What I Want to Tell CNN Right Now About the President & Congress

Here’s the truth CNN won’t tell you about your government.

One of the people that hang around me down here on the river showed me a recent headline from CNN.com. I had to read it a few times to make sure it wasn’t a misprint.

“A recent spate of mass shootings calls into question whether Washington will ever be able to keep Americans safe from gun violence.”

As I keep telling you folks, I’m no statesman, much less a politician. It has never occurred to me to win the public’s approval by mincing my words or engaging in double-speak. As a follower of the one who created the cosmos, I try to emulate him — to just speak the truth lovingly and with deep conviction.

So, let me do that right now. 

It is impossible for our president, the Senate, or the House of Representatives to do one single thing that will make America safer. 

And while we are at it, let’s throw in the Supreme Court and every state, federal, and local bureaucrat and elected official into the mix. They are all, without exception, impotent to effect real change — a radical shift away from the violent, mean, hateful culture that we are becoming.

I’m aware of the fact that what I just wrote is not good news. But I do love you, and since I love you, I’m obligated to tell you the truth. I know that the facts are cold and hard, but you need to know them so that you won’t believe the lies of the vote-getters. Regardless of what happens in Washington, you will be no safer from random acts of violence in June of 2023 than you are today.

America hasn’t always been a safe place for everyone, but I think all of us can say that what is going on now is a new and dangerous phenomenon. Our history is littered with injustice toward people of color, Native Americans, and immigrants. But until now, all change has come because someone with a public platform argued that everyone is important for one simple and profound reason — God breathed his breath into our lungs and made him the centerpiece of his creation. (Genesis 1:26-27)

That was our argument then — that we matter because God created us and said that we matter. I would say that you can’t matter any more than that. But what is the argument of contemporary America about why human life is precious? The best they can come up with is we are important because the government says we are. Legal statutes assign value to humanity.

My argument in response would be simply there is nothing less safe and secure than assigning value to people by giving that power to governments run by humans. Think about it: The law once said that enslaved Africans were less valuable than white people. The law said that it was perfectly legal and reasonable to drive Native Americans from their tribal lands — even to exterminate them like flies. In the 1830s, 100,000 Native Americans were driven from their homes and forced to walk to the so-called Indian Territories. As many as 15,000 died on the journey. And it was all perfectly legal — the law said so.

Since Roe v. Wade, over 60 million babies, fellow citizens, have had their lives brutally snuffed out — all legal, mind you.

So, please CNN, don’t tell me that there is hope that Washington can make me safer. I’m not buying it, and I would guess that almost no one else is either. Politicians don’t exactly have a worthy track record when it comes to fighting injustice.

If you’re really interested, CNN, in making us safer, might I suggest that you encourage your viewers and readers to retrieve their granddaddy’s Bible, wipe off the dust, and begin reading about the God who is really there. Tell them they should pursue the one who loves them enough to die for them. Tell them that life is brief, but that God has a plan to make us immortal just by putting our faith in him. The God who made us has promised to raise our corpses from the grave and raise our bodies up to live with him forever. 

If you have a better story about how to live forever, I’d like to hear it. If you have a reasonable and believable plan to really make us safer, let me in on it. The way I figure it, no matter what happens to me in this life, I’m still good to go. I am immortal.

But until you come up with something better, CNN, I’m going to keep on telling the story about the God of hope. I think I’m on pretty solid ground.

Image adapted from photo by Ken Lund | CC BY-SA 2.0