“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.’ The scoundrels, men destitute of morals, cause division by acting as supremacists over others.
Scoundrel, a man destitute of morals, describes Donald Trump and his cohort. They cause division by acting as supremacists over others. Speaking from their realm of politics, these scoundrels are guilty of sedition. Sedition is division caused by overthrowing civil authority. But since the U.S. is an empire, civil authority is itself supremacist and thus divisive. However, that supremacy is camouflaged by the people periodically voting. Granting that voting changes the ruler, not the system, the people do indeed vote. Thus, speaking from the relationship of community, these scoundrels are really rejecting the peoples authority. Starting in 2008, updating Confederate sedition, Trump rejected the people’s authority to elect a Black man president. His supremacist ‘Birtherism’ claim began Trump’s most serious electoral sedition. Trump did this with the organized help of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other white supremacists. These men destitute of morals rejected the U.S. birth and thus authority of Barack Obama, and that of the citizens who voted him into office. Trump’s campaign for the presidency, to Make America Great Again (MAGA), was devised from his racist Birtherism. It was thus founded on rejecting the authority of all nonwhite citizens. The white supremacist scoundrel in the Oval Office then enacted a Muslim ban, hyped a Southern border invasion caravan, separated immigrant families, and attacked DACA, all done with the help of other white supremacist scoundrels Miller, Sessions, Gorka, and Bannon. Steve Bannon shared Trump’s seditious “deconstruction of the administrative state.” The scoundrel Trump is seditious against the people’s authority in his emulation of political supremacists: “(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 Trump proves sedition against the people’s authority through his pathological lying, his rejection of intelligence reports of any type, and his firing of Inspector Generals. The supremacist scoundrel 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 scientists know he is responsible for tens of thousands and more dying from the coronavirus. The scoundrel 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. As he seditiously welcomed foreign interference in the previous election so he is again. This man destitute of morals is again organizing the rejection of the people’s authority in the coming election; 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 Trump won’t necessarily step down if he loses the vote, “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. The scoundrel Bill Barr threatens peaceful protesters with “sedition.” The scoundrel 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 history. The scoundrel Pastor Robert Jeffress, asserts all Democrats are seditious, “If the Democrats are successful in removing (Trump) from office, it will cause a Civil War.” The scoundrels in militia, like the Oathkeepers, 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. These seditious 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