Something Really Stinks!

Let’s have a talk my televangelist/megachurch pastor friend. 

So you believe God placed the current president of the United States into office?

You believe that God raised up this particular man, in spite of his flaws, for this particular time in American history? 

You're sure?

You sincerely believe that if anyone doesn't support this president then he or she fighting against the hand of God?

You actually believe that if someone didn't vote for the current president he or she would go to hell? 

Did I hear you right?

You really believe this?

Well I’m somewhat confused so please help clear up some things for me.

On whose authority do you claim that God raises up any American president? 

Why would God do that? What would be his purpose? Please tell me why this president and why now? Explain why it was so important for God to act now and not in previous presidential elections? Do you really know in what presidential election God was acting and what one he wasn’t? Please tell me, I want to know. How do you know?

Tell me, did God raise up Barack Obama? Well according to your logic I don't see how you could deny he didn't; how could you? If God raised up Donald Trump then why not Barack Obama, or George W. Bush, or Bill Clinton?

Just exactly what kind of insider information do you have that others of us don’t have? What is your calculus for making such self-confident claims on God's behalf?

Explain to me how you can be so cocksure of yourself Ms. Televangelist or Mr. Megachurch pastor? How can you proclaim to so many people, with such certainty, that God has acted in this presidential election while being conspicuously absent in the last? Where did you get that information? is it reliable? 

Did God raise up Adolph Hitler, who was responsible for exterminating well over 6 million Jews and countless others? There indeed were German Christians who actually believed that God put Hitler into power. Did you know this? So how did that work out for them and the rest of Germany? Did God make a mistake? Or did they miscalculate God's intentions?

Fortunately there were those other German Christians who did not believe God had anything to do with German politics. Did history validate their belief that maybe God is not into presidential election business.

What about Joesph Stalin? Did God raise him up? Did God put him in his position of power from which he also exterminated millions of his fellow Russians? Did this make God responsible for all these deaths both in Germany and Russia?  How do you know for sure?

Look, I get it. I know you want a president that embraces your values and your hopes and dreams for America. I understand that having had an African-American president for 8 years was perhaps a bit too much for you. I get it. I really do.

But what I don't get is the arrogance and audacity of claiming to have the inside track on God’s involvement in American politics. Sadly there are too many who really believe in your pontifications of Divine intent and I know you hope they keep filling your coffers so you can remain on television in order to make further inspired pronouncements.

America needs you! We all need your self-assured confidence in knowing the mind of God in such a perceptive way. 

On second thought, I don't believe you anymore than I believe God rewards someone with health and wealth simply because he or she has been faithful and obedient.

Your so-called “Prosperity Gospel” is not the Gospel at all. It’s a sham. It’s a hoax designed to fill your own greedy coffers. And yes I feel sorry for those who swallow your heretical bullshit hook line and sinker. In the end they are the real losers. I find this tragic. 

It is because of folks like you and your other televangelist/megachurch cohorts that embarrass so many of us who believe the Gospel is not about health or wealth or power or American politics, but rather about dying to self in order to be raised in the likeness of Christ and to promote the values of God's kingdom here on earth. 

I’m not buying your message. I don't believe you! Yes, there are still many who listen to you and continue sending in their regular offerings to you; they continue to offer their support for your bat crazy pronouncements and end time predictions. But I’m not one of them and there are many others who are slowly seeing through your hypocritical/heretical ruse.

Tony Campolo, one of my favorite Evangelicals, once said:  

"Mixing religion and politics is like mixing ice cream and manure. It doesn't do much to the manure but it sure does ruin the ice cream.”

Forgive me my friend, but all this talk about what you think God is doing in American politics is beginning to smell a bit like manure.

Something really stinks!