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Seattle, the city once known as home to Bill Boeing, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos---world leaders in airplanes, internet, and online retail, is now best known as the home of CHOP. And confused city leadership.
Minneapolis, once known for being the city from which Billy Graham launched his ministry, and home to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association for more than half a century, is now known for bowing to rioters, abolishing the police department and the hypocrisy of city leaders.
Why is the tail wagging the dog?
Be informed, not misled.
Seattle. The Emerald City?
Last Friday, city crews showed up in the "country" of "CHOP" located on Capitol Hill in the city of Seattle at 6 AM with the intention of removing the rioters who have declared it independent of the city and state for the past number of weeks.
City crews, with trucks, backhoes, and other heavy equipment, were met with significant resistance by the "citizens"---a.k.a. rioters---who became agitated and aggressive toward the guys from the city.
By 8 AM, the city crews had left the area without even removing the barriers that serve as a border wall around the newly created country of CHOP.
The mayor's spokesperson told Fox News the plan is to clean up the mess that has existed for weeks.
And their plan includes reasoning and bribing the residents of CHOP causing them to leave peacefully.
The city says it plans to, beginning today, "offer social services to protesters to encourage those living overnight...to begin leaving the area or, if "experiencing homelessness, to take an offer for shelter."
However, KING 5 TV says that according to David Lewis, one of the CHOP organizers, protesters are holding out on allowing the barriers to be removed, because "we require that our demands are met."
Mayor Jenny Durkan, who has referred to the illegal seizure of 6 Seattle City blocks, as a "festival" and a "summer of love," said over the weekend, "Safety is the City's first priority, and planning is ongoing for how to safely transition the Capitol Hill area."
The "CHOPites" have been rioting for weeks, demanding the CHOP zone be a "cop-free" zone while driving the police from their East Precinct building resulting in three separate shootings last week that killed one and injured several others.
When the police responded to a 911 call to come into the area to pick up one of the wounded, resident rioters threw rocks and bottles at the police driving them back from the critically wounded person, who later died.
In the 1980s, tourism officials nicknamed Seattle "The Emerald City" because it lies between two beautiful bodies of water---Puget Sound on the west and Lake Washington on the east.
Today it more resembles the Emerald City that a tornado lifted Dorothy Gale from Lucas, Kansas to--- in the faraway land of Oz. Where her arrival sets in motion a prophecy about a disastrous event known as The Beast Forever and strikes fear into the land's almighty ruler, the Wizard. On her quest to meet the Wizard in Emerald City, Dorothy encounters witches, an amnesiac soldier, a sheltered little boy, and many more mysterious beings who will ultimately shape the future of Oz and Dorothy's place in it.
In Seattle, the tail is wagging the dog.
Minneapolis. The home of hope has become the home of hypocrisy.
Minneapolis, the place where the most famous Christian evangelist of all time launched his ministry---the place where the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was founded and located for more than 50 years, is best known today as the place where George Floyd was murdered by a policeman.
The city that launched the Billy Graham ministry of hope to the world has become a place of hypocrisy.
The killing of George Floyd in the custody of a policeman is unthinkable, inexcusable, and certainly unacceptable.
But is that a reason to abandon reason?
The Minneapolis City Council voted unanimously to adopt a resolution officially committing to replacing the police department with a "community safety" model.
Minneapolis TV 9 is reporting that following the unanimous vote of the Council, council members then hired a private police force to provide the council members personal protection at city expense.
Private security has cost the city $63,000 over the past 3 weeks.
It seems terribly hypocritical to abolish the police department on the one hand---taking away deserved protection for the public, while on the other hand hiring a private police force at city expense for those who abolished the taxpayer-funded police force.
When asked what specific threats had been made against the council members---there were none.
And no one knows who authorized the expenditures.
In Minneapolis, the tail is wagging the dog.
This is a snapshot of the culture today. Everyone is desperately looking for answers to a culture that is burning, and a virus that is resurging, and an answer sheet that is essentially blank.
I've previously written in this Faith and Freedom Daily column some of the ways in which we have seen domestic terrorists seize control of massive demonstrations across the country, successfully taking control of not only the demonstrations but of panicked elected leaders who are without any real direction as to how to navigate the storms of our times---and deal with the demands of the domestic terrorists.
The takeaway
The phrase "the tail wagging the dog" is an American political idiom that dates back to at least the 1870s ---probably earlier.
The meaning is clear. The dog is supposed to be smarter than its tail. But often it's not.
These are some of those times.
The Prophet Amos wrote something several thousand years ago that is critically important to our times.
He said (8:11-12):
"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, And from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but shall not find it."
There is a famine of Truth in our country.
On July 1, 1824, the great preacher and former lawyer Charles Finny was ordained to the ministry by the Presbyterian Church. Later he began an almost continuous revival in New York City as minister of the Second Free Presbyterian Church.
On December 4, 1873, he preached a sermon titled, "The Decay of Conscience." Toward his conclusion he said this:
Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.
If the Christian pulpit will lead with the proclamation of the Word of God, the cultural tail will not wag the dog. If the pulpit seeks first acceptance and relevance, the cultural tail will continue to wag the dog.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.