Prophets and Reality

Last updated on: August 6, 2016 at 10:05 am by Eric Smith

Prophets and Reality 2016-08-02T10:11:01-06:00 Eric Smith

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The prophet Nathan and King David, by Matthias Scheits, 1672. Image in the public domain, taken from Wikipedia.

By: Anonymous

The influence and power of the rich, marginalization of the less fortunate, and ambiguity around good and evil are themes that are as relevant in the elections as they were during the times in which the books of the prophets were written. The appointment of kings without official elections, but divine appointment in the writers’ view, forced me to ask myself the question “has anything really changed?” For instance, the idea of kings being divinely appointed reminded me that our own leaders seem to appoint themselves (or be appointed by a chosen, elitist few) as our saviors and deliverers from chaos, calamity and impending doom (real, imagined or simply made up), even though they sometimes had a hand in creating such negative circumstances.

As I watched the Republican and Democrat conventions, I felt as if I was watching contrived reality shows where the nominees were sometimes “creating” reality (i.e. issues of national importance) and simultaneously telling us how they would re-create the reality and solve the issues that the nominees communicated were pervasive in our country. The mantra of “Make America Great Again!” elicited a response akin to “America is already great!” This reminds me of how reality and history was often biased and slanted by the writers of the Old Testament and other ancient near eastern writings.

The ideological war that is amplified during the presidential election process distorts the truth over and over again. It reminds me of the “fluidity of truth” that was illustrated in this week’s readings as the writers endeavored to explain / understand the underlying causes of military victories and losses and royal hardships. In a similar light, I also found the arrogance of both candidates quite disturbing; similar to the kings in the prophets, they hardly acknowledged their personal weaknesses and are often wrong about the issues that face our country. I guess that’s why I love the “Fact Checker” segments that I read on one of the news websites as they provides a different view (albeit not always an objective) view of what is really true and where the candidates are taking liberties with the truth.

I was somewhat disgusted at how the political parties and nominees exploited the pain of those that had been victimized by killing of unarmed citizens and killing of police officers who were just trying to do their jobs. My emotions vacillated between shock, disgust, disbelief and pity as I watched the orchestrated, emotional and romanticized fervor of the conventioneers. Surely there were elements of hero (god?) worship at play based on the intensity of reactions and words being spoken by those in attendance at the conventions; even in spite of the reality that based on past experiences, that there will not be significant change in the lives of those that have little or no power. I guess hope definitely rings eternal – even if it a “temporary and emotion-infused hope”.

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