Joe Biden and Isaiah 6

Caveat

I am not in any way, shape, or form an expert on politics, let alone the state of affairs in Afghanistan. As such, I won't pronounce judgment on whether or not the United States military should have left Afghanistan in the manner that they did. I thought the entire war was evil. I believe war is an evil. I believe there is always a better solution to killing people. The cost of innocent lives, not only on civilians, but on the veterans and soldiers, outweighs the negligible gain found in war.

The Background

On Thursday, 26 August 2021, a suicide bomber killed at least 13 American soldiers and over 60 Afghanis. People started blaming and defending the Biden Administration over what happened. I tried to take a more measured approach and listened to the speech President Biden gave to the American people.

Being a former pastor, the following line that President Biden said jumped out at me and made me pause:

"Those who have served through the ages have drawn inspiration from the Book of Isaiah. When the Lord says, 'Whom shall I send? Who shall go for us?' The American military has been answering for a long time:  'Here I am. Send me.' Each one of these women and men of our armed roles are the heirs of that tradition and sacrifice, and of volunteering to go in a harms way to risk everything, not for glory, not for profit, but to defend what we love and the people we love."

President Biden quoted a very famous Scripture passage, describing the great call of the prophet Isaiah to give a special message to the people of Judah. I love this Scripture passage. It is one of my favorites. When I studied Hebrew, this is one that I would repeat over and over again. The majesty and splendor of this passage is awe-inspiring for me.

This is that passage of Scripture, taken from Isaiah, chapter 6 (Common English Bible):

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, the edges of his robe filling the temple. Winged creatures were stationed around him. Each had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew about. They shouted to each other, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces!
All the earth is filled with God’s glory!”

The doorframe shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.

I said, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!”

Then one of the winged creatures flew to me, holding a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has departed, and your sin is removed.”

Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?”

I said, “I’m here; send me.”

God said, “Go and say to this people:

Listen intently, but don’t understand;
    look carefully, but don’t comprehend.
Make the minds of this people dull.
    Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind,
    so they can’t see with their eyes
    or hear with their ears,
    or understand with their minds,
    and turn, and be healed.”

I said, “How long, Lord?”

And God said, “Until cities lie ruined with no one living in them, until there are houses without people and the land is left devastated.” The Lord will send the people far away, and the land will be completely abandoned. Even if one-tenth remain there, they will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, which when it is cut down leaves a stump. Its stump is a holy seed.

My Reaction

I was disgusted by this misappropriation of Holy Scripture. Politicians tend to do this all the time, but I'll get to that a little bit later. It is not the first time, nor is it the last time, that a politician uses religion to influence his or her audience.

A bit of context for the scripture passage:

Uzziah was, for the most part, a righteous king, but near the end of his reign, he was struck with leprosy (or some other infectious skin ailment). The Bible remarks that this was due to the fact that Uzziah attempted to burn incense in the Temple, a task reserved only for priests and Levites (2 Chronicles 26:18). He never recovered from this disease and the year of his death was also the time that Isaiah received this great vision.

Isaiah sees this great image of God and these fiery winged creatures, called seraphim in Hebrew, were flying around, announcing the greatness of God, stating that the whole cosmos was filled with the glory of God. The Hebrew term for this glory implies something tangible and weighty that could be felt.

Isaiah, struck with terror and awe at this mighty vision feels unworthy to be in this presence. One of the seraphim symbolically cleanses Isaiah with one of the burning hot coals from the altar. I always tend to laugh at this part when this fiery creature said: "See, this has touch your lips." Duh. A burning hot coal touched Isaiah's lips. I think he might have noticed that.

And then God asks for a volunteer:

"Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" [I always got a kick that the Hebrew says "us" and not "me." This implies that God was speaking for all the heavenly beings, too. It does not imply (as many Christians might maintain) that God was speaking as a Trinity.]

Isaiah volunteers. "Here am I! Send me!"

THE END

Um.

Maybe not.

I have been to numerous youth events. Growing up in The Salvation Army, we had these youth weekend, called "Youth Councils." Invariably this scripture passage was used to inspire us to become ordained pastors/officers in The Salvation Army. Dozens of officers were waiting at the front of the stage where young people prayed and signed their life away, pledging to become officers in The Salvation Army. I did it one time, too. I remember crying as I prayed to God, wanting to dedicate my life in God's service. An officer was right at my side, getting my name, address, and phone number to contact me at a later date and make sure I was serious about becoming an officer.

Nobody kept on reading the Scripture passage.

Basically, God told Isaiah:  "Go and bring my message to the people . . . BUT, they will not listen to you. It will be futile. They will act like you're not even there.

Biden's Misappropriation of Scripture

So here we are. President Biden has the unenviable task of informing the American public that not only has the Taliban taken over Afghanistan after the United States' futile 20-year war, but another terrorist group, called ISIS-K, has killed innocent people along with American soldiers.

To make it palatable, the President invoked the Scripture passage from Isaiah, saying by comparison that the military sacrificed their lives, being called by God for this higher purpose.

There is a term for this.

Bovine Scatology.

In theological terms, this is called eisegesis, reading into Scripture your own personal meaning to justify your views.

I find it ironic, then, that Biden unintentionally brought a greater truth to this tragedy:  the whole war in Afghanistan was futile and useless. Americans killed more civilians and soldiers (241,000) than were killed in the attacks on September 11, 2001, which prompted this war.

What is the result? Before the war, the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. After the war, the Taliban control Afghanistan.

Eisegesis by Other US Presidents

President Bill Clinton on 26 October 1994 gave a speech at the peace agreement between the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel.  He misquoted Jesus when he stated:  "Blessed are the peacemakers - for they shall inherit the Earth." Jesus actually didn't say this. This is from the great Beatitudes, found in Matthew 5. What Jesus actually is recorded saying was:  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God." (Matthew 5:9 NRSV). I don't know if Clinton did this intentionally or not, but the Christian view of being called a child of God is problematic for Muslims and Jews, who do not have a view of God being a parent.

President Abraham Lincoln once gave a speech before becoming president, when he was selected by the Republicans to become their nominee for Senator from Illinois. To stave off the possibility of people supporting Stephen Douglas, Lincoln famously quoted Jesus by saying:  "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Lincoln quoted Mark 3:24, but infamously this Scripture passage was dealing with religious leaders, accusing Jesus of performing miracles and casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub, a demon.

Where does that leave me politically?

Believe it or not, I didn't vote for Biden. That caused a lot of tension among my friends who are Democrats. I voted for Mark Charles, who best represented my own personal beliefs. I had several friends block me on social media because of that, which made me realize that extremism lies both among the political liberals, just as it does among the political conservatives. Room for differences does not exist and people tend to go to polar opposites.

I saw a meme, that adequately expresses my views of voting for Biden:

I am disappointed in the misuse of Scripture. I mourn that this war has been unnecessary. As Kohelet, the writer of Ecclesiastes, so eloquently states:  "But when I surveyed all that my hands had done, and what I had worked so hard to achieve, I realized that it was pointless - a chasing after the wind. Nothing is to be gained under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 2:11 CEB). 

On Being Bisexual

I don't always like talking about my sexuality. It's a personal issue for me, one that has led to both many joys and many heartaches. If I were honest with myself, the heartaches were more frequent than the joys, but when the joys came, they came in overflowing passion. Yes, I realize that they etymology of "passion" comes from suffering. So I see the irony in this as well.

The questions and comments about my sexuality sometimes overwhelm me. The comments come from both straight people and people in the LGBT community:

"I don't agree with your lifestyle, but I still love you."

"If you're bisexual, doesn't that mean you want to have sex all the time?"

"Being bi is the holding spot for fabulous, when you become gay."

"Isn't it possible that you're gay and not bi?"

"Have you ever heard the term, 'Bi now, gay later?'"

"How do you reconcile the Bible with your lifestyle?"

"Aren't you afraid of going to Hell?"

So, in a (perhaps futile) attempt to clarify who I am, I felt it might be time to explain what it means for me to be bisexual. I am by no means an authority on bisexuality. My experiences are mine alone. They may or may not be similar to other bi people's experiences.

When did I know?

No, I don't fall into the category of:  "Somehow I always knew." I didn't know what was going on with me. Growing up, I noticed myself being attracted to both men and women. It was at times disconcerting and confusing for me. I was scared to have any relationship, with either a man or a woman. I knew immediately that if I tried to have a relationship with a man, I would be disciplined by my parents. This is not a criticism of them, either. This is just a statement of fact. For them, any same-sex romantic relationship was a sin and a choice.

And . . . I at first believed that. I went on some dates when I was in high school. I was attracted to several girls at different camps, but my introverted self had so much difficulty in even approaching them. I didn't feel handsome. Going through puberty, who ever does? Having a bad case of acne, which could only be cured through Accutane, made my life a living Hell.

I went to Homecoming. Believe it or not, I was asked out. The whole situation for me was both great and awkward. She asked me out. She paid for dinner. She had the car. I felt like I was in a no-win situation. In retrospect, I should have realized that she showed so much interest in me and I should have been flattered. Instead, I was embarrassed:  Embarrassed that I didn't have a car at the time and embarrassed that I liked her, but didn't know what to do. I didn't go to prom at all while in high school. I just didn't have the courage to do so.

Do I regret that? Absolutely.

It was because I was attracted to women that I kept on thinking to myself:  "Being gay is a choice. It's not something that's genetic. People are lying and living in sin." How wrong I was.

You're probably thinking:  What about being attracted to men?

Yes, that happened, too, and came on in a fury. I hid it all, too. I saw guys my age and was attracted to them. I couldn't explain it, either. When people ask me what attracts me to men as opposed to women, it's hard to quantify. 

The Camp Years, with hair still!

Did I . . . you know?

I am not about to give away names, but this is perhaps is what was most difficult for me to do. Being attracted to both men and women, I would most often spend time with other guys my age. Sleepovers and camps sponsored by my church were the opportunities I had to experiment at all.

And, as with any church camp, the very next day was accompanied by amnesia and the guy I had the encounter with would normally deny it or act like nothing happened. Being a recluse, I was scared to even bring it up at all. Since those encounters happened at church youth retreats, church camps, or church sleepovers, the guilt placed on me by my church was overwhelming. It normally led to praying at the altar afterwards. (In my old denomination, this was a place near the front with a prayer rail and a place to kneel. For young people, it was only acceptable to pray at camp or a youth retreats, never during actual church services.)

The College Years

College came and matters only intensified themselves. My roommate, God bless him, was the best person in the world to me. I never discussed my sexuality with him and he was definitely only interested in girls.

And then it happened:  I fell in love. I fell in love with my best friend's girlfriend.

That sucks. It hurt like nothing else I had been through. I cared, though, more about my friend and never told him anything about it at all. When he moved back to Norway, his girlfriend insisted on spending every minute with me:  lunch, study breaks, on the phone. It was mostly to talk about him, but it became pure torture and pure bliss for me.

I was so confused. I didn't know what to do. My college offered counseling and I took advantage of it.

It was the first time I ever mentioned to another soul what I was feeling. I cried. I cried until it hurt to cry and I ran out of tears. All of those pent-up emotions came pouring out like never before. I felt so much better. Believe it or not, that counselor never told me what I was feeling was bad at all. He never said having same-sex attractions was a sin. That surprised me because I was attending a Christian college. I just assumed he thought that.

After my good, long cry, I was at peace again.

The Marriage Years

And then I was married! Those thirteen years together with my wife were some of the happiest and saddest times of my life. I had fallen in love with the most beautiful person in the world. It was wonderful. We had three beautiful sons together. The first son we struggled to have after a miscarriage. The second was a total surprise. Our last came during our difficult transition back to the United States from Germany.

In all that time I never discussed being bisexual with my wife. I had decided for myself that this was definitely a choice. I was happy with her. I enjoyed my life with her. I loved our ministry in Germany. I repressed everything I thought about other men. To my everlasting shame, I even told one of our members of our church in Germany that he should leave when he came out to me as gay.

At the same time, something terrible began to happen with me:  Depression. I was going through classic depression. I spent all my time in my office, buried in my computer or a book. I stopped talking to my wife. She became frustrated with me, too, and understandably so. It was during that time that our denomination, The Salvation Army, decided to send us back to the United States, not telling us why.

Only after being home for a year and a half did they tell us that they brought us home because of our marriage difficulties and thought to set us up with counseling when we returned. That didn't happen until we asked for help.

Instead, we were sent to a small congregation that had a history of financial problems, never having ever led a congregation in the United States. We floundered.

Our thrift store wasn't making any money. We just broke even. Our headquarters took over the store. It still only broke even.

I came out . . . as a liberal.

It was during this time that I had to face certain things about myself. I had changed. I had lived for 10 years in Germany:  from 2000-2010. I lived there before the attacks on September 11th. I came back to a changed and paranoid country. I was changed, too, but couldn't admit it to myself.

I started realizing I was a liberal with the horrendous healthcare system we have in the United States. My wife and I had decided to use a midwife to give birth with our third child, just as we had done with our first two children. This would have been covered by our insurance, but we had to find a doctor to give us prenatal care. Initially the doctors we talked with refused to even see us because we were giving birth at home. They felt that if we gave birth at home and something happened to the child that we would sue the doctors.

This was insane. We moved from a country where midwives are the standard for every birth and obstetricians are only called in case of an emergency.

So we had to pay for the birth out of pocket. Still, it was probably even cheaper than had we given birth at a hospital.

I started to complain about our situation on social media. Most of our friends, especially those in The Salvation Army, simply told us that we would get used to it again in the United States. We didn't. It seemed to get worse. Then they began to openly criticize us.

After detailing all of the frustrations I was having with the insurance and the absolute lack of any recycling facilities in our county, one of my parishioners told me, "You're a liberal." I was shocked. Me? A liberal? I voted for McCain in the election of 2008 (a decision I have since come to regret). Then I had to admit to myself. I was indeed a liberal.

The Progressive Salvationist

During this time, I thought to myself that I couldn't be the only one in my denomination who thought the same way. There had to be other people of a liberal persuasion.

Indeed there was. I found a fellow officer who posted many great posts about socialism and how Christianity is closer to socialism than capitalism. I approached this friend of mine and asked him what he thought about creating a group just for Salvationists of a liberal slant. We agreed and called the Facebook group:  "The Progressive Salvationist."

This was the beginning of the end of my career as a Salvation Army officer.

It was exciting. I met many other Salvationists, at first in the United States and Europe, but then worldwide, who were also progressive. We let anyone in at the beginning, as long as they were respectful. (This changed when people began sending screenshots to our headquarters to "report" on us.)

I began hearing very similar stories from our new members:  "I was an officer in The Salvation Army, but left because I am a woman and wanted to marry the woman I loved."

"I got kicked out of the Army for being gay."

I started then to think about this logically. When Jesus was on this Earth, he associated with people society had rejected:  Prostitutes, swindlers, unpatriotic tax collectors, lepers. If Jesus were here today, who are the marginalized of our society? The immigrant, people of color, the LGBT community. Jesus didn't ask them to change. He loved and accepted them. So I loved and accepted our members who were in the LGBT community.

What about you, Timothy?

I started then to logically think about myself. If you can love and affirm these other people who are in the LGBT community, what about yourself?

Can you be honest with yourself?

I. Am. Bisexual.

I cried. I came undone, but I was finally honest with myself.

The End

I came out to a friend. My messages were discovered, copied, and given to others against my knowledge and will. My wife was understandably upset. Although I still loved her, she wanted a divorce. There were other reasons, of course, but I will not disparage her. She is the mother of my 3 sons and I see the love of her in them as well. Divorce is never pretty and she will always be special to me.

Unfortunately, since we were going through the divorce, The Salvation Army terminated us as officers. They also told me that because of my stance on LGBT issues and because of my orientation, I can never become an officer again. My ordination was terminated irrevocably.

I lost everything:  My family, my job, my home, transportation, pension, etc.

The Beginning

I have talked in other posts about these issues before and what happened afterwards. 

Being bisexual openly is a new thing. I have had many friends come out to me personally, but not openly yet. It is comforting talking to them about what it means to be out. It is very difficult. It devastated my life, but it also opened up a new life.

What does it mean to be bisexual then for me? I have the best of both worlds. Loving all people no matter their gender is perhaps one of the godliest things I can think of.

I am reminded that Jesus said that the Greatest Commandments were to love God and to love others. All other instructions for life stem from these two. My being bisexual does not go against either of these commandments.

I am discovering God in a new way than I have met God before:  Bigger than the god of my childhood and evangelicalism. 

Awhile ago I wrote these words on Twitter:

One thing I miss about Evangelical Christianity is the anthropomorphized god I worshipped. This often centered on Jesus, which is not good for a good Trinitarian. It was as if this God were somehow tangible, giving rise to the "Jesus is my boyfriend" worship songs. That made it very confusing for me, growing up bisexual. In discovering mysticism, God became both impersonal and more personal; closer, but more aloof. In all this, I am still discovering who and what God is, leaving behind the god of my imagination and discovering the Mystical One.

photo credit: Arturo- The Last Waltz - Variações via photopin (license)

Jesus Was a Pharisee

Mark 2:23-28 (CEB)

Jesus went through the wheat fields on the Sabbath. As the disciples made their way, they were picking the heads of the wheat. The Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look! Why are they breaking the Sabbath law?"

He said to them, "Haven't you ever read what David did when he was in need, when he and those with him were hungry? During the time when Abiathar was high priest, David went into God's house and ate the bread of the presence, which only priests were allowed to eat. He also gave bread to those who were with him."

Then he said, "The Sabbath was created for humans; humans weren't created for the Sabbath. This is why the Human One is Lord even over the Sabbath."

7th August 2020 - Harvest time (fruit, vegetable or flower) - Day 6 - wheat ready for harvesting via photopin (license)

Pharisees

Ah, the poor Pharisees. They often have a bad reputation in Christian Scriptures. Some of it is deserved, but most of it is undeserved. The Pharisees were a religious order that sought to open up religion to all Jews. There were the Sadducees, who were mainly a priestly order. They were very strict and only followed the Torah, what Christians would call Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Then there were the Essenes:  a Jewish monastic order that sought to purify themselves from the rest of society, living by themselves. Some people speculate that even John the Baptist might at one time have been a part of this order.

The Pharisees, however, wanted to have God for all the people. As with any religious group, with their size, they developed into factions. There was one faction that wanted to be precise in their worship of following God. They wanted to be so certain that God's commandments were followed that they gave commentary on how the instructions were to be followed. In this instance, the disciples of Jesus were eating grains of wheat. Eating wheat on the Sabbath was not breaking the law for these Pharisees. What was breaking the law was that they were actually husking the wheat to eat the kernels.

The scandal! [I keep misplacing the sarcastic font.]

There was another branch of Pharisees that were more generous in their understanding of Scripture:  the heart of the Instructions needed to be followed, not the letter of the Law.

In this sense, Jesus was a Pharisee.

Jesus wasn't a Pharisee that was a strict interpreter of the Law. Just the opposite. He continuously stated he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. What was the fulfillment of the Law? Jesus stated that it was to love God and love others. (See Matthew 22:35-40; Mark 12:28-34; and Luke 10:27.) All of the other instructions we see in the Scripture, especially the ones that contradict each other, should fall under the guidelines of "loving God and loving others."

Religion changes over the decades. This is why we see at one point slavery being condoned and regulated with Scriptural support. This is why we see women being oppressed and demeaned and not allowed to have any voice in the Church with Biblical support. This is why we people in the LGBT Community being condemned and murdered with Christian support.

We miss the point.

The Bible is not God. Fallible human beings wrote the Bible. They contradicted each other. They made mistakes. The Bible is still useful to us as a guide, but we must keep in mind what the Christ desires from us:

Love God. Love others.

The rest is just theology.