We have people in our congregation that do not want “politics” in our church. They do not want to hear about the atrocities, the ugliness. “Church should not be political” they say. Well all of this is not political, it is humanity. And if you don’t care about humanity, you’re not Christian.
Actually, many so-called Christians that I know hear nothing but politics from their pulpits. They are literally told that if they vote for a Democrat, they will go to hell.
The atheists and secular humanists I know are actually more Christ-like. It's all so discouraging.
Laurie, you’re not wrong. You’re not imagining things. And you’re far from alone.
Yes—there are churches that have traded the Gospel for grievance, sanctuaries that now sound more like campaign rallies. I’ve seen it too: pulpits twisted into political war drums, pastors preaching party over principle, threatening damnation like some backwoods loan shark hawking eternal consequences.
But listen to me now—don’t you dare let that steal your hope. Don’t let the cruelty of the loud convince you the quiet have vanished.
Because they haven’t.
There is still good in this world—so much good it would make your heart ache if you could see it all at once. It lives in the teachers who stay late. In the nurses who work through holidays. In the activists who fight like hell for people they’ll never meet. In the everyday people who walk the walk without needing a stained-glass window to justify it.
And yes, many of them don’t wear crosses. They don’t believe in heaven. They don’t claim faith at all. But they live it—they embody it—more deeply than those who’ve confused salvation with supremacy.
So don’t let the sickness of corrupted religion make you forget the cure: compassion still burns in the hearts of millions, and no pastor, no party, no propaganda machine can snuff it out.
Take that in. Let it steady you.
Let the warmth of that truth replace the cold discouragement trying to settle in your bones.
You’re right to grieve what’s been hijacked. But don’t stop there.
Because there’s something else to hold onto—something stronger than all of this poison:
The love that still lives in people. Real people. Good people.
And it’s not a relic. It’s not nostalgic. It’s not naïve.
It’s defiant.
So take that love into your heart. Let it heat your blood. Let it remind you that compassion has outlived every empire, every doctrine, every lie dressed in scripture.
And it will outlast this too.
Don’t despair. Not now.
Not when we still have work to do.
Not when we still have each other.
Not when we still remember what it means to be human
Then why didn't they show up to vote, or worse, vote for trump? I know a family, formerly really good friends, of two teachers, policeman, and firefighter who not only support trump, but celebrate him. The mother, a retired elementary teacher, as is their daughter in law, and her husband are "pious" Catholics. They would have washed their sons' mouths out with soap if they spoke in the vulgarities trump uses. They called their son's ex-girlfriend and mother of their illegitimate daughter a "floozy", yet they believe melania trump is the most elegant first lady we've ever had, (guess they haven't seen the porn shots) and think trump is the epitome of Christianity, if not the outright second coming, defying God's representative on earth, the Pope. They refuse to believe anything negative about trump or the republican party no matter how often presented the truth. Other former friends of mine are similar. "Devout" Catholics who worship at the feet of this disgusting filth of a man. The cult can't be broken. I've tried. I'm done wasting my time. I keep my sanity from steering as far away from these cultists as possible. I garden, work on my house, work on my artistic endeavors and am grateful that at least my immediate family, who are mostly agnostic or atheist, are far more compassionate, far more empathetic, far more moral and honorable than these fake "Christians" can ever hope to be.
I was a massage therapist for twenty years in a very red area. I had two senior clients specifically whom I know did not have social media and one did not have more than basic cable. They got all their hate from their Southern upbringing and church and religious television (700 Club especially) and talk radio. I know it’s fashionable to blame everything on social media, but i am old enough to remember the KKK recruiting on a high school campus in the 1980s (“God and country”) before the administration caught them and ran them off and to remember the John Birch Society in its heyday. This has been planned for a long time. We were not woke. We were sleeping and not paying attention to the extent of the threat.
And, sadly to many pastors will not speak to current events either, turning themselves into pretzels so as not to make anyone in the pews uncomfortable.
As I mentioned above, I think they should discuss the values that their church upholds -- feeding people, sheltering homeless people, helping refugees, etc. I think they can speak about US policies and laws, explaining how they fit or do not fit with their religious principles. But I don't think they should get specific about individual politicians... whether good or bad.
It's a little too late for that. The clergy invited politics in when they screamed and yelled about LGBTQ+ being an abomination. When they berated women who had abortions. When they advocated against gay marriage. When they helped spread rumors about hordes of criminal immigrants invading the country. Maybe they should have thought about it back then.
I get what you're saying. But at the same time, I don't believe that clergy should be discussing politics from the pulpit. In other words, they should not be telling their congregations how to vote, or which candidate is good, or which legislator is bad.
However, they should be discussing issues of poverty, equal treatment under the law, compassion for asylum seekers, medical coverage for poor and elderly people, and other issues that form the foundations of their religious values.
The clergy at my church lean liberal, but they are careful not to get into personal attacks or judgments about politicians they don't agree with. I don't like when conservative clergy tell people who to vote for or which politicians are pleasing to God. So, I have to hold the same standards for liberal clergy.
To be silent is to be complicit. They have a microphone. They refuse to use it, or they actually celebrate the cruelty. Do a bit of research on Bishop Timothy Dolan, yukking it up at trump's "prayer" breakfast. The religious leaders who say nothing are as vile and vicious as the president they whole-heartedly support.
I did not mention the pastor telling people who to vote for or even saying a politician’s name. That does not happen. What some in my church want is to not have any topic that they deem “political” brought up during a service. I’m not sure how you CANNOT bring up these topics in today’s world. Typically sermons use passages from the Bible and Jesus’s teachings and apply it to today and/or our lives. How do you do that and not mention all the garbage that trump and his allies and enablers have done and continue to do??
Truth. They are disgusting in their smug self-righteousness, reveling in other people's misery. Jesus would be throwing tables over in their churches. Maybe a few pews, too.
One of the hardest things I find to do these days is to care for these so called Christians. Trying to recognize their humanity as I ponder how it is possible for people to be so unkind and unfeeling toward their fellow human beings.
It's likely that their mental image of Jesus is as a fair-skinned white man as He has been depicted in paintings over the centuries. We know that with His heritage, the Real Jesus was as brown-skinned as those immigrants they are going after. What are they going to do when the Real Jesus greets them in the afterlife and tells them that they are being sent to an Eternal Alligator Alcatraz because of what they did in this lifetime to people who looked like Him?
I always hope there really is a judgment day. It's the only way I can feel that karma will bring things back to center. The unfairness and the cruelty is really hard to take. As a practicing Christian, I hate that the MAGA crowd has "owned" the cross necklace as a signal of their goodness. Whenever I wear mine, I worry that people will think I'm like KKKaroline Leavitt or Kristi Noem. I have flown a flag on my home for more than 30 years as a way to honor my father and his WWII bomber crew. Now I feel like that flag identifies me as part of the Trump crowd.
Fly our flag and be proud. I realized this July 4th that we need to do this even more than before. We are part of "We the People" and this country belongs to all of us. If we can't stand proudly with flag in hand against these evil doers then they are winning in even greater ways. If you want to make a clear statement, fly the Ukrainian flag or the Canadian flag next to our flag. People will know where you stand. I think it's important to be clear about our beliefs in this time of crisis. I have to trust that more of us feel the way you do and we have to be clear and stand together! ❤️🇺🇸🙏✊️
I know, Donna. I, too, am hesitant to wear crosses that I have and have worn for years or to display or wear stars and stripes. They have illegitimately and totally pre-empted these symbols.
It shouldn't really matter what they believe he looks like. They still ignore his teachings. And that is what is so disgusting and hypocritical of them all.
John, I agree with your arguments. These people who have rejected the Christ of the Bible cannot and should not be called Christians. Surely the Bible has a more appropriate name for them! - Blasphemer comes to mind. I have felt disgust and revulsion from the moment trump was first embraced by evangelicals, prosperity gospel grifters, and the New Apostolic Reformation faux-Christian supremacists.
When you have the many grifters teaching the “prosperity gospel”, is it any wonder that so many have forgotten what Jesus was all about? They are trying, and in some cases succeeding, to have the Ten Commandments posted in classrooms. Have they even bothered to read them? If I were still teaching, I’d be posting the beatitudes. Perhaps we’d be wise to start hammering them with quotations from the Bible that they ignore. Two can play that game. I’m tired of being labeled as “evil”.
At least they're much more honest than those who attend church not realizing they're raising their hands in worship of Satan dressed as as angel of light.
I find the maga “Christian” religious mindset…surreal. All seem anti-social, cruel, inhuman and inhumane. They’re also collectively giving each other permission to indulge the worst in themselves. Like it’s a reward believed earned being self proclaimed “soldiers of God”. Why does this keep happening near cyclically throughout history? Do they rationalize it all believing they’ll be given a “pass”?
The arrogance, the self righteousness, the slander and the lies that leaves their lips, the callousness of their hearts and their idol worship of Felon 34 45 47 is utterly digusting. They are all rejoicing and praising Jesus for getting Felon 34 in as the leader of the free world who now recklessly pisses on the constitution and calls humans animals and criminals in his crude theatrical circus of cruelty and self aggrandizement. Those in his MAGA Cult hang on his every word and repeat his slander and lies about immigrants, democrats, the media, the teachers, the professors, the critics and other Presidents. He rewrites history with his mouth and pen and with impunity can commit crimes and illegal actions and pardon criminals convicted by our courts. He rants and raves and the faithful follow him, excuse him, and mirror him. They have no use for the woke Jesus or the empathy of Jesus which they call weakness. They worship Trump, buy his crappy merch at exorbitant costs and bow to golden images of him and on flags and trashy Digital cards depicting the felon 34 as some great war hero or movie hero cowboy. This is idolatry and spits on the real values laid out in the Christian Bible. I have evangelical friends who were giddy and praising Jesus when Felon 34 was elected. I called them out on that adn they were not at all happy. Of course to them I am a backslider going to hell even though I love Jesus and go to church. I am queer and have a partner of 29 years. We both go to UCC welcoming faith community. We both volunteer but none of that matters because we are not the right kind of Christians. Evangelicals protested our church last month as we entered Sunday service. They had the gall to verbally attack us on Sunday in front of our own church and call us fake christians and a fake church because we welcome all even queers. I wonder what would happen if we showed up in front of their church on Sunday protesting, waving flags and signs and yelling at them. They would probably call the police and claim they were being persecuted and harassed. When their ilk came to our steps, we offered them water, hugs and asked them to come in. I doubt they would do the same if we protested outside their church. They might even throw stones. Sadly and tragically this is where we are at and I think it will get worse ad they I hate saying they but they have a spiritual and political mandate which Felon 34 has encouraged, and by his very words incited, just like Jan 6th. What can we do as we seek to follow Yeshua and live the Word in this world in kindness and compassion seeking to be the imitation of Christ. Isn't that what it is all about? some days I get so riled up, sad, angry, tired, and depressed when it feel like we are losing and they MAGA FELON CULT IS winning and spreading. I retreat to my garden in between my on line activism on Facebook. I get nary a like and several comments that condemn or call what I post a lie and I get rants about democrats as criminals, Biden's crimes in office, Hillary’s crimes, Obama’s crimes and all the evil they did and brought upon us. They offer no sources or links. They just seem to be parroting what ever they heard like vicious gossip or rumors spread one dart at a time and the poison grows with each share on social media like a viral plague. What are decent people to do? Cowering is not an option, silence is not an option, inaction is not an option. I got to regain my center and spiritual strength so I can do something meaningful even if it is a small gesture. We are starting to locally organize and we have had two protests well attended in our little Western Michigan town. We are tired but have not thrown in the towel yet.
I think of those who have come before us in times of crisis and made some good trouble at great cost. I guess it’s time. I grew up during the Civil Rights Movements, I remember what I saw and heard. This folks were super heros who took great risks for equality and civil rights for all.
May Creator give us courage and wisdom as we seek balance and seek to save democracy. If liberty and equality or justice is lost to even one, then we all lose. There is so much at stake right now.
All True. These people have warped their version of Christianity to a a point of no return . These are not Christians these are a miserable perverse group of people who found something to hide their vicious lies behind .
Their consciences are so eroded with the filth of hate , they can only see their vile acts as noble .
Of course they’re wrong . Hopefully God will let them know who they are soon . In their decaying cocoons filled with the rot of their hateful scorn .
I can't help but think of the "unforgivable sin" of offending the Holy Spirit. What these people are doing, cruelty in the guise of Jesus, is unforgivable. I can only hope for accountability for them.
What a brilliant writer you are, John. Everything you say here is true and thank you for articulating what I feel and think but can’t express in the way that you do — your words are like a hyper-powerful flashlight shining on the putrid muck, every disgusting particle in sharp relief.
John, are you having any Zooms or have you had them and I missed them. It was nice to have a chance to chat with others from other places. Thanks for all your thoughts and for what you do.
John, MAGA Christian has got to be the most damning oxymoron ever. Find your joy this Sunday, and I'll try to do the same, even if it is pretty hard to do so these days.
We have people in our congregation that do not want “politics” in our church. They do not want to hear about the atrocities, the ugliness. “Church should not be political” they say. Well all of this is not political, it is humanity. And if you don’t care about humanity, you’re not Christian.
Actually, many so-called Christians that I know hear nothing but politics from their pulpits. They are literally told that if they vote for a Democrat, they will go to hell.
The atheists and secular humanists I know are actually more Christ-like. It's all so discouraging.
Gandhi said, “I like your Christ very much. I do not like your Christians; they are nothing like your Christ”
Laurie, you’re not wrong. You’re not imagining things. And you’re far from alone.
Yes—there are churches that have traded the Gospel for grievance, sanctuaries that now sound more like campaign rallies. I’ve seen it too: pulpits twisted into political war drums, pastors preaching party over principle, threatening damnation like some backwoods loan shark hawking eternal consequences.
But listen to me now—don’t you dare let that steal your hope. Don’t let the cruelty of the loud convince you the quiet have vanished.
Because they haven’t.
There is still good in this world—so much good it would make your heart ache if you could see it all at once. It lives in the teachers who stay late. In the nurses who work through holidays. In the activists who fight like hell for people they’ll never meet. In the everyday people who walk the walk without needing a stained-glass window to justify it.
And yes, many of them don’t wear crosses. They don’t believe in heaven. They don’t claim faith at all. But they live it—they embody it—more deeply than those who’ve confused salvation with supremacy.
So don’t let the sickness of corrupted religion make you forget the cure: compassion still burns in the hearts of millions, and no pastor, no party, no propaganda machine can snuff it out.
Take that in. Let it steady you.
Let the warmth of that truth replace the cold discouragement trying to settle in your bones.
You’re right to grieve what’s been hijacked. But don’t stop there.
Because there’s something else to hold onto—something stronger than all of this poison:
The love that still lives in people. Real people. Good people.
And it’s not a relic. It’s not nostalgic. It’s not naïve.
It’s defiant.
So take that love into your heart. Let it heat your blood. Let it remind you that compassion has outlived every empire, every doctrine, every lie dressed in scripture.
And it will outlast this too.
Don’t despair. Not now.
Not when we still have work to do.
Not when we still have each other.
Not when we still remember what it means to be human
Then why didn't they show up to vote, or worse, vote for trump? I know a family, formerly really good friends, of two teachers, policeman, and firefighter who not only support trump, but celebrate him. The mother, a retired elementary teacher, as is their daughter in law, and her husband are "pious" Catholics. They would have washed their sons' mouths out with soap if they spoke in the vulgarities trump uses. They called their son's ex-girlfriend and mother of their illegitimate daughter a "floozy", yet they believe melania trump is the most elegant first lady we've ever had, (guess they haven't seen the porn shots) and think trump is the epitome of Christianity, if not the outright second coming, defying God's representative on earth, the Pope. They refuse to believe anything negative about trump or the republican party no matter how often presented the truth. Other former friends of mine are similar. "Devout" Catholics who worship at the feet of this disgusting filth of a man. The cult can't be broken. I've tried. I'm done wasting my time. I keep my sanity from steering as far away from these cultists as possible. I garden, work on my house, work on my artistic endeavors and am grateful that at least my immediate family, who are mostly agnostic or atheist, are far more compassionate, far more empathetic, far more moral and honorable than these fake "Christians" can ever hope to be.
I was a massage therapist for twenty years in a very red area. I had two senior clients specifically whom I know did not have social media and one did not have more than basic cable. They got all their hate from their Southern upbringing and church and religious television (700 Club especially) and talk radio. I know it’s fashionable to blame everything on social media, but i am old enough to remember the KKK recruiting on a high school campus in the 1980s (“God and country”) before the administration caught them and ran them off and to remember the John Birch Society in its heyday. This has been planned for a long time. We were not woke. We were sleeping and not paying attention to the extent of the threat.
I agree. Hate can be very patient when it wants something. "How did we get here?" is a rhetorical question. We've always been here.
And, sadly to many pastors will not speak to current events either, turning themselves into pretzels so as not to make anyone in the pews uncomfortable.
As I mentioned above, I think they should discuss the values that their church upholds -- feeding people, sheltering homeless people, helping refugees, etc. I think they can speak about US policies and laws, explaining how they fit or do not fit with their religious principles. But I don't think they should get specific about individual politicians... whether good or bad.
It's a little too late for that. The clergy invited politics in when they screamed and yelled about LGBTQ+ being an abomination. When they berated women who had abortions. When they advocated against gay marriage. When they helped spread rumors about hordes of criminal immigrants invading the country. Maybe they should have thought about it back then.
I get what you're saying. But at the same time, I don't believe that clergy should be discussing politics from the pulpit. In other words, they should not be telling their congregations how to vote, or which candidate is good, or which legislator is bad.
However, they should be discussing issues of poverty, equal treatment under the law, compassion for asylum seekers, medical coverage for poor and elderly people, and other issues that form the foundations of their religious values.
The clergy at my church lean liberal, but they are careful not to get into personal attacks or judgments about politicians they don't agree with. I don't like when conservative clergy tell people who to vote for or which politicians are pleasing to God. So, I have to hold the same standards for liberal clergy.
First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller
"First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me"
To be silent is to be complicit. They have a microphone. They refuse to use it, or they actually celebrate the cruelty. Do a bit of research on Bishop Timothy Dolan, yukking it up at trump's "prayer" breakfast. The religious leaders who say nothing are as vile and vicious as the president they whole-heartedly support.
I did not mention the pastor telling people who to vote for or even saying a politician’s name. That does not happen. What some in my church want is to not have any topic that they deem “political” brought up during a service. I’m not sure how you CANNOT bring up these topics in today’s world. Typically sermons use passages from the Bible and Jesus’s teachings and apply it to today and/or our lives. How do you do that and not mention all the garbage that trump and his allies and enablers have done and continue to do??
Amen!
Truth. They are disgusting in their smug self-righteousness, reveling in other people's misery. Jesus would be throwing tables over in their churches. Maybe a few pews, too.
One of the hardest things I find to do these days is to care for these so called Christians. Trying to recognize their humanity as I ponder how it is possible for people to be so unkind and unfeeling toward their fellow human beings.
It's likely that their mental image of Jesus is as a fair-skinned white man as He has been depicted in paintings over the centuries. We know that with His heritage, the Real Jesus was as brown-skinned as those immigrants they are going after. What are they going to do when the Real Jesus greets them in the afterlife and tells them that they are being sent to an Eternal Alligator Alcatraz because of what they did in this lifetime to people who looked like Him?
I always hope there really is a judgment day. It's the only way I can feel that karma will bring things back to center. The unfairness and the cruelty is really hard to take. As a practicing Christian, I hate that the MAGA crowd has "owned" the cross necklace as a signal of their goodness. Whenever I wear mine, I worry that people will think I'm like KKKaroline Leavitt or Kristi Noem. I have flown a flag on my home for more than 30 years as a way to honor my father and his WWII bomber crew. Now I feel like that flag identifies me as part of the Trump crowd.
Fly our flag and be proud. I realized this July 4th that we need to do this even more than before. We are part of "We the People" and this country belongs to all of us. If we can't stand proudly with flag in hand against these evil doers then they are winning in even greater ways. If you want to make a clear statement, fly the Ukrainian flag or the Canadian flag next to our flag. People will know where you stand. I think it's important to be clear about our beliefs in this time of crisis. I have to trust that more of us feel the way you do and we have to be clear and stand together! ❤️🇺🇸🙏✊️
Or do as John suggests. Fly it upside down as a symbol of distress, or accompanied by the Rainbow flag, otherwise you just look like a maga.
I know, Donna. I, too, am hesitant to wear crosses that I have and have worn for years or to display or wear stars and stripes. They have illegitimately and totally pre-empted these symbols.
It shouldn't really matter what they believe he looks like. They still ignore his teachings. And that is what is so disgusting and hypocritical of them all.
John, I agree with your arguments. These people who have rejected the Christ of the Bible cannot and should not be called Christians. Surely the Bible has a more appropriate name for them! - Blasphemer comes to mind. I have felt disgust and revulsion from the moment trump was first embraced by evangelicals, prosperity gospel grifters, and the New Apostolic Reformation faux-Christian supremacists.
When you have the many grifters teaching the “prosperity gospel”, is it any wonder that so many have forgotten what Jesus was all about? They are trying, and in some cases succeeding, to have the Ten Commandments posted in classrooms. Have they even bothered to read them? If I were still teaching, I’d be posting the beatitudes. Perhaps we’d be wise to start hammering them with quotations from the Bible that they ignore. Two can play that game. I’m tired of being labeled as “evil”.
Thank you!
Many of them do not go to a church, John. They just claim to be Christians without any allegiance to Jesus.
At least they're much more honest than those who attend church not realizing they're raising their hands in worship of Satan dressed as as angel of light.
I find the maga “Christian” religious mindset…surreal. All seem anti-social, cruel, inhuman and inhumane. They’re also collectively giving each other permission to indulge the worst in themselves. Like it’s a reward believed earned being self proclaimed “soldiers of God”. Why does this keep happening near cyclically throughout history? Do they rationalize it all believing they’ll be given a “pass”?
It’s appalling and frustrating.
So true. So sad. So frustrating!!! I am thankful for your words everyday as I live in a very RED state
PURE EVIL. Jesus will say, “Get thee behind me, I never knew you.”
The arrogance, the self righteousness, the slander and the lies that leaves their lips, the callousness of their hearts and their idol worship of Felon 34 45 47 is utterly digusting. They are all rejoicing and praising Jesus for getting Felon 34 in as the leader of the free world who now recklessly pisses on the constitution and calls humans animals and criminals in his crude theatrical circus of cruelty and self aggrandizement. Those in his MAGA Cult hang on his every word and repeat his slander and lies about immigrants, democrats, the media, the teachers, the professors, the critics and other Presidents. He rewrites history with his mouth and pen and with impunity can commit crimes and illegal actions and pardon criminals convicted by our courts. He rants and raves and the faithful follow him, excuse him, and mirror him. They have no use for the woke Jesus or the empathy of Jesus which they call weakness. They worship Trump, buy his crappy merch at exorbitant costs and bow to golden images of him and on flags and trashy Digital cards depicting the felon 34 as some great war hero or movie hero cowboy. This is idolatry and spits on the real values laid out in the Christian Bible. I have evangelical friends who were giddy and praising Jesus when Felon 34 was elected. I called them out on that adn they were not at all happy. Of course to them I am a backslider going to hell even though I love Jesus and go to church. I am queer and have a partner of 29 years. We both go to UCC welcoming faith community. We both volunteer but none of that matters because we are not the right kind of Christians. Evangelicals protested our church last month as we entered Sunday service. They had the gall to verbally attack us on Sunday in front of our own church and call us fake christians and a fake church because we welcome all even queers. I wonder what would happen if we showed up in front of their church on Sunday protesting, waving flags and signs and yelling at them. They would probably call the police and claim they were being persecuted and harassed. When their ilk came to our steps, we offered them water, hugs and asked them to come in. I doubt they would do the same if we protested outside their church. They might even throw stones. Sadly and tragically this is where we are at and I think it will get worse ad they I hate saying they but they have a spiritual and political mandate which Felon 34 has encouraged, and by his very words incited, just like Jan 6th. What can we do as we seek to follow Yeshua and live the Word in this world in kindness and compassion seeking to be the imitation of Christ. Isn't that what it is all about? some days I get so riled up, sad, angry, tired, and depressed when it feel like we are losing and they MAGA FELON CULT IS winning and spreading. I retreat to my garden in between my on line activism on Facebook. I get nary a like and several comments that condemn or call what I post a lie and I get rants about democrats as criminals, Biden's crimes in office, Hillary’s crimes, Obama’s crimes and all the evil they did and brought upon us. They offer no sources or links. They just seem to be parroting what ever they heard like vicious gossip or rumors spread one dart at a time and the poison grows with each share on social media like a viral plague. What are decent people to do? Cowering is not an option, silence is not an option, inaction is not an option. I got to regain my center and spiritual strength so I can do something meaningful even if it is a small gesture. We are starting to locally organize and we have had two protests well attended in our little Western Michigan town. We are tired but have not thrown in the towel yet.
I think of those who have come before us in times of crisis and made some good trouble at great cost. I guess it’s time. I grew up during the Civil Rights Movements, I remember what I saw and heard. This folks were super heros who took great risks for equality and civil rights for all.
May Creator give us courage and wisdom as we seek balance and seek to save democracy. If liberty and equality or justice is lost to even one, then we all lose. There is so much at stake right now.
All True. These people have warped their version of Christianity to a a point of no return . These are not Christians these are a miserable perverse group of people who found something to hide their vicious lies behind .
Their consciences are so eroded with the filth of hate , they can only see their vile acts as noble .
Of course they’re wrong . Hopefully God will let them know who they are soon . In their decaying cocoons filled with the rot of their hateful scorn .
I can't help but think of the "unforgivable sin" of offending the Holy Spirit. What these people are doing, cruelty in the guise of Jesus, is unforgivable. I can only hope for accountability for them.
What a brilliant writer you are, John. Everything you say here is true and thank you for articulating what I feel and think but can’t express in the way that you do — your words are like a hyper-powerful flashlight shining on the putrid muck, every disgusting particle in sharp relief.
Same here
John, are you having any Zooms or have you had them and I missed them. It was nice to have a chance to chat with others from other places. Thanks for all your thoughts and for what you do.
John, MAGA Christian has got to be the most damning oxymoron ever. Find your joy this Sunday, and I'll try to do the same, even if it is pretty hard to do so these days.