"I don't vote cause God is sovereign"
Wow. The arrogance is staggering. These are the reasons Sean Hannity told Larry Tomczak, why Christians voted for Obama. How belittling. As if people could not evaluate both candidates and come up with Obama as the better choice. As if hope and change are bad reasons to vote for someone. As if only the democrats have celebrities backing their candidate. As if it is OK to mock the history of slavery in this country as Tomczak just did. As if the depth of someone's "coolness" is how someone must have voted. While we are at it Mr. Tomczak, you should be ashamed for even trying to float the debunked notions of Muslim and Socialist. Lastly here, why are you mocking the sovereignty of God? We do not have any Christian imperative to vote. NONE. It is a civic and secular responsibility. Mr. Tomczak then goes on an extended political rant, with several opinions disguised as facts. At the end of the recitation of his Fox News talking points, he states the following:
"Since Jesus taught us to be "fruit inspectors" (Matt 7: 13-21), the time has come to examine the fruit as I pray for this president daily."
We see this tact all the time from critical Christians. After attacking someone they claim to love them. After disparaging them and calling them evil they claim to be praying for them. As if that excuses the behavior, the smears, and the lies. What is more disturbing however is for a man claiming to be Christian who clearly does not mind taking what God said for one reason and lying about it for another reason.
"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. - Matt 7: 15-19 (ESV)
I assume Mr. Tomczak meant Matthew 7: 15-20, not 13-21 but I will give him a pass on that. The larger problem is that when you read these verses above are they imploring Christians everywhere to be "fruit inspectors" when it comes to our politicians in this fallen world? Absolutely not. What is this entire section about? False teachers! You know, like people who claim the mantle of Christianity and then misuse the Bible for their own personal motives. We are meant to examine their fruit because it will reveal they are not representing God at all. Their true motives will be found in their rotten fruit as we can see in Mr. Tomczak's conclusion. He launches into a litany of attacks on the president, the majority of which are either opinion disguised as fact, completely debunked by this point, or completely irrelevant to the Christian cause. Now maybe you ascribe to every one of his nuanced, partisan positions. Maybe you think Benghazi is still a viable concern even though the Republican led committee found no truth to any of the accusations leveled against the president and his administration. Maybe you think taking healthcare away from poor people is somehow the true will of God. Remember now, everyone Jesus healed had a pre-existing condition! Maybe you believe the crusades were really just a bunch of guys planting churches. Maybe you hate Al Sharpton and love Benjamin Netanyahu. The point is beloved these would all be your political opinions, even if some were not fact based. They have nothing to do with Christianity. They have nothing to do with the cause of Christ. Just like this article had nothing to do with the cause of Christ. It was a political hit piece wrapped up in bible fragments from someone who apparently has sold his faith for his politics. Tomczak says that we need to repent of any idolatry and I agree because his political party has overshadowed his Christianity. It has become an idol to him and that is plainly evident for all to see. Tomczak finishes by misunderstanding one more verse:
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked rule, the people mourn. -- Proverbs 29:2
Once again trying to use the bible to prop up your pre-determined causes will be evident when we evaluate your fruit as a false teacher. This verse is presented as if there were two choices. There is no question who Mr. Tomczak feels was the wicked choice. That is why he thinks those who voted for Mr. Obama need to repent. While that is problematic enough, the notion that we would have to repent for the sins of others, the other side is where Tomczak gets into real trouble. The inference is clear. In Larry Tomczak's mind the Mormon was the righteous choice! You know; the guy who follows a religion concocted in the mind of a pedophile that had 33 wives, the youngest being 14 years old! The guy who follows the religion founded by the guy who claims an angel visited him the woods behind his house in upstate New York and gave him golden plates with new scriptures on it. A religion that places the Bible behind the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price. A religion that rewrote entire books in the Bible even though the Bible says they are to be cursed for doing so! This is the righteous choice according to Larry Tomczak. How sad. How very sad.
The truth is this. We live in Sodom. Not Shangri-La. We live in Gomorrah, not Eden. The problem is that the Larry Tomczak's of the world secretly like Sodom. They like living in Sodom. They like the excess and the sin. They like being able to play pious in an amoral society. Whatever the benefit is, they simply cannot let go. Like Lot's wife, they turn back to lovingly gaze upon Sodom and wistfully create fantasies in their hearts. That Sodom wasn't always so bad. That it once had a lot of Christians in it. Heck, it was even righteous once! If only we could go back then to this fairy tale we have created then maybe God will let us keep our sin when He judges the rest of the world. Yeah, revival. That would be great. So instead of preaching the Gospel and trying to save as many as possible out of Sodom, the Tomczak's of the world try to save Sodom instead. They need a premise though that there are evil causes and good causes and if we can just get the right evil person in office then everything would work out fine. The problem is that along the way, you have to call out who you think is evil while keeping a straight face about your side being righteous. Maybe you will even have to lie about the one you have dubbed evil. Maybe you will even have to blame anyone who likes them, supported them, or even voted for them. Then you will have to ask them something so absurd as to repent for it. Never mind that God is sovereign, we can always mock that. Never mind that the Bible doesn't really support it, we can always mangle the verses we need. I mean, who reads this thing anymore anyway right? Never mind that God actually decides who is in office as our key verse teaches us today. Repent? Yes Larry, you should.
Reverend Anthony Wade - April 20, 2015
