Respecting Authority
It doesn’t appear that the vitriol toward our newly elected President is going to disappear anytime soon.
In his latest music video Snoop Dogg literally takes aim at President Trump with a gun pointed at a clown dressed like the President. The rapper listed many of his grievances with the President including his travel ban, “people being in jail for weed” and of course, just winning the Presidency itself.
USA Today reported that “according to Snoop, his focus on the track was “making a song that was not controversial but real — real to the voice of the people who don’t have a voice.”
Hmm? Really?
By the way, I saw some of the video with my sound turned off because there was a warning of “explicit language.”
I’m not sure when it became socially acceptable to demonstrate such disrespectful disdain against our elected leaders. There were many unkind and ugly epitaphs hurled toward President Obama. And, of course, George W. Bush was the subject of some pretty vicious taunts.
I suppose one could argue that Mr. Trump has engaged in his share of rude and crude language and thus deserves whatever criticism he receives no matter how harsh and hateful.
One could argue that, but they would be wrong.
In our Bible reading this week at West Main there is a passage that caught my attention. It’s during the time when David is on the run from King Saul. Following David’s defeat of Goliath, Saul developed a bitter jealousy toward David. At least twice David escaped Saul’s attempt to kill him with a spear. Later Saul tried to influence both his son, Jonathan, and his servants to kill David. Finally, Saul’s out of control fury reached a point where David had to flee into the wilderness.
In 1 Samuel 24 Saul comes into a cave where David is hiding, but doesn’t know David is there. David sneaks close enough to cut off the edge of Saul’s garment, but then felt bad for doing this. He then turned to his soldiers and said: “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way.”
Several times in the ensuing chapters David speaks of Saul as “the Lord’s anointed.” Although Saul was irrational and sought to harm him, David would not retaliate against the King. He respected the office that God ordained.
We could learn a valuable lesson from David’s attitude. While some people in positions of power may not conduct themselves worthy of their rank, they do deserve to be accorded the honor of that office.
During the days of immoral and ungodly Roman Emperors the Bible says
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no
authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed
by God” (Rom 13:1). Furthermore, we are exhorted to “pray for those in
authority” (1 Tim. 2:2) and to “honor the king” (1 Pet 2:17)
For those who may think ThePreachersWord has a political agenda, we sounded the same concerns during the President Obama’s tenure. The Bible commands are not politically motivated. Nor should we interpret them in a partisan manner.
Respect. Honor. Decency. Good manners. And graciousness. These qualities never go out of style. Nor should they be discarded when we disagree with others. Even and especially our elected leaders.
–Ken Weliever, The Preacherman