Four Years Ago

Arthur and I set off to drive across the country from northcentral Pennsylvania to northeastern Washington on the day after the 2016 presidential election.

Salem Sue, the World's Largest Holstein Cow
commanding the Interstate in New Salem, North Dakota

That journey across Middle America began after a sleepless night, tossing and turning, haunted by the stunned blank faces of trusted news anchors  - Judy Woodruff, Amy Walter, Mark Shields and CBS old timers Charlie Rose and Bob Schieffer. They were charged with telling the country that Donald Trump would be inaugurated as the 45th President come the new year.

So in the still-dark hours, we faced the daunting task of packing the car and closing things up for a four-month sojourn with an aching and sense of dread. How could it be that Donald Trump was going to be the 45th President of the United States of America?

Spotting Trump signs around nearly every corner acted like salt on a wound. All across the country, we read Make America Great Again on fading billboards; spotted Trump/Pence signs stuck cockeyed in the middle of fields; Drain The Swamp nailed to barns that had seen better days, and flaccid Trump flags.

Snowflakes?  I suppose so. Crying liberals? Yes, guilty as charged.

It was in the sanctuary of  the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Colville where we listened to the stirring words of Martin Luther King preached from the pulpit that hope began to rise. And how could you not be moved by these words of  the Black National Anthem:

Lift every voice and sing

Till earth and heaven ring

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise,

High as the list'ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea

Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

We joined the Women's March, held across the country on the day after the Inauguration, joining thousands of marchers in downtown in Spokane Washington.

Pussy hats in all shades of pink

Many were marching for the next generation

 

Crowd spilling out of the Convention Center
ready to march

Our Stevens County contingent

The marches across the country sent millions into the streets to send a bold message to the new administration and the world that women's rights are human rights. These protests, judged to be the largest single-day demonstration in U.S. history, gave those of us marching some small measure of hope. After all, a majority of the electorate had voted against the man duly installed in office. Certainly our voices wouldn't be ignored. He couldn't possibly be as bad as we had imagined and he would likely choose good people to advise him.

But, we have endured as it became clear that he was every bit as bad as we had imagined and even worse. Still, we the people worked four years to elect a replacement for this failed president. And resoundingly, Trump was beaten in the 2020 election. He will be gone. Tomorrow.

But today the short leash I have been using to tether my emotions frayed and broke as I sat in my car and shouted "bullshit" into the phone to a person who was spouting political rhetoric to me. 

At that moment, I realized just how sick and tired and fearful and anxious I have been since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. And I realized at that moment that I am soon to be free. In the words of Donald Trump: No More Bullshit! In the words of Jane: Hallelujah!

The 'Smoking Gun'

In his own words, Charlatan Dutch Sheets shares this in his plea for year-end contributions to his "ministry." 

"I have made seven trips to Washington D.C. this year. Ninety percent of those trips were made just to pray for our nation, on-site – boots on the ground. On one of those trips, I had a divine appointment where I met with some people connected to our government.

They made an appeal for me to join the natural to the spirit since what we do in the spirit directly affects what happens in the natural, basically marrying civil and spiritual government.* They suggested I go to each of the seven election-contested states, and call the ekklesia of the Lord to come together, joining us to pray for America from each state.  . . . I felt this was an assignment from the Lord, and what an assignment it was! I called some of my prophetic and apostolic ministry friends/leaders and asked them to pray about joining me.

We took a team to Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.

In his year-end appeal, he brags about packing the Gospel Tabernacle on that November evening just before our Covid-19 cases and deaths began climbing, now threatening to overwhelm our health system. What he doesn't mention is that he brought Covid-19 along with his prayer team to Pennsylvania -and likely to the other places they attempted to fill in the "election-contested states".

I am not able to turn away from the daily Dutch Sheets spectacle on his website, sometimes postponing listening to his folksy, aw-shucks drawl until afternoon but more often listening with my morning coffee. Nine times out of ten he relates a "prophetic" dream, and describes what all the symbolism means to real believers. (These folks must not sleep much!) Then he issues decrees and always encourages the faithful that they need to keep going to purge the evil in Washington and work to reveal and restore what he calculates is the true winner of the election.

I am praying that God purges the evil in Washington too - it's just that Dutch and I have very different interpretations of where that evil resides. What Dutch never mentions is all the pain and sorrow in our nation from the effects of the worldwide pandemic and racial injustice and the terrible poverty that stems from corporate greed as the rich get richer and the poor poorer. Never does he mention the mandate from Jesus that love, justice and compassion are at the very heart of Christian faith.

It's most telling that he admits he's on his mission with the direct involvement of "people connected with our government." If it all weren't so sinister and so calculated, I could almost appreciate being a fly on the wall just before Dutch is ushered into the room.

"Okay, folks, do you remember what you need to say?" says connected government person one.

"I'll use words like ekklesia and spiritual warfare and prayer," replies connected government person two.

"I'll ask that we all pray together as soon as he comes in the room," says connected government person three, "That always gets them."

They all laugh before they straighten the little cross pins on their lapels and open the door to Mr. Sheets. 

*Being not well-versed in this kind of dogma, I couldn't stifle my giggles at this particular use of the English language.