Making Excuses

And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?

Genesis 4:9

When caught in an infraction, our first human tendency is to make an excuse and/or to blame someone else. As parents we see this in our children and soon realize that they cannot make progress overcoming their mistakes without first learning how to admit they MADE a mistake. Good parents work to teach their children to accept responsibility and take ownership of their own behavior. This important skill is a part of basic honesty.

Our Father in Heaven also wants us to overcome our mistakes. We call this process repentance. We are taught that the first step in repentance is to admit that we have made a mistake. No further progress is possible as long as we make excuses and deny the need to change.

Life can be complicated. Sometimes there is a gap between what we want (or think we want) and what God knows is best for us. Living so that one’s beliefs and one’s actions are in harmony is called integrity. Most of us do not live lives of complete integrity. This causes us to either deny the gap between our professed beliefs and our actual life choices, or to minimize the significance of that gap. This is called rationalization.

We need to regain our political integrity

Those American Latter-day Saints who consider themselves to be Republicans have been in a difficult position for three years. The leader of their party is, to put it mildly, problematic. The problem has gone way beyond, shall we say, “quirks” in his personal behavior. He is publicly, and very visibly, erratic, unstable, unprincipled, obsessive, and irrational. (See source list below). His incompetence is increasingly dangerous to our country.

The question I am raising here is, “What are our Republican Latter-day Saint friends going to do about this situation?” So far all I have seen from them is denials or excuses. I keep waiting for them to stop rationalizing and rediscover their integrity. I fear I am losing hope.

Republicans created this disaster in their desire for power and gain at any cost. In 2016 they chose to ignore the fact that their proposed Emperor had no clothes and elected him anyway. It is now their responsibility to clean up the mess they have made.

It is past time for responsible Republicans (if there are any left) to reassert control over their party and begin to undo the damage they have done to our country. Don’t point fingers. Don’t say, “yes, but…” Just join with the Democrats and help save our country and it’s institutions from this incompetent narcissistic demagogue.

Please.

Sources: Repentance, Religion Resources Online.
Timothy Egan, “Mormons to the Rescue?” Opinion, The New York Times, October 11, 2019.
Peter Wehner, “Trump Is Not Well,” The Atlantic, September 9, 2019.
Sonam Sheth, “‘He’s losing his s—‘: Trump’s advisers are increasingly worried about his mental state following days of erratic behavior,” Business Insider, September 6, 2019.
Philip Rucker and Ashley Parker, “Trump’s lost summer: Aides claim victory, but others see incompetence and intolerance,” The Washington Post, September 1, 2019.
Elizabeth Baker, “My Evangelical Church Is Gaslighting Me, But I Refuse To Fall For It Anymore,” HuffPost, November 28, 2018.