This morning I had the...misfortune...of seeing a news article on social media. This news article was from a popular news outlet and is, presumably, reliable. Now, I have no idea if the news outlet is one of those that twists the news or even outright lies as the report what should be the facts, but since I've seen at least part of this article reported elsewhere I'm going to assume that this particular story, at least the basic facts, is reliable.
In this news article the reporter stuck mostly to the facts, reporting only details. But it was those details that I found disturbing. Well, actually it wasn't even so much the details of the story but the comments that were on social media underneath the shared story link. Those had me shaking my head in wonder.
This particular news story was about America's president elect and what will take place on the day he becomes the President. I truly have no interest in politics but sometimes, despite my best efforts, I wind up coming across articles that keep me from avoiding politics. That was the case this morning.
And because that was the case, I found myself reading the comments on this article and then reading the article itself. This article was about the people that will pray at the inauguration. According to the article there will be six "prominent clergy members" that will be praying. The article itself was informative in that it gave the details of who these people that will praying are and little else. The comments on social media...well, they left me staring at my screen and wondering what, exactly, I should do about this mind boggling situation.
The news article said that there will be a Catholic cardinal, protestant leaders and a rabbi doing the praying. Now...I wouldn't know a Catholic cardinal from a rabbi, a bishop from a Reverend. What I do know is that these 'religious leaders' come from very differing beliefs, something that doesn't even begin to surprise me where government is concerned. What did stump me was all the so-called 'Christians' that left comments about how great it was that our soon to be president has 'put God back in the White House' by getting these people to pray from his very first day in office. They left comments about what a good Christian he is and how great our country will be for having such a 'Christian leader'.
But the same people leaving comments, people that I suppose (from the things they said) would claim to be 'christian', were so happy to see the new president bring in 'Christian' leaders.
But...they claimed a rabbi, a Catholic cardinal, and a woman 'preacher' were 'Christian' leaders. And as I sat there, skimming over those comments and later just staring at my screen wondering what, if anything, my reaction to those comments should be, I honestly didn't know quite how to react. I've encountered situations like this before, come across people believing that people that live in defiance of Scripture but claim to be 'Christian' are really 'Christians' and I'm sure I will come across many, many more situations similar to this one but for some reason this time I felt like I should do something...anything. Only I wasn't quite sure what that something should be. And so I wound up writing this post. Not because it serves any purpose in correcting anyone that made those statements about how 'God will be back in America' or what a great 'Christian' our new President will be but because it gives me somewhere to give voice to the thoughts in my head.
I know I'm not the only one that believes the female 'preacher' that will be at that inauguration is a heretic or that she can't truly be what she claims to be because Scripture says that no woman can be a Christian leader. I also know that there are many people that do not consider Roman Catholics to be Christians in any sense of the word. I know all that and yet it still amazed me, while not surprising me in the least, that there are people out there that claim to be 'Christians' that are in complete support of this mixed group of religious people being 'Christian leaders' and thinking having them pray for our country is a good thing.
Maybe it's not a bad thing, I really don't know, but it can't be the great...wonderful...amazing...thing that the people leaving comments on that article implied that it is.
How can having heretics and false teachers praying for our country be the miracle the people commenting seemed to think it is?
Scripture tells us that the Lord does not hear the prayers of sinners. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. John 9:31 ESV, That's just one verse that tells us God will not listen to those that live in defiance of Him. And so, I sit here, thinking of that article and all the people that spoke of what a wonderful thing it is to have a female preacher, a Catholic cardinal, a bishop, a rabbi, and protestant leaders pray for our country and they consider that to be an amazing thing. I don't know that it's a bad thing. It may well be an improvement over what we've had but...can it really be a good thing when most of the people doing the praying are living not according to Scripture but against it?
