“Go Tell that Fox ”

I have been an evangelical Christian since it was a term of contempt among intellectuals. I have always tried to separate my faith from politics. Politics was divisive; Christianity was supposed to unite.   Today I find it hard to preserve that separation, because politics and faith are deliberately blurred for political gain. “The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose.”

Jesus was careful not to get ensnared in politics. His most famous saying was “Render unto to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” which kept him above the fray.  But neither Jesus nor John the Baptist were cowed by power. If you read Mark 6 you see how Herod, a minor Hebrew governor, arrested John for publicly criticizing his marriage to his brother’s wife. John followed the prophetic tradition of speaking to morality, not politics. There  was no suggestion that John had questioned Herod’s collaboration with the Roman government or any other raging political controversy of the day.

But for all that restraint, John was beheaded on the whim of Herodias (Herod’s wife), who made her daughter request the head of John.  Perhaps a little intoxicated with wine and the daughter’s dancing, Herod recklessly promised to grant her anything (“even half of my kingdom”). The “anything” turned out to be the “head of John the Baptist on a platter” (Luke 6:25).  It has all the ugly details of a political figure seduced by power and beautiful women.

In fact, if you substitute “Trump” for “Herod” in this story, you will see why I believe Evangelical Christians should disown their President, not on political, but moral  grounds.  Morally President Trump and King Herod are a good match.

Similarly, Herod offered political power to a young girl for exotic dancing.

  • The President slanders and destroys his opponents. He believes in loyalty, but not his loyalty to others. He fired the head of the FBI, slandered Jeff Sessions, his attorney general (a longtime supporter), and fired Preet Bharara , district attorney for southern New York, because he would not fire all the attorneys under him appointed by the Obama administration. None of these firings or slanders were for incompetence or Constitutional violations, but only for failing to neutralize the President’s enemies.

The arrest and beheading of John the Baptist shows the price of disloyalty in Herod’s kingdom.

  • He allies with contemptible power. Whatever he says now, he has courted hate groups in the past, only rebuking them under extreme political pressure and the next day saying they are not all bad. Few mainstream politicians, Republican or Democrat, will allow their names to be associated with such groups that slur non-white or non-Christian groups.

Herod supported Pilate’s desire to dispose of Jesus by dressing him in robes and mocking him, sending him back to Pilate. “That day Herod and Pilate became friends—before this they had been enemies” (Luke 23:12). Alliance with contemptible power.

  • He encourages police brutality. Despite high profile cases where a few policemen have been convicted or fired for brutality or manslaughter, the President advocates harsh treatment of people arrested before they go to trial: “When you see these thugs thrown into the back of a paddy wagon. You see them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’” Trump said, mentioning observing the prisoners’ heads being shielded. “I said, ‘You can take the hand away.’”  This goes way beyond supporting the authority of the police to supporting brutal acts for which police officers could be prosecuted.

 In the same incident where Pilate sends Jesus to Herod “. . .Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate” Luke 23:11. Note that Jesus was an unconvicted criminal during this “arraignment.”

Of course the President is not guilty of arresting and beheading anyone, but he doesn’t have that kind of license. If we imagine King Herod as President Herod, we might see the moral fiber these men shared in common–lasciviousness, vindictiveness, bigotry, and lawless brutality.

We know from Matthew 14:13 that Jesus grieved the execution of John the Baptist, although at that moment he was immediately thrust back into service by a crowd that followed him.

Some time after John’s execution, Jesus gets word from the Pharisees that Herod has resolved to kill him. With uncharacteristic sharpness he replies, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will drive out demons and heal people today, and on the third day I will reach my goal “(Luke 14:32). The next time he meets Herod he is the condemned prisoner sent by Pilate. Herod had the distinction of killing the forerunner and abusing the messiah himself.

With moral conviction, I plead with Christians who elected President Trump by moral certainty to reconsider that choice in their hearts and let the Holy Spirit speak above the political din.  Then echo the indignation of Jesus, “Go tell that fox, ‘ I will drive out demons (hate groups) and heal people (relationships) today . . .” About core principles of love and forgiveness, we should have no division. Our President has failed us all, whatever our place on the political spectrum of Christianity.

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