John Mayer’s 2006 CD Continuum includes a song titled Stop This Train.  The chorus is in boldface below:

“Stop this train”

This year has been a steady onslaught of chaos … a deeply divided nation; the Trump presidency; Russian meddling; travel bans; North Korean nukes; healthcare reform; terrorists attacks in Europe; white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA; western wildfires; Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria; earthquakes in Mexico; Equifax hacked; tax reform; NFL player protests, one of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history in Las Vegas on Monday … and we still have three months left in 2017.

“I wanna get off and go home again”

The world feels truly unsafe as if we’re teetering on a precipice and becoming more unbalanced with each catastrophic event.  The assaults on our peace of mind and sense of security just keep coming like relentless waves in a raging storm threatening to drown us in a dark sea.

“I can’t take this speed it’s moving in”

We don’t want to give in to fear, but there seems to be no relief in sight.  The impending sense of dread is palpable.  There is a collective reluctance to say, “This is overwhelming,” as if doing so draws a line in the sand that merely taunts the world to step across and prove how powerless we really are.

“I know I can’t”

On Monday morning, President Trump called the shooting in Las Vegas “an act of pure evil.”  On that point, he and I could not agree more; I would even call it demonic possession.

‘Cause now I see I’ll never stop this train”

The president can’t stop it.  I can’t stop it.  None of us can.

Major tragedies, once measured in generations, are now monthly occurrences.  Rare events that seemed unimaginable decades ago, have mutated into mile markers on the highway to oblivion.

In the president’s address to the nation on Monday, he also stated:

Scripture teaches us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.  We seek comfort in those words, for we know that God lives in the hearts of those who grieve.

I appreciate the sentiment but not the watered-down “Scripture.”  We [may] seek comfort in those words,” but it’s not an accurate interpretation of their promise.

Psalm 34:18 reads: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”  That sounds good, but if you read the verses on either side of that one, it’s clear the psalmist is speaking about the “righteous,” that is, those who declare God as their Lord and endeavor to keep His commandments … and that’s not everyone:

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles,
but the Lord delivers him from them all;

And, as for “God lives in the hearts of those who grieve,” that verse is probably Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Again, that describes Christians.  We should expect better from an administration that claims to represent us.

To be certain, God loves and blesses believers and non-believers alike (if He didn’t care for the latter, I wouldn’t be the former).  My plain interpretation of those verses is not an attempt to redirect or limit God’s love or grace, or to impose my will on His.  I fully accept that His ways are unknowable and His thoughts are higher than mine (Isaiah 55:8-9; Romans 11:33).

What I vehemently reject is the false equivalency of believers and non-believers – as if every biblical promise applies to both – which would render Christianity meaningless.  That’s a wicked lie intended only to deceive non-believers about their need for salvation and to nullify any meaningful commitment to Christ.

The distinction is profoundly important, and it matters here because that portion of the speech undoubtedly received input from the president’s spiritual advisor Paula White, the White House’s prosperity-theologian-in-chief, who recently claimed the president is “100% Christian” and that opposing Trump is the same as opposing God.  Now that’s something that really should keep you up at night….

I guess with that kind of authority you can interpret the Bible however you please, even with one eye closed.  Such deception is indeed the cornerstone of the prosperity gospel, which makes the bogus claim that greater faith is rewarded with physical health and material wealth.

That clearly explains Trump’s lavish lifestyle (much sarcasm intended), but utterly fails to explain the millions of genuine believers living in Third-World poverty.  A recent New York Times editorial blasted Joel Osteen (arguably the most famous huckster of the prosperity gospel) for his apparent unwillingness to open the doors of his megachurch to fellow Houstonians during Hurricane Harvey.

Belief drives behavior, and a little scriptural distortion can do a lot of damage.  That’s why committed Christians are deeply concerned about biblical details – not to be callously exclusive, but to be assuredly inclusive.

We’re all hurting right now, and I pray we feel safe again.  But when the president tells “White” lies in the name of God, it only makes matters worse.