Unfortunately, the document put forward by the Global Methodist Church is ultimately a failed attempt that I am afraid will indeed cause more harm than good. In fact, I believe what they have shared is ultimately heretical. Below is why I believe this is so and I also try and offer some solutions for the folks with the GMC.
Make no mistake, the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is going to be a disaster. Women's rights, voting rights, LGBTQ rights are all endangered and impending is a pseudo-Christian theocracy where evangelical Christians who want to use their faith to discriminate will be protected as a special class of citizens. The American ideal of equality is likely going to cease to be anything more than rhetoric if the new court gets its way.
Of course the Republican National Convention this week is going to be filled with lies. And even when others are given the mic for very short periods of time they will try and convince the United States that conservatism is the only force that can save us; that conservatism best sums up the values and principles of our faith and the collective belief in freedom and equality in this country. They are wrong.
I am not surprised they are being cruel for the sake of being cruel – this is what they do. It’s just that this move is an incredibly stupid political move. Again, stupidity is nothing new either considering they almost held trump’s sparsely attended rally on Juneteenth and 99 years after the worst race massacre in US history. No one does stupid like this administration. But even this move was a head-scratcher.
One of the clearest visuals of the past few days since the murder of George Floyd has been of local police departments gearing up like military units and directing their impatience and wrath towards not just those committing violence, but peaceful protesters, bystanders, and even the media. Local police departments have become a military presence even while they are charged to protect and serve.
Instead, trump and Pence are playing to their evangelical base and opting for a strong man approach – power through, refuse to back down - be a MAN! Don’t listen to those bespectacled know-it-all scientists who sit around all day in their lab coats. Be a man and refuse to wear protective gear – even when you are touring a factory that makes protective gear!
Forty years ago last week, on March 24 to be exact, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated while giving mass in El Salvador. Romero, who began his ministry somewhat withdrawn and studious, became an outspoken activist and advocator for the liberation of all Salvadorans, especially the landless poor who were being oppressed and killed by the affluent elite and the political leaders they kept in power.
Police shootings, particularly against people of color, have been on the increase over the course of the last decade and while a number of factors play a part in this – including implicit and explicit racism – one reason that has only recently gotten some attention is the role that “trainings” of police forces by the state of Israel have played a part.
The day after the State of the Union, and even after Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade angrily denounced religion being used as a political weapon, Unhyphenated America Executive Director and “staunch Christian Constitutional Conservative” Christopher Harris announced that, “Listen, I would argue that it's probably three of the greatest years since maybe Jesus walked the Earth with his ministry.”
On the same day that the administration announced it’s rule to stop what they call “birth tourism” – something they had not done or said anything since June of 2019 – donald trump spoke at what is called the “March for Life.” The irony of speaking at a supposedly “pro-life” event while announcing a rule that will target pregnant women was completely lost on all of the attendees and the organizations that endorsed the march because not a single organization or organizer spoke a single word of protest.
This is the transcript for the new podcast, Fig Tree Revolution. You can find it on Stitcher and iTunes.
Thus, I have no purity tests. I used to be pretty picky about who I voted for because I understood voting as an endorsement of not only a specific set of policies, but even the endorsement of the person’s character. But I am not there anymore. Definitely not now. I will vote for any person, any object, any home appliance, any houseplant, any animal, any amoeba - I will vote for anyone and anything who will beat trump soundly.
Last week Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that Texas will no longer resettle refugees. Even as mass shootings continue in Texas and around the United States, and even as mass migrations – many of them caused by violence and governmental persecution – continue across the world, Governor Abbott has made it clear to the nation and the world that in his and trump’s world, guns are good and refugees are bad.
We would do well to remember that this administration’s war on science is not just a singular isolated strategy that is not linked to a deeper ideology. This isn’t just more incompetent stupidity that this administration seems at times drowned in. Invalidating science goes hand in hand in hand with fundamentalist Christianity and promoting unrestrained free market capitalism. It always has.
