A Note From the Pastor:
I’m grateful to be able to periodically share insights from our fellow pilgrims at Pilgrim Congregational Church. Thank you to everyone who let me know that my sermon this past week was helpful. I struggle at moments like the ones created on Epiphany this year. Peter Martin preached a couple weeks before that, but he’s also donating these words, and I’m grateful for his witness. What sort of faith response does all this provoke in you?
Training Grounds
The Germans of the 1930’s and 1940’s didn’t just start killing, gassing, and terrorizing Europe out of the blue. They were groomed. Slowly, over time, they were taught. They were taught that the human population was getting dirty. They were taught, slowly, over time, that certain humans were polluting the population. They were taught, slowly, over time, that it was their duty to “clean” the races. It wasn’t killing, murder, rampage, and gassing…it was cleaning. And so, the cleaning happened.
The mob of Americans assembled in Washington on January 6th didn’t just start yelling lies about an election, or the country being stolen from them, out of the blue. They were groomed. Slowly, over time, they were taught. They were taught to trust no one. They were taught, slowly, over time, that everyone was lying to them. They were taught, slowly, over time, that there is a conspiracy behind your troubles. They were groomed, slowly, over time that the left media and the democrats weren’t just bad, but evil. Even worse, they were slowly groomed to believe fellow Americans were directly guided by Satan.
Making Sense
That’s how you rampage through and defile your own Capitol building. That’s how you take part in an insurrection. You’re not a mob, led by a horned, painted man…but saviors. You are not shaming and embarrassing your country. You are saving it. Saving it from the spell and direction of Satan. No, it doesn’t happen overnight. People are groomed for it. Groomed till it, all, actually…makes…sense.
The hard part about dealing with a cult like the alt-right in America is that they are unaware that they are a cult. Most cults aren’t aware. Here’s a lesson in Cult 101; as none of their predictions unfold, they get more convinced of there truth. As none of their beliefs transpire, they get more a more radicalized. They double down. Why? Because if the lies aren’t true…then they are faced with the reality that their whole world order is wrong. The mass suicide in Jonestown where 918 men, women, and children knowingly drank poisonous coolaid didn’t happen out of the blue. They were groomed slowly, over time.
Soul Searching
Realizing that your marriage stinks, is one thing. Getting divorced, telling the kids, moving out, and splitting your estate…is another. The truth sometimes is too big. It means that you have to fall, often hard, and rebuild from the ground up again. It means having to think and refigure how you believe the world really works. It means humility, soul searching and maybe embarrassment. It takes all of us being understanding and loving when, hopefully soon, the same people who felt they were saving our country on Wednesday come back to us. Loving and welcoming when they discover their world is a pillar of lies and they have been groomed for years. It takes us sharing a better vision.
When Jesus and his disciples entered Jerusalem, they found merchants and consumers inside the Temple. Jesus became extremely upset, angry. A rare story of Jesus being mad. He tossed tables, yelled, and kicked them out. His father’s temple had become a “den of thieves”. Maybe the temple of our government has become a den of thieves. Maybe the temple within us has become a den of thieves. The truth hurts, but let’s rebuild. After the anger, after the cleaning of our literal and figurative temple, we come together. We come together, with humility and love, and rebuild on the ashes. We share the vision of a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. We embrace, together, again,…the glory and the dream.
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