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Primitive religion is not believed, it is danced!

Arthur Darby Nock

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
And only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.

Elizabeth Browning



Tuesday, May 28, 2019

reconciling confrontation


“The old endless chain of love, tolerance, indifference, aversion and disgust”
Samuel Beckett
____________________________________

At first I tried to love
After all if Jesus loves all, shouldn’t I?

But the lies continued
As did the abuse
As did the abandonment of the poor
As did the cruelty
And the Bully tactics
And the hate

But it is not Ok to judge, is it?
So I tried to be tolerant
I tried not to judge
And of course, those I challenged accused me of just that
And I bought it…
For a moment

And then it became too much
So I tried not to feel the pain when I watched children caged
When I watched freedoms take away
When I watched the poor abandoned

And then I became just a little sick in my mouth
As the lies continued, continued, continued

And as the poor were abandoned and shamed
And a protections for the poor were eroded
And the earth was assaulted
And violence was praised
And hate nurtured

And now I am just disgusted
Disgusted by the creature who feeds all of this
Disgusted by the hate
And the greed
And the cruelty
And the lies
And the cruelty

And I am disgusted that this is done in the name of one
Whose teachings are violated by all of this

And disgusted by those who
For whatever reason
Excuse all of this
Accept it
Cheer it

I am especially disgusted by those pastor
Those churches
Who buying into the way of domination
Support this evil
Or are so “careful” they allow people to support this evil
Unchallenged

I do not know what to do with this
I do not know how to respond to people who say
Rachel Held Evans is going to hell

Or those who chant “build the wall”
Or those who cheer when our President floats the idea of shooting refugees
Or those who demonized LGBTQI people
Or those who think guns are more important than children
Or those who think domination is OK
And
Servanthood is for libertards

Too strong for you?
I’m sorry

I guess that when John called people vipers they were offended too
And I guess that when Jesus said that the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk (obey everything they teach you, but don’t do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else).

They were offended too

Do I have the right to call others out
Probably not
I have my own stuff
My own ways where I am less that what I could be…

So Mea Culpa
Mea Maxima Culpa

But still
I struggle to know how to respond
And I know this
I cannot stay silent
I cannot abandon the poor and the vulnerable
Those who are minorities
Women
People who are LGBTQI

I cannot
And I will not

But Lord?!
Help me
To challenge in a way that leaves room for reconciliation
That does not demean
And minimize

Help me!
Please?

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