The Capitol Incursion and Vengeance

These are sketchy days for our nation. Wednesday, January 6, began as a momentous day as Congress convened to recognize and count the presented electors that would bring the 2020 election to a formal conclusion. There were significant concerns that election fraud had taken place, and Republicans were in the process of their Constitutionally-permitted and privileged objection of some of the states’ slates of electors.

Meanwhile, the President had called for a “March on Washington,” and over 700,000 expectant and hopeful conservatives had obediently and enthusiastically poured into DC. All morning and early afternoon, speeches were made. It was a political pep rally intended apparently to bolster and support the minority of Representatives and Senators in their objections and to demonstrate that the 75 million people who voted for President Trump’s reelection had very real doubts about the election’s integrity.

What happened next will be studied and questioned for a long time. The Capitol was breached. Hundreds poured into the Capital, and in an insane commentary on the banality of day… began taking selfies in the Rotunda, House and Senate Chambers. Others invaded offices and infamous pictures show unmasked individuals with their feet on Nancy Pelosi’s desk, leaning back in her chair while others portray a Viking pontificating from the President of the Senate’s platform, replete with a horned helmet.

In the chaos, four people died. One was shot to death by a cop through a doorway, and footage of the event isn’t pretty. She was unarmed, and Capitol Hill police were actually in the hallway with her. Another officer died on Thursday from injuries received during the brief occupation.

While the Congress was evacuated and later reconvened that evening to continue the conversation, debate and recognize electors, the country sat in stunned and dismal silence. It was all so ugly.

The President was not the leader we needed him to be, and his call for calm and peace was laced with continued barbs about election fraud. His public condemnation of the Vice President for refusing to do what he wanted him to do was the ultimate cry of a man who lashed out in heated frustration and anger.

A Failure to Communicate

I can grasp all that happened. I understand it even as it sickens me. This is SUCH a broken world.

I do not approve of the president’s rhetoric. Neither do I approve of the media’s and Democrat’s blatant hypocrisy. I am sick of Republicans who do nothing but focus on economic gain without genuinely offering solution-based approaches to healthcare, education, and prison reform.

But what we have here is a failure to communicate. Each side wants to beat the other into submission.

In the 1967 movie classic Cool Hand Luke, Paul Newman stars as a southern man put into a prison camp’s chain gang. He continues to escape, and his fellow prisoners admire him because, “You’re an original, that’s what you are.” In one scene where he’s recaptured, he’s beaten down by the prison boss who then explains the reason for the beating, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”

The narrative of Wednesday turned quickly. Some wondered why the condemnation of the Capitol breach was so uniform when months-long riots and occupations of cities in 2020 were upheld as peaceful protests and needed catalysts for reform. Others wondered about how the Capitol incursion would have been treated if it had been an overt BLM protest.

For me, the most disheartening spectacle was that in a time of high tension, the President could not rise to the occasion and be a statesman. Trump was, well, Trump. He DID appeal for calm, but it was too little, too late. His Thursday address was much more well-spoken and conciliatory. However, after Congress confirmed Joe Biden as the 46th President, he too had an opportunity – as did Democrats to move for healing and peace, to unite. Instead, he competed Senators Hawly and Cruz to Nazis. Democratic leaders began suggesting that all Republicans who had supported the President be rounded up and driven out.

Big Tech joined the feeding frenzy by deleting the President of the United States’ social media accounts. By Friday evening, the digital stratosphere echoed with cries of alarm as people discovered thousands of conservative accounts were being banned and deleted from platforms.

The Orwellian nature of it all was stunning. In the hours and days since, it has felt like the “winners” have beat down anyone suspected of supporting Trump (or even suggesting election fraud) with the same mean-spirited heavy hand of the prison boss, with a sneering, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” This is nothing less than censorship.

Censorship

“Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.” ? Henry Louis Gates Jr

Russian author and Gulag survivor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.” He also asked, “Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask; by whom has it been elected and to whom is it responsible?” (A quick review of some of his more well known quotes are inspiring and sobering.)

Perhaps the most famous and beloved poet of Nicaragua, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, said, “Let us be clear: censorship is cowardice. … It masks corruption. It is a school of torture: it teaches, and accustoms one to the use of force against an idea, to submit thought to an alien “other.” But worst still, censorship destroys criticism, which is the essential ingredient of culture.” (His essay Responsibilities of the Church in Central America from 1986 is a phenomenal read.)

Truth

John 8:32 is inscribed on the facade of the CIA building in Langley, Virgiina: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” These words of Jesus mean far more than the investigatory process of deducing truth. Jesus was speaking to His disciples prefaced them with ““If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Jesus Himself is the Truth.

As a Christian, I’ll admit there are voices that I prefer to be silent. One day, all wicked rebellion will be silenced. But this is not that day, and the recent Brutal Digital Suppression Campaign by political victors is untenable. Some may celebrate the silencing of voices they deem virulent or vitriolic. But tomorrow it may be your voice.

I appreciate how John Piper asked this in his devotional The Limits of Love:

“How does this affect our love toward incorrigible sinners? Jesus calls us to imitate God’s common grace toward his enemies, not his acts of judgment (Matthew 5:45). ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. If your enemy is hungry feed him.’ We are not to do all that God does. God may be planning vengeance according to his wisdom and justice for the sake of some greater work of love. That is not our business. Ours is to love our enemies.”

I pray for the freedom to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ whenever and wherever. Some of our world Christians do not have that freedom, and the church grows in spite of it. I also want the freedom as a citizen to criticize the President (whomever he/she may be) when I think they are off or wrong about an issue. While we have it here, let us labor lovingly to defend ours and others freedom of expression in all marketplaces and platforms, while being consistent in our opposition to violence and destruction. And let us speak the truth in love, leaving vengeance to God.