Willfully Stupid

While involved in daily Bible devotions this week from The Message translation, I came across a phrase describing fallen human beings that jumped off the page:

Willfully Stupid.

That same day the United States Senate released its long-awaited and clandestinely-formed bi-partisan “Endless Ukraine War–The Border Never Closes” bill (S.744).

It appears to be “Exhibit A” of our willfully stupid political leaders in Washington, D.C.

Here’s my take on both immigration and Jesus words on moral pollution.

Willfully Stupid

The Democratic Party, led by President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, is causing a tsunami of illegal immigration and flood of narcotics across the U.S. southern border.

Their purpose is to grow the Democrat voter base, dramatically expand entitlement culture, and transform the the USA into a weakened state they can control through socialism/Marxism.

They say, via the new Senate bill, they’re being “compassionate” and working for the common good of the American people.

That’s willfully stupid.

Here are some facts about U.S. Immigration:

• We are a nation of immigrants who have always championed legal immigration–more than a million people a year–which is more generous than any nation in history.
• When President Trump left office, the southern border was secure through the “Remain in Mexico” policy and progress on building a wall. 
• President Biden struck down “Remain in Mexico” his first day in office and has encouraged an open border invasion of 10 million illegals and billions of dollars of drugs over the past three years. 
• The Biden Administration could stop the invasion today simply by enforcing current law or by signing an executive order to close down the border for a cooling off period.
• The new Senate bill is a red herring monstrosity–written behind closed doors, with no time to read and debate, and filled with loopholes. 
• A nation without borders is not a nation (Gary Randall on biblical borders.)

Our Senate leaders are being willfully stupid. (Maybe evil.)

Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts put it this way:

The Senate’s “border security” deal will not secure the border. It’s a multibillion-dollar bailout for sanctuary cities and corrupt NGOs—all tied to $60 billion more in unaccountable aid for Ukraine. This bill misses every single mark.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson was even more blunt.

“I’ve seen enough. This bill is even worse than we expected, and won’t come close to ending the border catastrophe the President has created. As the lead Democrat negotiator (Sen. Chris Murphy CT) proclaimed: Under this legislation, ‘the border never closes.’” 

Willfully stupid.

Stepping away for a moment from ignorant man-made ideas, let’s ponder the words of Jesus found in Mark 7:1-23. The Message translation puts a subtitle before this section called “The Source of Your Pollution.”

Yes, far worse than carbon emissions on Plant Earth.

Mark 7:1-23

 1-4 The Pharisees, along with some religion scholars who had come from Jerusalem, gathered around him. They noticed that some of his disciples weren’t being careful with ritual washings before meals. The Pharisees—Jews in general, in fact—would never eat a meal without going through the motions of a ritual hand-washing, with an especially vigorous scrubbing if they had just come from the market (to say nothing of the scourings they’d give jugs and pots and pans).

5 The Pharisees and religion scholars asked, “Why do your disciples brush off the rules, showing up at meals without washing their hands?”

Remember that the Pharisees and religion scholars were the politicians of the day. 

6-8 Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact:

These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.
They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.
They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,
Ditching God’s command
and taking up the latest fads.”

9-13 He went on, “Well, good for you. You get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions! Moses said, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel out of that by saying that it’s perfectly acceptable to say to father or mother, ‘Gift! What I owed you I’ve given as a gift to God,’ thus relieving yourselves of obligation to father or mother. You scratch out God’s Word and scrawl a whim in its place. You do a lot of things like this.”

Our own politicians “do a lot of things like this” also.  Then Jesus went to the heart of the problem:

14-15 Jesus called the crowd together again and said, “Listen now, all of you—take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life; it’s what you vomit—that’s the real pollution.”

17 When he was back home after being with the crowd, his disciples said, “We don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”

18-19 Jesus said, “Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you see that what you swallow can’t contaminate you? It doesn’t enter your heart but your stomach, works its way through the intestines, and is finally flushed.” (That took care of dietary quibbling; Jesus was saying that all foods are fit to eat.)

20-23 He went on: “It’s what comes out of a person that pollutes: obscenities, lusts, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, depravity, deceptive dealings, carousing, mean looks, slander, arrogance, foolishness—all these are vomit from the heart. There is the source of your pollution.”

Bull’s-eye.

The problem with all of us, not just our leaders, is sin in our hearts. The real pollution in America today comes out of willful stupidity. Hosea described it this way:

“My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)”

This stupidity goes far beyond the flood of illegal immigration. Here are some other areas of willful stupidity in our nation:

• Humans evolved from slime–from goo to you by way of the zoo. No. God’s creation is magnificent and meaningful. 
• Gender: that there are more than two sexes. Every cell in your body shouts “No.”
• Recreational sex is cool. No, it’s extremely destructive to human relationships.
• Baby-killing should be celebrated. No. We have killed 65 million Americans via abortion.
• Marxism/socialism is good and free enterprise is bad. No. Capitalism rescued 1.25 billion people from poverty during the past forty years.
• Freedom is the ability to do what I want. No, it’s the wisdom and power to do what you ought.
• Equity is better than equality. No, it creates envy and division and nullifies excellence and effort.
• Racism is raging in our nation. No. We are less racist today (except Dems and secular media) than any time in our history.
• Defunding the police and not punishing criminals helps society. No, it destroys our inner cities.
• Debt doesn’t matter–keep the printing presses running. No. We are wrecking our economic future with debt.
• Climate change is our greatest threat. No, God controls the weather and we can do little about it.
• Tax the rich! No, They create the jobs. Increasing taxation is the power to destroy.
• Follow the science (as during Covid). No. Power corrupts and we were greatly misled during the pandemic by not following the facts.
• The Democrat Party is working for the common good. No, they are out to destroy the blessings of America.

If people don’t understand the above truths, then their argument is with God. They are promoting moral pollution. 

Willfully stupid. 

Let’s passionately pray for spiritual awakening and wise leadership in our nation and world.