Political False Prophets

Deuteronomy 18 has this to say about false prophets:

²⁰But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ ²¹And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’— ²²when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him.

If those who make false predictions today were executed, we would probably hear far fewer of them. In the case of those forecasting political doom and gloom without explicitly claiming divine inspiration, it isn’t clear that this law would apply. Be that as it may, I’d prefer a different consequence for today’s political false prophets.

I’d like those who believe predictions about doom and gloom if a candidate is elected, if they fail to come to pass, to repent and not keep doing the same.

At the very least, I’d like for people to stop taking them seriously and believing them when they offer yet another similar prediction.

That’s what Deuteronomy was saying when it said not to fear such a “prophet.” They have claimed to have authority and insight into what was to come, and they were wrong or perhaps simply lied.

What Would Supposedly Happen if Barack Obama Were Elected

The predictions of disaster have been ratcheting up especially since the 2008 election, when the prospect of a non-white president being elected brought out all kinds of hateful speech as well as false predictions. Fred Clark looks at James Dobson’s “Letter from 2012” as a documented example of false prophecy. Dobson predicted that Obama would do away with gun ownership, that Christian schools and broadcasters would be restricted, and lots of other nonsense. None of that happened. He was wrong on every single point.

Why hasn’t that mattered to his disciples, and to the so-called Religious Right more generally?

Because prediction was never the point. This was fear-mongering in order to manipulate people to vote a certain way.

What Will Supposedly Happen if Kamala Harris is Elected

We are seeing the same sort of thing again, albeit cranked up a notch. Donald Trump offered these predictions recently on the inaccurately named Truth Social:

There will be no future under Comrade Kamala Harris, because she will take us into a Nuclear World War III. She will never be respected by the Tyrants of the World!

We can’t let this happen and, if it does, we won’t have a Country any longer. The U.S.A. will be reduced to ashes.

This isn’t the first time Trump has claimed that if his followers don’t do as he says, they won’t have a country any longer. The United States is still here nonetheless.

Is it too much to hope that if Kamala Harris is elected and there is no World War III and the United States is not reduced to ashes, Trump’s disciples will recognize him as a false teacher and realize they were duped and deceived?

What Will Supposedly Happen if Donald Trump is Elected

I will be honest that I am genuinely worried about what will happen if Donald Trump is elected. My point in this post is not that both sides are equally good or bad. Far from it. It is true nonetheless that false prophets can be found across the political spectrum, including among the centrists who claim that both the major candidates are comparable.

We may be very aware of the falsehoods being spouted across the aisle and yet time after time like and share things that are untrue that align with our own viewpoint.

As a Christian and as an educator about history, I’m aware of the fact that the biggest danger in fighting against evil is that it is very, very likely that one will become evil in the process.

Don’t just be content to spout the opposite of what your opponent says. Also care whether what you say is true.

Don’t just shout vile things at your opponent because they are racist and don’t respect other human beings. Disrespect will not overcome disrespect. Hate will not overcome hate. Violence will not overcome violence. The solution for conspiracy theories and misrepresentation from one party is not to offer the same, just different.

When they go low, go high, as someone once said.

Christians in this election are not called to view both candidates as equal. We are called to embody love and to recognize the humanity of all people all across the spectrum. We are all capable of being twisted by hate, and it is easiest to do when we believe that we are the good guys fighting evil people who don’t even deserve to be considered human any longer. Don’t fall into that trap.

Inform yourself about Project 2025, but do so accurately. Stand against hateful rhetoric in a way that refuses to mirror it. Don’t demonize groups like Republicans or Evangelicals as though you could never fall into an information bubble and perceive the state of your nation inaccurately. Don’t generalize as though all Evangelicals or members of any other group are the same.

Why Most Political “Prophecies” are Wrong (and Most Voters are Misguided)

One recent take on MAGA has it spell out Maybe Afford Groceries Again. I continue to be baffled that people seem to think there is a lever in the oval office that directs gas and grocery prices to rise and fall.

Some “predictions” (or better attempts to use fear to manipulate you to vote a certain way) fail to materialize because they are not based on anything the candidate or party in question stands for. To use one obvious example, if you think that the Democratic Party in the United States is trying to implement socialism, you clearly haven’t the faintest idea what socialism is.

The support for extremism in the United States gets a lot of media attention, just as murders and other catastrophes do. The increased reporting doesn’t mean they are more common. Ryan Burge always takes a close look at the data and talks about it clearly, and while there is more support for Christian Nationalism among Protestants than among Catholics or any other group, ultimately “there are no types of Protestants where a clear majority have a positive view of Christian Nationalism.”

Why We Should be Paying Close Attention, But Not Fearful

That doesn’t mean that radical supporters cannot do serious damage. The last time Donald Trump lost an election, his devoted followers who believed his lies stormed the Capitol.

That’s why it is so important to address this issue of false prophecy and fearmongering. The worst predictions are unlikely to come true first and foremost because no one person has that much power in the U.S. system. Not even after that infamous recent Supreme Court decision. Yet the lies that suggest otherwise inspire extremists to act violently and do things like attempt assassinations.

That’s nothing new. Prophets in ancient times didn’t just foresee, they made things happened by predicting them.

It is our responsibility as a society to deal with the problem of false prophets. We shouldn’t punish them in accordance with the law in Deuteronomy. If people would stop being gullible when their heroes turn out to be liars, and would stop allowing their partisan biases to make excuses for the failure of their predictions, we wouldn’t need to do anything else about them anyway. I still dare to hope that it is possible to achieve that through thoughtful communication and education.

There is plenty to worry about, but there is a reason that Jesus taught his followers not to worry about tomorrow. It is not because bad things might not happen. It is because they sometimes will and sometimes won’t, and worrying won’t change that. Working hard to prevent what we can will help us avoid some future problems, but not all. In the meantime, excessive worry turns into fear, and fear is precisely what false prophets use to manipulate us.

The best way to avoid being manipulated? Replace fear with joy. Replace fear of your fellow human being with recognition that we are all human beings even if some of us fall prey to lies and hate. Replace fear about the future with hope and a determination to make it better through means that have the prospect of doing so.