You  claim to be a follower of Jesus. This is a serious commitment. This means that your allegiance to Jesus should be higher than any allegiance you pledge to President Trump or to any other human being. I respectfully suggest that you are failing in your allegiance to Jesus, especially in the areas of truth and grace. In your position as Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), you must provide honest counsel to the president regarding our federal budget and other economic items. Fair enough. Nevertheless, in your meetings with the president this week, you recommended Trump to permanently lay off many thousands of federal workers. You know that it is illegal to use a government shutdown as an excuse to fire federal workers. In previous shutdowns, a distinction has been made between essential workers and non-essential workers. Essential workers continue laboring on the job. Non-essential workers are “furloughed”, that is, they do not report to work during the shutdown, and after it is resolved, they return to their jobs, together with back pay for the time they were “off”. This is a temporary situation during the shutdown. There is NO legal basis for the permanent firing of workers. You can try to get these firings mired down in the courts, but in your heart, you know this is wrong. The well being of hard-working people and their families is at stake. President Trump has gleefully and vindictively announced he will use these layoffs to punish Democrats. I no longer expect any truth from President Trump, but I do expect truth and grace from fellow followers of Jesus.

   You did not learn the “virtue of lying” at Wheaton College where you earned your bachelor’s degree and where I was a professor for 12 years. Our institution had its flaws, but it did not teach Christians to lie or to seek revenge. I expect you to stand up for the truth even when your GOP colleagues are spreading blatant lies. Speaker of the House Johnson and Vice-President Vance have blamed Democrats for the shutdown and have accused them of wanting to give Medicare benefits to undocumented immigrants. This is a lie, because federal law prohibits these immigrants from receiving these benefits.

Spreading these lies and promoting vengeful firings will not lead to a just resolution to the shutdown. I expect better from you.