March 6, 2016

Don’t Buy The Lies

Save me, Lord,
from lying lips
and from deceitful tongues.

-- Psalm 120:2

The comment was so sad. In the aftermath of last week’s primary election, where Clinton and Trump won big, the woman wanted to know how we had gotten to the place where our only choice for president was a liar.

I was amazed that she still believed there was such a thing as an honest politician. I was also amazed that she didn’t recognize that we are all liars in one way or another. That includes her, you and me.

I’ve written about that before. We don’t view ourselves as liars. Telling someone an outfit looks good when it really doesn’t, makes us a liar. Enough said.

I once was involved in the political process. I was young and amazed that backroom deals really happen. They are a necessary part of the political process. One of the problems in Washington now is that the master politicians of old are all gone, replaced by angry and selfish politicos who care more about their own agendas than our nation. They don’t know how to compromise anymore. We don’t know how to compromise anymore.

But we know how to lie. We know how to take credit when the credit isn’t ours. We know how to weave a fancy story that has no place in reality. One of the candidates has been doing that, then brushing off any attempts by others to ask necessary questions such as “How will you pay for that?” Funny thing as I write that I realize it could apply to more than one candidate and in both parties.

Why do politicians deal in fantasy? Because it’s what we want to hear. We want to believe there’s a quick fix. We won’t to believe we can have it all without having to pay for any of it. We want to believe that if the illegal immigrants and the poor go away, it will benefit us financially.

You love every harmful word,
you deceitful tongue

-- Psalm 52:4

Politicians lie to us because we like what they’re saying. We want to believe it. We do. We want a wonderful god-fearing country without any of the work or sacrifices. We tell ourselves we work hard. We deserve good things. And we do. But others do as well.

Do you want our country to follow God again? Start with you. Start with me. Recognize your own imperfections and then hold yourself and our government leaders, those politicians that run for office, accountable. Seek truth and don’t be deceived by the lies.