Blog: A Sermon Critique: Notes on a Gary Hamrick sermon

15 September 2024

The Gary Hamrick sermon 8 Sept 2024

This sermon is fairly long and there is lots to opine on. I put headings so you can jump around. I was sent this by a Christian I have disagreed with many times on Facebook in the past. I am not sure why she sent this to me, but I suspect it is to explain her view on the current political situation and what she thinks is important in the current presidential race between Harris and Trump. I will go through in order and try to put the approximate time stamp.

Separation of church and state.

Hamrick starts with his ideas on the separation of church and state. The reason, it seems, is because he makes an annual political sermon, and someone felt this violated the separation issue and sued him. They lost, he says. So, he goes into why there should be no separation of church and state; arguing that the idea is not in the constitution but was coined in a personal letter by Thomas Jefferson. This the from the letter Hamrick refers to, “…I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.” It seems disingenuous to say the idea does not exist in the constitution based on the letter where Jefferson quotes the constitution while coining the phrase. The rub is the fact churches are tax exempt. The law prohibits churches from participating in and lobbying for political purposes. You can read about this on the IRS website article titled, “Charities, Churches and Politics”. The courts have upheld the idea that having tax exempt status (churches and charities) is a conflict of interest and an unfair advantage in political lobbying so they cannot do it. Hamrick points out that this was from 1954. The ban does not mean churches cannot speak about issues. In fact, Hamrick balances his comments throughout to mostly emphasize issues he thinks are important and also admits everyone knows who he thinks is the only candidate for those issues. The issues are all Republican talking points, so I use ‘balances’ in a false equivalency way here.

Several things to say on the argument itself. ‘The separation of church and state does not exist because it is not in the constitution’ argument. It shows a lack of understanding of the way humans communicate. We use shorthand all the time to make our points. I don’t know anyone who writes facial tissue on their shopping list, they write Kleenex. The supreme court in the Dobbs decision used this same argument. Abortion (in the form of privacy) is not in the constitution so you cannot have a law allowing it. As someone said, girls don’t exist in the constitution so you cannot allow them autonomy in their healthcare. Of course, by this reasoning the government cannot regulate planes, trains, cars, phones, etc. etc. because those would all be unconstitutional, not being mentioned in the constitution. But there is a more entertaining result of such an argument: Since the word trinity is not in the Bible the trinity cannot exist. In fine, the argument is meaningless.

My view on the separation of church and state

 There is no reason Christians should not run for public office, there is no reason they cannot have opinions on political issues. The line between that and violating the IRS rules can be tricky of course. The lines concerning separation of church and state can, and have, been tricky all my life. There has always been prayer in school, nothing is stopping students or teachers from praying. I remember I used to hate the ACLU as a bunch of liberal hacks with a big agenda until I found out they argued a case while I was in college for the right of a student group to have a prayer meeting in an empty classroom in a school. There were limits to what schools can and cannot do, they cannot promote it, a teacher cannot be involved, that implies official sanction and would violate church and state separation. I have no problem with these lines. But one must remember the Muslim group, to name only one, should have the same opportunity.

Hamrick’s Point 1: God Uses Flawed Sinful People Ca 19.35 minutes

I am always stunned speechless (me being speechless is hard to believe I know) by this oft used argument to support Trump. This is a complete dereliction of Christian, human, and societal responsibilities. On the face of it, it goes without saying. Christian philosophy believes everyone is a flawed sinful human being, if we were not, then why would Christ have died? So there is no one else for God to use but flawed sinful people. But there is more here than that. There is an arrogance in public Christianity today that is quick to decide what God wants on very little evidence and most of that very selective and sketchy. There is an amazing arrogance in Christianity today that is so quick to call ‘them’ evil and themselves righteous for their ideas and to further their power. They should know by reading their Bibles that this kind of arrogance is frowned upon at every level.

The usual list comes up, David, Samson, Nebuchadnezzar, etc. An apple and orange problem here. One, there was no democracy, so the people had not choice of these leaders. Two, God used these men, these men surely did bad things, but in the end, they repented of them (well most of them did). Three, how long does the list of bad things have to be until one wonders whether God is using them or not. Four, who are we to think we are helping God do his will (I remember in the 80’s people suggesting we should blow up the wailing wall so that Christ would return, as if, what we did, would cause Christ to return). Five, since we really do not know what God’s plan is, could it be God is using Trump to show the church how far off his teachings they are? Just like he used Nebuchadnezzar and others in the Bible. Six, there are several verses in the Bible that speak of what leaders should be like. The easiest of these is 1 Timothy 3: 1-13

Leadership in the Church

1-7 If anyone wants to provide leadership in the church, good! But there are preconditions: A leader must be well-thought-of, committed to his wife, cool and collected, accessible, and hospitable. He must know what he’s talking about, not be overfond of wine, not pushy but gentle, not thin-skinned, not money-hungry. He must handle his own affairs well, attentive to his own children and having their respect. For if someone is unable to handle his own affairs, how can he take care of God’s church? He must not be a new believer, lest the position go to his head and the Devil trip him up. Outsiders must think well of him, or else the Devil will figure out a way to lure him into his trap.

8-13 The same goes for those who want to be servants in the church: serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it. They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things. Let them prove themselves first. If they show they can do it, take them on. No exceptions are to be made for women—same qualifications: serious, dependable, not sharp-tongued, not overfond of wine. Servants in the church are to be committed to their spouses, attentive to their own children, and diligent in looking after their own affairs. Those who do this servant work will come to be highly respected, a real credit to this Jesus-faith.

Obviously, this is talking about leadership in the church, but is there a difference in who should lead? Should not Christians shoot for the higher standard to reflect their belief in Jesus and the teachings of the Bible? Supporting Trump on God-uses-sinful-people grounds makes Christianity a laughingstock and shows Christians to be a group with no morals when it comes to power politics. I find this inexpressibly sad for Christianity and more so the believers I know who do this. I can hear it now, ‘but we are not dependant on what the world thinks’, and this is true—BUT TO A HIGHER CALLING, NOT A LOWER ONE. (Please pardon the yelling.)

This brings me to one of my pet peeves, Christians who are selective about their Bible usage.  One of the problems with Christianity is the fact they have the Bible to tell them how they should act. This means they are held to a higher standard. But what normally happens is they become very selective about what they choose to believe or quote from the Bible. For instance, homosexuality is wrong in the Bible but so is adultery, stealing, even thinking of lusting over your neighbor’s wife. These issues are ignored often but the anti-gay lines are shouted from the roof tops. God uses flawed people is touted to make Trump acceptable but the Timothy guidelines for leadership are ignored or, more often, defined down to such a fine point of application as to be useless.  Like saying we don’t want our pastor to be an embezzler because the Bible says so, but it is fine to have the head of the red cross be one. Add in any crime or sin to this sentence and it becomes a ridiculous double standard. The classic example is Jerry Falwell Jr. who likes watching his wife have sex with other men. But he is a leader in the Christian Trumpism movement. What must his father think now while turning in his grave, he founded the moral majority because Jimmy Carter did an interview in Playboy magazine. Where is the church now in its selectivity. Sad, so incredibly sad.

The perfect argument Ca 22.22 minutes:

It is true we should not let imperfection stop attempts at improvement. But should this be applied to Trump? The problem I have is on several levels. Trump is the antithesis of Jesus. Justifying his sins to gain power (or policy if you think that is all that is being sought) is not the way Jesus would ever do it. Jesus called out the sins of those who manipulated the faith to gain wealth and power, so why has this idea stopped working in American Christianity today? Jesus called for people to act righteously and died because he did not call upon his power. Now churches are completely willing to sacrifice morals, the poor, and the outsider, and considering Trump’s project 2025 and his own words, they will sacrifice democracy itself to gain power.  

Abortion Ca 26.53 minutes

Hamrick says that this is a Harris policy ‘killing babies in the ninth month’. Trump worship is very hard on personal integrity. This statement that Trump and Republicans constantly repeat is a lie. Not only does no one promote this ridiculous idea but it is illegal in all fifty states. But this brings up abortion which seems to be the only object of supporting Trump the way Hamrick talks. Many things to say on this. It is really easy to make laws against things that one will never experience oneself. Most women who have abortions are poor. They cannot afford healthcare, they cannot give their children a good life in a society that ignores, blames, and shuns them. Trump Republicans wont even let schools offer birth control. They scream communism if anyone supports any sort of social safety net. Republicans talk of the poor like they are a parasite on society. Since abortion is not in the Bible, although it does speak of causing someone to miscarry, it is amazing to me that this issue overrides all that Jesus says about forgiveness, caring for the poor, helping the wounded and downtrodden. This selectivity, especially since most of the men deciding these things can afford healthcare and contraception, is sickening to me. The vast majority of Americans, both Republicans and Democrats believe there should be some access to abortion. They universally agree on the idea for rape and incest. But this is not the Trump project 2025 stance. The American people have voted to support abortion rights to some extent in every election since Dobbs in Republican and Democratically run states. So why then do Christians support the total ban? Forcing women to have babies forcing doctors to release women’s personal files to the government, registering one’s period, this is what Christians think is ok?

Hamrick’s Point 2, Vote Politics Over Personality Ca 27.04 minutes

Ok, fine. This is not the way people choose candidates, but I agree they probably should. The classic is described in Fahrenheit 451. The candidates are William Hogue and Jordan Noble, you can guess which one always wins.

Mrs. Bowles finishing line, “Fat, too, and didn’t dress to hide it. No wonder the landslide was for Winston Noble. Even their names helped. Compare Winston Noble to Hubert Hoag for ten seconds and you can almost figure the results.”  “Damn it!” cried Montag. “What do you know about Hoag and Noble!”

The descriptions in the passage are brilliant. Begs the question, what are Trump’s policies? Have you read Trump’s project 2025 yet? Some scary stuff in it.

So let’s compare a few policies.

Abortion

Trump – Even Hamrick says Trump is not against abortion. In fact, Trump changes his mind every few minutes, often within the same sentence. Trump’s project 2025 is for a national abortion ban with no exceptions.

Harris – She believes that abortion should be available for women and their doctors to decide.

The Bible – Has no comment on abortion. There is sanctity of life in the Bible but the very concept of abortion in the modern sense is not there. As to who should be making decisions for one’s own life, Romans 14:10-13 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Immigration

Trump – He wants to remove 10 million brown people from the country. The other day he said they would go house to house, he also upped the number to 20 million. You know this will be violent and create riots as people try to stop this racist deportation. If they are as bad at keeping paperwork as they were in the Trump administration when they tore children from their families and shipped them around the country without records it does not bode well. And where would they put them? I suspect they will drop them on the other side of the border and then shoot them when they try to come back (Trump already suggested while President that they should shoot immigrants at the border).

Harris – She has implemented a new border control system that was stricter than previous systems. Will it work? I do know she believes that immigrants should have the chance to apply for green cards; that asylum should be available as is required by law; that immigrant, as is consistent with the American way, are good for the society overall as they bring in new ideas; she believes that families should be kept together as much as possible.

The Bible – Leviticus 19:34 The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. Zechariah 7:9-10 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. Romans 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. Let mutual love continue. Hebrews 13:1-3 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.

Israel

Trump – Trump loves dictators and would give a free hand to Netanyahu. He also uses the word Palestinian as a racist put down. He also supports people who are antisemitic like Kanye West and Nick Fuentes who both had lunch with him, and his advisor Stephen Miller, though not antisemitic, does retweet their material and is racist.

Harris – She is a supporter of Israel but does not believe that genocide of Palestinians is right. I suspect she would pressure Netanyahu to stop this policy. She believes in a two-state solution.

The Bible – There are many verses that support Israel as a people and that their land was given to them by God and also many that say the land would be taken from them if they were unrighteous (Nebuchadnezzar strikes again).

Biological sex

Trump – His policy is all about hating these people, banning them, treating them like degenerates, and accusing them of horrendous crimes without any proof. Fearmongering is his policy here.

Harris – Her policy is to offer medical and psychological help to people struggling with their identity in a binary society. She would choose compassion, not hate.

The Bible – See the care for the strangers verses above. Even Jesus recognizes that there is more than one born gender: Mathew 19:11- 12 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”

Family

Trump – He has no policy per se on family. He certainly does not live like he cares at all about family in any personal sense. Trump’s Project 2025 claims to want traditional families which is really vague. I assume the party uses a ‘father knows best’ version of family. Wife barefoot and pregnant at home and the man working and making all the decisions.

Harris – Harris has proposed child tax credits, an expansion of the affordable care act with hints of universal health care. She has a policy to increase the income of the middle class, create social safety nets, and help remove educational debt all in an effort to help families of all types and persuasions.

The Bible – Colossians 3:18–21 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them. Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” Ephesians 5:22-35 concerns wives submitting to their husbands and husband sacrificing themselves for their wives as Christ sacrificed himself for the church.

Voting as a duty

Trump – Republican policy is to limit voting rights. Trump’s project 2025, would add all kinds of limitations on access to the voting booth. Trump constantly claims, without any proof, that all elections in which he loses are corrupt—in his derangement he even says this in elections he won and elections that have not happened yet. There is no proof of this on any scale that would matter at all, and Republicans have lost all sixty lawsuits by the Trump administration in 2020 to prove the fake election idea. Republicans continue to block voting and make it harder for the poor and minorities to vote.

Harris – Would make voting easier.

Hamrick on Appointing judges

Appointing judges was caused by Mitch McConnell denying Obama his constitutional rights. Obviously, like most people, he does not know how the appointment of judges works. Do judges ‘rule in righteousness’ as he says? Currently the conservative justices on the Supreme Court are corrupted by money from people with conservative causes before the court. Justice Thomas has received 4 million dollars in gifts of various kinds from conservative people who have and have had issues before the court—where is the righteousness of this? Of course, when the issue is power and not constitutional compliance, and the end justifies the means, this is ok. But is it a Christian virtue that the end justifies the means?

Border security Ca 29.55 minutes

Acts 17:26, I find this really funny, since Paul mentions that God created borders it is ok to be anti-immigration. Contrary to all the teachings about caring for the stranger–right. And to move on, since Trump forced the house Republicans to vote against the bipartisan border bill that was the strongest bill in decades Hamrick is blowing smoke. Trump killed this bill. But there is more to this story, have you ever noticed that farmers never argue against immigration? It is because our food is picked by them and without their cheap labor the cost of food would go higher than anyone can imagine.

But here is his real issue about immigration. He believes the Democrats want to have all these illegal people in so they can become citizens and create a ‘voting bloc’. This is not true. Most of the immigrants coming across are running from horrible situations. One can, of course, not care about these other countries and their people which is Trump Republican policy now. Personally, the border problem is not a big issue to me. The ‘national security’ argument is a myth. Immigrants have a lower crime rate the white Americans. Most governments argue for immigration to increase the tax base to pay for services that benefit all people (at least that is true of all the other countries in the world because they have universal health care for their people). The logic of this is suspect to me. It is related to the fact developed countries are not having enough babies to keep the tax base high enough. Of course, with Trump’s project 2025 policy this will be less of a problem because women will be forced to carry babies that they would normally not. Except these babies will be poor and primarily minority people who would be the very voting bloc Republicans are afraid of.

The use of ‘border’ in acts 17 is not what he is implying here. The irony of his statement is the chapter has paul walking all over the place and speaking to the immigrants as well as the locals. Border in this usage means areas in which they live, not borders in the nation state sense we use them today. One of the things Republicans seem to not get is they could actually propose policy that the majority of the American people want, then they could effect change without hating the immigrant or hindering voting. But this does not occur to them.

Israel Ca 32.12 minutes

For the record, Netanyahu is a criminal under many criminal indictments (like Trump—except Trump has been convicted of some of the crimes charged). The war with Gaza was a failure of his own making and he keeps it going to stay in office. Up to the election of him the Palestinians had rights, jobs, and education within Israel. They were coexisting as best they ever have in the several thousand years of bad blood between them.

Religious liberty Ca 33.39 minutes

He makes some ludicrous statements: Doctors are not forced to perform abortions; cake makers are not forced to make cakes for gay marriages. Back to the separation of church and state. America was designed to not establish any religion. All the statements Hamrick makes can be true in America, but, with Trump, who believes there should be a religious test for entry into the country, who has already demonized and banned Muslims, will not support the constitutions ban on the government establishing a religion. Trump has already said he would do away with the constitution so then he gets to establish a religion. But which one? I am all for religious freedom, I also support my friends who are atheists. I am all for people not making cakes for gay weddings although it is a stupid idea for any retail company to turn away paying customers.

And how does abortion top all other issues in the Bible? Caring for the poor, being an example,

Biological sex Ca 35.18 minutes

Hamrick needs to talk to doctors more and he will learn that is it very common for babies to be born without two genders but a combination of physical parts. Even Jesus mentions this in Mathew 19:11- 12 as mentioned above.  The fact that people use binary language does not mean there is no ‘Ish’ option in reality. And why do you care what less than 5% of the population struggle with? Why hate these people who are struggling to find a place in a binary society when they are not binary? Could it be the ‘beautiful design god created them to be’ is actually the more complicated option? Just because the men who wrote the Bible did not have words for the ‘Ish’ option does that mean that God did not have that option. Is God limited by our simplistic limitations? Who are we to decide that God could not do that just because they did not have the expression three thousand years ago? ‘They are coming after your children’ the old saw returns again and again. I remember it in the 80’s as an argument against preschool. Now it is being used to eliminate the Department of Education and stop funding public schools. The goal? Only rich people get educated.

Family Ca 37.24 minutes  

Life Ca 38.19 minutes abortion

Interesting he actually admits that Trump is not against abortion. The problem of course is the Republicans have gotten their way by overturning Roe and are losing elections all over the country because of it. So they are running away. Hamrick lies about Harris’s position of course. Another misstatement, the mobile clinic at the DNC offered vasectomies and abortion pills. https://www.npr.org/2024/08/20/nx-s1-5081386/planned-parenthood-mobile-clinic-abortion-vasectomies-dnc From vasectomies to abortion pills, Planned Parenthood sets up mobile clinic near DNC (Ca 42.02 minutes) He states, ‘cannot be trusted to govern the born’ but Republicans abandon the babies they force to be born, so how is this better?

Voting is a duty Ca 42.21 minutes

This should be true. (Ca 48 minutes) Bonhoeffer, it is ironic he uses this story about Bonhoeffer since he was against the dictator, Hitler, and saw it coming. Bonhoeffer saw the cruelty, hate, racism, of the Hitler regime. He died to defy it. But Hamrick support Trump’s version of the same. He does not hear the dictator Trump and his project 2025 that will remove peoples’ rights in the false name of righteousness.  

The title of this sermon is The Election Day Sermon, Unite for the Soul of America. What is the soul of America? In Harnick’s view it seems that America is supposed to promote his agenda for the country. This is primarily about abortion. There is no mention of the women that die getting abortions when they are illegal in a country. There is no mention of the children born and the life they would lead after they were born. There is no mention of the poor, who are the primary receivers of abortions and there is no mention of the biblical call to help the poor or the stranger. There is a call to follow all the Trump Republican talking points: get rid of the immigrant because they may vote against Trump, stack the court with Trump judges so they will rule for an undefined righteous agenda that is actually against the poor that Jesus were keen to help.

The soul of America used to be help people and accept people. Not this Christian Pastor.