William Blake:
Frontispiece for "America a Prophecy" (1793)

"Anyone claiming today that they're directed by God has forgotten their history lessons or they might just be a charlatan."

News that reports some members of the incumbent's cabinet, public servants, believe themselves to be instruments of prophecy leaves me wondering whether insanity can be employed as a credible offense. Nobody can reasonably claim to be such an instrument, and if true, nobody gets to choose to become such an agent. I seem to remember some biblical figures cursing such an intrusion into their lives, neither particularly proud nor feeling rewarded by such a designation. Further, biblical prophecy so predates our circumstances that it seems much more than merely unlikely that scripture, retranslated innumerable times over many, many centuries, even if divinely inspired, could have accurately and intentionally targeted our times as its purpose. Further still, modern interpreters of such messages appear to interpret them literally, except in those special instances where figurative interpretations seem necessary. They seem capable of justifying anything by claiming scriptural sanction, and do.

Heaven help us survive this latest twist on justification. We have suffered before from holier-than-thou politicians, but never ones so indistinguishable from Babylon's Whore. The age-old “God made me do it” defense should have no more credibility today than it ever did. Anyone employing it might reasonably be considered guilty since the truth of the statement seems questionable to a certainty. In any nation of laws, each individual holds the sacred responsibility to obey those laws or willingly suffer the consequences. Jesus doesn't make a credible defense attorney.

Those lusting after end times seem to suffer from some self-destructive disorder whereby they mistake their demise for their salvation, or worse, they suffer from a mass-destruction delusion, where they believe civilization can only be saved by destroying it. To admit to be working on this God's side seems to be more a self-indictment than a self-defense. God might even be on their side in the way that he's said to be on the side of every sinner. Since every human seems to have been presumed to have been born in sin, God would be accustomed to defending sinners, since that's the only kind of people with whom he ever interacts. Being rendered in God's image suggests that God must be a sinner, too.

So, the old ‘God Made Me Do It’ Defense might be the perfect offense, with adequate evidence to convict with extreme prejudice. If our Homeland Security Secretary is anyone to judge by, she certainly seems guilty of every crime she insists God has instructed her to commit. She does not admit to a single act of personal will. She's apparently merely flotsam driven by the overwhelming will of her heavenly father, who conveniently remains unable to testify in her defense. This self-dealing situation seems to insist that she must speak for God in her defense. This insistence seems offensive.

Our Founders bequeathed us a tenaciously secular society because this design, paradoxically, best assured the freedom of religion upon which the religious insisted. Our originating colonies had not been nearly so secular. Sure, many colonists sought religious liberty here, but proved to be damned intolerant when called upon to interact with anyone practicing differing rituals. Maryland was Catholic, and Virginia, staunchly Church of England. Massachusetts was pure enough Puritan that they denied one of my forebears' ship’s landing privileges because they had committed the grave sin of practicing Presbyterianism. They were seeking religious freedom, too, but had to settle for land granted by the more tolerant governor of New Hampshire to enjoy the privilege. Each acted at the direction of the supposedly same God, or maybe they were different ones. Anyone claiming today that God directs them has forgotten their history lessons, or they might just be a charlatan.

©2025 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #FollowingChapters, #PureSchmaltz