Try a Little Tenderness

I am just going to jump right in today, because if I am completely honest, I have a lot of questions that I am not sure if anyone is willing to answer or even discuss, or at least not in public. So here it goes, I apologize for the small bit of politics that will get me to my questions…

The President has made it 100 days (or has it been months?) and if he was going for record breaking numbers, which I think we know he absolutely loves BIG, he seems to very proud and at ease with his agenda. I, of course assume this because if he was concerned, I wouldn’t think his administration would encourage a rally when he has already been elected into office. Just saying. How about some numbers?

• 214 executive orders (surpassing Roosevelt’s record of 99 orders in 100 days)
• 82% in Southwestern border crossings
• 21 cabinet positions filled (with thousands of lower positions remaining unfilled)
• Oval office remodel – GOLD
• 121,000+ federal workers have been fired or “targeted” for firings. Fact: the number of federal workers has been steady and remained around 2 million for decades. The Clinton administration shrank the federal workforce by more than 400,000 over 7 years, but in the years since the number of contractors has grown.
  • I honestly had lost count of how many departments and agencies had been affected by these cuts, so my curious brain of mine had to go and find out: (Department or Agency/% of workforce fired/#of people fired)
  • Agency for International Development 100%= 10,000
  • HUD Community planning and Development 83.3% = 780
  • Education 51.2%=2,100
  • Center for Disease Control and Prevention 24.6% = at least 3,150
  • Federal Food and Drug Administration 17.2%=3,589
  • Veterans Affairs 14.5% targeted= 70,000
  • Social Security Administration 12.3% =7,000
  • National Institutes of Health 10.9% =2,300
  • Energy 10.4% =1,800
  • Forest Service 8.7%=3,400
  • Internal Revenue Service 7.4%=7,315
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 6.4%=800 (just in time for hurricane season)
  • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau 5.8%=100
  • Bureau of Fiscal Services 5.1%=169
  • Centers for Medicare and Medicaid 4.6%=300
  • National Park Service 4.6%=1,000
  • Small Business Administration 3.9%=304
  • Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency 3.8%=130
  • General Services Administration 3.2%=366
  • Bureau of engraving and printing 2.5%=48
  • Federal Department Insurance Corporation 2.4%=156
  • Science and Technology Directorate 2.3%=10
  • Office of Comptroller of Currency 2%=73
  • Labor 1.2%=170
  • Federal Aviation Administration 0.9%=400
  • Defense 0.8%=5,000
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (AKA: FEMA) 0.8%=200
  • Mint 0.5%=8
  • Transportation Security Administration 0.4%=243

For my fellow North Carolinians, our top 10 federal worker jobs are: Nurses, Miscellaneous administration and program, Information technology management, Medical Support Assistance, Medical Officer, Management and Program Analysis, Miscellaneous clerk and assistant, Human Resources management, Veterans claims examining, and Logistics management.

Yes, these are things he promised he would do. And yes he received the majority vote. He is our president. And I am just as much guilty of sin as the next person. (although he says he never has made a mistake- which is hard to swallow) So this is not me questioning anyones faith or beliefs or statements of faith, it’s me asking myself these questions too!!!

There are many people surrounding him that state they are Christians, Christ followers, or are of a certain church denomination. There are congressmen and women and other elected officials that make this same statement. However, how they conduct themselves is at the heart of my concern. I understand politics and religion is hard to balance- it’s hard to balance just on a blog, so I can only imagine!

This is so much bigger than government officials, I am seeing it more and more in public figures and those who I have considered faith teachers and authors, and even in acquaintances.

Some things that keep playing in my head: care for the sojourner/foreigner, take up the cause of widow, care for the orphan, have mercy, do justice, speak about these things while coming and going-rising and lying down-pass them on from generation to generation, close to the brokenhearted, no spirit of fear but sound mind… if you asked me the Scripture references of these I would have to look them up. However, I know they are there and have been planted in me to remind me of the way of Jesus, the example he has given us, and the one we must follow.

I’ll admit that this morning I got that feeling of wanting to flip tables when a show was reporting on how many dogs and cats had been “rescued” and “adopted” this past year. I cringe when these words are used for animals, but the numbers compared to how many children are waiting for a home… I don’t even have a decent word for it- absolutely positively inexcusable! And then I start thinking, “well what am I doing to help?” Today, I am encouraging you to not refer to pets as adopted, please! Rescued is fine, and I am sure some may say I am being dramatic, but I don’t think you would want your child to be questioning if they are of the same value to the world as your dog or cat.

Which leads me to how are we being perceived as believers (or even just americans) when we have bragged all these years as a nation of cultures, and suddenly no freedom of speech or due process for law abiding immigrants, and those who have committed crimes- in the US we have due process. Don’t get me started on deporting a 4-year old with cancer, who already was likely to be the victim of cuts in funding for childhood cancer research. How is this welcoming the foreigners who, most all, are escaping horrible circumstances?

Are we just going to shrug off that medical research is being shut down? This includes medicines and therapies in the midst of trials to be approved – including Alzheimer’s, cancers, childhood cancers, and that’s just the beginning. The group responsible for researching the strains of flu for the next season, they have been cleared out. Vaccine research and intelligence for this coming fall/winter doesn’t look good. Caring for one another and for the most vulnerable?

If you just take a look at the departments and agencies above, you will see there will be casualties- life, relationships, economic, faith, medical, emotional, and the list goes on. If our leaders cannot have the courage to soften their facial expressions, have the integrity to speak up, respectfully take turns speaking and hearing, instead of talking over one another or shouting- maybe just maybe we can do these things, what do you say?

The unfortunate part of these first 100 days is that almost every person in the US is going to be affected by them. We all are going to be fighting our own battles, some may be visible and some may be invisible.

I feel as if I have rambled today, but my bottom line question is this: if our desire is Jesus, can we try a little more tenderness? Ask him to open our eyes to things that may be unseen and soften our expressions and deepen our hearts for those around us?

Life book of the week: The Story of the Doughnut, by Pat Miller