Last time we looked at Jeremiah 5:28, which says, “[They] have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not seek justice.” While written about the leaders and people of Jeremiah’s time, these words seem strikingly applicable to our current administration. I listed what I considered some of those evil deeds to be: pardoning criminals right and left, openly pursuing vindication against his political enemies without just cause, clearly having something to hide with the Epstein files, rounding up immigrants without due process and vilifying those who dare to oppose it, blatantly enriching himself through business ventures while president without any regard for conflict of interest; attacking boats and killing people as adversaries of war without any clear justification that we were at war; kidnapping and charging President Maduro of Venezuela in a way that even many of our allies regard as a violation of international law; making further threats of aggression against Canada, Greenland, and Cuba. With this backdrop, our text for today asks, “Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush” (Jer. 8:12). One of the most remarkable things about President Trump is that he feels no shame for his detestable conduct. Instead of expressing regret or apologizing, he denies the accusations, downplays his actions, doubles down on his lies, and / or deflects blame to others. As an example of denying his actions, when the New York Times published the lewd drawing that Mr. Trump sent to Jerry Epstein, he denied having drawn it. As an example of downplaying his actions, he excused his groping comments caught on tape as locker room talk. He should have been ashamed of such talk, but he downplayed it and tried to make it sound normal. An example of doubling down on his lies is his repeated insistence that the 2020 election was stolen from him. He should have been ashamed of his actions on January 6th and should have apologized to Vice-President Pence and the members of Congress for what they went through. Instead, he doubled down on criticizing Mr. Pence and exonerated the perpetrators of the violence. Regarding deflecting blame, there are many examples, as Mr. Trump does it repeatedly. To deflect suspicion away from him regarding the Epstein affair, he has tried to shift the focus to Bill Clinton. To deflect blame away from his guilt in falsifying records in the Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen case, he repeatedly attacked his accusers. To deflect blame away from the shooting of Rene Good in Minneapolis and to deflect anger against his administration for their aggressive use of ICE to round up immigrants, he accused the victim, initiating a smear campaign against her. He does such things continually. Instead of being ashamed of his actions or those of his administration, he accuses the victims or accusers, usually under false pretenses, and does so relentlessly. Is he ashamed of his detestable conduct? No, he has no shame at all; he does not even know how to blush.
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has found these tactics to work with his support base, including evangelical Christians, who ought to be ashamed of putting a man in office who does such things, but instead uncritically accept his denials and deflections and double down on affirming and repeating the Trump-approved narrative. As Christians we must be more discerning than this lest we share culpability with him for his blatant misdeeds.
As in Jeremiah 5:28, the indictment in Jeremiah 8:12 (“they have no shame at all”) is accompanied by a warning: “So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the Lord.” Unless there is repentance, the judgment is sure to come. It is just a matter of when.
American Christians for Truth and Justice 