Rumblings. 3.6.26

Rumblings. 3.6.26

1. A president with an impaired conscience, dwindling popularity ratings, a struggling economy, and rattled by the shadow of Epstein, was looking for a distraction. So without consulting Congress,  he started a war.

Now his team is telling U.S. citizens to immediately get out of the Middle East. Is there a plan in place to help them escape? Nope. Oops.That kind of planning appears to have fallen through the cracks. 

What a clown show, huh? Without a doubt, this is the most outrageously incompetent administration ever. It lacks integrity. At the drop of a hat, they justify lying, cheating, and stealing and expect us to ignore their behavior.  

2. “Most of us spend a lot of our lives trying to get out of something old and confining and into something new and free. That’s why we so easily identify with Moses and the freed Hebrew slaves on their journey through the wild wasteland known as the wilderness.” ~ Brian McLaren

I do identify with the Exodus story. I often refer to my faith journey as a daily walk and talk with God. To be honest, like those leaving Egypt and looking for the Promised Land, I can occasionally lose my bearings. 

I then have to remind myself that I chose to embark on a long journey of obedience that at times is quite mysterious. I chose a trek, not a magic formula. That choice involves  saying ‘yes’ over and over again even when I want to say no. 

3. America wasn’t founded as a Christian nation. It was founded as a free nation.

The United States Constitution didn’t establish a national religion. However, it protects your right to practice one — or none at all. The freedom that protects your faith is the same freedom that protects your neighbor from it.

Church and state were separated on purpose, not to silence faith, but to keep the government from controlling it. Faith can influence society. It just doesn’t get to rule it.

Christian nationalism flips the Founders intentional design upside down and history has a way of showing us that when the state favors a certain version of faith, democracy suffers and God is minimized. 

If you want your version of Christianity to become the law of the land, you might want to pause and mull that over a bit more.

4.  “… God asks us to trust, to say yes, to put our lives into His hands. It’s like walking around in a pitch-dark room, afraid that we’re going to bump into something or trip or fall. We put our hands out in front of us and walk very slowly. We desperately want to have our pathway illuminated. We want to know where we are going and how we are going to get there. Yet a voice comes to us out of the darkness, asking us to trust. We want certitude, but instead God asks us to have faith.” ~ Center for Action and Contemplation

5. “Black People Aren’t Apes”

That was on the sign that Congressman Al Green waved as Trump was walking down the aisle before his State of the Union Address. It was referencing the horrible, racist video Trump posted, portraying Barack Obama and  Michelle Obama as apes.  

Al Green held his sign up just as Donald walked by, and Congressman Steve Scalise angrily pushed it down.  Heaven forbid Trump has to confront his own immaturity and racist inclinations.

Green made his point and was ushered out. 

Representative Green has a history of drawing attention to issues he believes are just flat out wrong. And a racist video posted by a sitting President is oh so very, very wrong. You see, for Green, racism isn’t just a word. It’s an attitude and a posture, a hateful way of being. As an African American he had already been wounded  numerous times by powerful white people who thought nothing of piercing his heart and the hearts of other people of color just for the fun of it. 

Take a dive into African American’s role in our nation’s history. Dive deep enough and you too just might want to make a sign and cause a bit of a ruckus. That is, if you’re willing to be honest and courageous.

6.  The other day I watched a Kendrick Bros film which, back in the day, was must see entertainment for evangelicals. This particular film (Facing the Giants) was about a ragtag  high school football team, overcoming obstacles, a miracle pregnancy, revival at the high school, the goodness of God and the power of prayer and the supremacy of scripture. It was  over the top simplistic for sure but I teared up as I watched it. 

I guess, on that day, I needed something over the top and simple. Don’t we all?

7. “Congress should repair the US immigration system by placing hard-working immigrants and their families on a path to citizenship by improving access to the legal immigration system.”  ~ 18 Roman Catholic Bishops

I agree. Access to citizenship for hard working immigrant families (even if they came here illegally) would solve a whole lot of problems. They already play a significant and vital role in their neighborhoods and towns. Let’s give them a pathway to citizenship and quit wrongly insinuating that they’re among the worst of the worst. 

Will it ever happen? Not as long as this administration is in power. Pathways to citizenship for refugees of color doesn’t play well to their base. 

8. Epstein, even though he’s dead, sure has a lot of rich, powerful men squirming.  

9. “I wanted the stability of a single purpose until death; I’ve never cared for life in its fogginess. But calling demands that we honor its fluidity. Not all calls are eternal. They ebb and flow with us - with our needs, our community, and our loves. If there’s anything static in it, it is that we are called to whatever makes us more human, not to what makes us matter. Calling has no competency in this area. Its purpose is not to prove our worth, but to show us how we might practice it. It is a divine corridor with many doors and no one can tell you how long each door will remain unlocked. No one can save you from having to turn the knob.”~ Cole Arthur Riley

10. Allowing evil to prosper and goodness to diminish isn’t part of God’s plan for our lives.