These words came to me yesterday morning as I pondered recent days. "Troubled" seems the appropriate word as I shift the lens of my imaginary kaleidoscope.
Though my life is tremendously blessed, I am unable to ignore the haunting howl of political winds that are moving through our land.
The link below, written by a trusted friend, further troubled me. Each day such thoughts are becoming more and more believable, minimally it speaks to the growing divide within American Christianity.
If at all so, the parallels drawn are quite alarming. No longer can one simply credit all this madness to just some partisan extrapolation, fueled by ridiculous political rhetoric from a maverick candidate.
This moment has implications for democracy as we know it, and for the movement known as Christianity, if in fact one dare apply the nature of Christ as a standard for civility.
Then the irony of my morning read of Scripture, which had brought me to Luke 13:1-9, offering a warning to those who might count themselves as untouchable and above any threat of injury, given their own righteousness.
Those referenced in the text had heard rumors of atrocities, Galileans whose blood Pilate had irreverently mingled with the blood of his idolatrous sacrifices. The implication being, that could never happen to them!
Themselves like many of us, "well-churched", thus somehow protected by a sense of religious covering, similar to those of us who work and worship, are blessed by plenty, and find the current political morass of our nation almost laughable, though no longer easily ignored.
The parallels offered between today’s political travesty and Germany in the 30's are striking, let alone the fact that the collective leadership of our democracy would allow such language from presidential candidates, certainly implies a growing denial of the moral decay within both parties.
If, as I have always believed, the "Word of the Spirit" as heard when reading the sacred text of scripture sheds light and truth, then the next few years in our country could bode quite treacherous for my grandkids. Thus my recent risk of a full transparency of thought.
Maybe I'm just older now and more susceptible to fears, unable to shake off extremist threats and Freudian slips such as “bloodbath," though history too has every right to bear voice in my thoughts.
I really should just chill, brush all that off, as just the day before, I sat in a room with hundreds of people from across every socio-economic strata in our community, along with sufficient leadership, influence and resources in the room to resolve our challenges, at least locally.
Yet, as I listened again to the "silent screams" expressed by one grassroots leader, herself caught up in the disparity of our community, I had to think just how many of these events I have attended, with little significant change.
I should like many, just bury myself in the congregational community of which we are apart. I could be quite comfortable there among those whom I believe truly love the Lord. Yet, when I like the day before, I engage fully within the greater community, I hear a “voice” that asks, “How’s that working for you?”
These words may now be troubling to my readers, groping for the positive as we move toward a fall election where it seems the choice will be between the lesser of two evils!
Might not that also be a sign of our moral decline, with the challenges emerging providing too great a risk to attract strong, other-oriented leaders versus the self serving political power players now on stage!
The parallels with Protestant Germany in the 30's may no longer be denied if one is rational, nor sloughed off based upon such nationalistic beliefs as we have often sung, "God shed his grace on thee and crowned thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea."
Germans also sang such songs well before reality struck!
The fact that the leadership of our democracy is so dependent upon an aging leadership, one easily swayed by a system long overdue of term limits is one thing, let alone allowing such language from a presidential candidate as to call "animals and less than human” those to whom we daily send missionaries in the name of Christ!
Certainly our border control is out of hand, our demand for illegal substances (hello) providing rich opportunity for foreign cartels. Yet, if my recent information is correct, a large percentage of those crossing now are from Asia, seeking relief and opportunity much like those who founded America!
Implications are of a growing moral decay within both parties, their rhetoric sloughed off as acceptable for a campaign year, though extreme. Allow me to emphasize again, the glaring reality of words openly spoken, hardly acceptable for the ears of our children! Role models, hardly!
The Lutherans of early Nazi Germany felt certain given a cultural chaos that government alliance could assure the national transformation which they had prayed for in their sanctuaries, at least until they realized their reliance upon a certain maverick's rhetoric had violated everything centuries of reformation had provided.
Only when violent scapegoating began did they realize that they had long since left "their first love", words earlier spoken by the Czechs as well (Jan Amos Komensky). Thus, Protestant Germany had ignored their own history, a record well captured of what institutions in bed with government could do to those who dared speak truth.
The book I am now reading, entitled, Czech Wells, The Heritage of Czech and Moravian Reformation, is a record of those martyred disciples from the Czech Republic who set up Luther's Reformation, their tongues nailed to the walls, hands and heads severed, all in the name of God!
Then there are those in my circle who see the scriptures less literal than those before me. Inspired, yet progressive, foretelling a day when the Body of Christ will have matured sufficient to reflect the Son of God. All the atrocities above necessary, as we incrementally advance toward that revelation, then shall He return!
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” -Romans 15:13 KJV