Faith, Hope & Love

Thoughts from HowWiseThen

Cristo Rey, El Salvador

I do not wield much influence. Never have. Likely never will. As a middle child and, only daughter in my childhood family, I was rarely asked my opinion so didn’t offer it much. In the family I raised, I soon learned I would not control the feeding or sleeping schedules for the babies. I had my agenda. They had theirs. Over time we adjusted to reasonable compromises until they outgrew babyhood and then we were on to other clashes of the wills. I won some, since I did have influence over the cash and car. I yielded on some as it just was not worth the adrenaline to argue. I lost some as they grew increasingly capable of exerting their own independent choices. We all survived.

So I do not expect that the opinions I am about to offer here will change the outcome of our country’s future. However, as a matter of conscience and gratitude to the Biblical scholars and top-notch theologians I’ve heard and read over the decades, I feel morally obligated to share what I’ve been taught. You, dear reader, are free to accept, agree, reject, disagree, or ignore the following. I hope we can still be author and reader regardless.

Faith, Hope and Love

This past week I attended the retirement party for Joe Reilly, the man who sought and got approval to expand the Habitat for Humanity partnership with Thrivent Financial to put together teams to build a church. He and his wife Bonnie had already taken numerous teams of volunteers to El Salvador to build homes at the rate of two and three teams a year, every year, for many years.

Cristo Rey in Spanish means “Christ is King.” This particular El Salvadorian congregation has been the spiritual, social, and financial hub for many families who qualified for Habitat for Humanity help building decent homes. When their church was destroyed in an earthquake there was no money to rebuild. They converted an old chicken coop, a simple concrete block structure approximately 60 by 20 feet, into a make-shift church. They had faith the Lord would provide for them as they provided for others.

They focused on the needs of the poor families around them and worshipped in that space for years. Until finally, thanks to Joe and Bonnie’s faith, hope, love and persistence, there was enough money available to cover the cost of the materials. Habitat staff and volunteers took it from there.

Heresy

This past week we saw heresy take the stage in Milwaukee as speaker after speaker claimed allegiance to God, but expressed plans and idealogies that are as far removed from God’s agenda as it is possible to get. Over and over any ethical, moral, scholarly, honest study of scriptures paints a portrait of a deity who wants justice, mercy, love, and compassion.

We saw scripture twisted to a level never seen in a major political party in my life time. Or at least not in this country. Some allegedly Christian denominations have been twisting scripture to bend it to the will of its leaders for centuries. Consider the European Doctrine of Discovery for example that emboldened European explorers to claim land on behalf of whichever monarch was financing their adventures. Or our own country’s Manifest Destiny doctrine used to justify forcibly removing inhabitants of this continent far, far from their home lands in the 1800s.

Some define heresy as claiming there is no God, or that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. I would define heresy as claiming, “God like me and my kind better than you and your kind.” This is the heresy that dictators and ruthless rulers have used for eons to justify starving, torturing and killing those who oppose them.

This heresy was on full display this past week in Milwaukee. Immigrants don’t leave their families and the land they love to come to a place where we want their cheap labor, but have no regard for their safety.

Where’s the Love?

“They will know we are Chrstians by Our Love” is a song I’ve heard often at assorted retreats and events. That kind of love in the face of cruel and corrupt regimes is the reason the earliest Christian church grew by leaps and bounds. The mighty Roman empire ruled a highly structured cast system. At the top were the wealthy elite who controlled the day to day lives of others through a system of patronage, bribes, bullying, badgering and corruption the likeks of which, sadly, we’re seeing right now on full display. Those who pledged alliegence to the powerful in Rome were granted favors and lived in relative peace and comfort. Those who had no wealth or popular influence to bring to the party were allowed in if they cheered loud enough and did the biding of the powerful elite adequately enough. Any who challenged the elite were quickly shunned, turned away or died of mysterious causes.

Projection

One phenonemon of human behavior is that of projectig onto others what we ourselves are doing. I’ve heard it as the “You spot it, you got it” syndrome. Everything I heard the RNC speakers proclaim this week about the Biden family and administration is a reflection of what the current batch of convicted RNC leaders are actually doing.

The level of lies was remarkable. Hitler’s regime knew well that if you repeat a lie loud enough and often enough, it numbs people to the point they can’t hear themselves think for themselves any more. It’s a form of brainwashing used in torture situations. Wear the people down to the point they are too exhausted to argue with you. FWIT, the 2020 election was not stolen.

I don’t know if Biden should stay in the POTUS race or drop out. I wish I did know. I have to settle for hoping that he, his family, and his closest advisors know soon, make an announcement, and rally around whoever they shall nominate to go up against the competition. My prayer these days is that those who conrol the donations and make the decisions will be praying themselves that God’s will be done here. Now. In this country. In this election cycle. On earth. In the United States of America. As it is in heaven. I believe God loves Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and Undecideds equally. I also believe that God is pulling for an outcome that showers liberty and justice equally on US citizens, immigrants and foreigners visiting this continent. And all those suffering today from the ravages of war in other continents.

WE ARE NOT A CHRISTIAN NATION

To claim we are is heresy. We are a nation founded on the principle that all humans are created equal. That does not apply to fertilized eggs, as some would claim, but it does apply to immigrants, people of other-than-Christian faiths, and people who don’t fit the fictional 1950’s model of the ideal family.

I’m more concerned about the future for my children and their children than I’ve ever been. But, I also do believe that God’s got the whole world in his hands. Should we go down into that dark pit that defined the experience of our German brothers and sisters not quite a century ago, God will be there in the pit with us. God will bind up those battered and bruised by the cruel false proclamations of the powerful and elite. God will be tending to the poor, the abused, the falsely accused, the mocked, and the innocents cheated out of their fair share by greed, corruption, lies, and brutality.

How will God do that? Through any and all who believe in justice, kindness, compassion, mercy, and charity. Some extend a helping hand to others because of their Christian upbringing. Others come to the same place by other routes. The Golden Rule is a uiversal principle that appears in any major religion you can name.

Keep the Faith

I recently heard John McCain given credit for saying, “It’s always darkest before it’s totally dark.” These are dark times. Which means one small candle can cast an impressive amount of light. If we each light one small candle and carry on as best we can, we’ll get through this. This Sunday morning essay is my one small candle. I hope it sheds some encouragement your way. We can choose to be kind and fill our minds and hearts with good - and truthful - news, realizing that most of what we heard this past week was heresy. Heresy and hearsay corrupt and erode communities. Facts, truth, decency, compassion - these still work to bind us together in one great community of faith, hope and love.

As always, thanks for reading along. Go in peace. Serve whatever your version of the Lord may be. Light a candle.