OPINION:
President Donald Trump created quite a media stir when he stood at the National Prayer Breakfast podium and, in response to keynote speaker Arthur Brooks’ call to love thy enemies and leave behind thy contempt, said he saw things a bit differently — that it was rather difficult to swallow the bitter bites of fabricated impeachment pushes with a simple shrug and “oh well” hug.
Well, Trump is right. Love does not mean tolerance of evil.
Neither does it mean acceptance of evil.
“I’m a follower of Jesus — the Jesus who taught each of us to love God and who taught us to love each other,” said Brooks, a Harvard University professor, ex-American Enterprise Institute president and author, at the breakfast. He went on, adding that “the biggest crisis facing our nation” is “the crisis of contempt and polarization that’s tearing our societies apart.”
He called for love enemies and prayer for those who persecute. And on that, he’s quite right — that is indeed a biblical command for believers; that is indeed a call from Jesus for those of the faith.
But love and tolerance and acceptance of evil are not the same. And this is where the left not only goes astray, but also exploits.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” Trump said, taking the podium after Brooks. “Nor do I like people who say, ’I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not [what they do].”
Umm, Nancy Pelosi, anyone?
Quite right.
Jesus hated hypocrisy.
Jesus hates lies and deceptions.
And showing distaste and intolerance for hypocrisy and lies and deceptions is not unbiblical.
Jesus — the same Jesus the left likes to teach as the standard-bearer of love and tolerance and acceptance of all — also turned over the tables of all “who were buying and selling” in the temple, and drove them from the scene, as Matthew recounts. Jesus — the same Jesus the left likes to trot out as being the face of non-stop, unquestioning forgiveness — also spoke harshly of the arrogant, elitist scribes and pharisees who “say things and do not do them,” who “like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings” and “chief seats” and “places of honor,” but who behind the scenes, “devour widows’ houses,” as Matthew and Mark recount.
In other words: It’s one thing to love all, pray for all, fervently desire for all to make it to Heaven. It’s another thing entirely to turn blind eyes toward evil and pretend “all’s good in the hood,” while the wicked have their way.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Reps. Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler, Sen. Chuck Schumer and more of the Democratic Party — these were all key players in bringing forth the false, falsified, fabricated and utterly partisan charges of impeachment against Trump. They lied; they deceived; they received media watchdog Pinocchio noses and Pants-on-Fire ratings for their deceptions in the process — a process that really began in the beginning stages of Trump’s White House tenure.
What Would Jesus Do?
Brooks called for love and less contempt. So would Jesus. So would Democrats. But one of these things is not like the other. Democrats, far too frequently, use biblical principles for their own political designs, to advance their own wicked ways.
Love and less contempt doesn’t mean excusing the evil that drove the impeachment process. It doesn’t mean letting the Democrats skate accountability for their lies and deceptions. It doesn’t mean standing sheepishly by as Democrats join in the call for love and less contempt — and then go back to their political offices to plot and strategize and plan their next partisan hatchet attack against the president, absent true cause.
Let’s not confuse love with accountability.
Jesus is love. But Jesus is also truth. Trying to blot out the second as if it’s a show of the first is wicked. And as Trump himself noted, that’s not very biblical at all.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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