Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings – 07-01-2022

Faith Conversations

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 7.1.22

1. In the dystopian world in which the “Handmaid‘s Tale” (thank you Margaret Atwood) exists, the United States has been replaced by the Republic of Gilead, an oppressive, male dominated, theocracy.

In that theocracy women are considered inferior to men and are treated as such. They are not allowed to vote nor are they allowed to read and write. Women who have social justice leanings or buck the system in any way can be legally deemed ‘unwomen’ and be stripped of even the smallest of rights and privileges left open to them. Only Gilead’s perverse and profane version of Christianity is allowed. To practice any other kind of faith is a death sentence. Contraception is verboten. Abortion is retroactively illegal as are second marriages. Women and children are considered to be property, owned and passed down to men only. Only heterosexuality is allowed. Anyone caught in a homosexual act will face gender reorientation therapy or be killed. There is no free press because free speech is illegal.

I don’t want to live in Gilead. That’s why I tremble when I see what’s happening in our country. The building blocks for something abhorrent are being put in place and as long as good people remain silent the walls of Gilead will eventually be built and we’ll be trapped inside of them.

2. “I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second a good word; and the third, a good deed.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Let’s hear it for simplicity and the application of it.

3. There’s a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that “if they studied, the Torah would put scripture on their hearts.”

One of them asked, “Why on our hearts, and not in them?” The rabbi answered, “Only God can put scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your heart breaks, the holy words will fall inside.” ~ Anne Lamott in Plan B. Further Thoughts on Faith.

And when the holy words fall inside – watch out. Everything changes. Everything. Even us.

4. “When God put a calling on your life, he already factored in your stupidity.” ~ Mindful Christianity

Thank you God. This gives me hope for myself and no excuse for not living into God’s original intent for my life.

5. “Everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, it’s not the end.” ~ John Lennon

Everything is not OK these days. If you can’t see it, I urge you to interrogate yourself and discover why that is.

6. “for far too long, christians in america used the bible as a weapon and not as a mirror,

the gospel for oppression

instead of liberation,

the church as a judgment gavel,

not a table of inclusion,

and Jesus as their mascot

instead of the example.

time to flip the

tables.” ~ thehappygivers

Former pastor Chad Thibodeaux suggests that it’s “time for the separation of church and hate.” When that happens, the tables will indeed flip. But the problem is that hate, disguised of course, is what fuels the thinking and behavior of far too many who claim to be Christian. And we don’t appear to be eager and willing to dive into what all that means. That’s why the tables will flip on us. We will call it persecution. We always do. Jesus might call it judgment, requiring a radical course correction.

7. The audience broke out in applause at the Reagan Presidential Library this week when Liz Cheney laid it all out:

“We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before—and that is a former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, and he is aided by Republican leaders and elected officials who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man.”

Donald Trump attempted to overturn the presidential election. He attempted to stay in office and to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power. He summoned a mob to Washington, He knew they were armed on January 6th. He knew they were angry. And he directed the violent mob to march on the Capitol in order to delay or prevent completely the counting of electoral votes. He attempted to go there with them. And when the violence was underway, he refused to take action to tell the rioters to leave. Instead, he incited further violence by tweeting that the vice president, Mike Pence, was a coward. He said ‘Mike deserves it,’ and he didn’t want to do anything in response to the ‘Hang Mike Pence’ chants. It’s undeniable. It’s also painful for Republicans to accept.”

She concluded: “The reality that we face today as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us, we have to choose because Republicans cannot both be loyal to Donald Trump and loyal to the Constitution.”

8. “I choose to live my life unarmed. I do so because in my long and winding journey, I’ve come to understand that to live gently in a violent world is part of the counterculture of following Christ.” ~ Brian Zahnd.

I also choose to live my life unarmed. In doing so, I choose to live in the countercultural world of Jesus. It’s a pro-life stance. As is my resistance to capital punishment. And war.

9. In the newest stage version of “To Kill a Mockingbird” Atticus Finch says: “A mob is a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.”

The character Link Deas, a White man ostracized for marrying a Black woman, smartly observes that “When horror comes to supper, it comes dressed exactly like a Christian.” ~ from an article by Peter Marks, WAPO

When I see mobs, I see a whole lot of conscience deficiency and when I see horror I’m always appalled because it’s so often justified by a bible verse and a prayer.

10. “Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who faces a primary election Tuesday, says she is “tired” of the U.S. separation of church and state, a long-standing concept stemming from a “stinking letter” penned by one of the Founding Fathers.

Speaking at a religious service Sunday in Colorado, she told worshipers: “The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it.”

She added: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.” ~ WAPO

This is from one of the poster children of the religious right. And she’s in Congress. Oh my. See #1.

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