On the Insurrection

Yes….an insurrection. A Republican insurrection. Republicans Gone Wild. Republicans breaking and entering, forcibly taking over a government building, and injuring 50 police officers.

When it was Black Lives Matters marching and violence erupted, the Right wanted to label BLM a domestic terrorist group. Now the Left wants to label these Trumper Republicans domestic terrorists.

Much has been written about terrorism in the last twenty years, but I think there is a general consensus among those who study the subject that what usually gives rise to terrorism, whether of the foreign or domestic sort, is the feeling of powerlessness, that there is nothing else that can be done to be heard or bring about change. It is the last resort of the disenfranchised. I offer that by way of explanation not excuse. I have written here before about why resort to violence is neither wise nor justified.

The BLM movement arose because of 400 years of systematic and cultural disenfranchisement of black Americans, culminating this year in some very public killings of black Americans by law enforcement officers. Black Americans were justifiably angry over a history of racism and systemic discrimination and some decided during marches that marching was not enough.

On Wednesday, Trump Republicans gathered in Washington D.C. feeling they had been disenfranchised by an election they believe was fraudulent. Incited by President Trump to march on the Capital, once there many decided that peacefully protesting was not enough and broke in, occupied, and trashed the Capital.

And lest anyone think I am making a moral equivalency argument, let me make it clear I believe black Americans do have a legitimate complaint about racism. However, after having nearly 60 lawsuits challenging the election thrown out, many by Republican and Trump-appointed judges, it should be clear the specter of a stolen election is fairy tale not fact.

Here is the point: when the feelings of powerlessness and disenfranchisement are strong enough, the same unbridled impulse that spawns violence on the Left spawns violence on the Right, but it should never spawn violence in a Kingdom citizen.

Kingdom citizens may sometimes be without political power but they are never without Kingdom authority. Even under the reign of Nero when Christians were thrown to the lions and burned at the stake the word of their testimony and not loving their lives even unto death, was an exercise of Kingdom authority that eventually transformed an empire. Therefore, Kingdom citizens should never elevate the desire for political power over the demonstration of kingdom authority. GS

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