My Mental Dilemma

I am having a problem focusing on any one topic this morning.  My mind is rambling from one thing to another, none of which seem to stick for very long.  I’m in a dilemma (a situation in which a choice has to be made as to what to write about this morning).  I’m in a quandary, because the choices are many.   I’m going through what we are all going through these days—a pervasive babel.  “Pervasive” means “existing in or spreading through every part of something,” as in a pervasive odor—a smell that fills the air.  A pervasive odor occurs occasionally here in my neighborhood when the nearby mushroom house disturbs a pile of mushroom soil.  It smells like rotten seafood and the putrid smell fills our whole town. My mind is filled with a pervasive babel this morning.  “Babel” means a confusion of sounds or voices; a scene or situation of confusion.  The word babel is biblical, by the way.

I thought for a moment I might write about what I read in the Bible this morning—but my mind wandered away from that to the whole business of biblical malpractice that runs rampant in our churches and in our American society.  Malpractice can apply to the “religious” folk as well as to the medical practitioner or public official.  The word means to do something improper, or to be negligent, or to abuse.  We do abuse the Bible.  For example, the main topic of the Bible is politics—the politics of a fallen creation, the politics of redemption, the politics of the nations, etc., but we tend to say that the Bible and politics don’t mix!  In addition, we, in America, have used the Bible for our convenience to say that we are a divinely favored nation, while the Bible when really heard says that God has no favorites—not Israel, not Zion, not America.  I better not go in that direction.

I’ve been reading Malcolm Nance’s book, The Plot to Destroy Democracy. I recommend it.  He writes about how disinformation (false information which is intended to mislead) was used by Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign.  Disinformation is being employed here in America, too.  I want to say something about Trump’s tweets yesterday in reference to The New York Times and the media, but I’ve already written many times about that subject. Talk about a dilemma.  The subversion of journalism and a free press is one of the most insidious and dangerous disinformation campaigns in modern times, colluding with that which has happened in the Russian Federation under Vladimir Putin.

What I can say this morning is that my mental dilemma is our American dilemma.  We are living in a time of pervasive babel—24/7 cable news, daily presidential tweets—where truth and facts are manipulated, even fabricated.  Disinformation rules the day—but my prayer is that it does not rule our minds, though I’m afraid the ploy is working.  Biblical malpractice is prevalent, too, as we ignore others and focus only on ourselves.    What a conundrum!

Democracy, like the Crazy Horse monument, is still in the making.
Will it continue?