We have recently seen some religious leaders challenge congregations to follow Jesus, quoting his Father’s words that “vengeance is mine.” This was essential to all who believed in his word.
As a republic, we have always separated government and religion, but now, we see a distortion of that by conservative evangelicals who are rabid supporters of one of the evilest leaders this republic has ever endured. For Donald Trump to have a vengeance list supported by the silence of those who profess to follow Christ’s word is laughable, as well as remarkable.
Church leaders — especially locally but nationally, as well — seem to have forgotten what Christ told those who profess faith in his word about how to act. If evil exists, as it does today in the actions of this incompetent criminal now serving as our president, should not local pastors be shouting from the pulpits that sin must be opposed, regardless of who they voted for in the last election? I have yet to hear any of our local evangelistic TV preachers — who are constantly advertising about God’s word and how we should be following it — condemn his anti-Christ acts. Instead, we see them abandoning Christ’s teachings to support a president who rarely, if ever, attends any religious service but uses these evangelistic supporters to support his antidemocratic policies and do his bidding.
We can only hope that a man who has encouraged supporters to send money to help him get into heaven will be ready at the “end of days” to meet his maker and account for the evil he is perpetrating to our nation. As Christ said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” I pray that these supporters will also be forgiven for the corruption they are sanctioning. It is necessary that religious leaders rise to serve what they profess to believe, as we begin to see the government and religion be overpowered by religious leaders who fail to follow what they preach.
Geoffrey Smoot
Hebron, Maryland
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
