They hate those who call for justice in governance[a].
   They abhor those who speak truthfully.
Therefore, because of your plundering of the vulnerable
   by the grain taxes you extract from them,
you have built the most luxurious[b] of homes,
   but you will not live in them;
you have planted cherished vineyards
   but you will not drink their wine.
For I am well aware[c] of the magnitude of your criminality[d],
   and the vastness of your corruption[e]:
oppressing the innocent, taking bribes,
   and deny the impoverished a hearing[f].
The one prospering in such times remains mute,
   for such times are depraved (author’s translation).[g]
 
 
Amos was a brave man and faithful, honest messenger of God. We must honor him by being equally brave and honest. Indeed, he lamented the wickedness of cowardly and self-serving silence during depraved times such as ours. Such cowardly and self-serving silence is, in very truth, a sign of personal depravity—one that deepens societal depravity. Here, then, is his lament and warning.
 
The one prospering in such times remains mute,
   for such times are depraved.
 
Those who are prospering because of societal depravity, going unscathed by its wickedness, must not remain silent and inactive.
 
So, what sorts of times can be called, “depraved”? Amos describes some of them in this reading. For starters, in speaking of the wealthy and powerful, Amos charged,
 
“They hate those who call for justice in governance.
   They abhor those who speak truthfully.”
 
This “justice in governance” takes in more than justice in our criminal justice system. It most certainly includes justice in legislative laws, policies, and programs. But it does most definitely include criminal justice. So, here is my breakout from muteness.
 
Recently, a sitting member of congress, Representative Louie Gohmert of Texas, complained in all seriousness and on camara before an audience of perhaps millions, “If you're a Republican, you can't even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they're coming after you.” Just let that sink in. A sitting member of congress is incensed that one cannot lie with impunity; incensed that liars might be held accountable.
 
This bit of depraved indifference to justice was spewed in response to the arrest of Peter Navarro against whom a grand jury of peers, after being presented with evidence, issued a two-count indictment for contempt of congress. In spite of having openly expressed his contempt for congress on camara before millions, Navarro has expressed outrage that he was arrested and handcuffed. Oh, the nerve of treating him like every other criminal! Don’t they know who he is?
 
You see, both men think that the rich and powerful such as themselves should not be held accountable for their criminal behavior. Just like ancient Israel’s wealthy and powerful, they attempt to establish one set of laws for the ordinary Joe and another set for the high and mighty. Gohmert, Navarro, dozens and dozens of U.S. representators and senators, and a certain treasonous former president despise justice and truth. They despise it as a basis of governance. And they certainly despise it as a basis for holding the wealthy and powerful accountable for their depraved indifference to justice.
 
Tragically, this American depravity is eerily similar to that which Amos observed in 8th century B.C. Israel and described in verse 10. But this is not the extent of 8th century B.C. Israelite depravity. Nor is it the extent—not even close—of America’s 2022 depravity. As Amos goes on to describe further and deeper depravities, so too must we.
 
We have discussed before the great American myth concerning wealth and power, asserted and perpetuated by none more loudly than the wealthy and power. To wit, wealth and power are the result of intelligence and skill and hard work—righteousness. But Amos, like all the Hebrew prophets whom God inspired to see the world as it really is rather than as the myth the powerful propagate, knows this to be a lie. If their wealth—typified by Amos in their luxurious homes and gardens/vineyards—is due to any skill, it is the skill of wickedness; of manipulating legal and legislative processes for their benefit and at the detriment of the poor. Their wealth and power are, in fact, built on the back of others. They are stolen.
 
“Therefore, because of your plundering of the vulnerable
   by the grain taxes you extract from them,
you have built the most luxurious of homes,
   but you will not live in them;
you have planted cherished vineyards
   but you will not drink their wine.”
 
Over a century later, nothing had changed when the prophet Jeremiah credited the wealth and power of the wealthy and powerful to the same wickedness: deceit, injustice, and the violation of others.
 
“Just as a bird cage is full of birds,
   their houses are filled with deceit.
      This is why they have become powerful and wealthy;
They have grown fat and plump,
   having gone beyond, even, the wicked words they speak.
They will not hear a legal case--
   such as that of an orphan— least it succeeds.
      Nor will they bring the cases of the needy to trial.”[1]
 
Again, we must stress that this thievery takes place both in the spit-shinned floors of legislative halls and decorated cambers—overrun with the wealthy and powerful’s lobbying prostitutes—and in wood paneled courtrooms—inhabited by the wealthy and powerful dressed in their ten thousand dollar silk suits and red power ties. These are the playgrounds, or, better, the marketplaces of the wealthy and power where they buy and sell law makers, judges, and attorneys.  Or, are these the places where they buy and sell the poor, powerless, and vulnerable? Yes, to all the above.
 
“For I am well aware of the magnitude of your criminality,
   and the vastness of your corruption:
oppressing the innocent, taking bribes,
   and denying the impoverished a hearing.”
 
The profits in selling the poor may not be high, but, hey, profit is profit.
 
“They sell out the innocent in order to turn a profit.
   They sell out the impoverished in order to acquire a pair of sandals.
They lust after the dirt
   that is found in the hair of the poor,
      and make the life of those already distressed even more precarious.”[2]
 
So, here we are. Right back in the 8th century B.C. And just like way back then, “Social Justice” leaves a bad taste in the mouths of many. We can see why. It has ever been so. The wicked taketh the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.”[3] Or, as Amos put it,
 
“They hate those who call for justice in governance.
   They abhor those who speak truthfully.”
 
But, worse than “cutting them to the very center,” the idea of social justice threatens to cut into their profits, something that, in their blind wickedness, is of more value to them than their own immortal souls.
 
We would love to compose only light and happy fare filled with naught but “the pleasing word of God… which healeth the wounded soul.”[4] But, we, like Amos, live in depraved times. We will not be complicit in the depravity through self-interested silence and cowardly inaction. We will, rather, like Amos, remind those whose conscious has not yet been completely “seared with a hot iron”[5] that the word of God warns and informs; that sometimes, before it can comfort it must discomfort, sometimes with the sharpness of a “two-edged sword.”[6] With its piercing warning, it can liberate us from the values and principles of the ungodly, the unethical, the corrupt, and the anti-social. It can liberate us from the depravities of our time and nation. It can guide us toward a society that is healthy and enduring. It can guide us into the kingdom of God.
 
So, yes, we are so bold as to invite others to avoid the muteness that has so often been found among those who have prospered in the midst of depravity; among those who dared not risk that which “moth and rust doth corrupt,”[7] among those who have, themselves have not felt the pinch of injustice that so many have and do. Let’s not fall prey to same muteness of Amos’ day.
 
The one prospering in such times remains mute,
   for such times are depraved.
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 

[1] Jer. 5.27-28
[2] Amos 2.6-7
[3] 1 Nephi 16.2
[4] See Jac. 2.8
[5] 1 Timothy 4.2
[6] Hebrews 4.12
[7] Matthew 6.19


[a] Hebrew, šaʿar. Literally, “in the gate.” The city gate is where legal, legislative, and political decisions were often made. To think of the “gate” only as a place for legal court cases is wrongheaded. It is always a place where laws and policies are legislated. One can think of the Roman Forum, forum meaning originally, “open outdoor place.”

[b] Hebrew, gāzît.  “This word indicates a particular type of dressed stone that was considered to be building material of the highest quality and of pleasing appearance” (NIDOTTE, Vol. x, p. x). The translation, “houses of ashlar masonry,” while accurate and literal does not send the message to the common reader who does not go beyond the page he or she is reading. With little appreciation for what is really being said, the reader can then hide behind ignorance and run the risk of behaving in the same despicable and punishable way. I am loath to be the cause for someone else’s justifying sin due to ignorance or the lack of clarity. Here, I show myself to be, as I am, more preacher and shepherd than scholar.

[c] Hebrew, yāḏa‘, “I know.”

[d] Hebrew, pešaʿ.

[e] Hebrew, ḥaṭṭāʾt.

[f] Hebrew, šaʿar, again. Literally, “from the gate they stretch the impoverished.”

[g] For those who wish to compare, here is the KJV translation formatted in poetic verse.
They hate him that rebuketh in the gate,
   and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly.
Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor,
   and ye take from him burdens of wheat:
ye have built houses of hewn stone,
   but ye shall not dwell in them;
ye have planted pleasant vineyards,
   but ye shall not drink wine of them.
For I know your manifold transgressions
   and your mighty sins:
they afflict the just, they take a bribe,
   and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time;
   for it is an evil time.

Psalms 1 and 2 have long been viewed by many exegetes as intimately connected. It has even been suggested that they were at one time a single psalm. Too much water has passed under the bridge for us to be certain about the second contention, but a close reading today does persuade the careful reader that they do, at the very least, play off and complement one another. Many have pointed out that Psalm 2 ends on the same note with which Psalm 1 began: ’ašrê, a macarism that we have translated as “truly fulfilled” in Psalm 1 and “enduring” in Psalm 2.[1] Both psalms, then, have an acute interest in establishing of what the truly “happy,” “fulfilled,” “enduring,” and “progressive” life consists.
 
Psalm 1 teaches that a life of advancement and fulfillment consists of rooting oneself deeply in the guidance and values that God provides in scripture, and in striving to live according to that guidance (1.2).
 
“How truly fulfilled [are]…
they [who] choose YHWH’s direction
   and consult his Tôrâ at all times.”[2]
 
At the same time, the fulfilling and progressive life consists of rejecting the guidance of the ungodly, whose unethical behavior is antithetical to a healthy and enduring society.
 
“How truly fulfilled is one who
   does not walk as directed by the ungodly,
does not stand in the path of the unethical,
   and does not sit in gatherings with sociopaths!”[3]
 
Psalm 1 concludes as it began with a warning about the ungodly. In addition to being built upon rejecting the guidance of the ungodly, avoiding their lifestyle, and refusing to cooperate or collaborate with them in their unethical sociopathy, the fulfilling and advancing life and society are also built on rejecting their often boisterous demands for influence, power, and governance in society.
 
“Therefore, the ungodly should not participate in a place of decision making,
   or the unethical have place in a just assembly.
For, YHWH promotes the norms of those who do right,
   but the norms of the ungodly are to perish.”[4]
 
In a sense, Psalm 2 opens where Psalm 1 opened and closed: with the wicked. But in Psalm 2, the wicked are represented by those in power. The governing. The first psalm’s warning about not allowing the ungodly to “participate in a place of decision making” has gone unheeded. Those who govern the nations and those who allowed them into the position they hold, are in open rebellion against God.
 
“Why do the nations raise such a ruckus,
   and entire populations grouse to no avail?
world’s kings offer resistance;
   world leaders form a united front
against YHWH
   and against his Māšîaḥ.” [5]
 
Such rebellion is not allowed to stand. Whether the nations and their citizenry know it or not, they are on borrowed time. They are given time to repent, but that time will not last to perpetuity.
 
“Now then, O kings, be sensible in your response.
      Learn your lesson, O rulers of the earth.
Serve YHWH with deference.
   Be content with cowering before him;
kissing the Son’s feet,
   lest he become enraged, and you be annihilated;
      for his anger can flare up in a flash.”[6]
 
There are many other truths to explore in these two psalms, and innumerable ways to examine them. But I’ve said what I wanted to say in this brief homily. These two introductory psalms preview themes that will run throughout the Book of Psalms, to wit:
 
The world is infested with many, millions, of ungodly, unethical, and sociopathic individuals. They freely offer their guidance and their values to the unsuspecting. They invite all to adopt these norms and values as their own and collaborate with them in society destroying activities. These ungodly, unethical, and sociopaths find their way into positions of governance. From these high perches, they foment rebellion against God until annihilation is the only possible end.
 
In his mercy, God has provided guidance that delivers us from the perilous traps the ungodly set. This guidance is found in his word, in scripture. By giving diligent attention to the word of God and striving to abide by the guidance found in it, we discover a life that is fulfilling and that allows for unknown progress and advancement.
 
Now, in my former, unrepentant life, I would end with this conclusion and bear testimony to the truth and reality of these things. But as I have so often said, “That was then.”
 
This is now.
 
“In 2016, a man—a man as ungodly, as unethical, as sociopathic, and as dismissive of God’s gracious guidance as any who had ever offered themselves for any public office in the United States—presented himself to Americans and asked that he be granted a position “in a place of decision making.”  The place of governance that he desired—the presidency of the United States—might possibly be the most powerful position of governance the world has ever known. He shamelessly offered his own brand of perverted guidance. He presented his own deviant norms. He invited others to join him. Collaborate with him.
 
Tragically, tens of millions joined him in his ungodliness, his immorality, his sociopathy. More tragic, notwithstanding the Psalmist’s warning that “the ungodly should not participate in a place of decision making,” millions who express love for and allegiance to the Book from which this warning comes, granted him a place of governance. This was a violation of the most basic of godly principles.
 
He and they have ever since been on rampage. They have raised a hellish ruckus. They have resisted God’s guidance and formed a united front in rebellion against God. Even with his defeat in 2020, he and his minions doubled down, fomented insurrection. Through these and many other anti-social activities, they have created a chasm between them and God that has only deepened and widened since then.
                                                    
No, such rebellion will not be allowed to stand. Whether the nation and its citizenry know it or not, they are on borrowed time. They are given time to repent, but that time will not last to perpetuity.                           
 
“Now then, O kings, be sensible in your response.
      Learn your lesson, O rulers of the earth.
Serve YHWH with deference.
   Be content with cowering before him;
kissing the Son’s feet,
   lest he become enraged, and you be annihilated;
      for his anger can flare up in a flash.”
 
Yes, in these two opening psalms of the Psalter, both individuals and nations can find much to guide them in their attitudes and behaviors. The two paths, fulfillment, advancement and endurance, or damnation and annihilation, are clearly set forth. All are free to choose their path, but not the consequences of their choice. Each path contains within its own course, the seeds of its own inevitable destination.
 
It would be hard to overestimate the importance and pertinence of these two psalms and their message to today’s world and to America in particular. It has a choice to make between advancement and annihilation. Lets hope they choose wisely.
 
“Moreover by thy word is thy servant warned:
   and in keeping of them there is great reward.”[7]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 
[1] We accept the proposal that ’ašrê comes from the root ’šr, meaning “advance,” “go/ walk forward.” As one author put it, the word “derives from a root meaning ‘to go forward,’ ‘to walk on,’ ‘to march steadily’ (cf. Akkadian, Arabic, etc.), perhaps even to progress in the way of comprehension” (Terrien, “The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary,” Eerdmans Critical Commentary, emphasis added).
[2] All psalm translations are mine unless noted otherwise.
[3] Psalm 1.1
[4] Psalm 1.5-6
[5] Psalm 2.1-3
[6] Psalm 2.10-12
[7] Psalm 19.11, KJV

My mind once again turns, as it so often has in recent years, to the Old Testament character, Cain (Qayin), the searching question God posed to him, and his belligerent response.
 
“YHWH asked Qayin, ‘Where is your brother, Hebel?’
He replied, ‘I don’t know. Am I responsible for my brother?’” (Gen. 4.9, author’s translation)
 
This exchange always deserves careful attention in its own right. It deserves the careful attention of all of us today because of its terrible relevance to current affairs. It earns my attention today because of my own struggles in dealing with the innumerable Cains our society has spawned.
 
The exchange between God and Cain deserves careful attention in its own right for a number of reasons. One can imagine any number of human activities, good and bad, that transpired in the years immediately following Adam and Eve’s exile from Eden[1] (I still smile every time I recall the painting that appeared many years ago in one Church publication or another. The painting portrayed Adam and Eve having a family home evening with their children. It makes me chuckle even now as I mention it.). Anyway, there had to have been billions of human acts before Cain’s violent murder of his brother, Abel. Yet, this was the first post-Eden story that the writers reported. It is astonishing, really. Some might even say it is perverted. But I say, it is remarkably apt that they should begin human history with a story of such perversion. Many, many thousands of years ago, someone or someones warned us about the nature of the human race. The planet is a violent place because of this dominant violent race. We should be on guard for the inevitable violence.
 
And, we should be on guard for the ungodly justifications of said violence. Again, we are struck by the Biblical writer’s bold and determined commitment to truth telling. For, just as there had to have been many billions of human actions between the departure from Eden and Cain’s murder, there had to have been gazillions of human words spoken in the same time frame. But, like the billions of human actions, the inspired writer passed over every one of the words and conversations, good and bad, without comment and reported these as the first human recorded words:
 
“I don’t know. Am I responsible for my brother?” (KJV, “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?”).
 
This brings us to the present, one form of the present’s violence, and the relevance of Cain’s response to God’s query about the whereabouts of his brother. Syntactically, by means of its prefixed interrogative particle, ha-, the Hebrew text presents Cain’s response to God’s question as a question, “Am I responsible for my brother?” But even the most undiscerning reader knows that Cain’s question was not really a question. It was a statement. It was an arrogant and belligerent and unapologetic assertion that he had no responsibility for or to his brother. And since he had no responsibility for or to his brother, then he had no responsibility for or to anyone… but himself.
 
And even the most undiscerning libertarian reader knows that Cain’s assertion, masquerading as a question, was patently false; that his aggressive assertion is contrary to every feeling and principle that exists in the heart of God, as well as every hope and expectation he possesses for humanity.
 
And yet, millions of Americans, many of them Bible readers and professed Christians, have lived for the past two and a half years, essentially spitting Cain’s violent retort into the beautiful face of a God whom they claim to know and love, but whom they blaspheme with every breath they breathe.
 
“I will not mask. I will not be vaccinated. I have no responsibility and no obligation to and for anyone but myself. If others become sick, if others die because of my putrid breath, that’s on them, not on me.”
 
Even the most undiscerning libertarian Bible reader ought to know that this assertion is patently false; that this aggressive assertion is contrary to every feeling and principle that exists in the heart of Yahweh, as well as every hope and expectation he possesses for humanity. And they do know. But, they are like Amulek of Book of Mormon fame.
 
“I did harden my heart, for I was called many times and I would not hear; therefore I knew concerning these things, yet I would not know; therefore I went on rebelling against God, in the wickedness of my heart… (Al. 10.6).
 
Like Amulek, they have made a choice. A willful choice. They have willfully chosen a lie over the truth. One can only hope that they, like Amulek, will find their own “fourth day of this seventh month.” For their sake and for the sake of all the rest of us.
 
This brings us to my own struggles in dealing with the innumerable Cains who have reincarnated in American society. What am I to do to with them? How can I trust them? How can I believe a word they say, but for those words in which they reveal their narcissism coupled with hatred of God and of others?
 
They stand and bear testimony that they know God lives; that Joseph Smith was a prophet; that the Book of Mormon is true; that the Church is led today by living prophets. And how, I wonder, am I supposed to believe that they have discerned the truth of all the things they claim to know when they cannot discern the truth of the existence of a sickening and potentially deadly pathogen? I do not question the veracity of all to which they testify, but I do question, doubt with a skepticism unlike any other I have known in my life, that they can discern such spiritual truths when they cannot discern the most simple of truths: a dead virus was loose among humankind and simple measure were needed in the face of it.
 
And what am I to do and feel when they stand and testify that they “love each and every one of you.” I know that they do not love me, and many others like me. They have shown me that by their works. If they loved those outside their insular families, they would have happily social distanced and worn a mask. They would be vaccinated. It is just that simple.

I simply cannot compartmentalize and separate their testimonial assertions from their deviant actions. Upon deciding that he had no responsibility for or to others and then living by that dictum, he became a “fugitive and a vagabond.” He was a pariah in society. Should these modern day Cains who are willing to see others sicken and die so that they can selfishly avoid the inconvenience and discomfort of a mask or shot be treated any differently? Why do their leaders treat them with kid gloves, coddle their violence?
 
As for me, I can no longer give them a listening hear. I hear only hypocrisy. These modern day Cains are, to me, a staggering and tottering people. They are wondering fugitives from the truth.[2]
 
Unfortunately, we are all—whether we like it or not, whether we want to be or not—connected. As Paul reminded us, what happens to one part of the body is felt by all members of the body. And so, their staggering and tottering has made a homeless wanderer of me. Those who I once thought of as friends,
 
“with whom, together, I enjoyed sweet companionship
         with whom, together, I walked among the worshippers…[3]
 
these now appear dangerous. Their actions shameful. Indecent. Cain-like. UnChrist-like.
 
I am torn. Do I, can I, maintain Alma’s perspective that “their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren.” Can I hope that God will give me and others “power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee”; reclaim them from their apostacy?[4]
 
Or, do I follow the Psalmist’s lead and resort to cold, hard execration?
 
“Let death come upon them;
            may they descend into hell while still alive
               because multiply evils are in their homes, deeply imbedded.”[5]
 
I don’t know. I vacillate back and forth between the two futures, not sure which one will finally win the day.
 
For now, I can only do as I have always done. Take refuge in him who is and always has been my go-to “hiding place.”[6] My true home.
 
“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me:
   for my soul trusteth in thee: yea,
in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge,
   until these calamities be overpast.”[7]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 

[1] My discussion of events recorded in Genesis as if they were literal is simply rhetorical, much like I might do if I were discussing Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. But I do not take the events recorded in Genesis literally. As is the case with Shakespeare’s play, the importance of the principles expounded in Genesis far, far outweigh any value that might come from literal readings.
[2] See Gen. 4.14. The basic meaning of Hebrew, nûa‘ and nûd, KJV’s “fugitive” and “vagabond,” are “to stagger” and “to totter.” They can also have the more concrete meaning, “to wonder aimlessly” and “to be homeless.”
[3] Psalm 55.13-14, author’s translation
[4] Alma 31.35
[5] Psalm 55.15, author’s translation.
[6] Psalm 32.7
[7] Psalm 57.1

I recently reposted a series of five homilies entitled, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” on the Just Society page of this site. I did so because, in my view, what Putin is doing in Ukraine is an example of apocalyptic behavior about which John the Revelator warned.
 
Please note: I am not maintaining that what Putin is doing in Ukraine is THE Apocalypse. It is, rather, AN apocalypse. We can only wish that there were but one apocalypse. But, we are not so lucky. The apocalypse that Putin is executing in Ukraine is but one of many apocalypses that many madmen such as Putin have wrought in every era of world history.
 
In this blog post, I will briefly review but one aspect of Putin’s apocalyptic ride on the back of the black horse of John’s revelation.[1]
 
In Putin’s now six-weeks-long invasion of Ukraine, we see him as the rider on the white horse.
 
“Then I saw—imagine this! —a white horse. Its rider held a military bow and was granted a crown. He went off triumphantly, intending to conquer.”[2]
 
This horseman represents the personal and nationalistic desire to conquer and dominate other peoples and nations. Predictably, and as John so accurately observes, this desire leads to conflict at the personal level and to war at the national level.
 
“And another horse, this one red, went off, its rider given power to take peace from the earth to the extent that they kill each other. He was equipped with a vicious sword.”[3]
 
Here is Putin’s Russian war machine—a machine bought and paid for by Lucifer[4]—activating the Ukrainian war machine—also bought and paid for by Lucifer—with military resources—also bought and paid for by Lucifer—supplied by the west, including and especially America. These killing machines cause blood to flow. Hence, the second horse’s red color. But war machines are but one way to kill. And so, we come to the third horse, the focus of this brief blog post.
 
“Then I saw—imagine this! —a black horse. Its rider held a set of scales in his hand. I heard something like a voice coming from the four creatures, announcing: ‘A quart of wheat or three quarts of barley costs a day’s wage, while olive oil and wine you are not to impact.’”[5]
 
Food shortages. Hunger. These are often the unintended consequences of war. Often, they are intentional war strategies. But whether they are the consequence of intentional military planning or simply unintended consequence, they are real. We have already seen it in places like Mariupol. We are seeing, today, the initial stages of a broader apocalyptic food shortage and starvation pattern that is a consequence of Putin’s mad invasion of Ukraine.
 
“Prices for food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month largely because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ‘massive supply disruptions’ it is causing, threatening millions of people in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere with hunger and malnourishment, the United Nations said Friday.
 
“The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990.
 
FAO said the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1% rise in the price of grains, including wheat and others like oats, barley and corn.”[6]
 
And, again.
 
“Monica Kariuki is about ready to give up on farming. What is driving her off her 10 acres of land outside Nairobi isn’t bad weather, pests or blight — the traditional agricultural curses — but fertilizer: It costs too much.
 
“Despite thousands of miles separating her from the battlefields of Ukraine, Kariuki and her cabbage, corn and spinach farm are indirect victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The war has pushed up the price of natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and has led to severe sanctions against Russia, a major exporter of fertilizer.
 
“Kariuki used to spend 20,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $175, to fertilize her entire farm. Now, she would need to spend five times as much. Continuing to work the land, she said, would yield nothing but losses.”[7]
 
This is entirely consistent with John’s revelation as portrayed in his four horsemen. And what of the fourth and final rider?
 
“And I saw—imagine this! —a pallid horse. As for its rider, his name was Death, and hell accompanied him. And he was given dominion over a large swath of the planet to slay with the sword and with starvation and with death and with earth’s wild beasts.”[8]
 
At this stage, thousands have and are dying under the weight of a madman’s unholy desire for domination (white horse) and the world’s war machines that the desire has naturally enough activated (red horse). As a result, people have and are dying of starvation. Food shortages are on the rise (black horse). The bodies of the dead are being eaten on the streets as the number of dead grow and/or the danger of gathering and burying them becomes every more dangerous. The tit-for-tat will only increase (pale horse). Many nations are being drawn into the conflict—both passively and actively.
 
Will this apocalypse spread further? How far? Will it become the traditional global apocalypse imagined by so many readers of Revelation?
 
I don’t know. No one does. But we do know this. It all began with a desire. An unholy and ungodly desire to conquer. To dominate. It all began with the Satanic will to power. To be number one. To take glory to oneself. And we know this, too. Such apocalypses will remain part of human history, playing themselves out over and over again until the humble, self-sacrificing spirit of Jesus—the spirit that puts others before self—rules the world; until the first choose to be last and allow the last to be first. Only this spirit of at-one-ment—connectedness, unity, linkage—can save the world. Otherwise, as the final word of the Hebrew Bible warns, the earth’s end will and can only be ḥerem, extermination.[9]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 
 
[1] An extended exploration can be found in my five homilies on the Just Society page of this site.
[2] Revelation 6.2. This and all translations found below are mine.
[3] 6.4
[4] “I will buy up armies and navies and reign with blood and horror,” he threatened God when cast out of the garden.
[5] 6.5-6
[6] “Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions,” AP, Nicole Winfield
[7] “Russian war worsens fertilizer crunch, risking food supplies,” AP, Geoffrey Kaviti, Chinedu Asadu, and Paul Wiseman
[8] 6.8
[9] See Malachi 4.6

The passage from Ecclesiastes that is found at the head of this and many other posts has come often to my mind over the past weeks as I have observed the madness that is flooding Ukraine and spilling out into our living rooms through news reports. There is another passage, no less insightful or true, it seems to me, that has also repeatedly come to mind.
 
“This is the world,
brutal and cruel, that Troy tried to withstand.
Cruelty wins in the end.
Our little clearings of civilization may seem real,
but mindless wilderness always lurks,
may take its time,
but in the end overwhelms all our pretensions to decency.
We revert to beastliness. (Seneca, Trojan Women, Lines 985-990)
 
It is difficult to not feel the sad truth of Seneca’s assessment of the mortal condition.
 
In a series of tweets, I sent the following out.
 
With the atrocious images flowing out of Ukraine showing the systematic war crimes that Putin’s army has and is committing, I have to assume that Putin knows that he can never leave “mother Russia” again. Never.  No amount of disinformation will be able to change what the world now knows with certainty: Putin is a war criminal. Putin must now know that to leave Russia for any reason is to be arrested as a war criminal. 
 
He must now know that there will be no more arrogantly strutting around with world leaders or any more hope of renewing a G-8 coalition that includes him, for fear of certain arrest. 
 
He must now know that he will never again jet around the world in one of his or his oligarch buddy’s private luxury jets, for fear of arrest upon landing. 
 
He must now know that he will never again step foot on any one of however many mega yachts he has stolen from the Russian people, for fear of arrest. 
 
He must surely now know that he will never again enter another of the however many penthouses or mansions that he owns in any one of several swank locations on the globe, for fear of arrest. 
 
He must now know that even if he can manage to get to any of those billions of dollars he has stolen and stashed away, he will never spend one cent of it outside a devastated Russian economy. 
 
He must now know, finally, that he is a prisoner in his country. His life will never be the same. His world has changed forever.
 
He must now understand all this. This makes him very, very dangerous. The question is, how many other lives is he prepared to change and ruin? The other question is, is there anyone bold and calculating enough to remove him from power, turn him over to international courts, and/or end his pathetic life?
 
To better understand what Putin is, what he is about, what he represents, and how utterly dangerous he is to global peace, to human life and existence, I have reposted a series of five homilies I wrote some time ago on “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” It can be found on the “Just Society” page of this site.
 
Moroni testified, “I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.”[1] This is really saying something. But John, the Revelator, were he to so speak might say something like, “I have seen all of you, from the dawn of time to the last gasping breaths of mortals upon the earth.”
 
The Revelator saw Putin. But not only Putin. What he sees in Putin is not unique. Putin is but one of many, many lunatics in world history who have madly chosen to climb up on the back of the wild horses of John’s apocalypse and wildly ride across the world stage.
 
In the past six weeks, we have witnessed Putin’s wild ride. We have watched as he has galloped across Ukraine first on the white horse, then on the red, then the black, and finally, through reports of war crimes coming from Ukraine, on the pale horse. The scale of his wild ride is still confined to Ukraine. It has not become global. But, it grows more likely with each passing day that his mad ride on the four wild horses will become more encompassing; the arena become larger; the battle grounds expanded.
 
We are told to pray for peace. Very well. But, now is not simply a time to pray for peace. We are quickly getting well past that point. We must begin to pray for an end to Putin’s madness; a stop to his mad ride on the four horses of John’s apocalypse, even if it be by the arm of God Himself.
 
“Avenging God, YHWH,
   avenging God, reveal yourself.
Rise up, Ruler of the world…
 
[May he ] send the same calamity upon them that they sent upon others,
   and bring an end to them with the same evil they perpetrated on others;
      Yahweh, our God, will certainly bring an end to them.”[2]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 
 
[1] Mormon 8.35
[2] Psalm 94.1-2, 23, author’s translation.

Hitler.
 
Nazi.
 
Today, and for a long time now, it has been deemed unacceptable to compare individuals to Hitler or organizations to Nazis. Now, it is true that no one or thing in 2022 America—not tRUMP, not DeathSantis, not Abbot, not the GOP, not any of their ilk—can be compared with Hitler or his brand of Nazism as found in Germany during the 1940s. However, it is accurate to say and ought to be acceptable to observe that the individuals and organizations mentioned above are showing similarities to Hitler and signs of Nazism as manifest in the late 1920’s and early to mid-1930’s. Could we not at least call them, “budding Nazis”? Maybe, “Nazis in embryo”?
 
Do not tell me, for example, that Hitler and his Nazi party would not have been thrilled by the new Texas law that directs the state’s Child Protective Services to “begin handling reports of gender-confirming care for kids as child abuse.” Don’t tell me that the secretive manner in which investigations into such “gender-confirming care” cases are handled is not right out of Hitler’s and the Nazi playbook. Do not tell me that the designation of such secretive investigations into “gender-confirming care” as “special assignments,” does not conjure up horrifying images from Nazi Germany’s activities aimed at ethnic cleansing.[1]
 
But, no, the GOP and their leading lights have not begun to actively murder millions of innocent people because they are different… yet—though the jury is still out on how many people have suffered and died because of the grievousness of the decrees they have written and the wickedness of so many of the laws that they have passed.
 
It is also true that tRUMP has not yet shot anyone “in the middle of Fifth Avenue.” Okay? His supporters have not yet been put to the test to see if he was correct when he boasted, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?” Of course, the fact that his supporters are still with him after all his record-setting lies and unprecedented corruption—including his encouragement of and leadership in an insurrection against the United States government—might be taken as evidence that he was right and that his supports have failed the test of being freedom loving, patriotic, and moral Americans. Not to mention being just plain, decent human beings.
 
All of this leads us to the second noun in our title.
 
Cult.
 
This word is deemed to be inappropriate for polite society. So, though tRUMP looks very much like a cult leader and tRUMPism looks for all the world like a cult to me, we will for now avoid the designation. We will just call the movement, “religion,” and Trump, its prophet.
 
If questioned about this designation, I will offer up this interesting piece of evidence. I will ask the reader to consider, again, tRUMP’s apparently accurate assessment that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn't lose any voters, okay?” What he really means is that people will follow him even when he is wrong.
 
Now, consider the common Mormon religious position that one is to “follow the prophet” even if and when he is wrong. Sounds an awfully lot like tRUMP’s assertion to me. I suppose that the prophet could stand in temple square and shoot someone and still maintain many of his supporters. In fact, one suspects that the response to this crime would be much like the response of TRUMP’s supporters’ to his myriad of crimes: justify it by finding a way around calling it a crime. Argue that prophets, actually, can say and do no wrong. Whatever they say and do is, by definition, “right.” We learned that long ago from the first Mormon prophet, Joseph.
 
Nothing, it seems, is more important than standing by your man.
 
So, yes, with this single evidence among the many that we could innumerate, we are justified in calling tRUMPISM a religion. False and apostate, yes, but religious in nature nonetheless. This new “faith” increasingly shows strong indications of being a cult. With each passing day, its adherents display clearer and clearer signs of being willfully brainwashed. That which is insane is increasingly viewed as rational and sane. How much longer can it be before this apostate religion morphs into full-blown cult and then from budding Nazism to full-on Nazism? How long before its adherents metastasize from budding Nazis into full-on Nazis?
 
It isn’t inevitable, of course, that today’s budding cultists and Nazis become the real McCoy tomorrow. But no one who claims to still be rooted in reality and who loves goodness and virtue can afford to passively wait around to find out. The threat that the American right—inspired and empowered by the devil named, Trump—represents to all that is good and holy is not to be ignored. It must be exposed for the evil and danger that it is.
 
For me, the word of God is the first defense. It is more than a defensive shield. It can be and should be used, like a double-edged sword, as one of the most powerful offensive weapons against this unholy abomination.
 
“And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.”[2]
 
If the “virtue of the word of God” fails to quell, defeat, and obliterate the American evil that tRUMP has brought to light and breathed new life into, then… well… as Jesus said to the “daughters of Jerusalem,
 
‘Weep not for me,
but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say,
“Blessed are the barren,
and the wombs that never bare,
and the paps which never gave suck.”
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains,
“Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.”
For if they do these things in a green tree,
what shall be done in the dry?’”[3]
 
May it not be so, Lord! But may repentance awake and forgiveness be granted.
 
Even so, com, Lord Jesus!
 

[1] “Caseworkers: Texas order on trans kids handled differently,” Paul J. Weber, AP News.
[2][2] Alma 31.5
[3] Luke 23.28-31

​america’s mad state of rebellion:
therefore, the world lieth in sin
30 march 2022

What is to be done when not just one person or a few people, but an entire society comes to believe and act as though madness is the norm; that insanity is sanity; that madness and insanity are the normal state of existence?
 
Columnist and reporter, Sharon Zhang, recently wrote, as so many have, of a form of madness that is viewed by many, many 10s of millions of Americans as normal, appropriate, and desirable. Actually, this piece catalogues not “a form of madness,” but multiple forms of madness.
 
“… the average bonus for Wall Street employees rose to $257,500 in 2021 – or roughly five times the average salary for U.S. workers. This is an increase of 20 percent from 2020; meanwhile, the average American only saw wage raises of 2 percent in 2021, which is far less than the inflation rate of 7 percent…”
 
Note, please, we are only talking here about Wall Street bonuses, not salaries. Bonuses, above and beyond salary, were 5 times the salaries of U.S. worders. And, we should not, on one side we are talking about “employees.” On the other, “workers.” I accept this distinction as Wall Street “employees,” for all their talk of the American work ethic, have never done a days work in their lives.
 
“… the average bonus for Wall Street employees has increased by a whopping 1,743 percent since 1985, when the average bonus was $13,970. If minimum wage had kept up with Wall Street bonuses, it would be $61.75 an hour, or 8.5 times higher than the current minimum wage of $7.25.
 
Not only do Wall Street employees not work, but they earn more for not working than ever before.
 
Millions of low-wage essential workers are struggling to make ends meet while taking care of our country’s basic human needs. Meanwhile, Wall Streeters are getting massively rewarded for high-risk behaviors that endanger the entire economy” …
 
Not only do Wall Street employees not work, they engage in practices and behaviors that hurt working American’s and put the entire U.S. and world economy at risk—as was the case a decade ago.
 
“… the minimum wage has remained stagnant since 2009. Not only is $7.25 an hour insufficient to survive nearly anywhere in the U.S., it’s also considered poverty wages in many places. With each year that goes by, that wage is worth less; with inflation, $7.25 in today’s dollars is equivalent to only $5.50 in 2009 dollars.” [1]
 
Not only do American workers actually work, and work harder and smarter than they did a decade ago, they earn less for doing so.
 
In what sane persons mind; in what sane society’s collective consciousness; in what sane legislative body’s policies does any of this sound like a good idea, reasonable, sane?
 
None. No, not one.
 
On its very face, such realities are clear indications of mad insanity. One needn’t be the least bit philosophical or religious to see the clear, abject madness of such conditions. One would think that the drive to survive built into human DNA over millions of years would be enough to cancel the existence of such nihilistic and destructive insanity.
 
That said, those who live in American society claim to be, if not philosophical, religious. Many tens of millions of them claim to be followers of one, Jesus, Son of God. And several millions of these “Christians,” those who once called themselves “Mormons,” also claim to follow Jesus—going so far as to call themselves, “Saints.” But, notwithstanding scripture’s unambiguous opposition, millions of these “Christians,” “Mormons,” and “Saints” have fallen prey to the sort of madness described in Zhang’s piece. In this, at least, there is no hypocrisy. They callously live the false doctrine they espouse—economic inequality is normal, appropriate, and justifiable before God.
 
So, again, to those who normalize madness, we must speak of God’s own word. They have, of course, heard it before, these madmen and women. Having rejected the word of God in the past, they will, likely, reject it once more. Still, we do not wish to be guilty of one of ancient Israel’s greatest sins: the failure to fulfill its calling to the world.
 
“Just look at my servant, whom I grasped,
   the one I chose, in whom I was pleased.
I placed my spirit upon him
   that he should[2] generate justice among the nations.
He won’t call out, or lift
   or make his voice heard in public[3].
He doesn’t so much as trample a crushed blade of grass,
   or an already sputtering wick
      to faithfully produce justice.
He is not to grow feint[4] or discouraged
   until he has established justice on earth;
      for the ends of the earth are in anxious expectation of his instruction.
This is what the God, Yahweh, said--
   the creator and expander of the heavens,
      the one who stretches out the earth and spreads out its life[5],
who grants life[6] to all peoples upon it
   and breath who live[7] on it--
‘I, Yahweh, called you, as is right,
   and would strengthen you and watch over you
and present you as a promise[8] to peoples
   and an example[9] to nations,
to open eyes that are blind,
   to lead captives out of prison
      from imprisonment those who abide in darkness.’”[10]
 
It’s very sad, don’t you think—the world, left without a warning voice because those called to warn wouldn’t lift a finger? Like that ancient nation, Jesus’ disciples today are “sent… out to testify and warn the people, and it becometh every man who hath been warned to warn his neighbor.”[11]
 
 And here is our warning in relation to the madness of the sort of economic inequality so well described in Zhang’s piece.
 
“It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin.”[12]
 
You see? Inequality is sin. Economic inequality is sin. No matter how one dresses it up; no matter how normal it is presented to be; no matter how often and vociferously it is defended and justified, economic inequality is a form of madness. In God’s economy it is abnormal. It is not how the cosmos was created to function. It is indicative of a world wallowing in sin and in open rebellion against God. Its only end is disfunction, collapse, and destruction.
 
Unfortunately, a people, a faith, a society engulfed in this form of sinful madness to the extent that America is loses, as we have already said, the very ability to discern truth; to distinguish madness from sanity.
 
“Nevertheless, in your temporal things you shall be equal, and this not grudgingly, otherwise the abundance of the manifestations of the Spirit shall be withheld.”[13]
 
It is, therefore, difficult to see a way out of the present madness or a path that leads to future sanity. Repentance requires enough discernment to recognize and acknowledge sin. But the “manifestations of the Spirit,” so essential in revealing sin, have been and are disrupted; drowned in a flood of lust.
 
In calling for economic equality, we do not call for religious programs or movements. We only call for moral rectitude consistent with cosmic principles of happiness, advancement, and endurance as God, Himself, has outlined them.
 
We will not slacken in our commitment to warn concerning the madness. We will not cease in extending an invitation back from insanity to sanity. If we are unsure and doubtful concerning the possibility of reformation, we will plead before God, as one anxious, yet determined father once did,
 
“Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”[14]
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!


[1]“If Minimum Wage Kept Up With Wall Street Bonuses, It Would Be $61.75 an Hour,” Truthout).
[2] I understand this imperfect verb to be modal.
[3] Literally, “outside, in the street.”
[4] Again, the imperfect verb is read in a modal sense.
[5] Literally, “offspring, seed.”
[6] Literally, “breath.”
[7] Literally, “walk.”
[8] Traditionally, “covenant.”
[9] Literally, “light.”
[10] Isaiah 42.1-7
[11] DC 88.81
[12] DC 49.20
[13] DC 70.14
[14] Mark. 9.24

For those who regularly visit this site, my love for the Book of Psalms is by now well known. Also well know is one of the reasons for my appreciation: faithful boldness in prayer. The Psalmists’ faith in God is such that they know His appreciation for honesty in prayer and so fearlessly offer it, even when their thoughts and feelings might challenge traditional views of what God will and will not accept by way of challenging complaint and questioning. Today’s blog post is a prayer.
 
 
Oh Lord, I will be as bold as Israel’s beloved Psalmist. I will speak of my wonderment. I will confess my doubt. I will give voice to my frustration and complaint. 
 
Where, I ask, are you? Are you really there? Do you really care?
 
How long will you remain silent, absent, neglectful, inert?
 
Why silent, absent, neglectful, and inert about and toward the devil named Putin?
 
Why silent, absent, neglectful, and inert toward and about religious leaders who give this devil a pass—is it because his views toward gays is perfectly aligned with theirs?—while they engage in inanities that waste the spiritual energy of adherents, divert attention from Jesus’ most cherished aims, and trivialize the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
 
Is it wrong to ask that you act today as it is reported you have acted in the past?
 
I remember, Lord, the words with which Sennacherib’s envoy, Rabshakeh, blasphemously reproached you to your face. “Hear ye the words of the great king, the king of Assyria,” spat Rabshakeh at the walls of your holy place. 
 
“Let not Hezekiah deceive you… neither let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, ‘The LORD will surely deliver us: this city shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria’ … Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, ‘The LORD will deliver us.’  Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? And have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of these lands, that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?”[1]
 
I remember, still, what you said and how you responded when Hezekiah laid all this blasphemy before your face. I remember how you said to the mighty king of Assyria,
 
“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed?    
   and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice,  
      and lifted up thine eyes on high?   
even against the Holy One of Israel…”[2]
 
I remember how you warned the oppressor, and promised the oppressed
 
“He shall not come into this city,   
   nor shoot an arrow there,  
nor come before it with shields,   
   nor cast a bank against it. 
By the way that he came,   
   by the same shall he return,  
and shall not come into this city,   
   saith the LORD.”[3]
 
I remember, too, how you then acted.
 
“Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh. And* as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword.”[4]
 
Did this, O Lord, really happen? Is scripture to be trusted? Is it to be used as precedent, as an example to be followed? Did you really heed Hezekiah, a good, but flaw man such as I, as so many of us? Did you deliver Jerusalem, flawed city that it was, from the spoiler’s lust?
 
So, look down now, Lord, at what is happening on the planet called earth. A spoiler has entered the sovereign nation of Ukraine. The besieged nation is not a perfect nation. But it is no better or worse than ancient Judah was, surely. Its inhabitants have no less claim upon you for life and peace than that ancient nation that Isaiah, Jeremiah and many others castigated so mercilessly for its unfaithfulness to you. And I, with many others who pray to you, are we so different from Hezekiah. And surely, the spoiler’s head, Putin, is but a reincarnation of and is driven by the same vile lusts as that infamous Sennacherib.
 
Why, then, oh Lord, do you turn a blind eye to Putin’s present blasphemy and reproaches to your honor? For surely, the man’s violent outburst is a blasphemy and reproach against you and all that you stand for. Why do you sit idle while the puny man does Satan’s bidding? Wreaks havoc on the world? Lays waste to cities? Chases millions into the life of powerless refugee status? Causes psychological damage to children that may very well spill over to several generations? Takes the life of thousands upon thousands of innocents?
 
You, it is claimed, sent a sword-wielding angel to threaten death upon one, Joseph, who hesitated to take a second wife in polygamy. Why do you withhold your warning sword now? Why do you not visit and threaten Putin, whose sin is viler than Joseph’s by the order of many magnitudes? This would be a mercy to Putin and to the whole world. Can I, can we not ask this of you? If not, why not? What’s changed? What’s different?
 
Can I, can we not ask this of you? If Putin will not yield to your merciful warning that he stop and desist from his demonic works, then may you do as you did to Sennacherib and his army. Stretch forth your mighty arm and turn his army backward. Send them back to their homeland, defeated, without the shedding of the defenders’ blood. And, if necessary, may you send forth upon Putin an assassin, as you did against Sennacherib and as you did when you sent the left-handed Benjamite, Ehud, to pierce with his two-edged dagger the corpulent Moabite king as he sat upon his royal toilet.[5]
 
I ask that you try mercy first. Then, the bloodless defeat and failure of an army. Only then, death to Putin.
 
Can I really ask God to kill? Do I want to? How do I feel about a God who kills? I am, I confess, torn. But, what else is there to it? It is good and righteous and proper that Putin’s evil be stopped.
 
Now, Lord, forgive me, but I am troubled by another evil. We have leaders, it seems to me, religious leaders who, claiming to know you best and to be your mouthpiece, trivialize the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They give a pass to an obvious aggressor, murderer, war criminal, and faithful, apocalyptic-scale disciple of Lucifer by offering generic, half-hearted, milk toast statements of regret in regard to Putin and his international lawbreaking aggression against another nation. This weak-kneed and inadequate response is, in itself, troubling enough. But, at the same time that Satan unleashes his bought and paid for armies and navies and air forces upon a weaker nation, these same leaders travel the world over to claim that your greatest concern revolves around a matter as trivial as the name of the church and how its name is to be typeset. Putin may not be named as a danger to righteousness, but by God, those who won’t abide by their stylistic preferences sure as hell are!
 
Then again, they use their globetrotting ways as an opportunity to unambiguously and consistently and emphatically chide those who speak too often and/or too intimately of/to a wholly speculative, non-scriptural divine matriarch. But, on those occasions when this unknown matriarch is referred to, these leaders once more demand that their stylistic preferences be maintained and capital letters avoided in vocal intonation and typesetting.
 
How, oh Lord, are we to take such leadership or its claims of insight seriously? Forgive me, O Lord, but Jesus’ famous criticism of the religious leaders of his day comes unbidden to my mind: they “strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.”[6]
 
Lord, should not Putin be stopped? Will you let him offend and defile his nation and the nations of this world as America’s previous president did? You know how I prayed to you about him. I won’t return to that complaint. Will you not demand of all, especially religious leaders, that they take a stand and proclaim boldly and unequivocally against the evil that is Putin? Will you not put an end to the blasphemy and reproach that Putin’s violence casts at you? Will you not put an end to the trivialization of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Will you not put an end to the misery and suffering and death of the Ukrainian people?
 
Please act, Lord. I refuse to be comforted until you do. A gospel that does not comfort the vulnerable, the oppressed, the suffering, the powerless, the dying can bring comfort to no one.
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

[1] Isaiah 36.13-15, 18-20
[2] Isaiah 36.23
[3] Isaiah 36.33-34
[4] Isaiah 36.36-38
[5] See, Judges 3.15-26
[6] Matthew 23.24

​​In the twenty first chapter of his book, Isaiah reports hearing a voice, saying,
 
“Go, set a watchman,
   let him declare what he seeth” (vs. 6).
 
Later in the same chapter, Isaiah hears a voice from afar.
 
“Watchman, what of the night?
   Watchman, what of the night?” (vs. 11)
 
In today’s blog post, I will play the role of a watchman and report a just a few of the many things I have watched and seen from my perch on scripture.
 
I have watched the planet continue to heat dangerously from its inhabitants’ insatiable and rapacious appetite and from the impotent response of leaders caught in the web of lust and covetousness.
 
I have watched American citizens, guided by their own insatiable narcissism and led by inept leaders and a freely elected immoral sociopath, insanely refuse to act rationally and morally in the face of the worst pandemic in a hundred years, thus bringing needless sorrow and death to hundreds of thousands of their neighbors.
 
I have watched fathers, mothers, and children worry about having shelter from nature’s hostile elements—necessary shelter inhumanely thought and spoken of by those in power only in sanitized terms such as “rental property” or “house and home”—while rich vulture (no, that is not a typo) capitalists, with legislators' approval, buy and sell needed shelter to line investors’ pockets with the skin they strip off the bodies of the poor.
 
I have watched American lawmakers place anti-democratic obstacles in voter’s paths to the ballot box. Then, if voters possess the chutzpa and demonstrate the ability to negotiate the damnable obstacle course placed before them, those same unlawful law makers threaten to not count and/or certify those audacious voters’ ballots.
 
I have watched tens of millions of innocent American children live in poverty and go to bed hungry while, even in a pandemic, business tycoons count their growing wealth by the billions and unfeeling businesses rake in their misbegotten profits by preying on the vulnerable and powerless.
 
On this very day, I watch another man work himself to the bone laboring at two jobs so he can keep his life-prolonging medical insurance while he weakens daily as another pound of the twenty pounds of flesh that his cancer has already taken falls from his enfeebled frame.
 
In this very hour, I watch with the rest of a perverted and impotent planet as innocent citizens, non-combatants of Ukraine violently die in burning and crumbling cities barbarically targeted by a nation’s army that accepted a psychopath as national leader.
 
As I watch these and countless other crimes against God, angels, and humanity, I also watch secular and religious leaders’ pathetic and impotent—too often near non-existent—response to them. Watching their callous indifference, I imagine that I see Nero, backlit by towering orange flames, playing his fiddle while Rome burns. Or, like Jeremiah of Old Testament fame, I see watchmen who refuse to fulfill their saving call—likely more concerned with the money they have given to their “exchangers” than with the vulnerable and endangered (See DC 101.49).
 
“Also I set watchmen over you, saying,
   ‘Hearken to the sound of the trumpet.’
      But they said, ‘We will not hearken’” (Jer. 6.17).
 
What else am I to think and feel when I compare the desperate needs evident in such dire times with the woefully inadequate and impotent response of America’s secular and religious leaders to those needs? What am I to think and feel, for example, about legislators who, in the face of such need, are so useless as to waste serious discussion and precious time in a matter as trivial as whether we turn clocks forward or backward twice a year? And what am I to think and feel about these “leaders” when this is the only sort of issue—other than weaponizing the planet—around which they can gather and agree? Am I really supposed to take them seriously as “leaders”? Hardly. They are worthless as leaders.
 
And what am I to make of religious leaders who waste time speculating on things such as the possible existence of divine matriarchs, worrying and lecturing about a possible obsession with them, and then attempting to legislate how one utilizes capital letters when referring to this unknown being? What am I to think when those same leaders in “Zion” so seldomly and timidly address in word or deed the very purposes for which God created Zion in the first place—alleviating the suffering of the poor and replacing their poverty with abundance?
 
“That you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the Zion of God shall stand; and also that a feast of fat things might be prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things, of wine on the lees well refined, that the earth may know that the mouths of the prophets shall not fail; yea, a supper of the house of the Lord, well prepared, unto which all nations shall be invited. First, the rich and the learned, the wise and the noble; and after that cometh the day of my power; then shall the poor, the lame, and the blind, and the deaf, come in unto the marriage of the Lamb, and partake of the supper of the Lord, prepared for the great day to come” (DC 58.7-11).
 
Twenty-five hundred years ago, Jeremiah complained of the uselessness of Judah’s secular and religious leaders “from the least of them even unto the greatest of them.” “They,” he charged,
 
“Have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
   saying, ‘Peace, peace;’ when there is no peace.”
 
Jeremiah was amazed so see that “they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” at their uselessness (See Jer. 6.13-15). America’s secular and religious leaders, too, find no reason to blush at the obscenity of their leadership. If only they made an even half-hearted attempt to “heal… the hurt,” rather than perpetrate greater suffering and more death upon the very people they were elected and called to serve, heal, and protect.
 
We do not go too far or exaggerate when we conclude that far too many American secular and religious leaders are worthy of the same prophetic condemnation as that spoken by the ancient Jewish prophet, Ezekiel.
 
“Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock. The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost; but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them. And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them” (Ezek. 34.2-6).
 
Nor do we do too far in hoping that God will put an end to this, at best, useless rule, and, at worst, self-servingly deadly rule.
 
“Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them… As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day… I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment” (Ezek. 34.10, 12, 16).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The Old Testament is the longest of the standard works. In fact, it is longer than all the other standard words combined. Except for a few dozen proof-texts, we Latter-day Saints ignore about 95% of the Book. One of our favorite proof-texts comes from the Book of Malachi. We hear it quoted in Sunday School. In priesthood. In Relief Society. In sacrament services. It would be interesting to know how many general conferences have concluded without having this passage quoted. My guess is, not many.
 
In wonderment at Judah’s failure to “bring… tithes into the storehouse” (Mal. 3.10), Malachi asks his famous question: “Will a man rob God?”
 
So, over and over again we are admonished to pay our tithing. We are assured that we will be personally blessed, the windows of heaven opening wide to flood our narcissistic little worlds with benefits—for this appeal to our self-centeredness is the only way, it seems, to move us to action.
 
Just verses earlier, however, Malachi complains of another theft. This one gets no press. It would be interesting to know whether it has ever been quoted in a single one of the 191 general conferences. My guess is not.
 
“And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts” (Mal. 3.5).
 
Wage theft is as much robbery as shorting the Lord in tithes. Both are a violation of God’s law. Indeed, wage theft is lumped together with sorcery and adultery. Why, then, has this warning against wage theft been so often, almost vigorously ignored while other sins, no more perverted, are incessantly harped on? Is it because many of us do not see wage theft as a threat to our narcissistic lives—as a problem impacting others and so of little consequence to us? And yet, this theft is far, far more pervasive and destructive to individuals and society than a few measly million “saints” giving something less than 10% of their income to fund an already hugely wealthy church. Wage theft harms millions, perhaps billions. It has, in fact, become part of our global cottage industry. It is how business is conducted in 2022. Take, for example, the following example from the United States—by no means one of the most obscene examples of wage theft.
 
“Thousands of part-time workers at the United Parcel Service (UPS) around the US were recently informed that their hourly wages would be cut, eliminating raises implemented in 2021 at some hubs as a means to attract and retain workers in the tighter labor market.
 
“Alex Sanchez, a part-time UPS worker in Ontario, California, for one year, said part-time workers at his hub had their base rate increased in 2021 from $15.33 an hour to $18 an hour.
 
“‘We were told that the raise was permanent,’ said Sanchez.
 
“At the end of January, Sanchez said he was informed that his hourly wage and those of every other part-time employee at UPS would revert back to $15.33 an hour.
 
“UPS reported record profits in 2021 as it increased shipping prices; its profits grew nearly tenfold in 2021 to $12.89bn from $1.34bn in 2020. Its stock price hit a record high in February 2022. UPS is projecting more growth in 2022, with the expectation to hit 2023 financial goals a year early. The company approved a $5bn stock buyback program in August 2021” (“‘This $3 cut takes a toll’: UPS slashes pay for part-time workers as profits grow,” Michael Sainato, Guardian).
 
When we consider the degree to which wage theft takes place in America, and the number of individuals who are victimized by corporate robber barens, our willful indifference toward and ignoring of wage theft is all the more perplexing and, frankly, offensive. It not only makes us complicit in the crime, it leaves the victims of wage theft without advocates and subject to continued and additional violation.
 
Perhaps, one might argue that because God is the greatest of all robbing God is worse than robbing one’s fellow man or woman. But, if Jesus is to be trusted, this is patently false; for he makes clear that whatever we do to even the least of those among us, we do to God (See Mat. 25.31-46). A Book of Mormon king, inspired by the same spirit that inspired Jesus, asserted that “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God (Mos. 2.17). So, robbery of our fellow men and women is the same as robbing God.
 
I don’t know who or how many of those who are reading this right now are guilty of robbing their fellow man and God through wage theft. If there are those who are guilty of such blatant rebellion against God, repent. But, that is not the end of the matter. Those of us who may not be guilty of this crime, may be implicated in the crime through our disinterested silence and our cowardly, selfish refusal to advocate for the millions and billions of workers being harmed by wage theft. We remain complicit in the crime so long as we join in electing and supporting immoral leaders who “decree unrighteous decrees” and “write grievousness” in a vain attempt to turn that which is immoral into something that is moral and to call good what is evil. They, with their business partners, are bandits. They are robbers, who
 
turn aside the needy from [justice],   
   and… take away the right from the poor of my people,  
that widows may be their prey,   
   and that they may rob the fatherless!”
 
And what, what,
 
“what will ye do in the day of visitation,   
   and in the desolation which shall come from far?   
to whom will ye flee for help?  
   and where will ye leave your glory?” (Isaiah 10.1-3)
 
Yes, wage theft is sin. It carries serious consequences. Those who engage in it and those who do and say nothing to challenge its evil will, “with the wicked, lift up [their] eyes in hell, being in torment” (DC 104.18).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

The personally immoral and publicly corrupt twice-impeached ex-president governed—using the term loosely—for four horrific, nightmarish years even though he never came close to winning the votes of a majority of American voters. Though out of power through a defeat that his fragile ego cannot accept, he continues to take his lead from the playbook of the “mostest wicked” of Book of Mormon evil kings, Noah, by encouraging “his friends in iniquity” (Mos. 29.21) to support and join him in his wickedness.
 
“Fulton County DA Fani Willis has publicy called for more security after Trump told his followers to ‘protest’ on his behalf if ‘these racist and mentally sick’ prosecutors try to put him in jail. He’s calling for more violence and Republicans haven’t said a single word about it. DA Willis is asking the FBI to immediately conduct a risk assessment of the courthouse and government center, and wants intelligence assigned on the threat plus protection from federal agents because she fears another January 6 is going to happen… Since his idiot followers really believe him when he says he’ll pardon them when he becomes president again, they could really do it.
 
“When asked about Trump telling his followers that he would pardon them if they’re convicted for carrying out his orders, Senator Chuck Grassley said, ‘That’s speculation.’ ‘That’s not speculation.’ He said it out loud at a rally with cameras rolling….” (“American Nazis, Spike Dolomite, Medium).
 
“And thus an unrighteous American ex-president doth pervert the ways of all righteousness” (Mos. 29.33). And thus we see “how much iniquity doth one wicked American ex-president cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction! (Mos. 29.17)

The amount of misinformation distributed and the degree to which it is accepted in our present post-truth era age is quite literally Biblical in proportion. The Apostle could have been speaking of times such as ours when he warned,
 
“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 Tim. 4.3-4).
 
However, even he seems not to have foreseen the suicidal aspects that much of America’s present society contains within its distain for reality and truth. Take, for example, the following reporting.
 
“Tennessee’s Board of Medical Examiners unanimously adopted in September a statement that said doctors spreading COVID misinformation — such as suggesting that vaccines contain microchips — could jeopardize their license to practice.
 
“‘I’m very glad that we’re taking this step,’ Dr. Stephen Loyd, the panel’s vice president, said at the time. ‘If you’re spreading this willful misinformation, for me it’s going to be really hard to do anything other than put you on probation or take your license for a year. There has to be a message sent for this. It’s not OK’…
 
“But before any physicians could be reprimanded for spreading falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines or treatments, Republican lawmakers threatened to disband the medical board.
 
“The growing tension in Tennessee between conservative lawmakers and the state’s medical board may be the most prominent example in the country. But the Federation of State Medical Boards, which created the language adopted by at least 15 state boards, is tracking legislation introduced by Republicans in at least 14 states that would restrict a medical board’s authority to discipline doctors for their advice on COVID” (“Republicans Are Pressuring Medical Boards to Let COVID Misinformation Slide,” Blake Farmer, Truthout).
 
Yes, this goes beyond Paul. We must really look to the Book of Revelation for anything as insanely anti-truth and anti-Christ as this contempt for truth, for it is truly apocalyptic.

There is so much that is wrong with the conduct reported in the following that one hardly knows where to begin.
 

“Thanks to a tax code that favors corporations and the wealthy, Amazon was able to dodge billions of dollars of federal income taxes in 2021, a new report has found.
 
“According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the tech behemoth reported record profits last year, raking in $35 billion – 75 percent more than they made in 2020, which was also a record year for the company.
 
“Despite these record profits, the company paid a federal income tax rate of 6.1 percent, or $2.1 billion, in 2021. If the company hadn’t benefited from tax breaks and had paid the already low statutory corporate tax rate of 21 percent, it would have paid $7.3 billion in federal tax. This means that the company successfully dodged $5.2 billion in corporate taxes last year.
 
“Since 2018, the company has only paid an average effective tax rate of 5.1 percent. In 2018 and 2019, Amazon’s tax dodging was especially egregious; in 2019, the company paid 1.2 percent in federal income taxes. The year before, the company paid a negative 1.2 percent tax rate, meaning that it received more money from the government than it paid in taxes” (Amazon Dodged $5.2 Billion in Taxes Last Year, Report Finds, Sharon Zhang, Truthout).
 
​
We begin our survey of this wickedness with these words of Isiah, now familiar to those who regularly visit this space.
 
“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,   
   and that write grievousness which they have prescribed… “
 
The wickedness reported above is certainly an example of governments at all levels—local, state, and federal—having “decree[d] unrightous decrees” and “writ[ing] grievousness” so as to make immoral behavior “legal.” “What,” you ask, “is so immoral about laws that allow companies to escape taxes?” “What,” you mean, “is so immoral about companies being freed from contributing meaningfully to society’s welfare?” Let me count the ways. We will return to our now familiar Isaiah passage.
 
“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees,   
   and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 
to turn aside the needy from judgment,   
   and to take away the right from the poor of my people,  
that widows may be their prey,   
   and that they may rob the fatherless!” (Isaiah 10.1-2)
 
The needy, the poor, the widowed, the fatherless, and all other vulnerable citizens suffer as a consequence of unrighteous decrees and grievousness. That’s one. Such laws put a huge target on the back of the most vulnerable in our society.
 
Decrees of unrighteousness and grievousness endanger not only the vulnerable, they endanger all of us. They endanger democracy. With all their resources, the wealthy gain unequal access to lawmakers. With this access, they influence the legislative process to write and pass ever more unrighteous decrees and grievousness which widen the gap in both resources and influence between the powerful and powerless. As Harold Laski, a British political theorist, observed over a hundred years ago,
 
“A State divided into a small number of rich and a large number of poor will always develop a government manipulated by the rich to protect the amenities represented by their property.”
 
Though it is worthy of its own treatment in any discussion of America’s mad state of rebellion (something we have done elsewhere), we should mention the evil that economic inequality represents, especially that which is legalized through unrighteous decrees and grievousness. It was none of than God, Himself, who named economic inequality for the sin that it is.
 
“It is not given that one man should possess that which is above another, wherefore the world lieth in sin” (DC 49.20).
 
“Thus we see” that unrighteous decrees and grievousness that make it possible for the wealthy to escape taxes and their responsibilities as less fortunate citizens corrupts the very beneficiaries of those decrees, makes sinners of them, and puts a big target on their backs as well.
 
“Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and of judgment, and of indignation: ‘The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!’” (DC 56.16)
 
How long can a society in which every citizen, poor and rich alike, has a target on their back endure?
 
Those who decree unrighteousness and grievousness along with those who use them to prey upon their less fortunate fellow citizens imagine they can hide from God and the consequences of their wickedness.
 
Haughtily, the wicked vehemently pursues those already down and out.
   The poor are snared by the plans the wicked conceives.
For the wicked finds joy only in satisfying his appetites,
   and calls blessed, one accumulating unjust profits--
      one who holds YHWH in contempt!
 
He says to himself, ‘I cannot be toppled.
   My future holds no misfortune.’
 
He sits in ambush outside villages.
   From concealed places he slays the unsuspecting innocent;
      his eyes peer out at his unfortunate victim.
Like a lion, he lies in wait from a concealed place in the brush.
   He lies in ambush to seize the poor--
He seizes the poor, dragging him into his lair.
   He crouches low, he hunches down
      and falls upon the bones of the vulnerable.
He says to himself, ‘God is oblivious.
   He’s absent. He sees nothing, ever’” (Psalm 10.2-3, 6, 8-11, author’s translation).
 
But He who is holy and lives in heaven observes all, including this preying upon the vulnerable.
 
“I have heard your prayers, and the poor have complained before me…”
 
The day of visitation will come. We have prayed for it before and will again. It has become a common refrain in our prayers.
 
“And what will ye do in the day of visitation,   
   and in the desolation which shall come from far?   
to whom will ye flee for help?  
   and where will ye leave your glory?” (Isaiah 10.3)

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

In our paradigmatic text for this series (Mosiah 29.17, 21-23), the Book of Mormon redactor warns of the evils of a wicked king.
 
“For behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!
 
“And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood. For behold, he has his friends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God; And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he causeth to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous king doth pervert the ways of all righteousness”
 
The warning is 100% applicable to the wickedness of America’s latest ex-president, who continues to breath threats and inspire insurrectionists against American democracy. Not a single day, not one, passed during his administration but what witnessed yet another example of his “tear[ing] up the laws of those who… reigned… before him and pervert[ing] the ways of all righteousness [all that is right].” Few days have passed since the defeat he arrogantly refuses to acknowledge but what additional examples of his ripping at the fabric of American society are discovered and published. This example of his wickedness literally involves tearing and ripping.
 
President Donald Trump tore up briefings and schedules, articles and letters, memos both sensitive and mundane.
 
He ripped paper into quarters with two big, clean strokes — or occasionally more vigorously, into smaller scraps.
 
He left the detritus on his desk in the Oval Office, in the trash can of his private West Wing study and on the floor aboard Air Force One, among many other places.
 
And he did it all in violation of the Presidential Records Act, despite being urged by at least two chiefs of staff and the White House counsel to follow the law on preserving documents.
 
“‘It is absolutely a violation of the act,’ said Courtney Chartier, president of the Society of American Archivists. ‘There is no ignorance of these laws. There are White House manuals about the maintenance of these records’” (“‘He never stopped ripping things up’: Inside Trump’s relentless document destruction habits,” Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, Tom Hamburger and Jacqueline Alemany, Washington Post).
 
This man must be stopped from ripping America further apart. His wickedness must be exposed on national TV. It must be broadcast to every rooftop satellite, through every fiber optic cable, upon the pages of every print publication, and via every social media outlet. And his “friends in iniquity” must be made to publicly confess and repent of their sedition in supporting him, or lose all position and honor and, perhaps, freedom in society. How’s that for a Captain Moroni imitation?

In exploring homelessness and the state of housing in America, the author of a recent piece made the following observations:
 
“… in the 1950s the median price of a single-family house was around 2.2 times the median American family income. Today, the Fed says, the median house sells for $374,900 while the median American income is $35,805 — a ratio of more than ten-to-one…
 
“… what’s taken over and is really driving home prices today are massive, multi-billion-dollar funds that sweep into neighborhoods and buy everything available, bidding against families and driving up housing prices…
 
“After stripping neighborhoods of homes families can buy, they then begin raising rents as far as the market will bear” (“Wall Street’s Barons Are Causing Homelessness for Profit,” Thom Hartmann, Truthout).
 
The piece goes on to report that it is not unusual for these rents to be up to 1/3 of annual income for working class families—as opposed to the investor class, who do no work, notwithstanding the popular myth of the “American work ethic.”
 
Now, we must not and will not let such investors hide behind the fact that what they do is “legal.” While their culpability may be slightly less than that of the black-hearted legislators who enact unjust laws and make such banditry possible and legal, there is nothing that demands that the investor class act upon policies and laws that are corrupt from the legislators’ signing pens. Investors are free to choose. They can act morally, though those who govern do not. And because they are free to choose, they are accountable for their choices. I, for one, look forward to the day when accounts will be settled and payment made for the injustices perpetrated in the name of “its legal.”
 
It is certain that the American economic system is utterly different than that of Biblical Israel. As opposed to some ill-informed “Christians,” we would not and do advocate for the institution of “Biblical Law” in America. Nevertheless, there are Biblical principles that can be applied to our system and the ways in which we conduct our business. There are legitimate comparisons that can be made between economic practices and policies of the Biblical world and our world today. Here is one. When we read of the immoral real estate practices that our legal system allows and the hardships they impose on working people, we think of one of Isaiah criticisms of “real estate” practices in his day.
 
Isaiah 5 begins with a parable, or song of lamentation, in which Israel is likened to a vineyard. This song explores Yahweh’s sadness in witnessing the social injustices that are allowed to proliferate in Israel—a nation that had been called for the express purpose of being an ensign to the world by, among other things, being exemplary in governing itself according to ethical and just principles. Likening the vineyard’s sweet grapes to Israel’s social justice and the vineyard’s sour grapes to Israel’s social injustice, Isaiah ends with this tragic observation.
 
“Understand: the vineyard of Yahweh Ṣebā’ôt is the house of Yiśrā’el.
   and the men of Yehûdâ, a planting in which he delighted.
He watched anxiously for justice.
   But, look! Violence!
He watched anxiously for equity. 
   But, look! Cries of distress! (author’s translation)
 
With the conclusion of this tragic song, Isaiah launches into a series of six “woes” or expressions of pain, each of varying length. This series of “woes” catalogues some of the specific injustices only alluded to in the song but prevalent in Israelite society. Today, and in light of what is happening to housing in America, we are particularly interested in the first woe which alludes to one of the injustices among the many committed in ancient Israel.
 
“Oh, the pain caused by you who expand, house by house, field by field,
   hoarding until there’s nothing left
      and you dwell all alone in the midst” (Isaiah 5.8, author’s translation).
 
We do not know all the ways in which ancient Israelite greedy and lustful hoarders managed to pull off this property coup. We can be sure, though, that the writing of grievous laws and making of unrighteous decrees played a role (See Is. 10.1). We can also be sure that the individual hoarders that brought pain to less advantaged citizens were accountable for their actions and have been held accountable for their wicked deeds.
 
We can also say that Isaiah’s “woe” reminds us that people never change. We can say that the same type of hurtful behavior—behavior hurtful to individuals and hurtful to society as a whole—of which Isaiah complains is alive and well today. We can say the America’s investor class has preyed upon the poor, widows, orphans, children, and every other vulnerable class of citizen (See Is. 10.2). We can confidently warn America’s investor class to repent. We can confidently predict that God has heard the cries of America’s poor as he heard the cries of Israelite slaves in Egypt, and that he will act. He will recompense the pain that those vulnerable to the investor oppressors have suffered and will visit oppression upon the oppressor. We wish this day of recompense and visitation had already arrived. But let it be sooner or later, we will rejoice in that day when “a feast of fat things [is] prepared for the poor; yea, a feast of fat things of wine on the lees well refined” (DC 58.8).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!