A Virtual Church

Let's get real

Yesterday

Most of us went to high school. Some of us went to college. Mrs. Boyette was the history teacher in my tiny Ayden High School. She taught history. Linear teaching. Dates. Years. Places.

Our first trip we took to Italy, I kept a journal of places and people we met. I remembered Mrs. Boyette’s teaching and gave thanks for her and High School Principal Faust Johnson who hired her. On one of our trips to Italy, we visited the monastery of Saint Benedict. We saw the fountain and the Pitti Palace. I most remembered the visit to the Monastery where Brother Lawarence washed dishes.

Brother Lawrence’s book, Practicing the Presence of God, taught Incarnational faith, embodiment of the life of Christ that loves God, other people, and all creation. Incarnation is bearing the imprint of God in our own lives and living it out in the ways Christ lived it.

In that Tuscan village, children played in the piazza. Gelato was sold in every corner. There was joy. Everybody was invited to the party.

Contrast that with a squad of marauders, following sociopaths and morally bereft leaders, in harassing and shooting citizens. It is sickening and it is wrong. A few in Congress are finally feeling the rot to their own souls as they watch the horrors of civil war play out on the streets of America.

Meanwhile, Buddhists are trekking through our state walking quietly, in prayer. They live off the goodness of people and churches who share space, shelter, and food. MAGA is drawing guns on innocent people, American citizens.

How far we have fallen, O God. Have mercy on us.

Senator Thom Tillis may have offered too little too late in voicing resistance to what we all see. Other voices are beginning to follow. We cannot love our jobs more than caring for the people we serve.

Murder of American citizens is not a good look in anyone’s sphere.

I am not sure impeachment is something a split congress has the courage to do. The 25^th Amendment may take too long to implement. Mid-term elections seem to be out greatest hope.

Republicans are shuttering voting sites and shortening voting hours. Seems like they cannot risk playing on a level playing field.

John Wesley and other British preachers who were here in the early years of our American experiment, preached a gospel of inclusion that welcomed the stranger and anyone who is “other.” The Quakers in America were the first to welcome people of color to their church balconies.

Full inclusion is what the gospel calls for. “Eye for an eye” theology and dashing babies on the rocks is so Babylonian.

I hear from a lot of you. Sentiment and love are stirring among us. Trump’s sycophants, even Thom Tillis, are beginning to crack.

Hate is ugly. From Nero to Hitler, the memory of torture, disregard, and suffering are written with great clarity.

A leader and his cult who attack and kill American citizens is the beginning of a new Civil War in America. 250 years of the American experiment are being tested against the resolve of the citizenry, and the courage of a Congress.

The American story is not fully written yet. God did not create us to hate. We are called to love one another. It is the ethos of the Judeo-Christian faith. Love God, Love one another. Love all creation. This is what true righteousness is.

The false piety of MAGA will not survive. Love wins.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com 

 

 

 

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