Jitterbugging for Jesus

If you want to be for a great big beautiful wall on the great big beautiful border of my beloved Texas*–even if it means plowing through American people’s private properties–fine. Be all for the wall.

But please don’t be abusing the Bible to justify the wall by buying into the spiritual malpractice of money-grubbing charlatan preachers advising the POTUS who say that Godly men like Nehemiah built walls.

Trump spiritual “advisors” like Paula White (who sells “resurrection seeds” for $1,114 a pop and says the price was set by God), Cabinet member Dr. Ben Carson (he who’s convinced that the pyramids were built by Joseph to store grain) and the patriot/leader of First Baptist Church in Dallas Robert Jeffrees have this bad habit of referring to Nehemiah’s wall.

Even happy Joel Olsteen has gone there with a defense.

Here are 4 quick counterpoints to this nonsense:

1. Nehemiah led the rebuilding of a city and the city’s sacred Temple in a time when all cities had walls for protection.

All cities.

2. Repeat after me: Jerusalem: not a nation.

3. In biblical times, there were no “legal” or “illegal” aliens/immigrants.

There were just aliens and immigrants and the Old Testament has page after page of admonishments from God and God’s prophets to be hospitable to aliens and there’s not any reference to “illegal aliens.” There’s an entire theology of hospitality to aliens and strangers because God’s own people had been aliens and strangers escaping oppression.

4. In regard to No. 3, see the story of Joseph and Mary and that little baby Jesus.

We desperately need Bible literacy in a day and age when, to paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks about the Bible and nobody studies it, much less reads and reflects on it from the standpoint of reason, tradition and experience.

The POTUS and his corrupt band of spiritual advisors aren’t helping the cause.

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*Keeping Texans in the Harvey storm path in thoughts and prayers.