Where are the Christian churches?

Every year I look forward to October. There is a chill in the air, the leaves are changing, and there are fun events that draw us outside. This year there are also somber and soul-wrenching events.

Oct. 1 was the anniversary of the mass murders in Las Vegas. Governor Brian Sandoval said, “Today and every day, we continue to make choices to triumph over evil.” I agree but the uncomfortable truth is that, after all the mass murders this past year, donations to the nonprofit National Rifle Association dramatically increased.

Oct. 1 is also the beginning of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This year there were public services that remembered by name the 31 women murdered in Arkansas in 2017. For the past 11 years, once a month, I worship with the women in the Northwest Arkansas Women’s Community Correctional Center — 90 percent have suffered from sexual abuse and physical abuse as a child, a teen or as a young woman.

October is when they announce the winners of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Peace. The winners were Dr. Denis Mukege from the Congo, and Nadia Muirad from Iraq. Both recipients worked tirelessly against the rape of women as a weapon of terrorism.

Dr. Mukege is a physician that treats the victims and then campaigns against the terrorist Boko Harum and Al Shabaab. Nadia Murad a Yazidi in Iraq, was captured by ISIS, raped and forced into sexual slavery. She escaped and worked with other sex slaves to begin their healing and is working in the political circles demanding strict laws against rape. Both recipients and their families have received numerous death threats.

Bleeding over into October was the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee — a hearing and not a trial. She said, “I wanted to be there. It was my civic duty.”

The country was riveted by her every word. She spoke an empowering truth that was heard by other women and men like her. Their life stories connected. The rape hotlines exploded minutes after she finished. One reported a 200 percent increase in calls.

She wondered as all victims wonder, “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter.” The polls reported that 66 percent of American polled believed her. Her kind of courage is rare.

The backlash that began before her testimony has been harsh, severe and far more intense than she or any American could imagine. She was and still is openly mocked by the President at campaign rallies. He has said she and all the protestors were actors paid by the Democrats. She and her family have been driven from their home. They have hired private security guards because the death threats haven’t stopped. The local authorities have called the threats credible.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony was believed by 33 percent. His opening remarks echoed the President’s campaign speeches. (He spent two days with the White House staff rehearsing his testimony.) He spoke in the conspiracy language of dark money and of evil Democratic Party plots. Like the President, he represented no evidence to support that conspiracy theory.

Note: After the hearings, the hotlines for victims increased dramatically and the coffers of the Republican Party received 270 million dollars.

Where is the Body of Christ — the Christian Churches in America? Did I not get the memo that Christians no longer believe in the Ten Commandments? I hear about “Thy shalt not kill” as related to Roe v. Wade but, only silence about Capital Punishment. I guess false witnessing, adultery and coveting are OK now?

Christians, where is our courage and backbones to confront anyone, including the President, that calls all people that vote for a Democrat candidate evil? He openly mocks women including #MeToo, Women Against Gun Violence, The Walk for Life, and others. None of them are paid actors or actresses! He scares us.

Last Spring, I attended the joint Bentonville High and West High Schools March for Life March. “Vote them out,” they chanted and then those eligible registered to vote.

Last month, I asked you to try and follow the example of the late Senator John McCain. This month, I nominate Dr. Christine Blasey Ford.

Vote.