DISCERNMENT

365 Days of Thanksliving — Day 134

A bit of a warning tonight: my snark meter is on the fritz. It’s feeling a little broken, which usually means things are about to get serious. I try my darndest to avoid politics from the pulpit, but this blog isn't my pulpit. Sometimes, I just have to be "Just Jason" and say it like I see it. (I guess that was a little snarky. Sorry? Not sorry.)

How do I say this without offending everyone—or should I just not care? Here it goes: I’m not all that happy with the President right now. Oh snap, did I just get political? Yup. And I’m just warming up, so you might want to hop off the bus here if you’re already bothered.

Sometimes—well, probably most times—the man just needs to keep his big trap shut. Zip it, tape it, staple it; better yet, rivet it and then solder it closed. I remember back in 2015 when he and Hillary were duking it out, I wrote a blog piece urging them both to just do us all a favor and temper their mouths. Ten years later, we’re still here.

I think it would do him well, and the world too, if he’d just stay off social media for a while and, for the love of Heaven, stop comparing himself to Jesus. Like, never, ever again.

Have you heard the latest blasphemy? This past weekend, the President (or someone on his team) posted an AI-generated image depicting himself as a savior and healer in the mold of Christ. As I see it, the image was a mockery of our Lord, plain and simple. Feel free to disagree—my wife Danielle and I aren’t exactly seeing eye-to-eye on this one, and I’ll love her to the edge of eternity and back regardless—but for me, it’s a line you don't cross.

I’m just gonna say it like it is: I’ve punched the ticket for the man three times now. I am not a "hater." My political leanings haven’t changed, but my first boss is Jesus, not the guy in the Oval Office.

Lately, things have just gotten weird. Seeing the President post AI fan-fiction of himself as a Christ-figure while his "spiritual advisors" treat him like the Second Coming? That’s dangerous territory. You don't get to wave the "Prince of Peace" flag while threatening to "annihilate civilizations" or telling Pope Leo to, in effect, "sit down and zip it."

Our Christian faith is supposed to be a moral compass, not a cheap campaign prop. I know I’m ranting, and honestly, I feel a bit unsure what to do with all this. I guess that’s why I’m writing here, in a space that’s a bit safer and probably less read.

Luther thought it was unwise to speak politics from the pulpit, and I’ve tried to honor that. But I keep wondering: did the fear of speaking up, combined with a lack of discernment, give rise to a certain mouthy German in the 1930s who made Napoleon look like a toddler in a sandbox? I’m not saying DT is that guy, or even floating the idea that the man is the Antichrist. I don’t believe he is. But didn’t God give us a measure of discernment to question the world when it tells us, "Don’t you dare think for yourself"?

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:2,

"Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God." 

And Jesus told his disciples,

"Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves." 

Right now, many of those who are speaking up are being flogged in the court of public opinion, even by their own tribe. To me, that’s disturbing.

My grandpa always said never to mix politics and religion at the dinner table. Then again, my grandpa hardly ever uttered a word about anything. As a good Lutheran, I wonder how he felt about his Danish brethren who didn't speak up during WWII.

I’ll end with this—and thank you if you stuck with me this far—today I’m thankful for the gift of discernment. I’m just Jason, trying to discern God’s good and perfect will for us as Christians, and for me as a pastor trying to lead a flock through this mess.

Join me in asking God the Father to give us all the Spirit of Discernment, so we can move closer to the True Savior of the universe and away from those things that are dividing us.