The Peripatetic Preacher
I need not repeat the withering list of horrifying data pouring out of newspapers and news channels with regard to the startling surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths in this second week of December, 2020. The numbers are nothing less than catastrophic, on course certainly for many millions more infections and perhaps one-half million total deaths by Spring, 2021. That later figure represents more than all US American deaths in all wars fought in the nation’s 20th century history—nothing short of incredible and nothing less than heart-breaking. And though I do not think it fair to blame only the current now lame-duck president Donald Trump for this staggering toll of human life, there is little doubt that his dereliction of duty in the face of the crisis has led inexorably to the monstrous horrors we are now confronting. From the beginning of this viral mess, he has downplayed its seriousness, refused to wear a mask as a model for us, continued super spreader rallies, without masks, and had the gall to announce to Bob Woodward in August that he and his administration had “done all we could” to address the virus. From saying it would all just “disappear by Easter,” to calling it a “sort of bad flu,” to absolutely refusing to wear a mask in public, not wishing to appear “weak” when he met “prime ministers, presidents, dictators (yes, he did say dictators!), sitting behind the beautiful Resolute desk,” to essentially washing his hands (which he also probably does not do!) of the whole thing, campaigning for reelection with reckless abandon, leading to his own infection, along with his wife and son, and including numerous White House insiders, complaining that all the “fake news guys” want to discuss is COVID, COVID, COVID. And then he lost the election, in part if not completely because of his failure to take charge of the out-of-control health crisis. Unfortunately, nothing much has changed since the election. While he whines about “fraud” and “Democrat collusion out to get me,” and the conviction that his victory was “stolen” from him, the virus rages on, and our president for the next 40 days says little to nothing about it.
President Trump has spent a vast amount of his four years in office doing what has been termed “gaslighting,” that is deflecting attention away from significant problems and issues by focusing public attention on falsehoods or maligning those who disagree with his pronouncements or policies. At first, he called the virus “a hoax,” said it came from China, accusing them of starting the whole thing, while the media was blowing its dangers all out of proportion. “I stopped travel from China very early, thus saving thousands, perhaps millions of lives,” he boasted, The fact was after his so-called travel ban from China was announced, some 50,000 people came from China to the US. In addition, the virus poured in from Europe, not under any early travel ban, and stoked the first major viral hot spot in New York City. Meanwhile, the Trump administration had no consistent policies concerning hospital equipment, contact tracing, or the necessity of keeping social distancing, washing hands, and wearing a face mask in public places, despite his own medical advisors Drs. Fauci’s and Birx’s admonitions to follow certain guidelines to slow the spread. Trump forced himself to the center of the press conferences addressing the virus, sidelining his doctors, and finally paying little attention to them at all. At the end of these charades, Donald Trump laid the problems for dealing with it all on state governors, who found themselves competing for scarce supplies, rich states gaining more, poor states left out, while Trump was silent. Except, of course, when he was campaigning; then he was very loud, warning his followers that a win for the Democrats would spell doom for cities, for suburbs, for law and order, for the economy, for that roaring stock market, for the American way of life. “Make America great again,” he shouted, pleading for their votes. Well, he did receive more votes than any presidential candidate in our history, except for the candidate who defeated him, Joe Biden, whose popular vote lead is now over seven million.
Failure to confront real issues, address real problems, relying on distractions either false or misleading leads to disaster. Our current epidemic is a clear example of what follows from a rudderless ship, piloted by a distracted captain; the ship soon hits the shoals and the hull caves in while too many passengers drown. Unfortunately, Donald Trump is hardly the first leader who has allowed distraction to bring about disaster. Once again, our ancient Bible offers to us a leader whose distractions led him and his nation to disaster, to a separation of his kingdom into two very unequal parts. The tale may be found in the book of 1 Kings in the Hebrew Bible.
Solomon was the son of the illicit relationship between the mighty David and his mistress, Bathsheba. Though there were many sons older than Solomon, that David had fathered on numerous women, and thus would have some sort of claim to be David’s successor on the throne of Israel, Solomon was chosen. The story of 1 Kings 1-2 makes it nearly certain that Solomon’s accession was the result of a plot engineered by Bathsheba and the prophet Nathan, both of whom profited greatly by a Solomonic kingship and who equally would have suffered dearly if any other son had become the king. But Solomon gained the prize, and systematically removed any potential rivals, often by political murder. As a result, Solomon ruled Israel for 40 years, a time when the nation was relatively free of foreign wars or threats of wars.
We often remember Solomon for his great wisdom, based largely on the famous tale of his clever decision concerning the true mother of a child claimed by two women (1 Kings 3), along with his building of the Jerusalem temple which stood for over 350 years as the symbol of YHWH’s presence in the Holy City. Unfortunately, Solomon’s purported wisdom did not always extend to affairs of state. Solomon had huge imperial designs, wishing to be viewed by other nations as a king worthy of respect and even awe. Hence, he set out to increase the size and majesty of his capital city, building along with the temple a palace of significant size and fortifying the walls and defensive structures as well. Such vast building projects required both money and labor, so Solomon increased the taxes levied on his people and in an increasingly dangerous policy demanded forced labor, especially from the northern tribes of Israel, to work on all these projects. As a result, festering resentments began to build, and soon small rebellions occurred that the Bible names for us. First, there was Hadad the Edomite, a citizen of a tiny community east and south of Jerusalem, who had fled to Egypt to escape a genocide of his people instituted by David (1 Kings 11:14-22). After David’s death, Hadad returned to Edom and became a thorn in the side of Solomon. Then Rezon of Zobah, escaping another slaughter of David’s devising, fled north to Damascus and became king there, threatening Israel and its king (1 Kings 11:23-25).
But the most significant rebellion came from within Israel itself (1 Kings 11:23- 40). Solomon appointed Jereboam, a capable builder, as controller of all forced labor for the king, especially over those northeners who had begun to be resentful of the brutal labors they were made to provide for the king’s huge projects. All too soon, Jereboam, influenced by the prophet Ahijah, rebelled against Solomon’s harsh policies, and fled to Egypt. As you can see, things were not well in the nation under the policies of king Solomon. We are also told that the aging king had an enormous harem, in the manner of other middle eastern rulers, and that he allowed many of these foreign women to practice their own religions in Israel, setting up for them various high places and altars for their particular use (1 Kings 11:1-13). All of these actions of Solomon, his splendid buildings and his vast bevy of foreign wives and mistresses, were designed in part to distract the people from the pain and suffering endured by many Israelites to make all this possible. Jereboam’s rebellion was the first large crack in the seemingly smooth surface of Solomon’s greatness.
But at Solomon’s death, his son Reheboam, instead of heeding the generous offer of Jereboam and his many followers to become faithful citizens under the reign of the new king if Reheboam would relax the harsh conditions set by his father, rather renewed and even increased those harsh measures, forcing Jereboam and his men to leave Jerusalem forever to establish a rival kingdom in the north part of the country, known henceforth as Israel, leaving only the tiny Jerusalem and its immediate environs, now known as Judah (1 Kings 12:1-19). For the next 200 years, the once united nation of Israel was divided north and south. This was the disastrous result of Solomon’s distractions away from the genuine problems of Israel, in the main his desire to be a potentate of grandeur, not accepting the realities of a small treasury and little access to increasingly limited geographical and human resources.
We cannot know exactly what will be the results of Donald Trump’s continued distractions from the issues we all now face. But we know all too well the result of his failure to address directly and forcefully the pandemic now exploding among us. That has become a humanitarian disaster; just look around anywhere in US America. Distractions will no longer do. Joe Biden has promised unvarnished truth during his time in office. We may all pray that that will be the case at last.
(Images from Wikimedia Commons)
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