PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION AND

A HAUGHTY SPIRIT BEFORE A FALL

(Proverbs 16:18)

Years ago, I listened to conservative talk radio for 2 hours every day while I was working out.

One day I realized how arrogant the speaker was.

One day I realized how unchristlike I was becoming.

The greatest of all virtues is altruistic love.

The greatest of all sins is pride, vainglory, superciliousness, narcissism.

An archaic Electoral College enabled a significant minority of voters to elect Donald Trump President of the United States of America in 2016.

His only qualification was that of a reality TV star. 

He came with a history of:

• Pompous haughtiness
• Distain for the weak
• Racism
• Shady manipulative business dealings
• Multiple marriages
• Multiple bankruptcies
• Cheating workers
• Championing abortion
• Serial adultery

He has:

• Bragged about his multiple affairs
• Been credibly accused of rape
• Corrupted democracy
• Abandoned allies
• Aligned with dictators
• Broken international treaties
• Ruined America’s global reputation
• Failed to protect Americans from a deadly virus that has caused a quarter million deaths (thus far) as well as economic chaos 
• Proved to be a textbook example of pathological malignant narcissism
• Displayed profound moral impairment

Since taking office, he repeatedly and consistently:

• Denies scientific findings
• Implements policies to ravage and despoil the environment
• Shows repeated contempt for American ideals
• Divides Americans
• Selectively encourages voter suppression
• Spreads tens of thousands of documented lies 
• Mocks his religious supporters
• Engages in illegal business dealings
• Refuses to reveal his taxes
• Engages in race-baiting
• Displays cruelty
• Is unswervingly rude
• Is regularly vindictive
• Provides comfort to propagators of racism and hate
• Encourages terrorism
• Encourages mob violence
• Undermines governmental agencies
• Enriches his own family through graft
• Opposes free speech
• Openly propagates conspiracy theories
• Separates children from their families
• Deports refugees fleeing violence and poverty
• Advocates on behalf of Russia, a hostile foreign power
• Exhibits overwhelming evidenced that he is mentally unstable

Massive coalitions of physicians, scientists, mental health professionals, historians, political scientists, environmentalists, community advocates, and ordinary citizens have called for his removal.

He is the worst, most corrupt, and most dangerous president in the history of the United States. The white evangelicals who have supported him made a Faustian bargain that destroyed their Christian witness and has driven millions away from Christianity.

Perhaps we deserve him.

America was founded on duel, intersecting original sins. We have never as a nation acknowledged or repented of those sins. When the root system is corrupt, the entire tree will bear rotten fruit. The demons of our past cry out to be exorcised.

One foundational evil: arrogant pride

Two foundational sins: stolen land and stolen people

Filled with the arrogance of racial superiority, Europeans invaded a land that had been occupied by viable native civilizations for 10,000 years.

Through genocide, shattered promises, and broken treaties, the native population was decimated and subdued, their land stolen.

Captured and kidnapped Africans were bought and sold, owned and abused – enslaved and forced to work the stolen land.

Stolen people working stolen land built a powerhouse global economy.

Judgment is simply the invariable result of sin.

Until America repents of its cruelty and oppression of Native and African Americans, judgment will fall.

But we do not repent of building a nation on stolen land with stolen people. We do not repent because we continue in the essential foundational evil, as evidenced by the fact that we put the most arrogant, self-centered person we can find in office, then wave flags on his behalf.