Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, NC, a widely traveled evangelist, and the author of several books. His books are available on Amazon and at www.wordofhismouth.com

My newspaper column last week, seen in dozens of papers in seven states, was about the race hoax perpetrated by the hideously misnamed Lincoln Project in the recent Virginia gubernatorial election. For those who do not know, Democrat party golden boy, Terry McAuliffe, was beaten by Republican Glenn Youngkin in that solidly blue state.

But in the lead up to that election, seeing that the polls were going against their wishes, the Lincoln Project put their sleaziness on full display, sending five of their operatives to pose as white supremacists in favor of Glenn Youngkin. In my column, I pointed out how filthy and vile of a breaking of the ninth commandment that was. They conceivably put a man and his family at risk of assassination by falsely smearing him in that manner, let alone the damage to his reputation.

This should not be hard; things like that are vile and indefensible, right?

Apparently not.

I try very hard to be hopeful and optimistic about America. And many of the emails I received in response to that column did encourage me in that. Many people do, in fact, understand that some things are vile and should be universally condemned. But then, alas, there are others…

Let’s start with a lady who wrote to disagree with me. We will call her Barbie. Barbie chose to mention former President Trump twice, while condemning what the Lincoln Project did exactly zero times. She (in her mind) slyly said that she did not remember me writing about Trump’s breaking of any of the commandments. Mind you, I have, and I have also tweeted and preached both about the positives and negatives of the former President. But that still misses the point. To Barbie, anything and anyone Leftist is Ken, and must be viewed in all of their plastic perfection. And if any flaws are pointed out, she instinctively lashes out with, “But what about G.I. Joe? What about him, huh?” Ken could have a third eye on his forehead and molest every other toy in the toy box, but if you point any of that out she will react in utter defensiveness over her tiny plastic boyfriend, and deflect all attention to G.I. Joe, or, to truly Trump up the analogy, “Plastic soldier man bad.”

The second complainant, we will call her Bambi, only used the word Trump once. Mind you, every word of her email was about the former President, but at least she used pronouns (he 4x, his 1x, and “this poor excuse for a human being” 1x) to deflect the issue.

Bambi refers to me as “an ardent supporter of his.” She missed, I think, me calling him a horse’s rear end on multiple occasions. I did vote for him twice, without regret. I put policies way above personalties, exactly as I should. But again, this still misses the point. Bambi, when faced with her leftist demi-gods doing a horrible thing, simply “Trumped her way out of it,” because, you know, “Orange man bad.” She offered no words of support for what the Lincoln Project did, nor did she offer any words of condemnation. You see, to Bambi, what anyone wearing her chosen team jersey does is not the issue, and the highest standard of righteousness is “whataboutism,” not “what thus saith the Lord.”

The next complainant, we will call him Frodo, only took two words to get to “Trump.” And, as with all of the others, offered no words of condemnation for the Lincoln Project at all.

The next complainant, we will call him Eugene, was very well written, I will give him that. He was also very ill-informed, buying into the “fine people” hoax that has been so thoroughly and consistently debunked. Once again, though, that isn’t the point. The point is that he used the “Trump Card” twice, and, like all of the others, never uttered a single word of condemnation for what the Lincoln Project did.

With the last complainant, I will use her real name, because of how highly I hold her in esteem. Carolyn, unlike the first four, wrote, “The Lincoln Project’s action in Virginia was reprehensible.” She went on to opine that I am not being balanced, and need to say more about the wrongs of both sides. I believe that I have and that I do, but that notwithstanding, Carolyn, who disagrees with me and I with her, is one of my new favorite people. I rarely find people with her kind of character, and I admire them when I do. Carolyn, when you see this, if you will email me your address, I will send you a free copy of my newest book as a thank you for your excellent character.

Ladies and gentlemen, our parents used to say, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” I’m not sure that is entirely solid advice, since even Jesus and the apostles needfully said a lot of very not-nice things, and commanded that we do likewise. But I do believe it would be wise in this era to say, “If you can’t say anything but ‘but Trump!” you probably shouldn’t say anything at all.” Either defend your team or castigate your team, but the former coach of one of the two teams who is now in non-voluntary retirement has absolutely no bearing on scum-bucket-level behavior that others are engaging in.

When a society reaches the level that it is not only willing to let people tell and act out the vilest, filthiest lies, but is willing to go so far as to act as human shields for them when they come under criticism, that society will not likely long endure. I have publically called out the former President for things like his cursing and juvenile insults, among many others. I will do so with whatever President is next in line, including the current potty-mouthed, lying, abusive inhabitant of the White House, Joe Biden.

It cannot be “our team versus their team.” It has to be “right versus wrong.”

Pastor Wagner can be contacted by email at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org, and his books and audio downloads are available by clicking the “Store” link above.

Feature photo by Pastor Bo Wagner