My Dear Stolidus,
I’ve watched these last few weeks as the world around us crashes, weeps, and wobbles into an unknown future.
The courts of the land have made a mockery of justice, preferring to separate us rather than unite us in the name of individualism. It’s foolish that they would give the states back one choice only to take another from them. All in the name of a document written by fallible men and slaveholders who would be mystified by Wi-Fi.
And, to top it off, these moves are cheered by those of a certain brand of church. Yes, my dear Stolidus, the very church you proclaim feels the need to regulate life and define it, also hoards their guns to defend their life over others. Your fervent followers of no fear, seem to have a very real fear of others.
The world you’ve created (mocking those of us who’ve chosen to read our shared sacred text through the lens of love):
Makes it easier to get a gun than help for mental health issues…
Makes it a crime to take an unborn life but defends the right to take a life in front of them…
I imagine those who write our sacred texts can’t turn away in disgust fast enough. Mixing Christianity and a perverse nationalism to hoard power over marginalized people would, I believe, cause the disciples to kick the dust from their sandals and turn their backs on you and the flock you’ve gathered.
But, I stray too far into politics, when it is your soul (if I believed in a soul), your spirit that matters. You’ve spent so much time convincing, conniving, and just conning people that I worry about you.
I know, you’ll scoff at my emotions, and laugh at my rationale, but hear me out.
It has to be a lonely way of moving through the world. Afraid of others who don’t look or act like you. You know, the kinds of people Jesus hung out with to the ire of the power of the day.
It must be exhausting to believe you’re the only “right” game in town. I look at the namesake of our shared history and see how he changed his mind when presented with another way of thinking. I wonder where all the questions he asked, but never answered, reside in your spirit?
If Jesus chose not to answer, then who are you (or me for that matter) to do anything but venture a tentative guess? I’m interested in where we came up with the idea that faith is the equivalent of questionless follower?
I’ll admit I don’t know where to go with these thoughts. I don’t know where to find you, at least the version of you that allowed for more than basic mere Christianity. I do know it’s scary to feel uncertain. I imagine that’s why it’s better to believe in a gun rather than a God. One is much more tangible and weighty. It responds when you point it and pray with your forefinger. But alas, I won’t convince you here.
Words can only convey so much. And, they are a product of their time and place.
You see, the only way to create change is to believe in the Spirit between us. That, my dear friend is becoming harder to see. The more we heed the call of a personal savior and personal salvation, the more we come to believe in insiders and outsiders, and the less be believe in a God who co-created it all.
It is a little funny that our emphasis on conversion has created classes of people, when there is little in the story we both love that corroborates this theology and view of the world. Sure, there are politics and nations that are disparaged by writers who were oppressed and marginalized by people in power.
It’s not much different today. I’m sure those powerful people written about by the prophets and disciples feared losing their power. They grabbed and oppressed and persecuted and put down those writers. Only, the twist in the story is that all of them toppled.
Whether it was the weight of their hubris or the blindness of their folly, they bet against a God who loves and loves jealously. Yes, my dear Stolidus, I hope you’ll reach out to talk. I don’t wish you to topple, but more to transform…
Until next time…