CREEDE HINSHAW: Politics, Bible sometimes an iffy mix

Of course, the wall is justifiable, said the preacher. The Bible – by way of inference – justifies it. This particular preacher, a high-visibility Texas mega-church pastor and key supporter of President Trump, used the Bible recently to support the $5.7 billion request for a concrete wall or beautiful steel slats or whatever President Trump is currently calling this structure that Mexico is going to pay for.

Although I disagree with President Trump’s proposal, he has every right to seek its construction. He is our president who touted this as a key plank in his platform. Citizens, too, have every right to support or disapprove of this endeavor and there are strong reasons on both sides.

But using the Bible to prop up the tottering wall (or most political platforms) is bad strategy. It’s way too easy and far too tempting to use the Bible to justify pre-existing prejudices and predilections.

That’s what Robert Jeffress did recently when this pastor of the 13,000-member First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, used the New Testament book of Revelation to support building the wall. He pointed out that even heaven has walls around it. The implication, of course, is that if God is smart enough to build a wall to keep out devils and the worst sinners, it makes perfect sense for us to build a wall on our Southern border.

It didn’t take long for critics of the wall to point out a gaping hole in Jeffress’ Biblical advocacy. The same chapter of Revelation notes that the gates of heaven’s wall are never closed … they’re open 24/7. So if one is determined to use the Bible to support a wall, by that same reasoning our government should add large gates with welcome signs and an absence of customs officials.

These specious arguments – on either side — remind me of the ridiculous reasoning employed against the use of airplanes: “If God had wanted us to fly, He’d have given us wings.”

Preachers are not immune to this temptation. I am an expert on this subject, having employed this fallacious gambit many times either from the pulpit or from this column. It’s not that the Bible can’t be cited to support a well-reasoned argument. But rummaging around for a few scattered verses here and there to construct the flimsiest web of justification can make an otherwise solidly reasoned argument look foolish.

Discerning listeners can tell a preacher is rolling out this tactic when they hear him/her say, “Don’t get angry at me because I’ve said (fill in the blank here); I’m just telling you what’s in the Bible.”

This is supposed to be the clinching argument, the final summation, the overwhelming word: “If you disagree with this,” the preacher implies, “you are disagreeing with God, with the red-letter words of Jesus, with chapter and verse and paragraph of Holy Scripture.” And sometimes this is true. But other times it is a shaky crutch.

Read the Bible daily. Study it carefully. If you cite scripture, do so carefully, judiciously and humbly.

Email Creede Hinshaw at [email protected].