​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!

​
 
 
For this post, we return to one of our paradigmatic texts.
 
“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” ((Mosiah 29.17, 21-23).
 
We would not be under necessity of returning to it so often, if the former president had disappeared into the sunset and stopped being a threat to all that is holy and good. But, alas, he continues to poison his acolytes with lies and deceptions, and to instigate them to violence and lawlessness with his own unholy madness. As the latest example of his treasonous behavior against not only America but against righteousness, we offer the following reporting.
 

“Donald Trump considered issuing a blanket pardon to participants in the January 6 insurrection before he left office, two former advisers have said.
 
“The news, from Politico, landed after Trump told an audience in Texas on Saturday he would issue pardons to rioters if elected president again in 2024.
 
“‘If I run and if I win,’ Trump said in Conro, Texas, ‘we will treat those people from January 6 fairly. We will treat them fairly. And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons because they are being treated so unfairly.’
 
“That prompted a storm of protest also fueled by Trump urging followers to protest against prosecutors in New York and Georgia investigating his business affairs and attempted election subversion” (“Trump considered blanket pardon for Capitol insurrectionists,” Martin Pengelly, The Guardian). 
 
​
Here, we witness the same iniquity and the same wickedness and the same perversion about which the Book of Mormon redactor warned. We witness the same tearing up of laws and the same trampling under feet the commandments of God. We see his attempt to protect and promote his “friends in iniquity.”
 
Because we witness this despicable conduct, we are under necessity of issuing warnings about them. We cannot be complacent. “The enemy is combined [united]” (DC 38.12). We speak anew this warning from long ago. It is
 
“a mystery, a thing which is had in secret chambers, to bring to pass even your destruction in process of time, and ye knew it not… And again, I say unto you that the enemy in the secret chambers seeketh your lives. Ye hear of wars in far countries, and you say that there will soon be great wars in far countries, but ye know not the hearts of men in your own land” (DC 38.13, 28-29).
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

“When I look at the States today, versus its peers in the rich world, an observation leaps out at me. America’s built a society on a kind of furious, single-minded dedication to one idea: Social Darwinism, or the survival of the ‘fittest.’
 
“Let’s begin with the obvious. Its economy is modern history’s greatest machine for survival of the ‘fittest.’ The ‘winners’ deserve extreme fame, fortune, and power — like the billionaires who gained $3.9 trillion during the pandemic while workers lost $3.7 trillion— but the losers don’t even deserve to live. Can’t afford insulin? That’s your fault. You don’t deserve to be alive. Immunocompromised? Not my problem if you get Covid and die because I refuse to wear a mask” (“How Social Darwinism Destroyed America From the Inside,” Umair Haque, Medium).
​
 
Undoubtedly, there are any number of other explanations for the moral bankruptcy of America’s present economic attitudes, policies, and activities. Ditto for the pathetic and sociopathic response of tens of millions of Americans to COVID 19, 20, 21, and now 22—a pathology that has led to hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths. On the day of judgement, we will all see the phlegm, and spittle and blood that defiles the filthy garments and unrepentant souls of those guilty of both sins.
                                                               
As one explanation, selfishness, is the first to come to mind. But such behaviors as those mentioned above, along with whatever vile character traits that produce them in the first place, require justification on the part of the participants. They require a doctrine. Mr. Haque’s identification of “Social Darwinism” with its accompanying “survival of the fittest” is as good a suggested doctrine as any. Perhaps he has been reading the Book of Mormon. Before turning to that great Book, though, I would like to share a couple of thoughts.
 
First, “the survival of the fittest” is a phenomenon of the natural world. It is a phenomenon that acts upon all earth life. But men were created to act rather than to be acted upon. Therefore, “social Darwinism” is a choice. The adoption, justification, and perpetuation of the unholy doctrine that only the “fittest” deserve to succeed and survive while “the least fit” deserve to suffer, fail, and, finally, die are choices.
Secondly, while Darwin gets the credit for identifying a force that is so clearly at work in the natural world, he wasn’t the first. While most members of homo-sapiens, if not all, unconsciously acted upon the doctrine for millions of years in their social relationships with others, one man who lived over two thousand years before Darwin articulated it and commended it as a “righteous” doctrine by which humankind should consciously live. His name is well known in Mormondom: Korihor. This brings us to the Book of Mormon and one of Korihor’s many “innovative” doctrines.
 
“Every man fared in this life according to the management of the creature; therefore every man prospered according to his genius, and that every man conquered according to his strength; and whatsoever a man did was no crime.”
 
Tell me how this is not an articulation of “social Darwinism” and “survival of the fittest.” Fortunately, with this doctrine of Korihor, we are permitted to see its inspiration. It is obvious that this doctinre was intended as direct opposition and challenge to the doctrine of atonement. This doctrine advocated for an interconnected existence in which all acknowledged their inability to individually and adequately “manage” their lives in an enduring way and, at the same time, acknowledged a dependance upon others, not least of which was a dependance upon God. Only by acknowledging and living according to this doctrine of atonement and connectedness is it possible to live a meaningful, happy, and enduring life.
 
So, the Book of Mormon reader has been warned. “Social Darwinism” is anti-Christ. Acceptance of it and living based upon it is a rejection of Christ. It is a rejection of the kind of enduring life that he offers through the doctrine that he lives and teaches: the doctrine of atonement. No reader of the Book of Mormon can act upon the principles of “social Darwinism.” Every reader of the Book of Mormon knows and acts upon the truth that in God’s economy both the “fit” (if such actually exists) and the “unfit” can live a happy, successful, and enduring life through their connectedness with Christ—the only truly fit man to ever walk planet earth. Happy is he or she who find their “fitness” in him.

​“… pharmaceutical companies hiked prices on hundreds of medications to start the year. A recent report from the patient advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs found that drug companies have increased prices on more than 550 drugs, including 183 drugs whose prices were raised by $100 or more, and 118 drugs that now cost more than $5,000. Pfizer alone raised prices on 125 drugs, more than any company, even as it shattered profit records thanks to $36 billion in sales from its widely-used COVID vaccine.
 
“‘Even as we enter the third year of a pandemic, Big Pharma continues its practice of targeting American patients and consumers with price increases, completely undeterred by the financial and health challenges facing American families,’ David Mitchell, the founder of Patients for Affordable Drugs, said in a statement.
 
“‘Drug corporations can do this because we let them — unlike other nations that use their purchasing power to get a better deal…’”
 
Companies and their CEOs are, or course, free to choose good over evil, people over profit. But in the present moment dominated in America by capitalism’s false doctrines, they will not; for profit is viewed as the greatest good and justification for any evil. This, in itself, is an indication of America’s mad state of rebellion and is worthy of its own brand of condemnation. But this madness is multiplied many times over by an American ruling elite that has, through its writing of grievousness and unrighteous decrees, abandoned its citizens to become prey to the insatiable avarice of the masters of mammon and mayhem and death. Isaiah would speak no differently to today’s America than he did over two thousand years ago to ancient Israel. Some things simply never change, no matter the form of government—monarchy or “democracy.”
 
“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! 
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 10.1-3)
 
I, for one, anxiously await the “day of visitation.”
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

​“… the CEO of Raytheon, Greg Hayes, was discussing the escalation of the war in Yemen and Ukraine when he said, ‘I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.’
 
“The Biden administration, ignoring its promises about Yemen from a year ago, is embracing the escalation of the war as they refuse to suspend any support to Saudi Arabia. Raytheon, a company that sees profits from the war in Yemen, gave President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign over half a million dollars in 2020.
 
“In early November of 2021, the Biden administration announced a massive arms sale of $650 million worth of medium-range missiles and missile rail launchers to Saudi Arabia. The primary contractor for these weapons is Raytheon” (“Biden’s Campaign Donors Don’t Want Him to End US Support for the Yemen War,” by Danaka Katovich, Truthout).
 
Knowing God’s plan to populate the earth with his children in hopes of advancing their character and intelligence sufficient to abide his presence eternally, Satan belligerently announced his own intentions to undermine and attack God’s plans by corrupting earth’s mortal inhabitants. One of the principle means by which he would corrupt the embryonic children of God and thus thwart their advancement would be as follows:   
 
“I will buy up armies and navies and reign with blood and horror on the earth” (Satan, LDS temple endowment).
 
This is one of what I call the dark teachings of the endowment; one of its many warnings concerning the nature of mortality.
 
Satan has been true to his word. While the technology used to shed blood and spread horror on the earth has changed and “evolved” over time, nations have consistently done Satan’s bidding. Unfortunately, the United States has been and is no exception. This recent report illustrates but one of the many examples of America’s contract with Satan as it assists him in undermining God’s work.
 
Upon Satan’s issuance of his threat, God cast him out of his presence. Would to God that America was so wise.
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Once upon a time, I had a page on this site entitled “Mad State.” It was headed by the two passages found at the top of this post. It chronicled America’s mad state of rebellion as reflected in its descent into economic, judicial, climatic, governmental, etc. injustices with which the nation is rife. Of course, its latest and greatest commitment to injustice and all things unholy was its mad election of the RUMP. But, with so many pages, the site was growing cumbersome for me and complicated for those who navigated it. So, I got rid of the page along with a few others. Now, my most strident observations on America’s “Mad State” are restricted to this blog page—though my “Just Society” page contains, through homily, indirect and muted commentary on America’s mad state of rebellion.
 
Today’s posting is a follow up to my previous posting, a meditation on Mosiah 29.17, 21-23. In it, I mused on the editor’s description of a “wicked king,” and found it to be a near perfect description of the “wicked 45th president of the United states” who continues to breath threats against American democracy. Here, again, is the passage.
 
“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 danger is not past. The threat that the RUMP (no more “tRUMP.” It’s too respectful. RUMP is clearer that he is to be thought no better than a horses A-double SS) represents is one of the most serious threats to American democracy in the nation’s history. The treat he poses must be taken seriously—much more seriously than it has been to this point. He is a wicked ex-president who would be America’s first “wicked king.” And lest I be accused of not speaking clearly enough, he is positively, unquestionably, and irredeemably anti-Christ.
 
The problem that 10’s of millions of Americans, including and especially American’s who have the audacity to call themselves “Christian,” is no less worrying and dangerous. In some ways, it is more worrying and bodes even more ill for our future. But, we’ve addressed this problem before and will no doubt do so again. But not today.
 
Today, we simply wish to once more call attention to the Book of Mormon editor’s charge that a “wicked president” “has his friends in iniquity.” He has many in office who support him.
 
In a recent “rally”—more frenzied and fetid worship service for a cult leader than political gathering—the RUMP gave a shout out to one Jason Ravnsborg, thanking him for being at the rally and expressing his appreciation for his support. Of course, the rabid crowd cheered for the man. But, here’s the thing. Ravnsborg, who is the South Dakota attorney general, is currently under the threat of impeachment for what would amount to vehicular homicide if he lived in any other state and wasn’t a powerful white man (after additional investigation, the state’s highway patrol has conceded that but for sloppy investigations into the incident—another powerful white man’s advantage—Ravnsborg would likely have been charged with manslaughter).
 
But, in RUMP world, the man has one quality that wipes out a multitude of sins and turns any villain into a hero. Never mind that Ravnsborg negligently ended the life of someone’s beloved brother, father, friend, etc.. Never mind that he is a moral midget (excuse me if that term is political incorrect), is a pariah to all in South Dakota politices who have an ounce of morals, and is deserving of impeachment. You see, Ravnsborg is a supporter of the RUMP. A vary loud and “loyal” one—a lapdog, we might call him. He has been a vociferous spreader of RUMP’s demonstratively false assertions about voter fraud in the American 2020 election.”[1]
 
But then, this is the only sort of friend RUMP has. Criminals, like him. He absolutely adores anyone who will join him in trampling under their feet both the laws of men and the commandments of God.
 
And before someone asks: No, I can’t, I won’t leave it alone. I won’t leave him alone. It doesn’t matter that he is no longer president. He continues to think he should be president. He continues to think that he is president—just have a gander at the ridiculous memos, memos that would make anyone with a scentilla of shame blush with personal embarrassment that come out of “The Office of the 45 President,” as if there were no 46th president. Worse yet, he continues to treasonously incite his millions of disciples. He continues to be a threat. So, I, too, will incite. I will agitate against him and his wickedness. I will resist him with everything I have—humble as that is.
 
Well, there you have it. The latest installment of America’s Wicked Ex-president. No doubt, there will be more installments to follow for RUMP’s wickedness will never end—not today, not tomorrow. It will not end in death. He will fight all that is good into eternity. That’s who and what he is. May his sins be spoken from the housetops for as long as there are beings in need of a warning voice concerning demons like him and those who support him in his wickedness.
 
I hope you will not mind if I end this post as I end all my homilies. It really has come to dominate my thoughts, my desires, my prayers, and my meditations. It has, almost, become my mantra, the thing that keeps me going. And its better than the many imprecations that I might utter against the RUMP—though it will be no better for him than all my curses.
 
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
 
[1]“Trump Shouts Out Jason Ravnsborg, the State AG Who Ran Over and Killed a Man,” by Tom Lawrence, The Daily Beast.

​Today's blog post represents a meditation on Mosiah 29.17, 21-23 that seemed appropriate to and consistent with the purpose and messages of this blog page.

  text
17For behold, how much iniquity doth one wicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!
21And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous king save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood. 22For 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; 23And 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.
​
  meditation
This meditation, longer than most, might be better called a diatribe. But, my, my, my. If we ever wondered or questioned this scriptural witness, the eruption of new evils into the American body politic has once and for all convinced us of its absolute accuracy and truth. We can easily “behold how much iniquity doth one wicked president cause to be committed.” Even after he was defeated in the most secure election in American history, he continued to stir, as he did while in office, “much contention” by unleashing an incessant flood of damnable lies. We witness his “friends in iniquity,” found, among other places, in the US House of Representatives. They, for the love of power, first joined him in casting doubt on the election, then attempted to overthrow the will of the voters. To this very day, they fear to stand up to him and his lies, but, instead, parrot his madness and obstruct legitimate investigations into his seditious actions. We have stood as witnesses to the innumerable ways that he—before, during and after his governance—has “torn up the laws of those who have [governed] in righteousness before him.” We have watched him attempt to corrupt the electoral process by creating fraudulent electoral college delegates, by attempting to bully, intimidate, and corrupt election officials, and by encouraging blinded and violent insurrectionists. Having at the very least broken every single one of the Ten Commandments in his debauched personal life, “he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God.” We see how “he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness.” We watch in near disbelief as he and his “friends in iniquity” seek to intimidate through violence and threaten to destroy through imprisonment and other ungodly authoritarian practices the righteous who, refusing “to obey his laws,” newfangled norms, and defiled morals, seek to oppose and check his corruption. Yes, in America’s 45th president we have seen the reincarnation of the sort of wicked, iniquitous, contentious, blinding, and destructive governance that the Book of Mormon author’s so much feared and despised, and against which they bore solemn testimony. Few, if any, in American political history have come close to the level of wickedness found in this sorry excuse of a human being, though there are now a handful who show real potential.  So, what are we to do in such dark times? The fight is far, far from over.