There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea. People will faint from fear of what is coming. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up. Raise your heads. Your redemption is drawing near. —Jesus (Luke 24.25—28)
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As you read this, a winter storm of biblical proportions is blasting large swaths of our country with snow, sleet, and ice. Two hundred million of us will be affected.
Millions will lose power and heat and (worst of all) internet service. Cars and trucks will get stuck. Flights will be canceled. Dozens will die. I’ll run out of bananas before I can get to Food Lion again.
That’s all bad, for sure. But it’s hardly “biblical.”
You want biblical? This is biblical: The catastrophic flood in Noah’s day, the pulverization of Sodom and Gomorra in Abraham’s day, and the 10 plagues of Egypt in Moses’s day—blood, frogs, flies, lice, locusts, pestilence, hail, and darkness. The slaughter of the firstborn. Every horrible thing imaginable other than disco blaring out of gigantic speakers.
You want biblical? That’s biblical!
Those were the days, my friends. God smote bad people. No one got away with lying, stealing, cheating, boasting, or playing God. (“Only I can fix it.”) If you did any of those things, you broke out in boils—at the least.
In Noah’s day, violence was rampant. Boom! Smite humankind. In Abraham’s day, cities were corrupt. Boom! Smite Sodom and Gomorrah. In Moses’s day, Pharaoh abused power. Boom! Smite Pharaoh’s land.
Of course, that God has long retired. The God of love took over. I’m glad. But to tell you the truth, sometimes I miss the God of smiting.
It seems to me there are just too many people getting away with murder, big lies, and abuse of power these days. There just aren’t enough prosecutors, courts, and judges to crack down on all of them.
Where’s the God of smiting? Actually, we don’t need that kind of god, or that kind of king, or that kind of autocrat smiting people.
We have democracy on our side.
Look around.
People flood the streets of Minneapolis protesting the murder of an innocent woman by a federal agent. Whistle blowers expose corruption in high places. World leaders lock arms and stand against a tyrant.
That, my friends, is courage of biblical proportions.
That’s Jesus standing up and resisting the tyranny of Rome. That’s Jesus standing beside the falsely accused woman. That’s Jesus loving his enemies to death.
Another storm is gathering.
Stand strong.
As the storm gathers more speed, keeping the words of Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, in mind might be helpful:
“The president is a nationalist, which is not at all the same thing as a patriot. A nationalist encourages us to be our worst, and then tells us that we are the best. A nationalist, ‘although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge,’ wrote Orwell, tends to be ‘uninterested in what happens in the real world.’ Nationalism is relativist, since the only truth is the resentment we feel when we contemplate others. As the novelist Danilo Kiš put it, nationalism ‘has no universal values, aesthetic or ethical.’
A patriot, by contrast, wants the nation to live up to its ideals, which means asking us to be our best selves. A patriot must be concerned with the real world, which is the only place where his country can be loved and sustained. A patriot has universal values, standards by which he judges his nation, always wishing it well—and wishing that it would do better.”
Let us stay strong through our patriotic defense of democracy, whether it means being in the streets, writing or calling our local, state and national representatives or joining a group such as Indivisible. In various ways, the voices of “We the People” must be heard!
Must keep at it, so many unaware of what is at stake. Even in the midst of Minneapolis wretchedness. Still.
I have a friend who is a retired state trooper and a Christian. I had to explain the term Christian Nationalist to him because their tv and internet news is all Fox-related. He and his whole family have consistently supported DJT, even after Renee Good. I haven’t been able to talk or text them since Pretti’s murder. I am afraid of hearing they might believe Noem, Miller, and 47’s lies. Some information can end a friendship of decades, and we are approaching that in this national storm.
Good news
Thank you
Yes…🎶Stand & be counted; Stand & be strong…🎶Come Together…
I have hope that the rest of the country will develop spines like the people of Minnesota!
Each of us needs to periodically stop and put things in a sensible perspective. Thanks for helping us do just that.
Now I am sure there are individuals in “non”sanctuary cities/states that could be categorized as “illegal aliens “ ( I prefer individuals without appropriate documentation or another less pejorative but accurate descriptor). Yet we see the administration targeting specific states and cities. Administration is missing an opportunity here to really boost their numbers.
The storm goes on, gathering, and who will endure going into it? Heather Cox Richardson wrote,”It looked like an execution.
After he was dead, the agents walked away, apparently making no effort to preserve the crime scene, which people on the street later tried to secure by walling it off with trash bins.
As journalist Philip Bump noted, administration officials didn’t even pretend to wait for more information before jumping straight to “the opponent of the state deserved it.”
Terrence Goggin wrote,”So far the only organized violence in Minneapolis has been caused by the Federal Government. Three shootings, including two murders by ICE agents in 17 days, all extensively documented by videos and photographs, are available for a Federal Court to review should President Trump declare an insurrection in Minnesota…these past 17 days in Minnesota raise a far more profound question. Does Donald Trump know the difference between right and wrong, or does he live in his own fantasy world, totally divorced from reality? In other words, is he legally sane?”
The people of MN are standing in and for the country. So far, protests have been persistent and peaceful. This is a battle of good versus evil of Biblical proportions.
Excellent. Very well done, my friend. You are so right. When we fight nonviolently for others, we are acting as tools of the divine. We are the ones who must deliver justice for the weak and vulnerable as well as for one another. Closing your eyes to the murder race, family separation, casual violence and trump/maga white supremacy is complicity with evil. Finally, it’s great to see Pope Leo strongly standing on the mission of Jesus. When will white Protestant leaders stand up for the work of Jesus?
I participated in a vigil for Peace & Action at the Presbyterian church. The pastor read a moving & righteous stand that the (National) church released. And I know at least one Presbyterian minister heading to Minneapolis to join in peaceful protest & ministering to the needs of souls suffering there – I am happy to report they are one with making “good trouble” & putting Christ’s teachings into action.
The storm that needs to happen is one of accountability on this corrupt and lawless regime that are murdering innocent civilians in the streets and then smearing their good names to stir even more division. Hmmmph! Down with this eternal corruption
All there is to do now is to stand together and firmly stay the course. The time for justice will come after we prevail.
And let’s keep the names of Renee Good and Alex Pretti close to our hearts.