It is historically accurate that the Inquisition and The Crusades are two examples of religion gone rogue. Both movements had good intentions at the beginning – sort of – but became perversions of Christianity that destroyed lives, turning into violent, money and power-grabbing mayhem. They were among the many examples of the devastation that takes place when religion gets into bed with government, birthing monsters instead of blessings. This is why our founders were so wise; they saw how government-sponsored religion led to pain and suffering, and they purposely excluded it – with two exceptions – from the Constitution. Freedom to practice one’s own religion, as well as not having a religious test to hold political office, has always been necessary for all of us to feel safe. Those freedoms are under attack all over the country and losing them would be just one more nail in democracy’s coffin.
Enter “God’s Army”, another way in which some people have decided to take God’s name in vain using vigilante justice. It is a strange conglomeration of people being organized to go to the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration. And a point of order – we have had a crisis at our southern border for at least 50 years, and it is clearly getting worse. We cannot have open borders. People with bad intent should not be allowed to come here. I hope I am being clear about this. The problem, of course, is that even the commonsense ideas being offered in Congress have been rejected because neither party wants the other to get credit for working together. This convoy is a response to the Supreme Court telling Texas to take the razor wire down between our countries. And Rome burned.
The people participating in this quest come from all walks of life, but the organizing group – Take Back Our Border – is a mixture of people who, while they say they come in peace, are filled with “insurrectionists, Q-Anon devotees, world influencers (like Alex Jones) paramilitary groups, and anti-vaxxers”, just to name a few. The organizer’s PR representative has said that no weapons of any kind will be tolerated, which seems to be a challenging statement to back up. Those interviewed see this as similar to wars waged in the Bible; they label immigrants as demonic, and the goal is to deploy God’s Army to dispatch anyone trying to cross over into this country as we did in Syria. That is a quote from a leader of this convoy, which is expected to arrive sometime this week.
Our southern border is a mess, there is no doubt, but using God’s name in vain like this is not religion – it is just an excuse to hurt people. They see themselves as doing God’s work, but I believe they are wrong. I would bet that most of these folks see themselves as Christians, protecting America from the “invading horde” they see as a threat to our way of life. I doubt that any of them have asked what Jesus would think of this. Because they know the answer, and they don’t like it. What would Jesus do? Read my take tomorrow.
Prayer – Holy God, we see the messes everywhere, and we want to help. Give us guidance and help us to do what is right, not what is expedient. Help us to use wisdom, not weapons. Amen.