Political wrangling during national emergency is no pillow fight
“My Pillow” founder Mike Lindell recently attended a round table at the White House and got the surprise of a lifetime: President Trump asked him to speak during a press briefing in the Rose Garden to let Americans know he’s retooled his My Pillow operations to manufacture 50,000 cotton facemasks a day.
Think of the cash burn-rate a company like My Pillow must run through daily: 1,500 American employees, facilities, supplies — this is a decision that could — in short order — bankrupt his company.
But Mr. Lindell is a Christian and he feels this is a calling. He said he feels blessed by God to be in the position to help. After offering effusive praise for the president’s handling of the situation and for his leadership during the past three years, he made the “mistake” of saying the God who created the universe actually has a plan.
Mike Lindell
“God gave us grace on November 8, 2016, to change the course we were on,” Lindell said, referencing Trump’s election date. “Taken out of our schools and lives, a nation had turned its back on God.”
He then offered advice to families stuck at home because of various social-distancing guidelines: “I encourage you to use this time at home to get back in the Word, read our Bibles and spend time with our families.”
Then came the chorus — “you can’t do that.”
News presenter Chris Hayes of MSNBC mocked the briefing and called it “bad for the country.” After saying he wanted scientists and doctors to be the only ones speaking — as if they aren’t getting adequate airtime — he sardonically added, “We’ve got the My Pillow guy up there talking about the Bible.”
Think of the vile hatred involved in that remark. A man of faith has put his life’s work in harm’s way and the White House wanted his sacrifice known so that the American people would feel encouraged.
Here is a wealthy individual who is putting service above self. Yet, so many media types mocked Mr. Lindell — whose personal story involves overcoming drug addiction through finding Jesus Christ as his savior. As with many addicts, part of his recovery is giving the Lord the glory for bringing him to a place of joy and redemption. Nonetheless, faith matters are lost amid the mainstream media.
Professor and author Tom Nichols tweeted to his 340,000 followers, “Well, imagine my relief that the My Pillow guy is on the job.’
Ali Velshi of MSNBC tweeted, “Trump just called the My Pillow guy up to the podium in the Rose Garden. You cannot make this stuff up.”
Jim Acosta of CNN dismissed Mr. Lindell’s decision to retool as a “P.R. stunt.”
Having been in the P.R. business and offered advice to clients of every size, rest assured I never offered the advice, “Take your company to the edge of the financial abyss and play dizzy-izzy. We’ll get a good article out of it.”
The hate of Christianity, of course, expands to politicians as well.
Franklin Graham’s non-profit, Samaritan’s Purse, has constructed a 68-bed mobile hospital in Central Park to treat overflow patients from Mt. Sinai Hospital. But saving lives is not enough for the politicos of the Big Apple.
NYC Councilman Corey Johnson tweeted, “We need reassurances from the city and from Mt. Sinai that Samaritan’s Purse and its volunteers will be monitored and that the LGBTQ community will not be discriminated against in any way. This is a crisis, but our values remain.”
Ponder that: the very thought that Franklin Graham would order his volunteers to refuse treatment to people of different sexual orientations, obviously ignoring the core tenants of Christianity and the Hippocratic Oath.
What Mr. Johnson is actually saying is, “Christians are so evil that they’ll murder people with whom they disagree.”
Really?
Mayor deBlasio said, “I’m very concerned to make sure this is done right, but if this is done right, we need all the help we can get.”
But?
This is political insanity. How can someone even come up with such an idea during a humanitarian crisis?
This is politics at it’s very, very worst. In a time of crisis, who would not want a hospital set up? Which citizens would not want their fellow New Yorkers to get help — however it comes? But these politicians are willing to step from politics into evil and sound perfectly fine with New Yorkers dying for the sake of insulting Christianity.
Sadly, hating Christians is nothing new for governments up and down the line. They’ve banned prayer in school and ripped the 10 Commandments off courthouse walls. The Department of Justice defunded a Young Marines chapter in Louisiana because their oath mentioned God. After a complaint was received, a Bible was removed from a display inside a Veterans Clinic. Employers — famously the Little Sisters of the Poor, a group of nuns, have been forced by the government to make available abortion-inducing drugs. The list, of course, seems endless.
Jesus warned his followers time and time again that Christian love would be repaid with hate. He said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”
He also said many times that the Christian life would be hard — and it’s certainly hard at times like these, when our human nature cries out that we should strike back at these hateful Christophobes.
If you are able, they need your prayers.
Image courtesy Wikimedia, user NorthStarOasis, CC-3.0
