Be Careful What You Wish For

Elisha left Jericho to go to Bethel, and on the way some boys came out of a town and made fun of him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they shouted.

Elisha turned around, glared at them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys to pieces.

The passage above is from Second Kings 2:23-24, or for those who own the God Bless the USA Bible, you may be more familiar with it as Two Kings 2:23-24.

There are clearly some odd passages in the Bible, but I’ve often found this one to be potentially the most bizarre.  There are so many aspects to it: the boys calling Elisha baldy; Elisha cursing them in the name of the Lord; the specificity of two she-bears; the specificity of 42 of the boys being torn to pieces; and of course, the fact that they were killed for having the audacity to call Elisha baldy.  

I’ve had various people try to explain this passage to me, but quite frankly, I really don’t need nor want any explanation.  I know some believe that the Bible is the inerrant or infallible word of God, it was inspired by God, and to question it at all, is sacrilegious.  Call me sacrilegious, whether it’s this passage or various other passages in the Old Testament, I find many to be hard to accept as truly being inspired by God, or maybe to put it another way, if it is, I’m not so sure that’s the God I want to follow.

Which brings me in a convoluted way to the point of this post.  The more and more I hear from Christian Nationalists, I believe this is the God that they worship.   I’m beginning to wonder if they thought the Bible stopped at Malachi, and never went forward into Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, etc.  The New Testament introduced us to Jesus, the one God sent to save us all, but it seems that Christian Nationalists only want saving for a specific group of people – them.  They want the fires of Hell to swallow up anyone who doesn’t follow what they believe.  Ever since the gays came out of the closet, the people of color found a voice, immigrants stole their jobs or Fox “News” declared there was a war on Christmas, they’ve been disgruntled.  But now they have hope.

They now have a true savior, God has sent Donald Trump to save us all, to restore order to this country, to make America great again.  While I struggle with some of the writings of the Old Testament, I do firmly believe that God sent Jesus to provide us salvation.  And I believe that salvation applies to many, and I’m really not willing to predict who gets into Heaven and who doesn’t, but if there is some sort of test or if the key is through works, I’m afraid most of us would fail, and we wouldn’t get in.  I still firmly believe it’s through grace, and I’m very thankful for that.

Now this concept of God sending Donald Trump to save us kind of has me perplexed because I really don’t see many of the same qualities in Donald Trump as Jesus.  I can’t piece together the whole “God, Guns & Trump” with the Sermon on the Mount, something just doesn’t click.  I wonder if maybe, just maybe, if God did send Donald Trump, He may have sent him to destroy America?  If I were one of those who believed God sent Donald Trump, I would be concerned about that.  

Do I think it?  Oh, Heavens no!  I really don’t believe that’s how God operates, and besides, He has way too many more important things to worry about than the downfall of America.  Plus, He probably thinks we’re doing a pretty good job as it is.

Recently I saw some commentary from Glenn Beck about the Hamas attack on Israel.  He described how brutal they were, how evil, and “we do not serve the same God.”  Do we serve the same God as the Crusades?  Do we serve the same God as Nazi Germany, where they professed “God with us”.  Do we serve the same God as the Confederate States of America?  Do we serve the same God as the Ku Klux Klan?  Do we serve the same God as those who mercilessly murdered anyone who resembled a Muslim after 9/11?  It may feel good to believe we are better than those of other religions, but our history is also filled with many instances of cruelty and brutality.  I assume Mr. Beck forgot the words of Jesus, “he who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

While I may not agree with you in supporting Donald Trump (then again, I’m not really excited to support Joe Biden either), I have no issue with your right to do that, that’s politics.  But please, keep religion out of it, there is a reason we have a separation of religion and politics, and it should stay that way.  I wish when people tried to bring the two together, and create some sort of union between God and the United States, they’d look back at history and see how well it worked for Germany with Adolf Hitler.  

As far as the Christian Nationalists and God’s plan for this nation?  Again, I think they better hope that God didn’t send Donald Trump, I don’t believe that would be a positive thing for us.  But then again, they seem to want the God who would send 42 she-bears to tear apart little boys for a terrible insult to one of his prophets.  As for me, I’ll continue to follow, and be thankful for, the God who sent Jesus, whose words don’t seem to coincide with “God, Guns & Trump”.  By the way, this is from Matthew 5: 2-12, it’s in the New Testament for those who didn’t read that far:

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Really not a whole lot about “greatness”, whatever that really means.  If you’re hung up on making America great again, that’s great, but again, what Jesus talks about is poor, mourn, meek, hunger, thirst, etc.  Not many greatness descriptors, but again, Jesus was all about those that are lesser than.  He really didn’t seem to be hung up on greatness.

At the end of the day though, somehow, we all have to figure out how to come together and work together.  While I believe that Christian Nationalists are some of the most evil and hate-filled people in the world, they probably think awful thoughts about me too.  We have one country, one world, and we are really screwing it up.  Somehow, we have to figure out how to work together, whether we are Christian Nationalists, devoted followers of Jesus, Hamas, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Muslims, Hindus, Republicans, Democrats, it doesn’t matter, we are in this together.  

Yes, I’m probably completely delusional, we’ve been at war with each other since before Jesus walked the earth, nothing will probably change that, we will most likely destroy each other and our world.  But, I’ll reach way back to a poem by John Donne, which to me really hits home what this is all about:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”

If I succeed, and you fail, we all fail.  If you succeed, and I fail, we all fail.  We live and die together, it’s that simple really.  But then again, I’m just a nobody.  With a purpose.

Oh well, I should probably be prepared for some she-bears to come and tear me to pieces for insulting Christian Nationalists.