During his years as premier of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev denounced many of the policies and atrocities of Joseph Stalin. Once, as he censured Stalin in a public meeting, Khrushchev was interrupted by a shout from a heckler in the audience. “You were one of Stalin’s colleagues. Why didn’t you stop him?” “Who said that?” roared Khrushchev. An agonizing silence followed as nobody in the room dared move a muscle. Then Khrushchev replied quietly, “Now you know why.”
–Quoted by yours truly in this morning’s sermon on the gospel for today, Matthew 14:22-33
We has a similar experience this past week when one of our Democratic Congressmen gave a talk at a local club. He’s been in congress something like 15 years. But his talk was on how disfunctional Congress was right now. The question no one dared to ask him:
Aren’t you part of what made Congress disfunctional by going along with most of the votes according to your voting record?
The one person who did ask a ‘tough question’ was silenced by the good congressman with “Well, I see you get most of your information from Fox News!” and then he ignored the question to pontificate on his own topics.
And, yes, no one dared ask a tough question after that.
Peace
Jim Elliott <><
It’s a little like opposing the policies of 815 these days, no?