Heresy in the Homeland

Recently, the new president of the United States attended a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral.  The bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of the District of Columbia decided a service of prayer was as good a time as any to public berate the new president for what she perceives to be his shortcomings on matters of social justice she clings to.  While it is certainly within her right to promote whatever message she seems appropriate, given that the current state of the Episcopal church seems less based on faith and more on social order or disorder; It is entirely fascinating to me that a woman who encouraged and promoted physical violence and destruction for the summer of 2020, denied the resurrection of Christ during her Easter sermon, and actively promotes anti-Semitic and anti-Christian ideals- should be the one to presume to lecture anyone about morality from a supposedly Christian position.  

Is it not ironic that those who demand "mercy", are the least merciful to others?

Is it not ironic that those who proclaim this or that person as "scared", encourage those who they dislike to live in fear?

Is it not ironic that those who proclaim "justice", actively work against its administration and to undermine law?

Is it not ironic that those who demand "respect", refuse to show it to others?

Is it not ironic that those who proclaim "oppression", demand the oppression of voices other than their own?

The entire point of the election of a man who is flawed, certainly, but different from the opposition; is an indictment on those who have so pervaded themselves with self-righteous indignation about anything other than themselves, that they simply cannot imagine a world that is not under their own control.

The hubris and outright hypocrisy of those who claim to stand for the oppressed, the immigrant, the homeless, etc.; is that they have done none of it, while demanding respect for it that they have not earned or sought to earn.   The opposition party had 4 years to seek to better the lives of American citizens, but instead they spent it in political grand-standing; proclaiming anyone who thought differently to be 'garbage'. 

The same people who proclaim Christ and the church as "not supposed to be part of the empire", would seek to build an empire in their own fashion instead.  

You cannot serve God or neighbor if your heart is filled with self-righteousness and hatred for people simply because of who they voted for or what you perceive as their shortcomings in YOUR eye, or as close as you can get from peering around the beam that is stuck there.  The work of the church is to bridge the gaps between society and to forge a world in which life can be better for ALL peoples, not just those who voted the same way as yourself.   

Yes, this means at times we will have to be governed by men we may not like or find acceptable.

Yes, this means there will be laws and regulations we are obliged to obey, which we may disagree with.

Yes, this means that we will have to swallow our egos and pride in order to work with those we dislike.

This is why the message of Christ is counter-cultural: because it calls us to recognize our own faults and failures, rather than to obsess on those we think we see in others.  

You cannot claim to love your neighbor if you scream at them because they voted a way you don't like.

And you most certainly cannot proclaim Christian morality if you deny the very essence of the Christian faith. 

Here Endeth the Lesson.