I don’t post much these days, I am just an old fart who is still trying to learn and even willing to admit that I am wrong. I just finished Nathaniel Philbrick’s book: “The Last Stand”. I will be the first to admit, I love learning about my country, even when that history is rather dark and disturbing. And the white response to the “Indian problem” is beyond dark and disturbing. Last summer, when we were in Michigan we visited a great little museum, that probably sees only a few thousand visitors a year (because who wants to be confronted with our dark history), but like visiting Yad Vashem in Jerusalem (the Holocaust museum), sometimes we need to be kicked firmly in our rear ends so that we can remove our heads and see some of the injustice that has happened in our lifetime.
This past week was a watershed in USA history. For the first time a President of the United States was found guilty by a jury of his peers for criminal conduct. Not just one count but for all 34 charges brought against him. Throughout his life, he has used intimidation and threats to keep people at bay, and finally justice caught up to him. What did he do? He paid off a porn star that he had sex with from telling her story. There is nothing illegal in paying someone off (even if it might be morally wrong), but he is so cheap that he wanted to claim it as a campaign expense and not take it from his own money. That is where the crime was committed. But even before that, he has shamed and ridiculed persons who suffer from disabilities, talked about his sexual adventures, and even been found liable in a civil suit for defamation.
What strikes me is the response of the white evangelical side of the church. They see this man as a road to power and will do anything to help him achieve power. Even, I would say, selling their souls to “the devil”. They are convinced that the end will justify the means, which quite frankly goes against everything in the Christian Faith. They speak a good game, but their actions suggest otherwise.
I am convinced that being a follower of Jesus has less to do with dogma, and more to do with how we live our lives. If you follow the Lectionary (the arbitrary setting of scripture readings for each Sunday by the church), you would know that the Gospel for today was Mark 2:23-3:6. It is the story of Jesus not following the dogma of the Sabbath and instead breaking from tradition to do good. The point of the story, I believe is, it is not about saying I BELIEVE, rather it is about loving. And if you know me at all, you know that I am convinced that the core of Jesus teaching is found in the Gospels when Jesus, quoting from the Shema (Deuteronomy 6), slightly but significantly changing it says: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself.” And then Jesus explained that all the law and prophets depend on this. LOVE.
What does it mean to love our neighbors? Is trickle down economic theory what Jesus was talking about when he said to feed his children? Was building a wall to keep people out what Jesus wants us to do? Is paying off a porn star what Jesus would be happy about?
Now before some of you start with your WHAT ABOUTS! Go ahead, feel free to do that all you want. If you believe the things I have said are not true — that is on you. I will have to deal with the candidate that I will choose to vote for.
This is not who is best for my pocket book.
This is not who will make America the supreme colonial power in the world.
This is who do we love — and who do we choose to not love.
I have not always done it well. And I still fail today. But I am trying to become more aware of my blind spots. That is why I am thankful for the Nathaniel Philbricks, the Robert Jones, the Peter Ens, and so many others who are continually challenging my comfortable and privileged state.
They only way we can make America great again is when we recognize our dark past, repent our our corporate sins, and truly begin to live the wonderful words our founding fathers proclaimed (even if they didn’t really mean them): “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
May we truly understand that all of God’s children (and that is EVERYONE) is loved by God, and God desires us to love each other in return.
