By Mark Azzara
Dear Friend,
So much noise has been made about Donald Trump’s actions that I need to take the risk of addressing it – briefly!!!
Trump is the U.S. president. American voters, combined with the rules of the Electoral College, have made him so.
Vladimir Putin is the elected president/czar of Russia. Nicolas Maduro is the elected emperor with no clothes (er, I mean no cash) in Venezuela. Xi Jinping has been named, in effect, dictator of China. There are all kinds of other, minor despots who “govern” smaller nations in equally heavy-handed form. Some are elected, some aren’t, but that difference is minor. Look at the results.
The illusion that democracy could save us is being exposed for what it is – an illusion. We expect “democracy” to make us free. All it does is give us the tyranny of the majority.
At times we want tyranny, as strange as that sounds, because it’s easier than taking responsibility for doing good ourselves by genuinely loving others as God has loved us. And humanity has more or less always wanted it that way.
Rather than take responsibility for obeying God the Jews of ancient biblical times demanded a king who would push them around and force them to obey. We are just as lazy as they were. Just as cowardly. And we will be just as responsible for the consequences. (Remember, the Jews were eventually taken into exile by other kings.)
People continue to reject God because they believe the lies about him – i.e., that God is tyrannical, law-oriented, unceasingly demanding and cruel. But God is not a despot. Jesus is not a dictator. The Holy Spirit does not force his will upon us. We want them to do so, but they refuse. Good for them.
The Holy Trinity give us the chance to exercise our free will. The biggest free-will decision we will ever make is whether to allow God to influence how we use it. That is intentional, so that when we look back on the misuse of our free will, we will hopefully regret what we have done rather than continue to deny our mistakes.
God knows that we must prove to ourselves, through our own in(s)ane use of free will, why we need a Savior. If the rulers of this world, elected or not, are useful in helping us draw that conclusion then I guess there is some good in all of this. We may suffer in the short run. But we will rejoice in the long run.
All God’s blessings – Mark
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