“Let the scoundrel forsake his way,” says Isaiah. A scoundrel is a wicked person who causes division, for example, through supremacy. Jesus tells a parable about men working with others at a task but who then become scoundrels; ‘on receiving their fair wage they grumbled.’ They cause division by acting as supremacists over their co-workers.
Given the divisive supremacy of the current administration, scoundrel describes Donald Trump and his cohorts. Politically speaking, these scoundrels cause divisive supremacy through sedition, much like the men in Jesus’ parable. Sedition is the organized rejection of authority done via supremacy. It must be granted that the U.S. is an empire and that voting does not change the system only its particular ruler. Granting that, the sedition, or the authority these supremacists are really organized to reject is the peoples authority. Starting in 2008, updating Confederate sedition, Trump organized the rejection of the people’s authority to elect a Black man president. His supremacist ‘Birtherism’ claim began Trump’s most serious electoral sedition. With the organized help of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other white supremacists, Trump rejected the U.S. birth and thus authority of Barack Obama, and that of the citizens who voted him into office. Trump’s own campaign for the presidency, to Make America Great Again, was devised from his racist Birtherism and was thus founded on rejecting the authority of all nonwhite citizens. The white supremacist president then enacted a Muslim ban, hyped an Southern border invasion caravan, separated immigrant families, and attacked DACA, all done with the help of white supremacist cohorts Miller, Sessions, Gorka, and Bannon. Steve Bannon shared Trump’s seditious “deconstruction of the administrative state.” Trump is seditious in his admiration and emulation of political supremacists, dictators and their dictatorial rule: “(I)n all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people. I haven’t’ seen that,” “I think in terms of leadership, (Putin) is getting an ‘A;’” Kim Jong Un: “Kim tells me everything.” “He killed his uncle and he put the body right in the steps…the head was cut, sitting on the chest,” “(W)e would go back and forth. And then we fell in love. No really. He wrote me beautiful letters.” Supremacist dictator Trump proves sedition, the organized rejection of the people’s authority, through his pathological lying, his rejection of intelligence reports of any type, and his firing of Inspector Generals. The supremacist dictator is guilty of sedition by rejecting the authority of independent media calling all media “the enemy of the people.” He also rejects the authority of science because it knows he responsible for tens of thousands and more dying from the coronavirus. The dictator is guilty of sedition by rejecting the authority of asylees to petition, the people to peaceably assemble, due process, and other rights while he habitually violates laws (obstruction of justice, bribery, intimidation of witnesses, the emoluments clause,…). The white supremacist scoundrel is again seditious with a new ‘Birtherism’ charge organizing the rejection of the people’s authority to elect a Black vice-president, Kamala Harris. He is again seditious in welcoming foreign interference in the election. As he was seditious when he organized the rejection of the people’s authority by unproven claims the 2016 election was “rigged,” if he lost, so now he is again seditious in 2020. Trump is organizing the rejection of the authority of the people’s vote; eliminating voting sites, obstructing the process for students, complicating the vote during the pandemic, unjustly removing people from voter rolls, unproven claims of voter fraud, lawsuits preventing mail-in voting asserting “inevitable” fraud and by harming the Post Office. The seditious dictator Trump has also stated about a potential election loss, “I have to see, I’m not just going to say, yes” to it. The scoundrel Trump’s sedition is proven, alarming, and dangerous and of course being projected by his fans onto his opponents for purposes of furthering their Civil War desires. Trump’s supremacist Attorney General Barr threatens peaceful protesters with “sedition.” Trump’s supremacist fan, Glenn Beck, charges a group of Democratic and Republican civil servants, who have started the Transition Integrity Project, with sedition for taking seriously Trump’s seditious and dictatorial history. Trump’s supremacist fan, Pastor Robert Jeffress, asserts all Democrats are seditious, “If the Democrats are successful in removing (Trump) from office, it will cause a Civil War.” Trump’s seditious armed militia, such as the Oathkeepers who provide security at Trump’s rallies, assert “We are on the verge of a hot civil war.” “Nothing less than a civil war would happen,” is their claim if the people do not re-elect Trump. Seditious. Scoundrels. These supremacist scoundrels are wicked in their organized rejection of the people’s authority.
Genuine authority is rooted in conscience and we can conscientiously organize ourselves to reject these current scoundrels.
Prayer: Spirit, keep us united.
Question: How can I witness humble authority with supremacist supporters of armed sedition?
September 20, 2020 Gospel Matthew 20:1-16 Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time