Bottom Feeders—Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace and Their Defenders

Oh, God. When will the world get tired of eating out of the garbage?

I confess to being discouraged to the point of tears today.

Some years ago, I listened to a talk by some Catholic fellow on YouTube. I honestly can’t remember his name. He was discussing Pope John Paul II’s The Theology of the Body. I, Baptist girl that I was, had never heard of this work before. As I listened, I was struck by the beauty of this teaching and I realized so many criticisms of the Catholic Church, specifically as they pertained to human sexuality, were entirely unfounded. On the contrary, I have rarely heard a more Biblically consistent view of human sexuality and on life, than from the Catholic Church. No teaching in any Protestant church has ever rivaled this. We Baptists, Reformed, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc… are actually quite schizophrenic on the topic, and it’s really starting to show. For instance, our wholesale unwillingness to tackle the topic of contraception in any meaningful way.

What struck me most was the profound beauty of it all that matches the beauty of God and His plan for our bodies and our sexuality and how both are intrinsically tied to the sanctity of life. It turns out that sex isn’t something we just do for fun. It has meaning—theological meaning! Our bodies have meaning. Our marriages have meaning. And when they become divorced from that meaning, they become perverse. The sad part was that I had never had these things so clearly laid out to me before. Never, in all my life growing up in conservative Christian circles. I soaked it in like I was starving, and so many things began to make sense. I don’t have time to discuss it at length, but you can easily find your own copy or a book on the subject online, and I would recommend that you do.

Anyway, this man said something that has stuck with me ever since. I’ll paraphrase it. He said:

“Our culture has been feeding from the bottom of the garbage can for a long time. But there’s only so long you can eat garbage before you get sick. And when that collective sickness, that nausea arrives, we must be ready to nourish them back to health with a better way.”

Even then, I was seeing the sickness, the nausea. And that concept filled me with hope. It’s ever been this way in history—the race to the gutter, the sickness, the rebuilding and the return to God.

Ever since then, I’ve comforted myself with this thought. But there are times when I begin to wonder if we’ll ever hit bottom with the truth of God’s Word intact in enough human souls to make a difference. Every time we hit a new low, I hear the rationalizations of fellow Christians instead of truth.

In the last six months, at least two high-profile, Federal-level Republican women have disgraced themselves sexually.

One, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, loudly calls herself a Christian and proclaims herself a “family values” Republican, going so far as to excoriate drag queen story hour and other mid-level provocations by progressives. While her divorce is still not finalized, she has been seen in a public venue groping her date and being groped in return.

The other, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, also a divorcee, joked about fornicating with her boyfriend at a prayer breakfast not long ago, going so far as to mention her pastor’s name. Her church declined to comment. According to their website, their approach to ministry is “unorthodox.”

Instead of expressing grief and shame over what these women have done to the name of Jesus, Christians can be found all over social media expressing an all-time low in Biblical discernment.

“He who is without sin among you, cast the first stone,” some fool says with a wagging finger.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m the only woman in the world who has never permitted herself to be groped by a date in the theater? Or maybe it’s just because my husband holds me in such high regard that he would never submit me to such a crass display in public because he knows some things are so precious and holy, that they should only be done in absolute privacy with zero cameras rolling. Also, the woman taken in adultery didn’t deny, obfuscate, make excuses for or gaslight the crowd about her sin until incontrovertible video footage forced an admission.

Then there’s the, “You guys don’t get it! We’re in a war here. We’re under attack and we need her conservative vote in Congress.”

Do you not understand that it’s this very moral rot that’s spreading through our culture like a fungus that started this war in the first place? When you look at it like that, Boebert and Mace are nothing more than double agents—shifting whichever way the wind blows for political gain.

Of course, I haven’t even touched the topic of hypocrisy which is a major issue here.

You know, when the gay marriage advocates told us that Christians had done more to devalue marriage than they, we should have listened and course corrected. Because they were right. Marriage is dragged through the mud every day by Christians, and I’m so weary of it.

To top off my discouragement for the day, I recently discovered that another Christian, Jeff Younger, was on Tim Poole’s podcast and advocated for surrogacy for young men who want children but are afraid of the risks of marriage. I give him 100 times more grace in my heart than either of the women mentioned above. This man’s life, marriage, and children have been viciously destroyed by his ex-wife enabled by an out-of-control family court…to trans his son against his will. She began this process when the little boy was a toddler. Not only that, but the courts have repeatedly tried to stop him from sharing this story to the public. I understand his reasoning behind this. I really do. But it’s still wrong. What’s discouraging is that he is giving this counsel to young men against the clear commands of Scripture. Surrogacy is out of bounds for Christians, full stop. Especially for unmarried people. We cannot, as Christians, begin to embrace sin as a means to avoid the suffering this evil culture will continually bring upon us.

You can watch the podcast here. You should be aware of the great risks men do take to marry and have children, however much I abhor the idea of surrogacy.

I know it hurts. I’m living here too. But don’t hide your light under a bushel. Don’t give place to sin for expediency’s sake. Some of us are scanning the darkened horizon looking for those little dots of lights to cheer us and encourage us on and they just keep going out.

When I was struggling so hard with doubts about my faith, whether God was real or not, whether the Bible was true or not, I prayed Psalm 69 through my own tears too many times to count.

“I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness; and my sins are not hid from thee. Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.”

I did not want to disgrace my God in the eyes of a watching world. It seems that many professed Christians have forgotten that anyone’s watching at all.

When will we reach the bottom? When will they finally all get sick and want to get well? When will they want to get well so much, they’re finally willing to give up what made them sick in the first place? I wish I knew.

So how do I end this without inducing depression in all of you?

I have a character in my book named Jessica. Thinking of her makes me smile. Odd, I guess, since I made her up in my head. But not really, because there are many Jessica’s in this world, quietly going about their lives, committed to radical obedience to God. In fact, Jessica is the only Christian character in the entire novel. She lives alone and utterly isolated in a world that is not only as post-Christian as ours is, but a totalitarian, surveillance state where her faith is against the law. She walks a tight rope. She looks for those little dots of light on the horizon, but they do not exist anymore, and in a moment of extreme desperation, trying to avoid the suffering this society will heap upon her, she commits a grave sin against God that brings dire consequences. She almost gives up on life, but God intervenes when a wicked man reminds her of who she is. I’ll just let her explain:

“I must hand this over to God.”

“How do you do that?”

“Well, by giving it to Him every time the anxiety creeps up. I have a lot of practice.”

“Do you talk to Him?”

“Yes.”

“What do you say?”

“Well, something like, ‘I am in your hands, and in your hands I am safe. Do with me what you will.’”

“But bad things have happened to you,” Shane observed.

“Yes,” she said

“So…?”

“How has he kept me safe?” she asked. “Is that what you’re wondering?”

“Well, yes.”

“It’s a different kind of safe than what most people mean. It’s a soul safety,” Jessica wrinkled up her face, trying to explain. “It’s a sort of…it means that I have Him and so I have everything. I can never lose that. And so, nothing else matters. Not even my own life.”

Shane squinted at her.

“I know it must be hard to understand,” Jessica said. “But the worst part of my life was just a few months ago. It was when I thought I’d lost Him. I thought I had lost all strength to believe. And then, Jacob of all people, reminded me that God had forgiven me. Even me.”

Her voice wavered and her eyes filled with unshed tears. She smiled.

“Then the sun came out again. And I knew that it didn’t matter what happened to me next. Nothing mattered. I was safe.”         

So, what can I say? Be of good cheer. In spite of the darkening skies, we know how this story ends. We’ve read the book. Keep walking in the light, as He is in the light.

And for God’s sake! Please stop voting and making excuses for morally bankrupt Republicans. God is certainly not dependent upon them to get His will done. And you are not greater than God.

God’s will will be done, with or without Lauren Boebert.   

That’s all for now. Until next time, folks…