Tag: idolatry

Woe to those who Call Evil Good and Good Evil: Putin and Trump

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophet Isaiah warned his people, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20) He was speaking God’s truth to a people who saw a moral crisis taking place in their times. Religious and political leaders were making moral pronouncements that made a mockery of God’s universal set of ethics based upon the legal equality of every human being, because all have been created in God’s image. Isaiah rightly denounced these immoral leaders as hypocrites who distorted God’s social ethics to further their own self-centered interests.

In this post, I want to consider evil actions that Russian “president” Vladimir Putin has committed and identify some of those U.S. leaders who are now enabling him. Putin is a war criminal. His evil actions were obvious when he was a KGB operative decades ago and his actions have gone from bad to worse. In early 2014 he sent his troops to invade the Crimean Peninsula which belonged to Ukraine. Russian troops occupied the Crimean Parliament and called for a referendum for Crimea’s “independence” which they rigged to win. The international community spoke with one voice to condemn this invasion and theft. The United Nations General Assembly rejected the referendum and annexation, and officially recognized the “the territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders”. In addition, the members of the G8 kicked Putin and Russia out of this organization of world leaders.

Three years ago, Putin’s troops launched a massive invasion of other areas of Ukraine, without provocation. Putin again committed various war crimes. He launched missile strikes on civilian populations, especially targeting schools and hospitals.  His troops kidnapped Ukrainian children and deported them to Russia for “re-education”. It was for these crimes that the International Criminal Court (ICC) condemned Putin and issued a warrant for his arrest. In the United States, Republicans and Democrats spoke with one voice. They denounced Putin and they praised Ukrainian president Zelensky for his military response. Over these last three years, the U.S. Congress has sent 119 billion dollars of aid to Ukraine for its fight against the war criminal Putin. As recently as the conference in Helsinki this year, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham praised Zelensky for his heroic stand against Putin.

Putin has not had a moral conversion, but ten days ago, good became evil and evil became good. Europe brought a Resolution to the United Nations General Assembly to condemn Russia for its invasion. Like similar resolutions in the past, the world joined together to condemn Russian and its War Criminal “President”. What was different this time was that our United States Ambassador to the UN, obeying Trump’s command, voted against the resolution. We joined the “Axis of Evil” nations in defending Putin. I was not surprised by Trump’s action. Just two weeks ago, Trump lied to the US people, falsely affirming that the war had been started by Ukraine. Nevertheless, it was painful to see most Republican leaders (with a few exceptions like senators Murkowski and Lankford) do a complete about face. Perhaps out of fear of Trump’s retaliation, they supported Trump’s UN vote in defense of Putin. Speaker of the House Johnson identified the Axis of Evil countries (Russia, North Korea, Iran, etc.) but tried to avoid the obvious truth that we had joined this Axis in our UN vote. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s body language in the White House fiasco meeting on Friday tells the whole story. He hated hearing Trump’s defense of Putin and attack on Zelensky, but he had sold out his conscience to his boss.

Calling evil actions good is in itself “evil”. In this case, it is due to Republicans’ “loyalty” to Donald Trump. But giving absolute loyalty to Trump or to any other fallen human being is not good. It is idolatry. Let us heed Isaiah’s warning before it is too late.

Idolatry and Politics

The current political situation in the United States is quite troubling and sad. This can be illustrated by looking at an identifiable group on each side of the political spectrum. On the “right” are the “always Trumpers”. They repeat the White House’s talking points on every issue.  A clear example is the current spike in the Covid-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths. President Trump has downplayed the severity of the pandemic. He has repeatedly claimed that the high numbers are due to the greater number of tests the United States has administered and that the U.S. has a low Covid-19 rate. The “always Trumpers” have echoed these claims even though they are absolutely false. On a per capita basis, the U.S. has NOT administered more coronavirus tests than most European countries, and the European Covid-19 rate is much less that the rate in the US. In fact, the U.S. has the fourth worst per capita rate in the world. In their desire to support the president, the “always Trumpers” are in denial of reality.

On the other side of the political spectrum are the “never Trumpers”. For them, Trump is so detestable that everythihng he says or does is false and evil. They have such a knee jerk reaction to Trump that they must be against everything Trumpian. For example, Trump has pushed a ¨Warp Speed¨ vaccine for Covid-19 for rapid research and actual production of millions of vaccines. Although it is obvious that Trump is urging this project largely for election purposes, the ¨never Trumpers¨ are unwilling to acknowledge that moving swiftly toward the development and distribution of a safe vaccines is good and necessary.

If people are totally “pro-Trump” or “anti-Trump”, they have abandoned their use of logic and reason. Their absolute political loyalty distorts the use of their minds. From a Biblical point of view, an absolute commitment to any human or institution is idolatry because we are worshiping the creation and not the Creator.

Unless people want to be classified as “pro-Trumpers” or “anti-Trumpers”, it is easy but not helpful to put our “opponents” in one of these categories. It is easy because we can then dismiss any evidence they offer without examining it.  Because too many of us categorize others in this way, we are becoming ever more polarized. When our favorite political party or politician receives a criticism, our default mode becomes a defensive posture. Instead of seeking and acknowledging the points of truth in the criticism, we grasp for any argument that helps our position, no matter how flimsy.

Since both of these extremes are dangerous for the advance of truth in our world, I suggest the following. Identify the three strongest criticisms against your favorite politician or political party. Are there any grains of truth in these criticisms? If so, do we acknowledge and act on them? If not, we are treading on dangerous ground.

Let´s keep seeking the truth and it will set us free.