Deliver Us From Evil

I don’t often write about religion or spiritual matters in this blog. But I’ve been thinking about the ending to the Lord’s Prayer a lot lately.

“Deliver Us From Evil.”

For the last four years, an evil man has been president of the United States. A man who is a racist. A bully. A man who has a serious problem with women. A man who is incapable of telling the truth. A man utterly lacking in empathy and humility. A man who makes every decision not in the best interests of our country, but in his own self-interest.

On top of all that, he’s an incompetent fool who never does his homework, doesn’t work hard, and is at least partially responsible for the deaths of 350,000 Americans.

So when I say my prayers every night, or to be completely honest, almost every night, I usually end with the Lord’s Prayer. And it has occurred to me often over these last 12 months, as we approached the Nov. 3 election, that when I was asking God to “deliver us from evil,” I was asking him to deliver us from Donald Trump.

I celebrated, like most Americans, when Joe Biden defeated him on Nov. 3. But it wasn’t over.

Trump has spent the last two months trying to overturn an election that he lost fairly, and decisively, insisting without any evidence that he won in a landslide and that the election was being stolen from him.

He has made one absurd, fraudulent claim after another. Claims that have been rebuked and rejected by over 90 judges—including many Republicans (several appointed by Trump), the Department of Justice, his own Attorney General, the Supreme Court, and election officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Arizona.

He’s flown Michigan election officials to the White House to pressure them not to certify the state’s election results. He called the Georgia Secretary of State and, in a truly stunning conversation, asked him to “recalculate” and “find” enough votes to overturn the election result in his favor.

And yesterday, in one of the most horrible moments in American history, he incited a mob to storm the nation’s Capitol. He told the mob his opponents were “bad people” and “enemies of the people.” He described his supporters as “warriors” and told them it was time to “stop fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back.” He accused his Vice-President, who refused to go along with his illegal and unconstitutional scheme to reject valid electors, a “coward.”

His insane and demented lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, exhorted the crowd to “have trial by combat.” His intelligence-challenged son, Donald Jr. , told Republicans who failed to support his coup attempt that “we’re coming for you, and we’re going to have a good time doing it.”

So the mob of armed, violent protestors marched to the Capitol and basically, took over and defaced one of the sacred symbols of our democracy. The rioters bashed in doors, smashed windows, fought with police, vandalized offices, and invaded the House and Senate chambers. Congressmen and staffers hid under desks or were rushed to safety. People were attacked. Blood was shed. People died.

It was hard to watch. It was shocking, frightening, and depressing.

This violent insurrection was fomented by the “law and order” president, who afterwards told the rioters that “we love you” and that they were “very special.”

This appalling assault on democracy is the natural result of electing a demagogue and enabling him for four years.

But within hours of one of the darkest moments in American history, two bright rays of hope broke through.

At about 4:00 am, Congress certified the electoral vote and Biden’s victory was confirmed. He will be sworn in as President on Jan. 20.

And the results of a special Senate election in Georgia were confirmed, giving Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock two critical wins.

The Georgia sweep means that both the House and Senate will be controlled by Democrats. The Senate will be tied 50-50, but Vice-President Kamala Harris will break any ties, so Democrats will control committees, as well as nominations and legislation brought to the Senate floor.

We can’t completely relax, because there’s no telling what the desperate, delusional and criminal Trump might do in his final two weeks.

But we are going to be delivered from evil on Jan. 20.

Prayers answered.