Not long ago, there was an audio tape that surfaced about a certain man saying certain things. They weren't very nice things and people didn't like them very much, and the media treated the emergence of the tape as a scandal - both because it genuinely was and also because they already had an agenda to destroy the man in question. They failed at that, and while you could argue that the media should have paid similar attention to certain scandalous information about the man's opponent, you could hardly argue that the contents of the tape weren't newsworthy, or that they didn't reflect negatively on the man.
I lay that out, not because you don't remember it, but to establish that this is the pattern the media follow when they think they've uncovered something scandalous. Tape emerges with horrible content. Media breathlessly inform us that they have "obtained a recording" containing scandalous content, and imply with the use of such language that you should consider the contents of the recording scandalous. Otherwise, why bother telling you that they've obtained it?
So what other kinds of content might warrant similar attention? What if, say, a nominee for a cabinet position hoped to honor God with the work she was doing in her life? Would that amount to similarly scandalous attention? A reasonable person would not think so, but the political class and its media megaphones are not run by reasonable people. So when the Worst Web Site in the World obtains a recording of Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos talking about her desire to advance God's Kingdom through her education reform work, you know the drill.
Cue up the language of scandal:
The billionaire philanthropist whom Donald Trump has tapped to lead the Education Department once compared her work in education reform to a biblical battleground where she wants to "advance God's Kingdom."
Trump’s pick, Betsy DeVos, a national leader of the school choice movement, has pursued that work in large part by spending millions to promote the use of taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools.
Her comments came during a 2001 meeting of “The Gathering,” an annual conference of some of the country’s wealthiest Christians. DeVos and her husband, Dick, were interviewed a year after voters rejected a Michigan ballot initiative to change the state’s constitution to allow public money to be spent on private and religious schools, which the DeVoses had backed.
In the interview, an audio recording, which was obtained by POLITICO, the couple is candid about how their Christian faith drives their efforts to reform American education.
School choice, they say, leads to “greater Kingdom gain.” The two also lament that public schools have “displaced” the Church as the center of communities, and they cite school choice as a way to reverse that troubling trend.
The audio from the private gathering, though 15 years old, offers a rare behind-the-scenes glimpse of DeVos’ personal views — views that may guide her decision-making as the nation’s top education official. DeVos has repeatedly said she wants policies that give families choices about their children’s education — the choice of public schools included — but her critics fear that her goal is to shift public funding from already beleaguered traditional public schools to private and religious schools.
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Like the story we reported the other day about the BuzzFeed hit piece on Chip and Joanna Gaines, this story represents the currently in-vogue method the media use to scandalize things that are not scandals. There's nothing in Politico's story that isn't true. The deception is in treating something as scandalous (or even newsworthy at all) when it isn't. Betsy DeVos is a Christian and supports Christian schools? Betsy DeVos thinks public education funds should not be used exclusively for traditional public schools because Christian schools and charter schools represent healthy competition? Betsy DeVos thinks churches, not public schools should be the center of communities?
Duh. Pretty much every mainstream Christian in America believes these things. Pretty much every mainstream Christian in America wants to advance God's Kingdom with everything we do in our lives.
That sounds creepy, scary and terrifying to the secular leftists who populate institutions like Politico, but it's standard fare for those who have devoted their lives to the service of Jesus Christ. Those whose god is politics and government always get wigged out when those of us who serve Christ get into a position of power in government because we're putting their god in subjection to ours. They think the Constitution's prohibition against Congress establishing a religion should be read to mean that no one in government can do anything even remotely guided by religious faith. Of course, it doesn't mean that at all. It simply means that Congress can't establish any particular religion as the official religion of the state. That in no way means a person of faith should not try to honor God while serving in government.
By the way, let me get a little disclosure out of the way. I've met Betsy DeVos several times and I've interviewed her, although this was more than 20 years ago when I was a reporter for the Grand Rapids Business Journal. I like her. Also, her husband Dick's family is among the primary owners of Amway, for whom I've done some contract work (and I may do so in the future as well). Oh, and once I mentioned to Betsy that Amway's coffee is really good, and she gave me a packet of it. So there, I accepted a gift from her!
But really, you're going to see more of this, and it needs to be called out for what it is. When people talk about wanting to advance the Kingdom of God, that is not some scandalous, scary thing. But the secular media are determined to treat it that way because it's terrifying to them. They're hoping you'll be similarly terrified, and that you'll fear a bunch of wild-eyed religious fanatics plan to turn the federal government into some official arm of the church that's going to take away the rights of all non-Christians.
That fear illustrates a complete lack of understanding of how Christ's church on Earth works, and of what its goals are. But if you weren't ignorant, you wouldn't be working for the Worst Web Site in the World.
