Pittsburgh Tragedy Demonstrates How Everything Can Be Politicized
The deadliest anti-Semitic shooting in American history occurred at a Pittsburgh synagogue. The gunman, Robert Bowers, killed 11 people and injured several others, which included four policemen. Bowers is a Trump-hating anti-Semite who regularly complained on social media about the president and ‘the infestation of Jews.’ The shooter tweeted, “There is no #MAGA as long as there is a kike infestation.”
With lightning speed, the liberal media blamed President Trump and fellow Republicans for the attack. We now live in a day where political operatives will rush to the scene of every tragedy to leverage it for political gain. The left spews out instant judgments against its political opponents even though no real evidence backs their claims.
Donald Trump has been one of the best friends the Jewish people could hope for. He is by far the most pro-Israel president in American history – and has spoken in glowing terms about Jews and in harsh terms against anti-Semitism. He demonstrated leadership by moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Here are his own words in response to the Pittsburgh attack:
“Anti-Semitism and the widespread persecution of Jews represent one of the ugliest and darkest features in human history. Anti-Semitism must be condemned and confronted everywhere and anywhere it appears.”
When Jews were being murdered during President Obama’s term, he would only offer milquetoast rhetoric. Obama would simply lump in Jew-hatred with all other types of hatred. This is the same Obama who once labeled an anti-Semitic attack on a kosher French supermarket as a “random” attack.
It is just insane for the press to be able to use these dead Jewish victims as a ploy in their leftist agenda. I watched an ABC news report, and they dwelled on trivial matters by questioning why Trump had not cancelled his campaign events. They needed the smelling salts when Trump suggested that lives could have been saved if someone had a gun. Even though Bowers had stated that Trump was a Jew lover, the liberal media still put further the suggestion that Trump’s tone had egged him on.
One of the most disgusting things the press does is recruit victims to attack Trump. Monday morning, in one of his first appearances following the horrific attack on his synagogue, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota tried to cajole Rabbi Jeffrey Myers into blaming President Donald Trump for the shooting.
Camerota asked Myers if he blamed anyone “beyond the gunman” for Saturday’s attack. He responded that the fault lies with the shooter. “I don’t really foist blame upon any person,” Myers said. “Hate does not know religion, race, creed, political party. It’s not a political issue in any way, shape, or form. Hate does not know any of those things.”
Unsatisfied with his answer, Camerota again prodded, “What lights the match of hate? … Can hate be cultivated?” The Rabbi refused to take her bait.
The interview turned into a disaster for CNN when Myers said, “The President of the United States is always welcome. I’m a citizen. He’s my president. He is certainly welcome.” Because the Rabbi gave the “wrong message,” no other news service carried the story.
The liberal media quickly found a Jewish group that was willing to follow their narrative. The New York Times quoted a message from Bend The Arc, a group that claimed to represent Pittsburgh Jewish leaders. They issued the following statement:
“President Trump, you are not welcome in Pittsburgh until you fully denounce white nationalism. Our Jewish community is not the only group you have targeted. You have also deliberately undermined the safety of people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.”
Bend The Arc is a political sham operation. The group is merely a leftist political action group run by Alexander Soros, George Soros’ son. Their stated mission is “rising up in solidarity with everyone threatened by the Trump agenda to fight for the soul of our nation.” Their missions include the election of “progressive champions” and the implementation of “progressive legislation and policies, like criminal justice reform and economic equity.”
The director of Bend The Arc was Hadar Susskind, formerly a staffer at the anti-Semitic front group J Street, which spends its days attempting to undermine the safety and security of the state of Israel. The press failed to mention the name George Soros because it might remind people of the guy who helped the Nazis exterminate his own people.
I don’t think any other racial group would allow themselves to be exploited in this manner. The Jewish people suffer from a level of spiritual blindness that defies logical explanation. The Lord predicts that they will soon come to the point where they emerge from darkness into light, but it will be a time of great distress.
I rejoice each day that I am part of a group that sees the danger and knows that God will soon deliver us from this sin-stained world.
“He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them” (John 12:40).
“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
–Todd
Mad as Hell
It was somewhat shocking, what happened while “watching” the Lou Dobbs program on Fox Business Network a week or so ago. (Technically, being blind, I was “listening” rather than “watching.”) I heard Lou’s guest say the words “I am as mad as Hell!”.
Now, even Mr. Dobb’s wife, he has confided on the program, has gotten onto him for using during the broadcast what we might consider the milder cuss words in today’s vernacular. But, it wasn’t the show’s host who used the word this time.
Lou’s guest was Dr. Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the megachurch, First Baptist of Dallas, who uttered the word. That it was Dr. Jeffress who said it was slightly jolting.
As I recall, the topic revolved around the upcoming midterm elections. Specifically, it was about the vitriol the mainstream news conglomerate continues to spew against President Donald J. Trump. The host and Dr. Jeffress agreed that every effort was being made by the leftist cabal, consisting of the mainstream news and entertainment media and the Democrat Party, to demonize the president and all who adhere to his Make America Great Again agenda.
The pastor said something along the lines of, “The voters are angry. In this election, they might say, through their collective vote, something like was uttered in the old movie, Network. Like when the guy said, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.'”
I’m not here casting a condemning glance at Pastor Jeffress. I have said worse–like the other morning when I knocked the “I Love New York” coffee mug given me by my much beloved, honorary, granddaughter from my desk and broke the handle. So, I certainly have no room to cast aspersions.
The quotation Dr. Jeffress used to express the need for voters to fight the political evil going on, ironically, was made by the character who was a network news anchor, Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch. He had become somewhat senile and was being removed as anchor. The character, during his broadcast, urged all to take action. He shouted, “I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Things have got to change!”
There is a lot wrapped up in that term, ”mad as Hell.” To be in that state of mind is, I am certain, beyond any mindset one can conjure.
To be that angry implies that the mindset has been reached like that of those who are in that eternal, infernal place. To anyone who has read Inferno by Dante Alighieri, the briefest glimpse of the madness might be achieved. But, being of human authorship, the descriptions of that fictional Hell can provide fodder for but the slightest imagining of what must be the reality.
The ultimate madness that is the final result of turning away from the God of Heaven comes to fruition in that place called Hell. But the mindset that determines to turn one’s back on the Almighty begins at birth. We are born sinful creatures–lost from our very conception because of original sin. When we mature to the point that we can know we must accept or reject God’s offer of redeeming grace, and when we choose the latter, the madness–spiritual and eventually mental–begins to fester. It incubates growing sinfulness–rebellion against Heaven and all that is righteous. Turning one’s back to the Lord of Heaven moves one down the road of madness as framed by the Apostle Paul.
We have looked at the scriptural condemnation before. Here it is again to reinforce with biblical description where I’m convinced this generation of the anti-God rebels is positioned:
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. (Romans 1:28-31)
We have witnessed these anti-God characteristics grow and play out within American society and culture in recent decades. The madness has increased and the reprobate mindset Paul alludes to truly dominates the national political landscape at this very moment. For whatever time is left in this dispensation of grace, we must wrestle–God’s way–against the powers and principalities, against the wickedness in high places, as given in Ephesians 6:12.
The specific, God-ordained way to do so as we face this time of determining which way the United States will choose is to earnestly pray according to 2 Chronicles 7: 14–then to vote against the madness assaulting America.
–Terry