By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
It is said that if you place a lobster in a cold bucket of water and turn on the gas jets, little by little, mind you…the lobster will remain in the pot not knowing that it’s about to become dinner.
And, as the heat intensifies, the lobster remains in the pot, slowly being cooked from the inside out.
If you apply that analogy to the current vitriolic interchanges taking place between those being wrongfully dubbed the Jihad Squad and GOP representatives Marjorie T. Greene and Lauren Boebert, the woeful lack of a moral response and stance by GOP leadership to their invectives indicates that it (the GOP) is the lobster.
Those who see evil being done and turn their heads away, are the next in line when persecution comes, and, in time, it will come for them.
For the GOP and credible mass media outlets and institutions (particularly the churches) to sit on their hands while this acerbic dialogue continues is to give direct and indirect aid and comfort to those ideologies which minimizes those who are being tagged as, “not one of us or not like us.”
Anytime a society wants to extirpate or demonize those that they have been told to fear or mistrust, that society falls three rungs on the scale that judges the fair play and integrity of a democracy.
The former president, Donald Trump, encouraged a cottage industry of venial hatred and mockery of all things Muslim and a vocal cabal of his mindless minions followed suit and aped his baseless antics.
No, Donald Trump did not initiate this latent and now open hostility towards Islam or Muslims, but he coddled and coaxed it to the point that his base took their marching orders from his retched statements and they amplified the hate and fear factor.
For so many Americans to applaud, support, encourage or promote the terrible incendiary blather coming from the mouths of Paul Gosar, Marjorie T. Greene, Lauren Boebert, and others, is incomprehensible, reprehensible and a stain upon a country that professes to be a nation under God.
Rep. Lauren Boebert has the unmitigated gall to publicly call herself, “a strong Christian woman.” For the love of me, I do not know what chapter and scriptures of the Bible that she is aligning herself with, but it is surely not with the Christ of the Beatitudes or numerous quotations one can find in the Book of the Ephesians or John 1,2 or 3 (located before you get to the Book of Revelation).
But, this is what happens when people lose their moral compass and substitute it for a cult leader who by his acts and words, despises Holy Writ.
Such a mass desertion of the tenets of the Word of God by so many purported god loving Republicans is appalling but seen in the light of unregenerated human nature, it is to be expected.
If the visible church of Christ that is localized in the US of A. cannot even minimally confront such bigotry emanating from the Halls of Congress, we need to ask ourselves, has the salt lost it saltiness?
For the several members of the currently constituted House of Representatives to be allowed to spew forth such venom and there is no sound and swift accountability, that only energizes certain people to fabricate even bolder and greater lies about Islam and Muslims.
What makes this even more egregious is that those identified GOP members are feeding off the fears of their base that somehow a Muslim invasion is over the next hill, and they will then rampage through your neighborhoods and impose Sharia Law!
Meanwhile, the former President is stoking these biases by his own gibberish of lies and religious bigotry, and yet he is not soundly rebuked.
Most Americans who abhor this base treatment of fellow elected Congresspeople need to be strident in their denunciation of this hate and write, email and use all means of social media to inform their representatives to take to task the offending members of the GOP.
Note: If Democrats engage in such abusive behavior, they should also be taken to the woodshed.
Otherwise, in a vacuum, darkness and evil will slide in like a smiling slithering snake and take residence in the hearts and minds of unsuspecting people who were lazy in monitoring and denouncing such hate speech.
Let it be said here and said very clearly, Donald Trump is an avatar who merely represents the worse racial and religious fears of some Americans; and by no means or measure is he a Christian. The adage of, “In God We Trust’, which we place on our nickel coin is wearing mighty thin.
If the Jesus of the Bible were to meet Trump, he would plainly say to him, “Depart from me, I do not know you!”
You may say, “Am I judging?” Yes, but with righteous judgment.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com