An Open Letter to Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa
Dear Senator Ernst:
You’ve already received lots of withering criticism from pundits and voters about your recent town hall meeting in Iowa, as well as your follow-up video. There’s no need to repeat that stuff. Rather than write about you, I thought it better to write to you.
Like you, I’m a conservative Christian who confesses Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I regard you as my sibling in Christ, even when we disagree. Unlike many people, I don’t wince when a politician or celebrity confesses their faith publicly. I’m generally encouraged to hear that an influential person is my kindred in faith. I realize, however, that such a confession can backfire.
Here’s what I understand happened, which you may prefer to nuance differently. Someone at the meeting must have questioned why you were supporting legislation that would cut Medicaid benefits. You said, “When you’re arguing about illegals that are receiving Medicaid benefits, 1.4 million (people). . . they are not eligible so they will be coming off.”
Someone then shouted out, “People are going to die!”
You responded with, “Well, we all are going to die. So for heaven’s sake, folks.” And that sent the crowd into an uproar.
I wasn’t in your shoes. It’s hard to know to respond quickly when under pressure from a fairly hostile crowd.
The next day you responded to the outcry with an Instagram video saying,
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely apologize for a statement that I made yesterday at my town hall… I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth. So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well.
Then you concluded with these words, “For those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Your initial response sounded callous. And then in the follow-up Instagram, your tone of sarcasm, especially about the tooth fairy, was unhelpful. In my experience, sincerity disappears from an apology when it includes sarcasm. More problematic was your ending with a reference to Jesus. As I mentioned, I’m all for witnessing to your faith. You, however, you made it sound as if Jesus only cares about what comes after death.
Both in the heat of the moment, and also the next day, you seemed to be missing the point of the person who cried out. They were not questioning our world’s 100% mortality rate. They were trying to say, “Why are you supporting budget cuts that we know will hasten the deaths of people who we’ve been helping?”
In hindsight, maybe you wish you had said something like, “Folks, I honestly feel terrible when we have to make cuts that I know will hurt people, but I’m convinced that the federal government has limited resources and cannot solve all the problems.” Or maybe, “I’m trying to support legislation that helps those in need, but to be honest, no legislation can ever really bring lasting life, happiness or security. For those kinds of issues I have found hope in Jesus.” With words like that, even those who still disagree with you about Medicaid cuts (as I do) might have realized that at least you actually care.
You and I both know it’s not good to call Jesus “Lord, Lord” if we don’t do what he says (Matthew 7:21).
And we both know from Matthew 22:37-39 that the Lord’s two Great Commandments are, first, to love God with the entirety of our being and secondly, to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus is quoting that second commandment from Leviticus 19:18. Unfortunately, a lot of people assume that loving our neighbors means loving people like ourselves—fellow Iowans or Americans. Just a few verses later in Leviticus, God spells out others who we are to regard as our neighbors: “You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34).
Jesus didn’t quote that verse but he certainly lived it out in the way he treated the poor, the marginal, and foreigners. We also see this love for outsiders in Jesus’ parables. For example, in the parable of the sheep and goats from Matthew 25:31-40. I can’t imagine Jesus responding on Judgment Day to the sheep with these words, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Actually, you didn’t welcome me, but I can’t really blame you for that because I was an undocumented alien at the time. And now that I think of it, you really didn’t need to feed, clothe, visit, or help any of the other people either, because we’re all going to die anyway. So let’s just forget all that. As long as you believe in me as your personal Savior and Lord, we’ll call it good.”
I know you would not appreciate this horrible suggested rewrite. Still, like me, you’re a follower of Jesus. So while it may not always be clear what the best legislation for helping the poor and the undocumented is, we have to begin from that basic concern because it was a basic concern of our Lord.
The next time you have to vote on legislation that affects the hungry, the homeless, and even the undocumented alien, I ask you to remember that Jesus is not only your Lord on high but also the Lowly One found among the needy: “For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly” (Psalm 138:6).
I have tried very hard not to sound harsh or sarcastic in this letter. I apologize if I have, especially to you as a fellow Christian. While I considered sending this to you as a private letter, my thoughts were that your own testimony to Jesus was made so public, it would be good for the public to hear what else can be said by another conservative follower of Jesus.
The Lord be with you in your difficult work.
Dave Landegent
17 Responses
Thank you for this incredibly gracious reply, David. It’s more than many of us could have managed and a model of Christian probity.
Yes, and Amen. And I hope you sent the letter to Sen. Ernst directly, too. I’m not sure that she reads the Reformed Journal
Amen.
David, thank you very much. So well put.
When I hear statements like this, I always think the unspoken (unconsidered?) message is that it’s ok that people will die as long as it’s not you. People like this do damage to the message of the gospel.
Greetings David. I’m at General Synod as I read this & seeing you are in this branch of the family faith tree was a boost.
Your gracious tone is much appreciated & definitely the kind of public faith confession needed in these challenging times. 🌿🕊️🕊️
Your grace filled response seems to be able to point out the injustice while also building a bridge. Thank you.
Thank you for highlighting how ineffective our witness to being children of God becomes when linked to what appears to be indifference to the pleas of those in need. Although we can only imagine the heat of the moment, your ‘soft’ answers may have helped to turn away the wrath of those who felt unheard. You were much more gracious than I feel, given the sarcasm of the next day. I agree that you should forward the letter to Senator Ernst.
Reasonable words for those of a gracious disposition … but I suspect Ms. Ernst is neither reasonable nor gracious.
One can hope that a pile of burning coals heaped upon her head might generate some gospel heat (Romans 12.20). Sadly, what we now have in a group of politicians is a weaponized faith … more akin to the mob with stones in their hands, or even a Calvin in Geneva nodding his agreement with the burning of Servetus. As I call it, “Christianity with a snarl on its face and malice of soul.”
Yours is a kindly note, but I suspect the admonition of Jesus about throwing pearls to the swine is more to the point (Matthew 7.6).
At this point time, I’m not hopeful … I sense a lot of Bonhoeffer doom in the air.
Oh, Rev Tom — mere mention of Bonhoeffer just may get you investigated by this admin’s DOJ . .
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Jeez.
Scapegoating the alien/immigrant/non-white/non-*Christian/poor/otherwise marginalized as the source of problems and the target of legislation/executive retribution is a convenient cover for the authoritarian power-grab that affects all. Current GOP seems to have an identity crisis: callously indifferent one day, thin-skinned reactionary the next.
I appreciate this, David. Your proposed re-write of Sen. Ernst’s Instagram message raises an additional issue about using religious language in public spaces. She was speaking in her capacity as a United States Senator, which (to my mind) makes her altar call (“For those who would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”) an inappropriate use of governmental resources for religious purposes.
Your revision (“I’m trying to support legislation that helps those in need, but to be honest, no legislation can ever really bring lasting life, happiness or security. For those kinds of issues I have found hope in Jesus”) replaces the evangelistic appeal with a personal testimony, which is somewhat better, but still (in my view) crosses a line that should be respected. Explaining how your values are rooted in your faith is valid; but testifying to a transcendent source of comfort that doesn’t implicate this-worldly values seems problematic in this context.
Sorry Dave, but I don’t want public figures witnessing for Jesus or for any religion. I want them to leave religion out of it and do their job. I find that almost always, when a politician or celebrity brings Jesus into the conversation publicly, is manipulative. Go ahead and accuse me of being judgmental, and so be it, but just do your job please and witness the way I think Jesus primarily wanted us to — by caring for the most vulnerable in our midst.
Hi Marlin: Nice to hear from you. I think it’s impossible to “leave religion out of it” because any religion worthy of the name (even a so-called “secular religion”) has to influence how a politician votes. So rather than keeping me in the dark so that I have to guess what motivates them, i want to hear them say it. I like to know what a politician thinks they treasure in their hearts and where their deepest loyalties lie. I’m well aware it could be a manipulative move on their part, or that they have deceived themselves concerning who their lord is, so any confession of theirs doesn’t mean I’ll automatically vote for them—in fact, I scrutinize them even more because they should know better. I’m skeptical of most of the politicians who name Jesus as their Lord, because it often looks like they bow to other lords. In Rev. Ernst’s case, for the sake of dialogue I think it best to start with her confession. So rather than begin by doubting she’s really a Christian, I prefer to remind her of what that confession entails. Even with my own confession: I know Jesus is Lord, but I don’t always do the things he says, and I seek course correction from God’s Word and other believers at church.
When FDR was asked his motivation for all his New Deal policies, he famously answered, “I am a Christian and a Democrat.” I like that.
I agree with Marlin. I think of the song “They’ll Know We Are Christians by Our Love”. Our actions speak louder than our words.
Thanks for these comments. I could read them frequently to “be ready to give an answer”.