Friday, August 3, 2018

Sad to See these Pharisees and Sadducees


“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are." ~Matthew 23:15 (NIV)

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."  ~Matthew 23:27-28 (NIV)

It is no wonder that the only people that Jesus openly rebuked while on the planet were the religious leaders of his time. Institution breeds corruption. Traditions not reflected upon with deep analysis become idols themselves. The meeting of these so called “inner city preachers”  with the willfully racist and openly compassionless president of the USA is just the most recent in a long line of actions that reveal the "religious right" of all races in this country as the Pharisees and Sadducee of this current day. They talk a good game about God and feign piety but rarely show the love of Christ to those around them or follow his example of compassionate action. Instead of pushing back against corruption like Jesus driving the merchants from the temple, they have decided to collude with this modern day Herod in hopes that their proximity to empire will simultaneously save them from the persecution to come and enrich their pockets. They have chosen to be counted in the number of people who support an administration that is actively abusing children and holding them in modern day concentration camps, that worked for months trying to strip away health care from millions, and is seeking to strip away people's civil rights in the name of religion. They are sitting at the table with a man who openly refused to condemn ACTUAL Nazis and patting him on the back. As my friend the very learned Rev. Brandee Jasmine Mimitzraiem said, “The Church co-signed Hitler too.” So, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that these preachers have aligned themselves with with this malignant administration.

I think the thing that angers me the most about these displays that these hand full of mostly black clergy insists on making with Dorito Mussolini is that it reinforces the misconceptions of the Hoteps, Noteps and Super Woke, that Christianity is only a religion for the weak minded and that anyone who claims Jesus in any way is participating in their own oppression. I guess what I'm saying is that I hate that these feckless plebeians who would claim themselves authorities on religion have chosen to follow the centuries of bad theology that serves only to magnify the reach of "the church" and the ego of it's clergy while ignoring the person and principle of the man they claim to follow as an example. It never ceases to amaze me the atrocities wrought in the name of the Prince of Peace. I'd like to ask them All "What Would Jesus Do?" Selah