It is amazing to me how Jesus is being used to justify the exact behaviors he preached so vociferously against.
The one who declared that loving our neighbors as ourselves is God's very heartbeat is being used to justify hatred of the most vulnerable.
The one who pushed the religious elite of his day to see beyond the constricting limits of their rules and regulations in order to care for the person next to them is being used to justify the dehumanization of those who don't look or speak "like us."
The one who never pushed anyone to follow him and his Way is being used to justify a strange kind of theocratic pressure to "make America Christian again" by forcing pseudo-Christian principles and beliefs onto the wider population. (Note: this kind of pressure has -- and always will -- move people away from Jesus, rather than toward.)
The one who emerged out of a Jewish tradition that had, at its core, a command to care for the "widow, the orphan and the foreigner" is being used to justify shipping human beings off to prisons of torture and death.
The one who told his followers that whoever cared for the poor, the hungry, the sick, the naked, the prisoner, the "least among us" was actually caring for Jesus himself is being used to justify ripping away critical safety nets for the most vulnerable.
The one who set women free to be revered as fully human is being used to justify policies that push women back into subservient roles.
The one who claimed that the truth will set us free is being used to muzzle and censor sources of truth.
The one who taught values of mercy, grace, kindness, compassion, care, love, self-sacrifice is being used to justify cold-hearted demonization of other human beings.
This all breaks my heart and makes me angry.
What kind of theology has been taught in our churches that has led us to a place where we have lost the ways of Jesus? Like, given them up with almost no fight?
How is it that, in many ways, people who don't claim to be followers of Jesus are often living in his Way more than those who constantly claim Jesus' name as their own while acting in cruel and demeaning ways?
What is going to happen to the church in this country as it veers violently off course?
No answers. No neat bows to tie on this post. No clear path forward. All of these thoughts just live in my head these days.
I don't really know what to do about it all.
I do know that I will keep opening the Gospels to study the way of this Jesus I have loved for decades. I will, despite my own deep flaws and failures, give my all to living out his teachings in a world gone mad.
I will do all I can to love my literal neighbors.
That's all I know for now.
That's all I know to do.
Oh Alice, you break my heart even as the world breaks yours. I share your disappointment in our fellow Christians and the inhumanity of many of our fellow humans. Remember that America is not the world and there is yet hope here and even the occasional victory out in he world. Hate is easy, our spirits are easily kindled and anger comes fast. Love is harder and hope sometimes hardest of all. Take heart your scriptures. Delight as I do in the smile of my granddaughter. Come by my yard after the rain and look at the giant pony flowers and the tall irises bouncing back from the rain. Do your best. Show up. Don't get bulldozed by the world. Hold on to hope and love.
Friend, thank you!! I share in your fragile hope. I really do. I see God's hand in everything. I see good people doing such good things, some even in the name of Jesus. And I never, ever lose hope in Jesus pure goodness and power. But man, oh man ... the church in America is killing me right now. Next time I walk by your home, you might catch me smelling a flower or two in your yard!! Keep the faith!