Jack Williams: Easter reflections and Governor Robert Bentley
I am sitting at my computer on the Saturday of Easter weekend thinking about the past week in Alabama politics and in the life of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley. This is of course the day after Good Friday, the day we, as Christians, celebrate Christ dying for all of our sins, the veil in the Temple being torn in to giving man direct access to God. Tomorrow is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the grave, His victory over sin, over death and over Satan. Last Sunday the church celebrated Palm Sunday remembering Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the adoration of thousands. On Friday those who celebrated his entry and had hailed him as King turned on him and called for his crucifixion, preferring that a common thief and murderer be freed in his place. Today, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday I find myself asking has the church and have Christians forgotten the meaning of the story we celebrate during Holy Week. I have witnessed some of our Governor’s staunchest supporters turn on him. Many of his early supporters who are now hurt and disappointed in his failure calling for his resignation or impeachment. The stories seem juxtaposed against one another and seem to beg the question – do we believe what we celebrate? At this point let me state, I am not an apologist, nor a long time Robert Bentley supporter. In his first election I publicly supported his opponent, Bradley Byrne. During the six years he has served as Governor there have been several times he and legislative leaders have clashed on policy issues. I can’t recall a single time I sided with the Governor during one of these debates. Please understand the thoughts shared here are not those of the last Bentley fan still standing. They are more a reflection on my personal faith and a recognition that if the Gospel is true for me then it must be true for everyone. The message of the Gospel isn’t that you can live a better life following Jesus – the message of the Gospel is you cannot live without following Jesus. Our struggles and failures should constantly remind us how desperately we need Christ, unfortunately our perceived successes too often convince us instead of how well we are doing on our own. Sin is a strange thing. It’s a failure that we more quickly recognize in others than we do in ourselves. We have a tendency to understand our failures and excuse what leads us to fail. We also have a tendency to be deeply offended by those who sin differently than we do. Their sin just seems so much worse. If we are honest with ourselves and consistent with biblical teaching, we discover we are all in the same boat sinful and – short of the glory of God. Our Governor has spoken regularly of his faith. I believe it is real. His regular references to his faith have made this a much more bitter pill for some to swallow. How does a man who claims to believe what he claims to believe or be who he claims to be do these things? I don’t know the answer to that – I know, sometimes though, how I get into those situations where my beliefs and my actions are not consistent. I ask myself, how can I do this, then I’m reminded because I was trusting myself rather than living in total dependence on Christ. It’s hard to think of Governor Bentley’s situation without reflecting upon the story of David and Bathsheba. David should have been leading the army into battle but he stayed at the palace, saw Bathsheba taking her afternoon bath and send for her. The result – an unplanned pregnancy. David’s solution? Cover it up. He sent for Uriah, Bathsheba’s wife and sent him to his wife. Uriah would not go because his comrades were in battle. So David had him killed. Fortunately, in this situation Governor Bentley hasn’t been accused of murder. But not everything done in secret stays in secret. The prophet Nathan showed up and enraged David with a story of a rich man and a poor man. When Nathan revealed that the rich man was actually David he also shared with David the brutal consequences of his sin. Under the Law this was an offense David and Bathsheba could have been stoned for – but Nathan told David you will not die – but the child will. A very bitter turn, but not the end of the story – you see David and Bathsheba’s next child was Solomon, David’s successor to the throne and a part of the linage of Christ. At the time of David’s failure no one could have looked at David and thought he was in the right place. How could God have a king who would commit adultery and murder. But how many of us have sought solace in Psalm 51. Governor Bentley’s sin will be remembered by some for the next 50 years. David’s sin was chronicled by God and is remembered forever – but it is remembered as a story of redemption – not a story of failure. Hundreds of years after the fact Paul called David a “man after God’s own heart.” The Apostle Paul did not reflect upon David as an adulterer nor a murderer but rather as a man who loved God. Jesus was teaching at the Temple on day and a group of religious people brought him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They asked him what should they do with her, since the Law commanded she be stoned. Eventually he suggested that the one without sin should cast the first stone. That quickly dispersed even this self-righteous crowd. Jesus asked her, where are those who condemn you, she told him no one did. Jesus, who was without sin, then stated, “neither do I condemn you, go your way and
Wrong number? Donald Trump’s TV telephone interviews in spotlight
In television news, a telephone interview is typically frowned upon. Donald Trump‘s fondness for them is changing habits and causing consternation in newsrooms, while challenging political traditions. Two organizations are circulating petitions to encourage Sunday morning political shows to hang up on Trump. Some prominent holdouts, like Fox’s Chris Wallace, refuse to do on-air phoners. Others argue that a phone interview is better than no interview at all. Except in news emergencies, producers usually avoid phoners because television is a visual medium — a face-to-face discussion between a newsmaker and questioner is preferable to a picture of an anchor listening to a disembodied voice. It’s easy to see why Trump likes them. There’s no travel or TV makeup involved; if he wishes to, Trump can talk to Matt Lauer without changing out of his pajamas. They often put an interviewer at a disadvantage, since it’s harder to interrupt or ask follow-up questions, and impossible to tell if a subject is being coached. Face-to-face interviews let viewers see a candidate physically react to a tough question and think on his feet, said Chris Licht, executive producer of “CBS This Morning.” Sometimes that’s as important as what is being said. Trump tends to take over phone interviews and can get his message out with little challenge, Wallace said. “The Sunday show, in the broadcast landscape, I feel is a gold standard for probing interviews,” said Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday.” ”The idea that you would do a phone interview, not face-to-face or not by satellite, with a presidential candidate — I’d never seen it before, and I was quite frankly shocked that my competitors were doing it.” Since Trump announced his candidacy in June 2015, Wallace has conducted three in-person interviews with him on “Fox News Sunday,” and four via satellite. Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” has done phoners with Trump but now said he’s decided to stick to in-person interviews on his Sunday show. He’s no absolutist, though. “It’s a much better viewer experience when it’s in person,” Todd said. “Satellite and phoners are a little harder, there’s no doubt about it. But at the end of the day, you’ll take something over nothing.” Morning news shows do phoners most frequently. At the outset of the campaign, Trump was ratings catnip. The ratings impact of a Trump interview has since settled down, but it’s still hard to turn him down. He’s the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination. He’s news. There appear to be no network policies; different shows on the same network have different philosophies. Licht has turned Trump down for phoners on CBS but concedes there may be exceptions for breaking news. “CBS This Morning,” in fact, aired Trump commenting by phone following Tuesday’s attack in Belgium. Since the campaign began, Trump has appeared for 29 phone interviews on the five Sunday political panel shows, according to the liberal watchdog Media Matters for America. Through last Sunday, ABC’s “This Week” has done it 10 times, CBS’ “Face the Nation” seven and six times each on “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.” None of these shows has done phoners with Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, said Media Matters, which is urging that the practice be discontinued. The activist group MomsRising said the disparity “sends the message that some candidates can play by different rules, without consequences, and that’s just un-American.” A study by mediaQuant and The New York Times estimated that Trump has received the equivalent of $1.9 billion in free advertising given the media attention paid to his campaign. A Trump spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment. What’s unclear is whether other candidates were denied opportunities given to Trump. CNN chief executive Jeff Zucker said Trump opponents frequently turn down interview requests. During an appearance on CNN last week, former GOP candidate Carly Fiorina complained about media attention paid to Trump, leading Anderson Cooper to shoot back: “Donald Trump returned phone calls and was willing to do interviews, which was something your campaign, frankly, was unwilling to do.” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier tweeted last week that she saw Trump being interviewed via phone on “Fox & Friends” a day after Cruz was told that he couldn’t do a phone interview with the show. Fox said that since then, “Fox & Friends” has offered to conduct a phone interview with Cruz five times and has been turned down each time. Cruz did appear in the studio Wednesday. Frazier did not return requests for comment. NBC’s Todd believes that complaints about phoners are a surrogate for people who want to blame the media for Trump’s success. “You’re shooting the messenger while you’re ignoring what he is tapping into,” he said. “It becomes a little silly when you look at the bigger picture here. The media is getting criticized for interviewing Donald Trump. If we weren’t questioning him, we’d be criticized for not questioning him.” For years, cautious candidates have tended to be stingy with press access. Trump is the complete opposite. In a fast-moving information age, he may be changing the expectations for how often a candidate submits to interviews. Todd doesn’t believe it’s a coincidence that he’s had more access to Clinton during the past six weeks than he had during the six years she was in the Obama administration. Both Clinton and Cruz appeared in phone interviews following the Belgium attacks. “Trump’s opponents fall into two camps: Those who complain and continue to get crushed by the media wave, or those who grab a surfboard and try to ride it,” said Mark McKinnon, veteran Republican political operative and co-host of Showtime’s political road show, “The Circus.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
