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!