Danger of bad company in the executive branch

There was a great deal of prayer leading up to the election this year, but we should not lessen the work at this point. Scripture commands us in 1 Timothy 2:1-2, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” So what should we be praying for in this interim between the 2nd Tuesday of November and the 19th of December when the electoral college will meet in each State capital to cast their votes and then January 6th when those votes cast will be opened and counted in a joint session of Congress and they declare a winner and then on January 20th when the new president is inaugurated? What should we be praying for?

Obviously in light of the great level of corruption, lies and deceptions we are aware of, we should pray for faithful electors and honest counting in all 50 States as well as in the joint session of Congress. And we should pray for the safety of the president elect as the riots around the country reveal that violent forces are now at work.

As Donald Trump’s transition team shifts into high gear, we need to be praying for them as well as for him because the decisions made in these days will have great consequences. Those who are chosen to surround the President will have enormous influence upon him and the decisions he will make in office.

Years ago I voted for Ronald Reagan. I recall the wonderful promise he made to end the unconstitutional Federal Department of Education. He called the Department of Education “President Carter’s new bureaucratic boondoggle” and promised to abolish it. He was spot on with that goal, it was something required of him by his oath before Almighty God to uphold and defend the Constitution.

But something tragic happened along the way. He chose someone to head the Department of Education that was not committed to that goal. I don’t know if this individual lied to Reagan to obtain that position or if he changed his mind once his was in the drivers seat, but one thing is clear, the Federal Department of Education was not abolished in the eight years Reagan was President. Tragically the unconstitutional Department wasn’t even diminished during those eight years. 1981 the President’s budget for that Department was over 14 billion. And eight years later in 1989 the President’s budget was 22.5 billion. It is true he tried to shrink that budget in 1982, 1983, and 1984 to no avail, in each of those years Congress grew that budget. And it is true that 1982 he crafted a proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, but it went nowhere on Capitol Hill. But he could have used the hard ball tactics that would have forced its closure but he did not. He was surrounded by those committed to keeping that Department and they influenced his decisions.

My concern is that those whom Donald Trump may select during the operational period of the transition team may result in blunting Trump’s entire agenda unless they are properly vetted.

Just consider for example the list of potential nominees for the Supreme Court to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. One of the top contenders is a certain Judge William Pryor of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.[1] This is the man 13 years ago as Attorney General of Alabama, threw Chief Justice Roy Moore off that office that the voters of Alabama had elected him for. What was the issue, Pryor claimed that the Chief Justice of Alabama could not acknowledge God, indeed that the State of Alabama could not acknowledge God. So Pryor, unconstitutionally, in violation of his own oath of office removed Alabama’s Chief Justice because the Chief would continue to uphold his oath of office by acknowledging God. So we saw an oath breaker, Pryor, persecuting and oath keeper Chief Justice Roy Moore. The people of Alabama rejected Pryor’s evil decision and re-elected Chief Justice Roy Moore to that high office once again. Now of course another set of wicked judges are doing the same thing to the Chief because he upheld Alabama’s Constitution against unconstitutional actions of the U.S. Supreme Court. The claim is that U.S. Supreme Court overturned Alabama’s Constitution regarding the definition of marriage – which it did not and could not even if they spilled a tanker truck of ink on an Everest sized mountain of paper.

But back to the history of William Pryor. He was rewarded for his evil deed by President George W. Bush appointing him to the Federal Judgeship – one of the youngest to ever be given such a plum. So I must ask why is this oath breaker even on Trump’s list for the Supreme Court? Someone has I believed advised Trump that Pryor would be good.

Also “Trump has tapped Congressman Mike Pompeo to head the CIA….Mike is also a heavy supporter of the NSA’s surveillance programs: “Congress should pass a law re-establishing collection of all metadata, and combining it with publicly available financial and lifestyle information into a comprehensive, searchable database. Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed.” (The Atlantic, 11/18/16)

Here’s what Mike had to say about Edward Snowden: “[He] should be brought back from Russia and given due process, and I think the proper outcome would be that he would be given a death sentence.” (Washington Examiner, 2/11/16)[2]

So there are two illustrations of the dangers facing us if Trump’s advisors are not themselves good Constitutionists, if they have an agenda which will only take our country further down the road of destruction.

Who a person surrounds themselves with makes a profound impact upon them. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:33 “Do not be deceived, Bad company ruins good morals.”

So we need to pray for the president elect, and we need to pray for ourselves that we will not choose bad company. The best antidote for that is spending time in God’s presence. It is a false claim that some one can be so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. For to be truly heavenly minded means they will understand very clearly and pointedly what it is that God wants to have done in this world and then we will do it. The most useful people on earth are those who understand what God wants and then implement that in the here and now. The truly heavenly minded are of tremendous earthly good. Consider Moses as a preeminent example in Exodus 34.

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