The Lepers at the Gate
“And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink…” 2 Kings 7:8 (KJV)
There was a time in America when the news felt slow. When I was growing up, we talked about Desert Storm for years. The Iran-Contra Affair stretched across what felt like a decade. Crack cocaine devastated the Black community, and people lived inside that pain for a long time. Rap music emerged little by little and reshaped our culture. We saw a growing Black middle class, lived through 9/11, the banking crisis, the collapse of the housing market, and then the election of Barack Obama, a moment so big it carried years of conversation with it.
Back then, information came in drips and drabs. Conversations lasted seasons, sometimes generations. But today, every single day there is something new to be offended about, frightened by, confused over, or angry about. America forces us to jump from one extreme to the next without catching our breath.
And the truth is, all of this chaos has a root. It is the world big tech and big data created. We live with a constant feeling that someone is always watching us. Our phones listen. Our searches follow us. Our conversations leave digital footprints that never disappear. It feels corny to say “1984,” but here we are. George Orwell’s warning has collided with the age of algorithms and surveillance, and the merger is fueled by the greed of the elite. The people who sit at the top of these tech empires decide what rises and what falls. They control the outrage, the silence, the confusion, and the chaos. And all of it brings us right back to the Peter Thiels of the world, the ones who built the system and now feed on the power and profit it produces.
It is never a dull moment in this country. One moment we are grieving another police shooting. The next moment, we are debating education reform. So let’s start with the small piece of good news in the middle of all this madness: the officer who shot and killed Soney Massy was found guilty. Had this been the 1950s or 60s, he would have gotten away with murdering a Black woman in cold blood. People like to believe progress means incidents like that will no longer happen, but the truth is they still do. The only difference is that now justice stands a stronger chance of being served.
On the political front, we have the Trump administration pushing more responsibility onto the states instead of the federal government when it comes to the Board of Education. While I understand that states need federal resources, the education system is broken and in need of real change. That does not mean the Board of Education should be dismantled. Absolutely not. Trump is going too far, but I also know an election is coming, and maybe that election will bring an ADOS candidate with a real vision. Then again, my community is so frustrated and so disillusioned that many will vote in ways that harm us, choosing candidates who do not care about our country or our people. And if that happens, another Republican will end up in the White House. Only time will tell.
Meanwhile, the circus continues. Candace Owens, with all her lies, keeps the world tuned in with conspiracies. One minute she claims Egypt was involved in Charlie Kirk’s situation, the next minute she points to Ukraine or Israel. What drew my attention was how she managed to turn it into a story about herself. That is America. Everything circles back to “me.” People pretend to be standing for something bigger, but in the end they fold everything back into themselves.
Candace even produced a timeline to show how Charlie Kirk’s issues began after she exposed the Brigitte Macron scandal. She read an email from a so-called stranger who claimed Egyptian planes she talks about were based in Delaware. And somehow this person had the same address as Candace’s attorneys. A podcaster, Jason Wilt, dug into it and wondered whether Candace knew. But let’s be real — of course she knew. I wouldn’t be surprised if her own attorney sent the email.
The sad part is that it doesn’t matter. That is exactly the point. We are drowning in things that don’t matter. Podcasters spend hours debunking other podcasters about issues that make no difference at all. Candace links Egyptian planes to the Macrons, to Charlie, back to herself, and somehow to a mission from God. Yet nothing she says is righteous, holy, or uplifting. It is all blame in a world governed by systems of evil. And then she circles back to Israel and Zionism, even though many of the so-called Zionists in New York with yarmulkes and curly sideburns hate the modern state of Israel as much as she does. It is twisted and useless, but it is the world we live in — a system that is vicious, cruel, deceptive, and full of people pretending to be outside the system even as they fuel it with every word they speak.
Then there is the mountain of trash known as the Epstein files. I have been reading Shogun, a historical fiction novel set in the 1400s–1500s, and there is a section about the “Willow World,” where women were used for sex, entertainment, and conversation. When people today hear about that kind of exploitation, they call it barbaric. But we ignore the fact that it happens every single day in America. Strip clubs. Massage parlors. OnlyFans. Porn sites. All part of the same world. People are either participating or being used, just like in the Willow World. Different time, same sin.
And the Epstein situation is no different. Thousands of women claim Epstein abused them. They lived the nightmare, yet they depend on government files to validate what they already know. They said months ago they would create their own list. Where is it. Why wait for the FBI when you lived it. It is the same wicked system, just dressed in modern clothing.
I do believe people should be punished for what they do. But all of it exists inside one enormous system of sin. Wickedness, cruelty, and unrighteousness sit right at the center of our culture. And what Trump is going to release will not be truth. It will be selective. It will be weaponized. People will spend hours sifting through those emails like scavengers digging through trash heaps, hoping to find a single worm. And Democrats are begging for it because they have nothing left to offer after losing the healthcare fight and shutting down the government. No solutions. No policies. Only accusations.
Last week my mind was shaking as I watched America drift from outrage to outrage: the war in Gaza, Charlie Kirk, the government shutdown, and now the Epstein trash heap. We have become vultures hoping to find scraps.
I have been listening to the Old Testament on Audible, especially the book of Numbers. Israel was a stiff-necked people, and so are we. We fill our pockets with greed and fill our minds with trash. We take our eyes off God and wonder why the nation is in decline. Nations around us are preparing to rise and attack, and we are too distracted to see it.
It reminds me of the story in 2 Kings 7, during a great famine in Israel. The lepers sat outside the gate, starving. They said that if they stayed where they were, they would die, and if they went to the Assyrians, they might also die, so they might as well go. When they reached the camp, the Assyrians were gone. God had already driven them out, just as Elisha prophesied. The lepers ate their fill, then told the King of Israel. The people rushed toward the camp so desperately that they trampled the very man who mocked the prophecy, the one who said such a thing could never happen.
“And the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said.” 2 Kings 7:17
That is where we are today. Scrounging for money as if it can save us. Running after wealth as if it can fill us. And the chase pulls us farther and farther away from God until many die without ever being full.
