Procedural Note

Some people have objected to my calling the incoming-president an "unrighteous" man.

My using that term comes from a recent conviction that human beings don't have moral "standing" to call any other human being "evil" or "good."  Both are assertions what someone's spirit IS, absolutely and without admixture.  At the most basic level of reality, that's a dishonest view of any human being.

Certainly Jesus forbids us to call anyone "good": even Himself in the days of His flesh: because "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18 and Luke 18:19).

But Jesus does speak of "evil" people.  In all the other gospels, His references are to men's evil deeds or thoughts: but in Matthew, there is an evil generation of men (12:39, 12:45, and 16:4), an evil slave (24:48), an "evil person" He tells us not to resist (5:39), an "evil man" who brings forth evil treasures (12:35).

Collective mankind on which the sun rises (5:45), and which the king invites to the marriage feast (22:10), includes evil people.  And Jesus is completely direct about who these people are, and what their nature is: "you, being evil" (7:11, 12:34).

I'll be the first to admit I don't understand everything about Jesus referring to people as "evil."  But knowing Who Jesus IS, I think He has the spiritual authority to make that judgement, which belongs to God Alone.  And I think His "...you, being evil" means no human being has spiritual "standing" to call any other human being evil.

I'm convicted we should rightly only characterize people by the nature of their deeds, and thoughts, and words.  We can call someone who does righteous things and speaks righteousness, "a righteous man."  Jesus has forbidden any characterization beyond that, for "no one is good except God alone."

And a man whose deeds, and thoughts, and words are manifestly evil and harmful is "an unrighteous man."  I'm convicted I'd be spiritually unwarranted in judging Donald Trump "an evil man:" but only as "unrighteous."

But that only explains the terminology I've chosen.  I could yet be factually wrong about Donald Trump.  God knows the thoughts of his heart.  My characterization is only based on what he's publicly done, and said.

So I here publicly invite correction.

If anyone who objects to my characterizing Donald Trump as "unrighteous" will make me aware of an instance I might have missed, in which he did or said a righteous thing, I will post it here.

In light of any verifiable evidence of his doing any righteous thing, or saying a righteous thing,
I will also re-think my characterization of Trump as "an unrighteous man."  And if anyone shows me proof that I have mis-characterized him, I will here publicly apologize.

Syria

Can anyone see or hear about the sufferings of Syrians caught in their nation's civil war without being moved to tears and prayers for them ?.

Can anyone who claims to have the heart and mind of Jesus not be moved to pray for peace and mercy for these sufferers ?

But politicians tend to see all things in political terms: the wrong priority when it overrides acting in mercy.  Bill Clinton's greatest moral failing was not his hidden adulterous immorality: it was his failure to use America's power to protect Rwandans from genocide as the whole world watched, day after day.

Politicians' delusional self-interest is not news.  And it would be no more than dust on the scales, weighed against the sufferings of Syrians: except that how politicians view that tragedy will determine how they act toward it.

And that, of course, many in the politically-enslaved American Church will quickly adopt the view of their politician-de-jour, and baptize his actions as "Christian."

(The unrighteous "Christian" faction that rules my state is ahead of that curve.  They have been posturing their rebelliousness for a year, trumpeting that our state will not accept any of the Syrians to whom President Obama gave refuge in his America-hating "tyranny."

God bless my state's former Methodist Bishop Scott Jones, who publicly called on congregations to act in Jesus' mercy, and help Syrian refugees relocate here.  I admire his courage for standing against the politicians: and even more his courage for standing against the members of those congregations, the majority of whom undoubtedly take the politicians' view more than Jesus' view.)

I have little hope America will act for peace or mercy in Syria.  The little our incoming-president has said about Syrians' suffering is that the military forces of Russia, Iran, and Syria's President Assad are "killing ISIS."

We all know Donald Trump lies.  And one consequence for those who choose to follow lies is that they themselves come to believe lies.  First their own (for all deception begins in self-deception), then those of greater liars than themselves: and in both, ultimately the "father of lies" himself (John 8:44).

We all know Donald Trump believes lies.  What crushes any hope that America will act mercifully toward suffering Syrians is that Trump shows he believes the lies of deceivers more deceitful than himself.

Trump, and America, will undoubtedly act on Russian lies, Iranian lies, and Assad's lies.  That the people suffering so horribly in Syria's war are evil people, ISIS people...who deserve to suffer horribly, and die horribly.

God is Saying . . .

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness, 
And to walk humbly with your God ?"

                                           --  Micah 6:8

Christians are praying wisdom and godliness for the incoming president.  We are praying wisdom, peace, and righteousness for America; and for the Church.  These prayers please God, "...who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (I Timothy 2:1-4).

But I continue to hear God say, increasingly and more insistently, that Christians MUST NEVER pray that the unrighteous policies and programs of the coming presidency will "Make America Great Again."

God's inviolable moral law is that doing unrighteousness will NEVER...CAN never...produce good results.

Acting against that law did not work for Adam and Eve.

Doing unrighteousness has never produced good results.  It never will.

And Christians must never pray it will.  Asking God to reverse the moral law guaranteed in His Own Character, and please let unrighteousness "Make America Great Again," is a prayer profoundly displeasing to God.

We risk God's extreme wrath to flippantly pray "God bless America," if we are asking Him to bless unrighteousness.

Micah tells us the Law by which God judges men's deeds.  It is the Law by which He judges men's political deeds.  It is the Law by which God judges all nations of men.

 May America do the righteousness God commands.  If America does unrighteousness, may we pray for forgiveness, and follow with deeds of repentance.  May we NEVER pray that God act against His Own Character, and His Own law...and His Own righteous judgement.