No Collusion! No Collusion! There was NO Collusion! So Says the Trump Almighty

Desperate, tongue-tied people in power end up saying the strangest things.  With the oddest gestures that speak louder than the babble.

Repeating oneself, as if to convince "the children" one is addressing. Or, to put it another way, the adults that the powerful would like to pretend are children.....this repetition can be amusing to watch for those with a sense of humor.

Having a healthy sense of humor is getting far more difficult these days, however, as reality dawns.

Looking closely, the transparency that's so readily evident and becoming clearer all the time holds exactly the same dynamics of insight into this word, collusion, which very few even understood at all twenty-five years ago.

Collusion operates freely in closed systems of "faith," that are actually systems of fear in many cases, systems filled with paranoia and narcissism that acts only out of immaturity and self-protection, when faced with the preponderance of evidence of serious sexual violations against the most vulnerable and powerless in the system. Of course, that's not the only form of evil where collusion abounds.

When positions of power are occupied by men who must be "protected" from even the reality that daily briefings require, putting the masses at risk, it takes tremendous courage to keep looking at the gestures and words of a leader who insists that "we see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil," as the Administration chooses to identify evil.

In that, I see no difference in the hypocrisy that has so often made mockery of the Truth--the spiritual truth and the scientific alike--to create its own brand of Fake News that's the total opposite of what our Twitter-in-Chief considers fake.

Mocking the song of Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men, in a season when we desperately need role models of maturity to deal with the direst of circumstances. What we need are tools for digging down and finding serenity.

Yes, Mr. Trump, you are the King of the Patriarchs, but not the ruler of the wise. You may "reign" for a season, but your friend Roy Moore has spoken clearly what he sees we need to do:  "Wait on God," he tells us.

And waiting we will.  While acting, and protesting daily. In that process, the walls of collusion, which are about far more than politics, will come tumbling down, bringing Humpty Dumpty and all the King's Men with it.  Yes, I'm confident  the Big Eggs will crack if only we stay true to the Song of Peace in the midst of the chaos, keeping an internal locus of control, along with our faith in humanity. Seeking to support those who are speaking out, affirming their Goodness, and remembering who we are ourselves. Not little children to be fooled and lulled into complacency, but adults who can ultimately overcome by standing in solidarity against violence and oppression, lifting up the fallen all the while.

This, in fact, is the over-riding message, often coming from other continents, in the amazing stories of overcoming, told amidst the struggles in Enlarging Boston's Spotlight: A Call for Courage, Integrity, and Institutional Transformation



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Open Letter: To All the Laity of Adat Shalom Church (a Southern Baptist congregation in Dallas)

  “Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.” (Proverbs 18: 17) For the past three months, I’ve become increasingly aware that my soul cannot rest until I’ve completed this personal message to those who occupy the pews of your congregation. My intent is to set the record straight, going far beyond the parts of your church story which you may have heard already—either from online reports, the lengthy letter from your pastor a few weeks ago, or from hearsay. This letter will serve to tell “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey often declared on the radio for many years. Though I’ve never met any of you personally, I've come across hundreds of churches in similar situations as yours is right now . My name is known in certain Southern Baptist circles and far beyond due to the work I’ve done for over thirty years upon discovering the complex issues of collusion with abuse in the faith community -- a widespread, systemic problem I first
Read more

Denzel Washington Sets the Stage for Responding to Sexual Abuse in the Church

"What an opportunity you have! Don't be depressed by it because we have to go through this, we're here now." These words, spoken recently by Denzel Washington, as he talked about the challenges his faith walk brings to millennials, are simply an enhancement of the stand he recently took by deciding not to be present to speak at the Global Leadership Summit, a gathering that also drew Bill Clinton as a guest speaker in times past. Why would anybody turn down such an opportunity? If you’ve kept up with what’s going on in Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago lately, you might instantly know. Willow and its pastor Bill Hybels, now accused by a growing number of sexual abuse of congregants, has been the model for many a young pastor for how to grow a thriving church. Without Willow, it’s hard to imagine what the Global Leadership Summit would be now, even if it survives. Yet Hybels is daring to use the same word I’ve used for thirty years to describe what c
Read more

Sorrow for Survivors Runs Deeper than the Surface Issues of Southern Baptists

 Thirty-five years ago, the scene in our living room was like a private funeral for our family of four. Not a soul was there to hear us wail, as we leaned on one another for support. Not only had our children lost their sense of identity and their adopted homeland of Malawi, where we'd worked for more than a decade from preparing to go, being appointed by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, and serving there, bonded with beloved nationals and our Mission Family, with these ties stronger than any we'd ever known on earth. Until 1986, we'd felt a part of the Family. Yet, soon we began to feel more and more like the enemy because Ron and I stood together after stating our grave concerns, as anyone should whenever a group is faced with a sexual predator that had, so far, only had his hand slapped before sending him home for a full medical evaluation. It was as if everyone was buying into Gene Kingsley's "memory problem," thinking surely h
Read more