I hear the sound of Baal

After Joe Biden was announced as the president-elect last month, many of President Trump’s supporters went into full-scale denial. Kenneth Copeland, known for “name-it-and-claim-it” theology, led an outbreak of laughter at a service, and other self-styled prophets said they absolutely heard from God that Trump would be reelected.

But for sheer lunacy, nothing beats the incantation of Paula White, a member of Trump’s religious advisory team who, during a so-called prayer, called in spirits from Africa and South America to overturn the election results and kept saying, over and over, “I hear the sound of victory.”

It seems to me that she was summoning spirits all, right — but not from God.

White also subscribes to what disgraced evangelist Jimmy Swaggart referred to as “hyperfaith” — that if you simply speak to what you want it’s guaranteed to be on its way. Trouble is, however, God will do that only if doing so serves His purpose and that the request is being made in humility.

And in the case of White, there’s not a shred of humility in her demand that the result be changed.

I was reminded of a situation described by a missionary in my church about three decades ago about a tribe in Southeast Asia that made a fetish and banged it every time a member wanted something from the gods. Of course, the missionary wanted the tribe to understand that God doesn’t work like that.

Then you had the prophets of Baal who, according to 1 Kings 18:20-40, were called out by the prophet Elijah and challenged to a duel. Remember what happened — the prophets of Baal called out his name all day and into the evening, even cutting themselves, with the sacrifice completely unmoved on their altar. After that, Elijah uttered a simple prayer—and his sacrifice was burned up completely.

Does that thus sound silly from a Christian perspective? Well, that’s what White appeared to be doing, apparently believing that if you prayed hard enough you would get the desired results. You could say that she was calling on Baal — who is no God at all.

If you haven’t noticed, Trump has lost the election — and here's why

It probably sounds absolutely crazy that much of the country has refused to accept that Donald Trump lost the presidential election seven weeks ago. Many of his supporters have complained that it was “rigged,” that, among other things, voting machines used in a number of states actually changed their votes (their manufacturer is suing Newsmax and One America News, two right-wing television networks making that phony charge, for defamation).

But what you’re seeing is a lot deeper than Trump — indeed, it has been for a very long time. The political populist right has long believed that power is its birthright and anyone who doesn’t agree with it is illegitimate.

We first saw this with Bill Clinton in 1992.

The right was so frightened of losing an election that it actually filed suit in Federal court in Little Rock, Ark. to have him removed from the ballot (the judge must have laughed them out of his courtroom). Within weeks of his inauguration bumper stickers began appearing that read: “Don’t blame me — I voted for [George H.W.] Bush.” Then you had right-wing media playing up Whitewater, a failed land deal that cost Bill and Hillary Clinton; and his alleged tomcatting and bogus accusations of rape. (Keep in mind that the Fox News Channel didn’t exist at this time.) Then you had H. Ross Perot as a spoiler, apparently taking enough votes from Bush in ’92 and Bob Dole in ’96 to hand the reins of power to Bill Clinton.

Ever since, supporters of the “radical right” wanted a Republican presidential candidate to trash-talk his or her opponents with impunity. George W. Bush didn’t. John McCain didn’t. Mitt Romney didn’t. (Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin came the closest.) Trump, however, did, which is why he’s literally worshiped — it had so much hatred for political opponents that even talking to them was considered surrender because they were considered sub-human.

The thing is, you can “go low” for only so long before folks start to react, which is something that Trump’s minions didn’t, and apparently still don't, understand. The “liberal snowflakes” certainly screamed when Trump got elected. But then, they began to organize, making some headway in 2018. 

That organization became even more focused this year, with groups sending texts to people encouraging them to vote — I received about a dozen such texts — and even the NAACP not only mounting a voter-registration drive but calling upon volunteers to reach out to black voters.

And those black voters came out strong, initially propelling Joe Biden to primary victories in the South, eventually handing him the Democratic nomination and later the presidency. (It didn’t help that Trump denounced the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer, giving them more ammunition.) Then you have his failure to address the COVID-19 epidemic, insisting that it would simply go away. (It should be noted that Trump was raised with Norman Vincent Peale, author of “The Power of Positive Thinking,” as a pastor, which might explain his reticence to do more.)

See, that’s the real reason that Trump complained about the election being rigged — he can’t stand the idea of people, especially those in power, opposing him. During his administration his whole mindset was exposed as defective and his failures were not only magnified but used against him. Even now that he’s playing out the string he’s failing to govern, filing these frivolous lawsuits to try to overturn the election results. And shame on those people trying to argue that “We wuz robbed!” Because they weren’t — they lost fairly and squarely and are about to have their boy turned out because of his own failure.

Let that word sink in — failure.

‘Authority’ vs. ministry

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”

—   Mark 9:35

Have you noticed that, with all the money and connections that the “religious right” has maintained within the halls of power, it has precious little influence around the nation? Outside of it supporters, it has no real power to speak of.

There’s a reason for that.

See, it thought, erroneously, that focusing on “authority” — that is to say, passing laws and getting courts to agree with those supposedly biblical injunctions — was the key to spiritual renewal. Thing is, it never had any chance of doing so, for one simple reason: Seeking authority for its own sake is ruinous, not to mention futile.

In this case, Jesus is saying that any authority actually is derived from ministry — in fact, it’s a by-product.

My church, which I’ve attended for 22 years, has a great reputation in the immediate “at-risk” neighborhood where it’s located, not to mention the city at large and even around the country. It didn’t always, however, because just over 30 years ago it was a drive-in congregation disconnected from the community.

But under different pastoral leadership it committed to reaching out, even adjusting its culture to welcome those on the outside; over time, it grew from 400 to over 3,000 attendees. Most “church growth” experts were likely scratching their heads because trying to build a church that way didn’t, and still doesn’t, fit the model.

They miss the point, however — the church became, and remains, a place of service. One unusual thing about us is that a good two-thirds of adults, myself included, participates in some sort of ministry.

Even at its founding at the turn of the last century, that focus on service existed. When the founding pastor was asked to “superintend the work,” he responded that he couldn’t do so, “but if the Holy Spirit [would], I would gladly run errands for Him.”

The same goes for marriage, which as a newlywed I’m experiencing now. As the husband I have “authority” in the home but prefer to use whatever authority I’m under to serve my wife, not to push her around — whenever I do or say something that warms her heart I occasionally say, “That’s part of the job description,” in which I take great delight.

This is also why I believe that an administration headed by Joe Biden will prove to be more effective than that of Donald Trump, and it won’t take long for that to show itself. From what I see, Biden has always been more of a servant, seeking the best possible solutions to benefit the greatest number of people and working with those who might not agree with him, while Trump from the start was filled with braggadocio, thinking he could simply throw his weight around and get things done. (And he cared about getting the credit.)

Basically, the issue here is humility. A lot of these parachurch ministries claim to speak for God when He has not truly spoken, so when things don’t go their way they have a hard time trying to justify their pronouncements. Their heads wanted to be regarded as leaders, so they hyped up their campaigns and focused on defeating enemies, which raised a ton of money but got precious little accomplished — and I would say that their days are numbered because they not only forgot to serve the LORD but never really encouraged His people to do so.

Listening to the devil

I recently watched a video by “The Friendly Atheist” about several so-called prophets who were guaranteeing a second term for President Donald Trump. After the election happened and Joe Biden was declared the winner, Kenneth Copeland, known in some cases for his false teaching anyway, laughed — and led a congregation in laughter — at the results, and Trump “spiritual adviser” Paula White, in the midst of an incantation, called upon spirits in Africa and South America to overturn the result. I’m sure they believed, and told anyone listening, that they had heard from God Himself.

The problem, however, was not that they and others weren’t listening to God, though they weren’t. It’s that they were hearing the wrong voice and thus got off-track.

What they heard instead was the voice of Satan, who has only one goal: To keep people from recognizing God as He is.

Now, that’s not a charge I or anyone should make frivolously, that anyone could, should or would mistake the siren song of the devil for the voice of God. But the True and Living God won’t prophesy victory for the sake of giving His people a leg up politically, culturally or socially — indeed, He often predicts hard times for His followers despite, and in some cases because of, their faithfulness.

According to The New York Times, even before he officially announced his run for 2016, Trump was already making campaign stops promising largely-Christian audiences that “Christianity will have power” — which I immediately recognized as a temptation because when Christianity does gain power it almost always loses its purpose. Remember, the Gospel of Jesus Christ ultimately is about reconciliation, first between God and people and, then, people to one another — something you would never hear from these so-called ministries who mistake hype and spectacle for His Holy Word and Spirit. And that’s the real reason why, after over 40 years of activism and billions of dollars for advocacy groups in centers of political power, the “religious right” has so little influence.

Now these so-called prophets are being exposed as the charlatans they always were, and I hope their ministries collapse as a result. One thing about “prophecy” not often mentioned is that if a prophet got even one thing wrong in ancient Israel he or she would be put to death, not simply because of the particular thing about which he or she was prophesying but also misunderstanding the underlying issues that caused it. And in our nation today such underlying issues included economic disparity, racial injustice and poor political leadership, which are alluded to in the Scripture but none of which Trump or many Christians had any interest in addressing — and, also, the reason he lost.

I would say that it’s high time for many of us to admit that we were seduced by the temptation of “being No. 1,” something that God just doesn’t promise. Basically, we followed the devil into a rabbit hole and, as a result, got “caught up” in a program that diverted us from a true spiritual path of righteousness and justice. I hope the election will wake us up to our need for repentance.