Tread lightly on the things of earth

Partly it’s my bummed response to the idea of four more years of U.S. executive-branch incompetence and immorality*, an interval that seems almost infinite when its countdown doesn’t even start for another month.

These last four years have seemed the looongest of my life as I’ve watched large swaths of U.S. Christianity proudly plummet into apostasy. I call the result The Cult of the Whited Sepulchre. That many of its followers are decent people who mean well doesn’t make the W phenomenon any more spiritually sound or any less cultic. This way lies madness and death, not salvation.

I think that as long as the U.S. stays on its current path — bearing this fruit of aggression and arrogance by which we’re being recognized — then Jesus’ forecast of woe applies to us, too. History — and of particular interest to me, church history — will not look kindly on these days.

Meanwhile … much of my current silence springs from my nonverbal preoccupation with wrapping my head well and truly around Textpattern so I can finally roll out this weblog anew ~January 1.

Textpattern provides the most responsive and gratifying canvas I’ve ever tried for capturing thoughts and ideas. I want to use it because, even grumpy as I am, I still aim to document joy where I find it.

^*Occasional acts of incompetence or immorality are forgivable; after all, being human means they’re inevitable. But the incessant U.S. churchstate effort to redefine incompetent political behavior as “decisive” and immoral political behavior as “according to divine imperative” really creeps me out. I’m not sure habitual doublethink like this is forgivable.

2004-12-18 update:
My friend Martin tells a story that provides for me a healthy perspective adjustment.

2004-12-23 update:
Renee brings to my attention Dr. Robin Meyers’ Oklahoma University Peace Rally address (dated Nov. 14, 2004). Robin means what I mean by “immorality,” and he expresses it with rat-a-tat concrete specifics about what “doing something immoral” means, yet with a healthy dollop more soul force — and I daresay understanding — than I’ve been able to muster.

Most encouraging paragraph among many:

Don’t be afraid to speak out. Don’t back down when your friends begin to tell you that the cause is righteous and that the flag should be wrapped around the cross, while the rest of us keep our mouths shut. Real Christians take chances for peace. So do real Jews, and real Muslims, and real Hindus, and real Buddhists — so do all the faith traditions of the world at their heart believe one thing: life is precious. Every human being is precious. Arrogance is the opposite of faith. Greed is the opposite of charity. And believing that one has never made a mistake is the mark of a deluded man, not a man of faith.

Wow, Robin’s church’s statement of belief conveys what’s in me but rarely articulated, topped off by this:

[We] believe that in our time the church must recover, above all, its radical hospitality — welcoming all persons into her midst, without regard to race, age, gender, sexual orientation, or physical abilities.

Robin, Renee — you’ve re-lit my pilot light on this cold winter’s day. It’s a splendid Christmas gift. Thank you.

There are no red and blue states, only purple ones.