Through the Eyes of a Pastor.

 Recently, I was in town.   The town nearest my home is in many ways the epitome of small town America; a town in the shadow of a former manufacturing plant for Tobacco, with a community that isn't the smallest, but where everyone still seems to manage to know most everyone and everything going on in town at a given time.   Indeed, it was even a stop for country music star Justin Moore almost a decade ago when he was on his "Small Town USA" tour.   I have lived here for my entire life, and know intimately the community and many of the people; all good sincere people who have always had a place in my heart.  

Judge my shock and dismay as I have borne witness over the last 3 years, as my hometown community has been forced into a situation that I am reliably well-informed, is not unique; given the current political and economic climate of our nation.  There have always been poor people in our community, our Lord himself said "the Poor you have always with you".  But we have NEVER had homeless citizens, forced onto the streets.   We have NEVER had citizens forced to resort to literal begging on the corners in order to make ends meet or get money for food.  We have NEVER seen a situation where our people, MY people have been forced into such destitution; and all in the name of alleged "progress".  This is no longer a matter of republicans vs. democrats in an election year, this is a matter of the United States government FAILING the very citizens it is claiming should be doing "great" in what the administration proudly proclaims to be a "booming economy".  

No, No, No.  If our people are suffering hunger and homelessness, the economy is not booming.  If our elderly family members and neighbors are having to scrimp and save to pay for doctors and medications, then you're not "saving medicare".  If our families are having to decrease their stocks of food and deplete their finances to pay for ever more regulated appliances and vehicles; then you are not saving the environment for anyone.  I have watched all of these things transpire for many years now, and through the eyes of a pastor; I have never seen a situation for my people as horrible as it is under the present government administration.  I have lived in this area my entire life, and have seen in this past year more devastation inflicted against my people than ever I did under any other president's administration.  And while the media and people in political circles will go to extreme lengths to proclaim a falsified, sanitized depiction of this administration's service; proclaiming it the greatest in modern history-  my people, the American people, the people who pay for this government and its work; are suffering at the hands of this government.  

I charge this government administration with the words of the Abbe Jean-Baptiste-Charles-Marie de Beauvais, Bishop of Senez; to King Louis XV on Easter 1774.  "Sire, my duty as a minister of God requires me to tell you that your people are wretched, that you are the cause, and that you are blind to this fact."

This government has failed the people.  They have caused my people to become beggars and live on the streets.  They have abandoned the people they are sworn to protect and serve; in favor of the exoticism of the foreign and the outlandish.  They have turned a vibrant community into a community that is suffering and in pain; and I will never forget what they have done.  Worse still, I can never forget the reaction from this government when they are informed of the suffering- blank looks and sarcastic quips that we "simply don't know how good we have it" or "how great the economy is". 

This government, this president's administration; has shown less respect, less concern, less interest, in the people of our communities than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime.  God is not mocked, he forgets not the poor, the elderly, the widow and the orphan; and he will hold these wicked men and women of government administration to account on their day of judgement.  And while as a minister if Christ I must pray for their ultimate repentance and salvation; I also pray that our Blessed Savior makes it painfully clear to them through purgation just how Wickedly and Diabolically they have treated the people of this nation.