MAGA? How about MAWBA?

The way to really make America great.

As I discussed in my last post, the other day Joe Biden turned his rhetorical fire onto what he called “MAGA Americans.” What I said in response can stand on its own, but it also led me well into this article that almost was written for this past Wednesday but needed more time to percolate in my head. Now what was in my heart can better be placed on the page.

The actual meaning of MAGA had been long forgotten in the last seven years since Donald Trump announced his intention to once again run for President in 2016, after a couple false starts for the 2012 and 2000 campaigns. MAGA is simply an acronym for Make America Great Again, just as the TEA part of TEA Party stood for Taxed Enough Already. In Trump’s mind, as well as the ideal for his supporters, making America great again consisted of having an America-first trade policy, securing the borders, getting out of meaningless wars halfway across the world, and ending the Obama jobless recovery that moved very similarly to a recession by using the age-old cure for economic doldrums: cutting taxes. To that end, in four years Trump revised our trade policies with Canada, Mexico, and (to some extent) China, began building the long-promised border wall with Mexico, was working on an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan (that Joe Biden botched), and passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, better known as the Trump tax cuts and always demogogued by Democrats as “tax cuts for the wealthy” even though they benefitted the middle classes more. Trump also assisted in cutting government by demanding regulations be withdrawn at a ratio of two out for each one in - at one point he was on a stirring 22-to-1 ratio.

On the other hand, there were legitimate criticisms of Trump for his personal actions prior to becoming President. Simply put, he wasn’t a paragon of virtue but many people of faith overlooked that because he was being successful on a policy level. It didn’t hurt that he was arguably our most pro-life president since Roe v. Wade despite being in the pro-choice camp for most of his adult life. But his heart and mind were changed.

Just because I used MAGA as the hook, though, doesn’t mean I want to make this about Donald Trump. Even if he wins re-election in 2024, he would be out of office in seven years and the process I’m describing may take a lot longer. (Of course, we could have a divine intervention that makes the process much shorter: something worth praying for.)

It doesn’t roll off the tongue nearly as well, but the MAWBA I referred to above stands for Make America Worth Blessing Again. By rote many of us sing God Bless America at ballgames or patriotic events, but have we ever considered what we are doing to deserve His blessing? It’s not automatic just because we sing the song.

Psalm 33:12 says:

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

That seems pretty self-evident, but I always like to read a passage within context. Psalm 33 has these lines in verses 10 through 15.

10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: He maketh the devices of the people of none effect.

11 The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, The thoughts of his heart to all generations.

12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, And the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

13 The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men.

14 From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.

15 He fashioneth their hearts alike; He considereth all their works.

Regardless of who we are or where we come from, Scripture says we are all the sons of men and if we make the Lord our God, we receive his blessing. That’s not to say we are all going to be perfect and pious - because we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God - but we should strive to be better in our walk with Him.

Yet there are those among us whose actions don’t suggest they’ve made our Lord their God, and those are the ones we should lovingly encourage to straighten out their lives. After all, we often cheer when we hear of a recovering addict turning their life around, but we seldom hear of a gay or lesbian person turning to Christ and eventually finding the right opposite-sex person for marriage and starting a family. I’m sure it happens, but more often I hear of the opposite: a marriage breaking up because one of the partners can no longer suppress a same-sex desire. It would be like a recovering alcoholic falling off the wagon and ending up back on skid row: someone applauds that, too, and that’s the issue here.

So let me tell you a story: when I was a senior in high school, I entered the Ohio University American History Contest and was fortunate enough to represent my school and county in the main contest at the school, which is in Athens, Ohio. I went with another local winner and my school’s guidance conselor, Mrs. Wolfe, and we drove through a scenic part of southeastern Ohio to get to the campus.

One thing I noticed as we drove along were the number of ramshackle houses and dilapidated trailers along the road, which runs through the gateway to Appalachia. Being from the farmland on the opposite side of the state, this was all new to me. Some of those homes and trailers, however, had a satellite dish out front - back then these weren’t the little DirecTV-style dishes like we have now, but those big honkin’ 6-foot wide monstrosities. It made me wonder about the priorities for people whose houses didn’t look like they had two nickels to rub together, buying one of those.

But as I’ve grown and matured in my faith, I’ve realized that some of our poorest people are some of our happiest people. It’s not because satellite TV is easier to come by, but it’s because they’re strong in their faith: everything they do have is a blessing to them and they don’t covet what their neighbor has because God supplies their needs. Isn’t that a thought worth thinking?

The world may be falling apart at the seams, but I plan on remaining a happy warrior, doing my best to Make America Worth Blessing Again. MAWBA!

Okay, it still doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, but actions speak louder than words anyway.