When it comes to “saving the world,” I am much more interested in the life and teachings of Jesus than I am in any divinely ordered sacrificial actions that humanity has overly burdened the stories with. Even in the stories themselves, we see signs of the importance of his life and teachings.
Biblically, there’s no indication that prophets necessarily have supernatural powers. Occasionally, prophets hear the voice of God and communicate it to their people, but more often, prophets are simply those who perceive the actions of their communities and deduce the likely consequences.
Donald Trump is returning to office. The part of me that majored in Political Science wants to remind us of how political pendulums tend to swing back and forth over the years, and even so, general progress has been taking place for humanity. This part wants to join St. Julian of Norwich in saying that in the big picture, “all shall be well.”
In order to push back, in both religion and in politics, we have to get over our addiction to the “easy fix.” It’s not only a lie, but in the case of November 5th’s election, it’s straightforward escapism — evading the real issues at hand in order to avoid any personal responsibility.
We are living in a post-truth, post-trust, post-rational world divided by fear and deception. How did we get here? By incremental acceptance of the unacceptable until it seems normal.
In honor of Gustavo Guttieriez’s recent death, I found myself thumbing through some of his works in my home library and my eyes especially fell on his Conclusion to his fine study On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent.
In Hebrew scriptures and repeated in New Testament teachings, G-d assumes all authority in the practice of vengeance. If, after thousands of years, we truly trusted this to G-d, how might we face this moment we have co-constructed? The wars, the biodiversity loss, the assault weapons, the changed climate.
When I heard the news of Harris running for President, I immediately thought about how my deceased Brooklyn Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm would be proud of this moment. Chisholm was the first African American woman to campaign for the presidential nomination in 1972 on the Democratic ticket.
It is much worse to wreck the law’s foundation, which is perfectly legal to do, than it is to break the law, which can land you in jail. Unless Americans understand this, and vote accordingly, we’ll lose our democracy on November 5.
American Christians often wonder exactly how their faith and politics ought to intersect. It’s an understandable confusion, especially for those who value freedom of belief and religious diversity. I often hear that we should “keep politics out of the pulpit,” but doing so is a theological impossibility for those who take Jesus’ teachings seriously because Christianity is inherently political.