A FB Rage Page

Because I'm friends with certain types, got a page recommendation, so I paid a visit.

OMG, Rump.
White Supremacy.
LGBTQ hatred.
Obama hatred.

Now, with some folks talking about "getting along" with those of another persuasion, I'm clueless, I will admit.

Maybe a cuppa would help.
Some face-to-face.
But I don't think FB, or any other social medium can promote communication, or communion. Information, yes; encouragement, for sure. Friendship and hope, always.

I looked carefully over the page for any sign of decency.
Found none.

The writer is self-listed as single.
He's a guy.
His brain is awash with hate.

I quickly left the page.
It left me nauseated.

I keep forgetting how bad it is.

I think of our forebears and the question of slavery.
They fundamentally knew there was no compromise.
Either yes or no.
Up or down.

Paul the Apostle understood there could be no compromise with some elements.
So did Luther and Calvin.
So did Jeremiah and Micah.

Of our own nation:
Washington.
John Adams.
And Lincoln.
FDR
Johnson.
And with regard to schools, Eisenhower.

All were leaders of great mind and energy.
Striving to build the Union.
But understanding that some ideas were inimical.

Some would have been more than happy to dismantle the fledgling Union in order to promote their own interests.
Then, or now, States' Righters, and White Supremacists.

A few moments on that page was enough.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Can't we all just get along?
Good question, for sure.
But history doesn't offer much hope.

Cain killed Able.
Aaron crafted the Golden Calf.
The king threw Jeremiah into the well.

The Apostle Paul's vision of inclusion:
Met heavy resistance in the mother church.
Paul choose grace; others choose to build a wall.

Luther and the Holy Roman Empire and its Holy Church.
The Colonies and Britain.
Hitler and Churchill.

FDR and Big Biz.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and segregation.
Franklin Graham and William Barber.

The fault lines are real, and mostly severe:
The kind of world we choose to own.
The values we uphold.

LGBTQ rights?
Or condem them to exclusion?

The right of a woman to choose abortion?
Or criminalize all of it, and its providers?

Women's rights to life and liberty and limb?
Or the men who would abuse them for power?

NRA?
ERA?

MAGA? or ...
"America! America! God mend thine every flaw"

"We need more time to help some resolve the matter,"
Said I of LGBTQ rights some many years ago.
When a dear friend, said of her gay brother:
"But he has no more time."

Everyone told Martin Luther King, Jr. to be patient.
But too many people were ending up as patients.
Clubbed senseless, or chewed up by dogs.
Burnings, bombings and lynchings.

The Apostle Paul and the mother church never found the middle way.
And the fault lines of exclusion/inclusion remain frustratingly tense.

The Book of Acts tells the tale:
The Mother Church on the one hand.
The Roman Imperial Cult on the other.

Rome and Jerusalem were good together:
When it came to getting rid of Jesus.
And when it came to crushing the gospel.

The cults of Rome and the righteous cicumcized loved large gatherings: where the mob could
Outshout Paul and call for his death.

I hurt for those who seek a middle ground.
A middle way ...
Things upon which we might agree?

Or are we fated/determined/sin-driven:
To be at odds in our quest to be free?

Biblical Economics???

Sure, I know ... anyone can read the Bible and find what they want.

Yet, this morning's lectionary (October 5, 2017) caught my attention.

Paul the Apostle defends his work and offers a view of labor and wages that have wide implications for society, at least as I see it.

Paul writes (1 Corinthians 9.4-12):

Do we not have the right to our food and drink? Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostlesand the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living? Who at any time pays the expenses for doing military service? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not get any of its milk?

Do I say this on human authority? Does not the law also say the same? For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Or does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was indeed written for our sake, for whoever plows should plow inhope and whoever threshes should thresh in hope of a share in the crop. If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too muchif we reap your material benefits? If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we still more?

Fair wages?

Adequate benefits?

Safety in the work place?

The right to organize?

Profit sharing?

God is concerned about the oxen, as Paul notes, and still more: God cares about the whole range of life, and those who work by the strength of their arm and the sweat of their brow ... which includes those on the shop floor and those who sit in front of a computer - all those who do not own the means of capital, but provide their own capital by labor.

Paul adds in his second letter (chapter 8.13-15) with regard to giving:

I do not mean that there should be relief for other sand pressure on you, but it is a question of a fair balance between your present abundance and their need, so that their abundancemay be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. As it is written,

“The one who had much did not have too much,
and the one who had little did not have too little.”

There is always going to be owners and workers, those with much, and those with less ... and as I read Paul here, and consider the whole of the Sacred Text, it's the widening of the gap that concerns me, and it's the effort of a nation, a good government, and its people, who work to keep the gap viable for all - lest the spoils of the day go unreasonably to the few.

Some thoughts about Biblical Economics ... and how I read the Sacred Text.

I know who I am ...

There aren't enough negative words,
To describe what I think of DT.
And his cabinet.

But, damnit all, I'm not anyone else but me.
I know what I value.
I know what's important.

And I stand by all of that.
In season.
And out of season.

When Paul wrote to Timothy about seasons.
It's always hit me deeply.
There are seasons when things are just right.

And seasons when the bitter winds.
Of adversity and confusion.
Blow away the right.

But, heck, so what?
In season.
Out of season.

I'll stay the course.
Honor my values.
And love God.