He’s at it again, only this time he’s taking it on the road!
I refer to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, whose twist-the -Bible-in-his-own-image tour began September 19 at Texas A&M. While speaking to the Corps of Cadets with his “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” message, he reached for his favorite whip-up-the-troops passage from Isaiah’s prophecy, on his new branded “Send Me Tour.”
He’s used this passage to boil the blood of the military before, and I wrote of my displeasure about it then. But this time he’s using it to impassion young people as well as the troops and he’s taking it on the road. As I said before, I find this despicable twisting of the Holy Scriptures for his own use light-years out of context. His attempt to sanctify his own agenda by a calculated distortion of God’s Word to manipulate young minds is a bridge too far, reminiscent of slave masters justifying atrocities with the backing of their warped theology.
God wasn’t telling the prophet to put on armor, get a bow and some arrows and kill his enemies. What’s next, “Blessed are the war-makers for they shall be called the true patriots”? Or “God so loved America that he gave his best and only sons for battle, thus saith the Lord.”? Watch the video and see for yourself a model of “discipleship” gone bad, very bad.
Quote The Art of War. Use The History of Warfare or The City of God. Heck, show clips of Saving Private Ryan. But leave your cherry-picked out-of-context Bible verses out of it!
Hegseth’s attempt to sanctify his agenda by using God’s Word this way is a bridge too far. How in the world did Mr. Pete extrapolate military service from God’s call to Isaiah to preach the truth to his people? The Lord wasn’t asking him to join an army or go fight in a war. When Isaiah said “send me,” he was volunteering to speak God’s words on God’s behalf, not enlist for military service.
Pete, you can’t send those kids to war and put the responsibility for their lives on God. And if those young people are inspired by your conflation of the Bible with your politics, and they’re killed in battle as a result, who do you think will be responsible? What will the God before whom you will stand say? “What were you thinking, Pete, when you used my Word, my voice to send those kids to their death?”
For many years now when I pray about venomous leaders––spiritual, political, and otherwise––my prayer goes like this: “Lord, save them. If they refuse to be saved, silence them. If they refuse to be silenced, send them away so they can’t hurt people anymore.” Since Hegseth has chosen “Send me!” as his new mantra, it appears he and I are actually on the same page.
So, if you can’t save or silence him, SEND HIM, Lord! Far away, if you please.
barney wiget 