Divorced Devotion

Tom Sheppard

10/7/2016

Tim Kaine and Mike Pence both claim to be devout Christians.  

Both were brought up Catholic.

Tim Kaine says, “he wouldn’t allow his religious beliefs to interfere” when it comes to his politics. “I try to practice my religion in a very devout way and follow the teachings of my church in my own personal life. But…”  

Do you know what “but” means?  It means that everything that was said before the word “but” is negated by what comes after.

Mike Pence says, “…my Christian faith became real for me when I made a personal decision for Christ when I was a freshman in college. And I've tried to live that out however imperfectly every day of my life since. … for me, my faith informs my life.”

I didn’t make this up, I took them from a report of the debate in the LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-vp-debate-transcript-kaine-pence-20161004-snap-htmlstory.html).

I went to the dictionary (dictionary.com) to look up the word “devout.”  Here is what I found.

1. devoted to divine worship or service; pious; religious:

2. expressing devotion or piety:

3. earnest or sincere; hearty:

The question I have for you is how can a person claim to be devout, and then divorce your behaviors and politics from your religion?

I guess under definition #2 both men could qualify, since expressing devotion or piety meets the definition of being devout.  However, for most people simply expressing piety while actually behaving in an impious manner qualifies as hypocrisy.  So, let’s eliminate that as a workable definition here.

Earnest or sincere, definition #3 is a good working definition.  We all hope both men are earnest and sincere.  The alternative that one or both men are insincere is not something we want to consider in candidates for the second highest position in the most powerful country in the world.  But, the context for these quotes was their belief in god, not their sincerity.

That leaves us with both candidates describing themselves as devoted to divine worship, pious, or religious. In this case, since both are self-proclaimed Christians, that means they were both painting themselves as being devoted to Christ.

Mr. Pence on the one hand allows his faith to inform his life.  Implicitly this means all aspects of his life, including his politics.  On the other hand, Mr. Kaine keeps his devotion divorced from his politics.

I believe it is this divorced devotion that is at the heart of what is ailing our nation, and our politics.

The notion that you can be one person in private and another person in public is one of the biggest lies anyone has ever swallowed.  The Bible says that no one can serve two masters.  Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will love the one and hate the other. Trying to live your life with two personas, each with their own distinct and widely divergent guiding principles is not only a recipe for multiple personality disorder, it is also the very foundation of the notion of being hypocritical.

In case you missed it, here is the definition of a hypocrite:

1.  a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

2.  a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

So, if Tim Kaine is privately devout and publicly debauched, he is a hypocrite.  If he privately values the sanctity of human life and publicly supports practices like partial birth abortion, then he is a hypocrite.  Which also means that he is not devout under any but one of the definitions above.  I give you a hint which one – he isn’t sincere or earnest and he isn’t devoted to Christ.  He merely expresses piety and devotion – it doesn’t inform his public life.

And this is the heart of the malaise in our country.  We have far too many people who profess piety, but when piety conflicts with their politics, their career, or their business practices, then they pretend that they can wear two faces, be two different people.  They claim, and perhaps even have convinced themselves, that they can privately honor Christ and publicly seek to run him and his values out of the public square on a rail.

Hilary Clinton and Tim Kaine will be the first to tell you that they are privately devout, “but…”

I don’t know about you, but I plan to vote for someone who lets his "faith inform [his] life.”  I think it is the truly Christian thing to do.  Don’t you?

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 

 The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

(c) Copyright 2016 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved. 

Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.

Charlotte Shooting

http://heyjackass.com/2016-race-of-victim-assailant/ 

Having lived in the Charlotte area for more than 20 years, and with four of my five children still living there, and lots of friends there, I have watched the recent news broadcasts of violence there with trepidation for the safety of those I hold dear.

However, I have not let my concerns for my loved ones blind me to the bigger picture here.

I wanted to know, has anyone else noticed that the Black Lives Matter narrative has changed significantly from its start in Ferguson?

Back then, the drama was focused heavily on the fact that a white cop shot a black man.  For some time thereafter, the drumbeat was an attempt to say that white cops had it in for black men, of all ages.  I call this the "Bad White Cops" message.

Somewhere between then and now, the emphasis has changed.  Segue to Charlotte.

Here we have a black cop, working for a black chief of police, shooting a black man.  Now, the whole "bad white cop" message is out of sight.  Now it is all cops are bad.  I call this the "Bad Cops" song.

Advocates of the Black Lives Matter movement claim that "stop and frisk" practices and profiling are racist policing.  They have woven these threads into the banner of their movement as fundamental doctrines.

In Chicago, the adopted homeland of President Barak Obama and the city run by one of his top former advisors, Rahm Emanuel, the politicians joined in on the chorus of "Bad Cops."  They have given the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) the right to review every single police stop.

As a direct result of the Chicago Police being put at risk of a lawsuit and job loss with every stop they perform, they have understandably stopped making stops.  Now, they just cruise on past potential trouble like they just don't care.

A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that the consequence of the politicians slapping the PD is that now, black lives are being ended on the streets of Chicago at a record rate not seen in "two decades" according to Dean Angelo, President of the Chicago police union.

"By Sept. 8, nearly 3,000 people had been shot in Chicago in 2016, an average of one shooting victim every two hours. Five hundred and sixteen people had been murdered. Gun homicides and non-fatal shootings were up 47%..."

One shooting victim every two hours.  Can you imagine that happening in your home town?

And what does the article say is the root cause of this killing spree?

"Chicago officers have cut back drastically on proactive policing under the onslaught of criticism from the Black Lives Matter movement and its political and media enablers."

The accompanying chart shows who is killing who in Chicago this year.

As the chart at the top of this article notes, 78.2% of murder victims in Chicago this year are blacks.

This begs the question, do black lives matter only when police kill them?

These numbers show definitively that the real fruit of the Black Lives Matter movement is a dramatic increase in the number of black lives ended by murder.

In his "Daily Rant" Mychal Massie on September 22 made the point that Black Lives Matter is not heading the right direction.  What will reduce the number of dead black men in our streets is for people to show respect for authority, both at home and in the streets.

Regarding the shooting in Charlotte, he says, "...Lamont was responsible for his own death."

From there, he goes on to note how members of the black community used the shooting as an excuse to descend like a Mongol horde following Ghengis Khan to loot a nearby Wal Mart and pillage and intimidate innocent people on a nearby freeway.

Speaking on the topic of this kind of lawless behavior, black commentator Star Parker says,

The basis of a civilized, decent and just society is law. But law, if it is going to be respected, must be rooted in core values and eternal truths. In the words of our second president, John Adams, we need "a government of laws, not of men."

In our zeal to purge our nation of Judeo-Christian values, driven by the false notion that religion hampers rather than enhances our freedom, we bear the consequences of this effort. We wind up with a government of men, not laws.

She goes on to link the lawlessness permitted in characters like Hilary Clinton and her handling of classified information as further affirmation that we are emerging as a government of men where power and wealth can buy immunity for wrong-doing.  This directly inspires the narrative promoted by Black Lives Matter that the only cure for injustice is through violence.

While I am certain that there are some bad cops out there, just as there are bad people in almost every line of work, I am equally certain that the majority of police officers, regardless of their color are good people.  The cops I have known joined the force out of a desire to help people in meaningful ways.

Respect for authority and the rule of law, not of capricious men, are bulwarks of civilization and foundations for both the US Constitution and this nation.

Black Lives Matter sympathizers need to redirect their energy to supporting law enforcement.  Their current efforts are clearly resulting in more black lives ended than was happening when the police were allowed to do their jobs and given the respect they deserve for putting their lives on the line every day.  The song needs to change from "Bad Cops" to "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and to "Politicians Accountability."

Hilary violated laws and regulations that were put in place to protect the people of the United States.  She should be prosecuted for that.  Just as should everyone who violates the laws of the land, regardless of their race or wealth.

Black Lives Matter is right to focus on accountability.  And they should focus on accountability of all parties involved.  The dead man is accountable for failing to put down his gun when ordered by the police.  The police involved are accountable for keeping everyone in the area safe from a man with a gun who is disregarding lawful police orders.

But where does that common sense approach leave the "protesters?"  Now, they have to take accountability for their own savagery, barbarity and lawlessness.

Your comments are welcome... Please observe some ground rules. No profanity, vulgarity, or personal attacks. Profanity, vulgarity and personal attacks not only betray a lack of vocabulary and imagination, they also are the hallmarks of bigotry, and bigotry is the hallmark of someone who is fundamentally insecure in their views. Facts are always welcome.

Tom Sheppard is a business consultant and coach to small business owners and individuals. He is a recognized author with dozens of titles in business and fiction to his credit. One of his endeavors is to help those who want to see their own book in print. He does this through his trademarked Book Whispering Process (TM). 

The author is not an official spokesperson for any organization or person mentioned herein. 

(c) Copyright 2015 A+ Results LLC. All Rights Reserved.