Bill and Wayne’s Excellent Adventure
in Politics
By
Lonnie C. Hendrix
The Church
of God International has reaffirmed its bona fides as a legitimate part of the
Armstrong Church of God culture. Like their counterparts within the ministries
of most of the other descendants of the Worldwide Church of God, Bill Watson
and Wayne Hendrix have made clear that they are firmly in the
conservative/Republican camp when it comes to American politics. The CGI’s
latest webcast, Post Election Discussion, is an adventure into the political
mindset of most folks within this culture.
They begin
their conversation with a discussion of the liberal/Democratic media bias which
they claim should be obvious to anyone with an ounce of sense (sound
familiar?). According to Bill and Wayne, the media was in the tank for Hillary.
The way they see it, the media neglected the stories about her “ethical”
problems; and instead focused on calling poor Donald Trump a racist, misogynist
and homophobe (the implication being that there is not one shred of evidence to
support the use of such labels – in other words, please ignore all of The
Donald’s statements during the campaign). As with many other issues, they pine
for the good old days when journalists were neutral and exhibited
“professionalism” (like the folks over at Fox News?).
Next, they
move on to an examination of some of the statements which various celebrities
(Cher, Snoop Dogg, Kelly Clarkson) made expressing dismay over the results of
the election. They proceed to make fun of the distress that many folks have
felt over the election of Donald Trump. They simply cannot seem to understand
how anyone could be that disenchanted with the results of the 2016 election.
According to Bill and Wayne, most of the protesters are paid by the likes of
George Soros and his allies to do so. In other words, the notion that these
crowds might be motivated by genuine disgust with the result is not even worth
considering.
For Bill and
Wayne, God is in control – the right person to fulfill God’s plan always wins.
Barack Obama was exalted to tear down America, and Donald Trump was anointed to
set things right.
At one
point, they even go so far as to compare Trump’s ascendancy to the U.S.
Presidency with the ascension of Josiah to David’s throne. They even venture to
speculate as to what degree Trump might be able to “turn things around.” At the
very least, they conclude that Trump will probably be able to slow down
America’s decline. In fairness, they do finally admit that the analogy is not
perfect – that Mr. Trump is no saint, and that his focus is very secular in
nature.
In their
analysis of Trump’s victory over Clinton, they conclude that a vote for her
would have been a third term for Obama. Fortunately, according to them, the
American people voted against Obama’s policies (what happened to their
assertion that Clinton was an extremely flawed candidate with serious ethical
issues). For them, Donald Trump was the champion of the average American –
ordinary folks – the common man. There is no mention of the fact that Trump won
with 46% of the popular vote (meaning 54% of Americans voted for someone else
for president). There is no mention of the fact that Clinton received almost
three million more votes than he did (I guess those Americans don’t count as
average, ordinary or part of the majority they have in mind).
Finally,
almost as an afterthought, Bill and Wayne address the issue of whether or not
it is appropriate for two elders of “God’s Church” to discourse on political
issues. Of course, they conclude that it would be remiss on their part not to
address the topic. Apparently, they feel that their perspective (inspired as it
is by the Holy Spirit) is indispensable to a right understanding of the issues
involved. Thus we are left to wonder, do these guys honestly believe that they
are presenting God’s perspective on the 2016 election? AND, if that isn’t what
they are suggesting, why should church members be interested in anything they
have to say on the topic?
One thing on
which we can all agree with Bill and Wayne:
The country is very polarized/divided. Nevertheless, finding ourselves
in agreement on this one point, one has to ask:
Why would two ministers of Almighty God decide to take sides in such an
environment? Wouldn’t the more prudent course for a minister be to stick to
religious/spiritual issues? What do you think?
