On Tuesday, some of the hosts and guests on ABC’s “The View” had a good time mocking Vice President Mike Pence’s faith.
The conversation on the clip was shameful, that in this country, the home of the brave and the free, that someone’s faith could be so openly be disparaged.
We are all just starting to get acquainted with Omarosa Manigault Newman, who left President Trump’s team and is now launching a new reality career of dishing on her experiences. That’s fair in politics, but she’s particularly unnerved by the faith VP Pence.
Manigault- Newman’s comment, which aired on Celebrity Big Brother, was this: “He’s extreme. I’m Christian, I love Jesus. But he thinks Jesus tells him to say things, and I’m like, ‘Jesus didn’t say that.’ Scary.”
The View Co-host Joy Behar commented on the clip. “It’s one thing to talk to Jesus. It’s another thing when Jesus talks to you. That’s called mental illness if I’m not correct. Hearing voices,” she said. “What concerns me is how long is the conversation with Jesus,” her co-host added.
Laughs all around.
Hearing Voices
She might have been trying to score shock points, as she regularly does in many situations, at VP Pence’s expense. She might have been trying to get a rise out of her guests. She might have been playing to the audience.
Regardless of her motivation, I have news for her – Men and women have been talking to God for millennia – and yes, He talks back.
The Bible is replete with full on conversations with God. Samuel. David. Daniel. Moses. The Prophets. While I would love to hear an audible voice, I’m not sure I could handle that. But I am certain he has spoken to me, clear as day. And to billions of others, he has spoken to them as well.
Does He speak today? Why wouldn’t He. I would hope that he is speaking to our leaders, if not audibly then through a variety of methods.
There are many ways we hear God.
Christians believe that the first way to hear God is through His Scriptures. The words through the ages leap out of the pages. If you are skeptic, I dare you to find a passage of Scripture and watch it apply to your life.
What does the Bible have to say about money? About relationships? About being a citizen? Just about any situation has an answer and if you let it steep, you’ll find that it does speak – and you will hear.
And yes, God speaks through nature. The stronger the telescope and the microscope, the stronger the voice shouts. Spend an hour on a mountaintop – alone – and there’s something that you hear. Romans 1:20 says this is by design, “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”
Elijah was a great example of how God speaks. He let the fire pass. He let the hurricane winds pass. And finally, he heard him through a still small voice.
Sometimes God uses other people. I’ve been so hard-headed at times that it took other people mouthing the words of God so I would start to listen.
God even uses nonbelievers – people who will say things or ask questions that will jolt me into reality.
Jesus Calling
Yes, Joy, we also believe that Jesus speaks to us. Hebrews 1:1-2 says, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by His Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe”
Of course there is the crazy man on the sidewalk, claiming God told him to dance naked on the fire hydrant. There’s the woman that thinks God told her she was Beyonce and that she should sing Amazing Grace at your father’s funeral. Put all that aside, God does speak.
I would much rather have a Vice President that listens to God, than a leader who pushes every divine voice away. I would much rather follow a leader who is humble enough to claim that he doesn’t know the answer to every question. I am comfortable following a man who on his knees asks God for help.
If the Vice President has a mental illness for talking to Jesus, then call me crazy too.
Maybe, as a nation, we can mock a little less and listen a little more.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In