Tag: Senate

It is healthy to confess one’s own sins and the mistakes of one’s elected officials. Did some Republican senators finally get a political conscience?

Last Thursday, rare events happened in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Republicans in both chambers opposed President Trump’s policies and cancelled their voting procedure rather than delivera public rebuke of the president with their congressional votes. After a year and a half of being Trump’s yes’men and yes’women in his second term in the White House, these elected officials finally found the courage to say “No!”. The Hebrew Scriptures might help us understand what happened and how it could be transformed into healing for our nation.

We frequently think of confession as the acknowledgement and repentance of one’s personal sins directly to God or to a representative of God (like a pastor or priest). This usually takes place within a religious context, and I think this can be a good way to begin dealing with our moral mistakes. Confession is much healthier than ignoring our sins or pretending we don’t make moral mistakes.

Nevertheless, it is also healthy to acknowledge and confess the sins of one’s culture and one’s national leaders when they stray from the truth. The Bible highlights examples of believers who expose the sins of their society and their national leaders and call for repentance. Let’s look at the example of Isaiah, a significant prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Isaiah had a vision of God, especially God’s holiness. Isaiah became convinced of his own sinfulness. He cried out, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” (Isaiah 6:5) God forgave him and then sent him to speak the word of the Lord to Israel.

Sometimes it is not enough to critique one’s own culture. We frequently are so blind or so self-righteous we don’t want to admit our moral failures. We need someone to speak the hard truth into our lives and then lead us to repentance and confession. Nathan’s rebuke of “good” King David is an even clearer example. One evening David saw the beautiful Bathsheba bathing herself. He called for her to come to his palace and he forced her to have sex with him. As a result, she became pregnant. David tried many ways to hide his sin, but was not successful. Finally, he had her husband, Uriah the Hittite, killed by some soldiers. God sent Nathan to rebuke David. Nathan told him a parable about an evil man. When David recognized the horrible action as evil, Nathan told the King, “You are that evil man!”. (2 Samuel 12) David did repent and confessed his crime. He was forgiven by God and turned his life around.                                                         

Something similar happened on Capitol Hill last Thursday. The Senate was to vote on a sweeping immigration funding bill intended to bankroll Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through 2029.  The leadership then added two Trump-backed initiatives to the bill: up to $1 billion in Secret Service funding tied to security for his planned East Wing Ballroom, and a $1.8 billion  to fund to compensate people who say they were victims of so-called political weaponization by the Biden administration. Because there were no safeguards on this weaponization bill, critics denounced it as Trump’s “slush fund”. What really riled up the Republican senators was the admission that some 1600 insurrectionists who attacked the capitol on January 6, 2021, were charged and convicted by juries of their peers, were later pardoned by Trump, but could be eligible to receive millions of dollars from the slush fund.

Senators who had been staunch allies of Trump in the past broke with him on this issue. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell fumed, “_So the nation’s top law enforcement official (Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche) is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops?” He continued, this funding bill is “utterly stupid, morally wrong – take your pick.”

Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who had drawn Trump’s ire, has become a vocal critic of the President, joining together the problem of affordability with the “slushi-ness” of the funding bill. He complained, “People are concerned about paying their mortgage or rent, affording groceries and paying for gas, not about putting together a $1.8 billion fund for the President and his allies to pay whomever they wish with no legal precedent or accountability,”

Enough Republican senators expressed their disapproval of the slush fund proposal that voting on the bill had to be withdrawn until after the Memorial Day recess. Republican opposition to the president’s priorities goes way beyond this funding bill. Criticism is mounting against his war with Iran, the East Wing ballroom, his economic mistakes regarding inflation, his cover-up of the Epstein files, etc.

When faced with moral failure, confession and repentance are always healthier than trying to avoid the truth. May Republican and Democrat leaders rise to the occasion!

Seeking Truth in an Age of Impeachment – What are they trying to hide?

Most people in the United States (and many around the world) are aware that President Donald Trump was impeached on Wednesday by the Democrat controlled U.S. House of Representatives. The vote was overwhelmingly along party lines. He was indicted on two articles of impeachment: (1) abuse of power and (2) obstruction of the Congress. He was accused of abusing his office of president this past summer when he pressured the government of Ukraine to get dirt on his political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Trump put a pause on almost 400 million dollars of military aid approved for Ukraine by the U.S. Congress until the Ukraine government publicly announced an investigation of criminality by the Bidens.

Democrats and Republicans are generally in agreement regarding the facts. The White House has issued a fairly complete transcript of the July 25 phone conversation between Trump and Ukraine President Zelenski where Trump stated, “We do ask for a favor though” where he asked that the Ukrainians investigate the Bidens. Nevertheless, Democrats and Republicans vigorously disagree on the motivation behind the favor that Trump requested. Trump claims he was putting a hold on the funding until corruption in the Ukraine government had been significantly reduced. Democrats claim that Trump was illegally using the presidency to get “dirt” on his possible 2020 election rival, Joe Biden and that this illegal action rises to the level of impeachment.

Sadly, it is human nature for us to try to put our best foot forward and to suppress any information that describes us in a negative light. We do it when we write an overwhelmingly positive resumé as we apply for a new job, when we write a commercial to sell our products, or when we are trying to get elected (whether it be for class president or for the U.S. Senate). Nevertheless, this leads to only part of the truth, the part that we want others to see. We try to hide our weak areas, the negative aspects of the truth, those aspects that would hurt our cause.

This is what has happened in the impeachment inquiry. President Trump blocked many witnesses from testifying and he blocked the release of significant emails. This blocking of witnesses continues to unfold as the process moves to the U.S. Senate. The Republicans want to bring to the witness stand the whistleblower, Hunter Biden, Joe Biden, and Adam Schiff. The Democrats want John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney, Rudy Giuliani to appear because they are the key figures who had direct knowledge of why the military aid was suspended. The Republican strategy is somewhat divided. President Trump wants a longer “trial” so that his image might be repaired in a Republican controlled Senate. Majority leader  Mitch McConnell has indicated reluctance to any additional witnesses because some new damning evidence might come out, especially by Bolton and Mulvaney.

There is hypocrisy on both sides. Both want the public to see the testimony of witnesses that reveal the negative actions of the other side. For example, the Republicans accuse the Democrats for not proving their case, but it was President Trump who was blocking the very testimony of those who had first-hand knowledge. To demand that the Democrats should go to the courts in order to legally obtain this information is obviously hypocritical, because this process would be tied up in the courts well past the 2020 election.

Nevertheless, if we really want to know the truth, we should want to know more information, not less, more witnesses who would testify, not fewer. Will the sworn testimony of Hunter Biden, John Bolton, and Mick Mulvaney be embarrassing to their side? Probably. Will it help clarify the issues? For certain! We the people ask the Senate to bring in those persons who will shed light on what really happened. We demand that they stop hiding the facts. The truth will set us free!