; then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live with thee.”[13] It is impossible to overestimate the importance of individuals and nations remembering that, “there, but for the grace of God, go I, we.” Unless one is Native American, there is not a single American who does not descend from immigrants. Most of those immigrants were not invited here. They came here, mostly, illegally, violently, and against the will of those who possessed the land before them. Nevertheless, the United States government, led by a man who would pervert the spirit of our nation, has chosen to act the part of Egyptian oppressor toward immigrants and refugees. He and his abhorrent administration assume, as Pharaoh and Egypt did, that they can treat the immigrants and refugees at its border in any inhumane way they choose. The man who would be king assumes it is safe. The “infestation,” he believes, is powerless to resist its poisonous policies. He and his disciples assume there will be no ill consequences for their vile behavior. Rather, they seem to believe, against every holy principle, that such vile behavior will, somehow, make America great again. But, like ancient Egypt, the man and his complicit followers have rebelliously, willfully forgotten that there is a stronger superpower. There is a God in heaven. He is the same today as he was yesterday. He is a liberator of the oppressed. This is at the very heart of His character. If he must, in order to liberate the oppressed, he will humiliate and put an end to the stubbornly impertinent and impenitent oppressor nation. That nation, that calls itself “blessed,” will discover that God has not forgotten how to curse. [1] The text calls them “Israel,” though this is not entirely accurate. According to Exodus 12.38, those who were rescued were a “mixed multitude.” This notice is confirmed by the onomastic evidence, which indicates that the group was constituted of several diverse “ethnic” groups. This designation, “Israel,” may hide as much as it reveals. It may have been as advantageous in the ancient world as in the modern to conveniently ignore the groups’ immigrant status. [2] Exodus 1.7 [3] Exodus 1.8 [4] Exodus 1.16 [5] Exodus 3.7-9 [6] Exodus 12.29-30 [7] Deuteronomy 4.20; 4.37; 5.6-7; 5.15; 6.12; 6.20-21 [8] Deuteronomy 10.17-19; emphasis added. [9] Exodus 22.21 [10] Exodus. 23.9 [11] Leviticus. 19.33-34 [12] Leviticus 24.22 [13] Leviticus 25.35 Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD” (Exodus 5.2). "In the commencement of the ninth year, Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the example of the church began to lead those who were unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people. Yea, he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted’ (Alma 4.11-12). I recently posted the following to the “Just Quotes” page of this site. “How much do CEOs actually make? In 2017, the McDonald’s CEO, Stephen Easterbrook, took home $21.8m. That’s 3,101 times more than the typical McDonald’s employee worldwide. The typical McDonald’s worker would have to labor more than three millennia to make as much as the McDonald’s CEO made last year…. “At most major corporations, typical workers still have to labor over three centuries to make as much as their CEO makes in a year” (“Minimum Wage? It’s Time to Talk about a Maximum Wage,” Sam Pizzigati, theguardian.com). This is pure, rather impure, madness. It is much worse than bad economic policy. It exposes American capitalism as an abominable affront to a Heavenly Father who loves and appreciates an impoverished worker laboring under the wage slavery of morally bankrupt companies and corporations as much as the rapacious leaders of companies and corporations who commit such violence against society. Worse still, it is quite literally, murderous; falling under the Hebrew Bible’s rubric of “shedding innocent blood.” People go hungry, become depressed, give up hope, and die because of such social injustice. Such rapacity makes the “Christian” boogie-man of being gay; and wishing to be united with a gay loved one, look positively saintly. Yet, too many “Christians” ignorantly howl about the latter while they justify and celebrate American capitalists’ ungodly accumulation of mammon; and elect public officials who pass laws and form policies that promote such violence against a just society. And, of course, all the while those same “Christians,” themselves, voraciously feed at the same trough of avarice and greed. And what of the “Christian” pastors? Surely they warn their flocks of the evils of the inequality, to say nothing of the dangers of the feeding frenzy itself. But, no, their pastors, largely, remain duplicitously silent. One suspects they are silent so that they too can benefit from the orgy. Their silence is, I suppose, proof enough of the Book of Mormon prophet’s verdict concerning Latter-day “Christianity:” O ye wicked and perverse and stiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get gain? Why have ye transfigured the holy word of God, that ye might bring damnation upon your souls? … For behold, ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that misery which never dies—because of the praise of the world? Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not? Yea, why do ye build up your secret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads? Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the blood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer.” (Mormon 8.33, 37-41). Moroni, as it turns out, is too kind by half. He minimized modern America’s avarice. When it comes to the poor, we do NOT “notice them not.” We notice them plenty. We know full well they are there. They would, in fact, perhaps be better off if we did ignore them. But, like that most “Christian” of men, Paul Ryan, and his ilk, too many “Christians” belittle the poor; speaking of them in the most disparaging of ways. Too many “Christians” claim that their actions have nothing to do with the poor’s desperate status, but charge that it is the fault of the poor themselves. Too many “Christians” help pass and zealously support public policy that takes out of their mouth the few crumbs of bread that the impoverished do precariously have in order to place it on the already heaping spoonful of the undeserving rich. Indeed, true to ancient Israel’s insatiable appetite, so thoroughly condemned by Amos, they “pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor” (Amos 2.7). As I so often feel when contemplating such rascality, a prayer seems in order. Unsurprisingly, the Psalmist has the perfect one. ”LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Yet they say, ‘The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it’” (Psalm 94.3-7). For Your hands are defiled with blood, “ … The most damning hand of murder, tyranny, and oppression, supported and urged on and upheld by the influence of that spirit which hath so strongly riveted the creeds of the fathers, who have inherited lies, upon the hearts of the children, and filled the world with confusion, and has been growing stronger and stronger, and is now the very mainspring of all corruption, and the whole earth groans under the weight of its iniquity…. which dark and blackening deeds are enough to make hell itself shudder, and to stand aghast and pale, and the hands of the very devil to tremble and palsy” (DC 123.7, 10). Willfully ignoring Caligula’s clearly articulated intents, motives, and hatreds for all things Muslim, this week’s SCOTUS decision concerning Caligula’s Muslim ban is yet another abomination in a long list of recent SCOTUS abominations. Of course, the decision is consistent with a familiar, oft-repeated American abomination. Notwithstanding Lady Liberty’s call for all the “huddled masses,” “wretched refuse,” and “homeless, tempest tossed,” we are an unwelcoming nation: Irish, Italian, Greek, Jew, Catholic. Latino, and Muslims; racist white America has decried the entrance and presence of them all—white Americans would have decried the entrance of Africans if they hadn’t brought them here and, like Egypt of old, enslaved them for their own personal and ethnic profit (It worked, too. America became great through its vile use of slave labor. Perhaps this is what Caligula means by “Make America Great Again.”) It is no accident that one of the most virulent periods of American hateful bigotry came during our last Gilded Age of the late 19th, early 20th century. Such hate is not only about ethnic hatred and racist bigotry. It is equally the bastard child of avarice and greed. Americans are always as concerned to protect their personal idolatrous materialism as to protect their “religion”—oh, wait, their materialism is their religion. Speaking of religion… God must certainly be a big fan of irony, for they abound. How can it be that so many traditional “Christians,” and non-tradition “Christians,” such as Mormons, insensate to their own past experiences with religious bigotry—whether being used as lion meat in the circus or being driven out of Zion and into the deserts of Utah—continue to be Caligula’s most loyal crowd? Too many of these “Christians” stand at the forefront of America’s structural and systemic religious oppression of Muslims. Like ancient Israelites before them, they have not remembered that they too were once hated, oppressed, and enslaved. They have forgotten that they are called to resist oppression and to never, never do to others what others have done to them. How can it be that so many Mormons stand, politically speaking, shoulder to shoulder with an American “Christianity” that was, in Mormonism’s very first revelation, already condemned as an abomination? They will, no doubt, rejoice with the emperor and their “Christian” brethren from the “Christian Wrong Wing” when yet another supreme court jurist is ensconced to further carry out the mad and violent oppression that flows through the American legal system. What makes such Mormons think that American “Christianity,” whose doctrines are an abomination before God, are any better in their views of social policy and politics today than they were in their theological and ethical principles then? No, this is a most unfortunate and dangerous alliance. It is something beyond irony to understand that those same Mormons who throw their lot in with the abomination called “American Christianity,” and with Caligula’s unholy medieval-style crusade against Islam (and every other “Other), will almost certainly be the next victim of the “Christian Wrong Wing.” For even though so many Mormons seek so desperately to be “Christian” like unto all the other “Christians,” their “Christian” allies will announce them heretics, just as they did the first generations of Mormons. Insensate to their past, too many Mormons are blind to their future. Finally, how ironic that SCOTUS should uphold Caligula’s crusade against Muslims, and that the Emperor should continue his blasphemous war on immigrant families just as the nation hypocritically celebrates its “Independence Day.” It is all almost too much to take in. How can it all be? It is all, sadly, too ironic. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my house shall it begin [is the “it,” “darkness” or “desolation”?], and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; first among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord” (DC 112.23-26). And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, It’s been nearly two years. It is high time that Therump’s people stop using Hillary to excuse their continued support of the current scoundrel-in-chief. Hillary isn’t president. She’s history. He is the present. He is the Emperor President. Today, I simply provide a healthy dose of reality and truth. There is simply no mistaking Caligula for what he is. He is, as I have written recently, an infidel. Of course, by naming the man, “Caligula,” I have been saying just this since his shameful election in 2016. If “infidel” seems too strong, please consider the following. In teaching his people, King Benjamin warned, “And finally, I cannot tell you all the things whereby ye may commit sin; for there are divers ways and means, even so many that I cannot number them” (Mosiah 4.29). Be honest now. How many sins can you name that he has not committed? I am not joking when I say that, however many varieties of sin there are, Caligula has, as far as I can tell, sampled nearly every one of them. Many of them are part of his regular, everyday diet of sin. Identifying them isn’t even sport. They are obvious for all to see. It is simply impossible for any honest, thinking person—to say nothing of “Christian”— to think and conclude otherwise. However obvious it is, still his people remain loyal. I have opined before that this has more to do with his people than him. Their loyalty is not really to him but to themselves. The insecurity of his people, though perhaps miniscule compared to the legion of insecurities of the man, nevertheless make it impossible for them to confess their damnable blunder in electing him. To turn away from him is to condemn themselves and call into question their “inspiration and discernment.” Anyway, while the ways to sin are, as Benjamin declares, innumerably divers, we are provided with a kind of “short list” of sins. Perhaps his people have heard of it. It’s called the Ten Commandments. I thought it might be instructive to place Caligula’s attitudes and actions up against the “Ten Commandment Standard” and see how he fairs. You will excuse me if, while examining this unexamined life, I have a little fun with the examination along the way. Otherwise, I might just be brought to tears and dragged into deep depression and despair, for it is difficult to see any light at the end of this dark tunnel our society has willingly and willfully entered. So, in Biblical order: 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. You tell me. Is God numero uno in Caligula’s life? Nothing could be clearer than that Caligula comes first in Caligula’s mind. Like his namesake, Emperor Caligula is, in his mind, God. Consistent with the narcissism that possesses him—I was going to say, “the narcissism from which he suffers,” but, whatever his sickness costs the rest of us, his narcissism causes him no personal discomfort—it is clear that Therump, loving and putting himself above all others, thinks of nothing and no one but himself, thus evincing a breach of this first commandment. 2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them…. It the gold and silver and marble palaces—known in Caligula’s world as towers, hotels, casinos, and resorts—do not have the substance of an idol, then no idol has ever made an appearance on planet earth. He clearly worships at the false idol of wealth, power, prestige—the lusts of the flesh. 3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain…. To be honest, this saying probably has little to do with vulgar language. Good thing too. Otherwise, Therump would have to be called the master of taking the name of the Lord in vain. Really, now, has any American politician, let alone one who has inhabited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, ever publicly exhibited a fouler mouth than this man? But, more to the point of the command, has any president ever surrounded himself with and encouraged more sycophant propaganda from “Christian” clergymen; clergymen who blasphemously proclaim him to be one of God’s chosen vessels? Now THAT’S taking the name of the Lord in vain. With GUSTO! 4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Well, what do you think? Seen him at church lately? Ever? Seen him living the spirit of the command by acting in ways that demolish oppression (see Deuteronomy 5.12-15)? But, I have been assured many times by many a golf enthusiast that spending a relaxing Sunday morning out in nature following a little white ball is a form of rest, relaxation, and spiritual renewal. So, if the man even knows a thing called “the Sabbath” exists, I guess he observes a kind of sabbath, though not one that can be called “the Lord’s.” 5. Honour thy father and thy mother… Well, by golly, look at that! It seems that Caligula actually does this one very well. He faithfully imitates his father’s racist bigotry and contempt for the vulnerable. 6. Thou shalt not kill. This one is a bit tricky. He is no more or less guilty in using the nation’s vaunted and over-hyped military to kill many, many innocents than his Democratic predecessor. But people are dying as the result of his policies. Thus, his ill-begotten policies are killing people. They will, no doubt, continue to do so at an accelerating rate. That said, I am not aware of his having used his own bare hands to kill anyone or use his own money to buy a hitman. But, just to be safe… we should probably take his boast seriously and so keep him off 5th Ave street corners. 7. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Oh come on! Anyone can make a mistake… a couple of dozen times by his own count and “confession” on several broadcasts of Bro. Stern’s radio show. Sometimes he’s paid for the pleasure beforehand, sometimes he’s purchased his partner’s silence afterwards. And he will not have us under any delusion that he regrets or repents of his multitudinous whoremongering. Oh no. It is to be boasted of. Why, Caligula can’t even think of anything he has done wrong for which he has need to repent! What name do we give to that sin of blind ignorance, I wonder? 8. Thou shalt not steal How many lawsuits has this notoriously dishonest and unethical man settled with business associates—at least those who resisted his godfather like threats—whom he swindled? Oh, and the jury is still out on whether his Russian mobster buddies helped him steal the election. 9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour Oh my. Where do we even begin? But to be fair, those against whom he has falsely spoken can hardly be called neighbors. I mean Barack Obama was from Kenia, for crying out loud… more jihadist than neighbor, that. Seriously, though, who has ever unleashed more falsehoods about others than this liar-in-chief? 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s. Well, he reminded us on his wild ride with Billy Bush that he covets more than asses. In fact, Caligula covets just about anything that is his neighbor’s. If you don’t believe me, just read his book—actually, don’t read it. The avarice that is evident on every page will have you wanting to take a shower. So, there you have it. He is, as he would have us think of him, nearly perfect. He is a near perfect 9 for 10. He is almost perfect at breaking the Lord’s most basic standard of thought, word, and action. Just saying. Of course, the man hasn’t tried to get an abortion or marry another man, so I guess he must be ok… not!. And now, O king, what great evil hast thou done, or what great sins have thy people committed, that we should be condemned of God or judged of this man? And now, O king, behold, we are guiltless, and thou, O king, hast not sinned; therefore, this man has lied concerning you, and he has prophesied in vain” (Mosiah 12.13-14). “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” (2 Corinthians 6.15) There was a time when I looked for and took advantage of every opportunity to teach and preach. Now I look for excuses not to, passing up one invitation after another with the flimsiest of excuses. I really don’t know what to say to them anymore. What do I say to Mormons who voted for Caligula at a 60% clip? What do I say to Mormons whose support of the emperor tops any polled “Christian” group? (They seem determined to grant Caligula’s hope that “his people” will be as loyal to him as Kim’s people.) How do I think of such a population as “righteous” or “godly”? How do I preach at-one-ment with God and assure them of Father’s acceptance and approval as borne witness to by Christ? I find that I can’t. I am just not limber enough for it. They can’t be one with Caligula and one with God. It is simply impossible. “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” Do I cry out against them, then? Call them to repentance? Do from the lectern or the pulpit what I do on this site? Nope. They won’t hear of being wrong in their support of the anti-Christ, Caligula. As I have said elsewhere, in their delusion that their decisions are directed by the Spirit, to admit that they were and are wrong to support this evil little man, is to question their being led by the spirit. This is unthinkable. They are stuck. They will have to support him, as they supported Nixon before him, the Vietnam War, the anti-civil rights movement, the anti-gay rights movement (have they ever been on the right side of a social issue?) to the bitter end. They will, no doubt, find some justification for supporting him after he has shot someone on 5th Ave. I sat in a Sunday School class recently in which I was informed how important it was to teach youth “how to act” upon the principles we teach so that they can be truly obedient. Such instruction needs to be very precise and detailed we were informed. Apparently, being godly is a very, very tricky business, only available to those who have painstaking knowledge of the most minute kind. “Righteousness” and “obedience” requires, it turns out, a good deal of knowledge. Simple, common sense decency counts for little. What I really learned, or re-learned is that Mormonism is inclined to drift into Gnosticism. Righteousness is about knowing minutia and acting legalistically in response to the minutia. This goes some way in explaining Mormons’ support of the patently evil Caligula. While they support Therump as he harms tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of people the globe over, they can call themselves righteous because they know how to submit a tithing payment, or know how to use all the proper archaic pronouns in prayer, or endure sitting on their butts for three hours of meetings on Sunday, etc., etc., etc. Righteous becomes divorced from real—and simple—matters involving how others are treated. It just doesn’t matter how enthusiastically the speak about or how skillfully they practice their meaningless Gnosticism, I can’t call them godly. Of course, they will yell bloody murder: abortion… gay marriage. I really will need to tackle these phony boogey men at some point. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23.23-24). “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies…. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them…” (Revelations 13.5-7). Apparently, it is not enough for America to continue its crazed and violent aggression across the entire globe. Having popped into his frenzied little mind, another vain and vile vision has burst from the twisted lips of the Emperor Caligula. Arrogantly asserting with the typical American psychosis of entitlement that “we must dominate space,” the Perversion, TheRump, wishes to carry our insane warmongering into space. Like Nimrod of old, this disciple-in-chief of the Great Red Dragon wishes to make a name for himself by defiling the heavens themselves with yet more human violence. Watch out universe, here comes the planet of apes, with its orange haired orangutan leading the tribe’s self-destructive charge, “Christian” soldiers, no doubt, filling out the front ranks. …Behold, a continual scene of wickedness and abominations has been before mine eyes ever since I have been sufficient to behold the ways of man” (Mormon 2.18). Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18.10). Millstones. We need millstones. Thousands of them. Tens and tens of thousands of them. Hang them around the neck of The rump, Caligula, child-molester-in-chief. Hang them around the necks of those who support him, including his apostate “Christian” supporters.” Hang them around the necks of those in his administration who advise and act upon the current Satanic immigration policies. Hang them around the necks of every single one of his brown-shirted, jack-booted thugs working on the borders. Hang a millstone around every one of these kidnapping child-abusers. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18.6). “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth” (Genesis 6.11-12). During his administration, President Obama, uncharacteristically for the world’s greatest individual arms dealer of all time, suspended the sale of over $500m worth of military munitions to Saudi Arabia because of their immoral and inhumane attacks on Yemen—often attacking civilians. Caligula’s administration requested that the Senate reverse the suspension. “The US Senate,” writes a guardian journalist, “narrowly approved that sale, in a vote of 53 to 47, almost handing [Caligula] an embarrassing defeat”[i] So, just to be clear, in the world that America has created, whenever it is unable to further weaponize a planet already flooded with weapons of mass destruction (and thus further enrich a murderous military industrial complex), it is to be seen as an “embarrassing defeat.” What devilish perversion this is! The real embarrassment is that the pathetic nation that calls itself the world’s only superpower is unembarrassed by their murderous and gross profit-making scheme through arms sales of any kind. But in the topsy-turvy ass-backward world America has created with Satanic precision, there is boasting rather than lamentation when God’s creation is further defiled with her damnable weapons of mass destruction. “[Caligula], along with Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, who played a major role in negotiating parts of the agreement [$110 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia over 10 year], were quick to claim credit for a massive arms deal that would boost the US economy.”[ii] What a devilish way to “boost economies”! How, in God’s name, can there be any doubt in anyone’s mind about how the God of Heaven feels about this perverted and twisted logic? As always, we proclaim particularly against America’s so-called Christians who stand as champions of such perverse rebellion against the Holy One! They of all people should know better than any what this is: BLASPHEMY. [i] Mohamad Bazzi, “The War in Yemen is Disastrous. America is Only Making Things Worse,” theguardian.com. [ii] Ibid. Come! Let’s go up to Yahweh’s mountain; “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18.4-5). Having learned all the wrong lessons from the Second World War, America has since then conducted itself on the foreign stage in the most arrogant and bellicose manner. We have acted the violent bully—with all the insecurity, small-mindedness, and lack of imagination bullying evinces. We have by nearly any measure become the modern version of the ancient unholy Roman Empire. Now, we have a small minded little ass of a man in the presidency to match the character of the country. Since his election, I have called him by the name, Caligula—a small concession on my part, for calling him by this name is far, far too kind. Whereas the general populace might have at one time feigned ignorance about America’s rapacious tyranny abroad, it can no longer do so. The hubris of our capricious little Caligula is daily on full display for all to see. Still, and as always, he is supported most forcefully by those who falsely call themselves Christians. As just one of many examples, “A January Gallup poll found that Trump’s approval among Mormons had risen [risen!!!!] to 61%, higher than any other religious group surveyed, and 13 points higher than among the next group, comprising Protestants and others” (Jeremy Miller, “Why do so many Mormons back Trump? Some say it's about the land,” the guardian) No longer content with being fed to the lions to inherit the kingdom of God, “Christians,” including, sadly and ominously, those of the Mormon variety, happily sacrifice all “others” to Bel in order to inherit a world crafted by the prince of darkness. They have, like the world’s first murderous tyrant, concluded that they are not their brothers keeper; that one only has to murder to get gain; and that no world inherited by the meek is worth having. Some wonder about the tenaciousness of “Christian” support for such a defiled man as Caligula. But no one who has lived in the box should be surprised. Having been “moved upon by the Spirit,” to vote for the foul man in the first place, to reject him now is to do more than reject him. It is to call into question and expose as a lie their own “spirit-directed” lives. This, they cannot do. They cannot acknowledge their error and have no stomach for repentance. The “righteous,” after all, need no repentance. “No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’” (Jeremiah 8.6) I remember sitting in front of the TV and watching the twin towers, for many a symbol of American’s hubristic oppression, crash and burn. I distinctly remember the feeling that came over me: “The world will never be the same.” I realized in those moments that the world would never be good again. The spiraling badness would be the result of the gross evil of that act on that single day, and the longer, equally gross evil of America’s presumptuous response. I felt on election eve, and feel now, something similar. This nation and the presidency will never be same. There is no going back. The American addict is hooked on the gross and course vulgarity that is the Caligulan world view. They cannot acknowledge their error and have no stomach for repentance. The “righteous,” after all, need no repentance. It is, as Jeremiah laments, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, Neither could they blush” (Jer. 8.6). “Come, Lord Jesus, before it is too late. “Behold, thou knowest the wickedness of this people; thou knowest that they are without principle, and past feeling….” (Moroni 9.20). "Wherefore, I, the Lord, have said that the fearful, and the unbelieving, and all liars, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie, and the whoremonger, and the sorcerer, shall have their part in that lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (DC 63.17). Today’s ‘Mad State’ post is not so much about Caligula’s madness. That is a given. It is more about the madness of his ignorant hordes. Caligula keeps screaming, ‘Witch hunt.’ Polls suggest that his hordes see the phantasm that Caligula has conjured into existence. This is pure impure self-willed self-deception. As of last week, Mueller’s investigation had produced 5 guilty pleas and 17 indictments. For God’s sake, how is that a witch hunt? How could anyone believe the lie that it is a witch hunt? Given that Caligula is incapable of telling the truth, but always, always, always lies, he makes it easy to determine what the truth is when he speaks. The truth is always, always, always the opposite of what he says. Yes, there is a sorcerer at the head of U.S. government. There is no hunt for witches. There is, however, an investigation into American sorcery and an American public mesmerized by his evil magic. "For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 29.8-9). "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, “Behold, thou knowest the wickedness of this people; thou knowest that they are without principle, and past feeling…. (Moroni 9.20) "Verily, verily, I say unto you, wo be unto him that lieth to deceive because he supposeth that another lieth to deceive, for such are not exempt from the justice of God” (DC 10.28). After denying that he knew anything about payments to silence Ms. Daniels over an allegedly non-existent orgy, Caligula, the most inept of liars, admitted today that he not only knew of the hush monies but “reimbursed“ his fixer for them. In making this admission, he pedantically described the bribe as “a private contract between two parties, known as a non-disclosure agreement, or NDA. These agreements are very common among celebrities and people of wealth.” Let me repeat that. This sort of behavior is “very common among celebrities and people of wealth.” Can they, do any of the poor saps who voted for this unholy brigand live their life in this way? Can they, or do they wantonly sin and then offer money to hide their sins? Even if they were so inclined, they lack the resources to act in so cowardly a way. When, oh when, will his hordes realize and admit that he is not one of them. They have been duped. He is not on their side. He is not interested in them for anything but to stroke his ego and facilitate his crimes. He is not bound to any of the cultural norms by which they live. He does not pledge allegiance to any laws, or constitutional principles they hold dear. And he certainly, a thousand times certainly, does not respect or adhere to any Christian values that they claim to love and by which they claim to live. The man is a raving lunatic. An evil spirit cloaked in flesh. A inept son of the father of lies. "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, |
Archives
November 2024
Categories |
RSS Feed