It was seven years ago this week that I spent hours building a play house in the wooded section of our yard in a cold drizzle, and in those woods, I saw two roads that diverged.

 I chose one and it has made all the difference. 

 What I saw was that I could continue on the path of American “biblical” Christianity or I could follow Jesus.

There are a lot of people with a lot more power and influence than us that I wish showed more courage. If they did, we wouldn’t be here, but here we are and so the need for courage falls to us.

 What does courage look like to you? I think it begins with having honest conversations about where we are.

Truth, Justice, and the American Way. I was going to focus this lesson on what Superman would do, since Jesus doesn’t really give us a lot to work with on the topic of patriotism. Or did he?

Minnesotans understood the assignment: do not be afraid.

 What’s been happening in Minneapolis, and around the country, is not about immigration, it’s about power. We are witnessing a corrupt, authoritarian government use a crisis to consolidate power.

Do you ever read, or hear, something and then a bunch of dots suddenly come together and offer clarity? That happened to me this morning. I learned something new about myself.

I’m a race traitor. I’m also a class traitor. I learned that this is why people like Renee Good and Alex Pretti are called “domestic terrorists,” “Marxists,” and “leftists.” 

I am not a Marxist or a Communist,

My family watched The Sound of Music on New Year’s Eve again, as is our tradition. I’ve seen it at least a hundred times, but this time, I saw something new.

 In the scene when the children were introduced, the Captain used the whistle and Maria refused to take it. I realized that this is what the movie is about and why it deviated so much from the true story of the Trapp Family Singers.

 We hear that it’s unprecedented all the time, but it’s not. It’s frustrating, it’s depressing, it’s exhausting, but it’s not unprecedented and we need to remember that.

 Other people have been exactly where we are today, and we can learn from them. In my research, what I’ve learned is that if we don’t want to continue this path, which historically ends badly for everyone, there is another group out there, well, two groups

What are your values right now? What is most important this year?

Last night, President Trump posted a video that ended with an image of the Obamas depicted as apes and today I was planning a post about living in a world ruled by the thought police.

 We’ve been taught to fear the idea that the thought police will come, and we will lose our sense of identity. We fear that we will become clones, incapable of independent thought.

We’re supposed to advocate for the poor and oppressed and that means that we do things like show up to protest, feed the hungry, heal the sick, and protect the vulnerable not only with our words, but in the flesh.

 Yet why do so many Christians ignore his teachings? Why do they demonize anyone who dares practice the kind of corporeal politics that Jesus did?

Tyranny is dependent on citizens who are willing to comply with terror. 

How does that happen? How do people support their own government terrorizing their fellow citizens? 

Once we believe our neighbors are a threat to us, we want that threat neutralized. It takes very little effort to convince people to fear their neighbors; just sprinkle a few half-truths, sensationalize one extreme story, and continually use defamatory language. Day after day, year after year. 

I used to be a conservative, evangelical-adjacent, Republican. 

I went to a George W. Bush rally in 2000, a Sarah Palin rally in 2008, and a Mitt Romney rally in 2012. I understood that Hillary Clinton was one of the greatest enemies the United States has ever known.

I was worried that when Obama won, with Democrats in full control of Congress, they would implement all kinds of socialist policies that would destroy the fabric of America.

Then…all the things that I had been told to worry about didn’t happen.

What we are experiencing today, at every level, is an assault on truth. We must hold on to the truth and reject lies.

 Yet, we all believe in lies. We do it for self-protection. We do it when we’re grieving. We do it for our own ego. Many are harmless and temporary.

 Some lies though cause us to break with reality and then require us to accept more and more lies.

Call out the propaganda.

 People fall for propaganda because they are not well read. Reading expands our vocabulary, increases empathy, and opens our minds. That’s why books are banned. 

 Read books. Real books. 

Jesus always stood on the side of the oppressed. That is righteousness.

This is the story of Sodom of Gomorrah. When a few bullies showed up at the door and demanded to rape the visitors, not one townsperson intervened. None were found to be righteous and so they all perished.

After they rejected him, they followed the way of the sword and found another who would lead them into battle. Before that generation had died, their beloved city was destroyed and they were forced to scatter.

 But some did turn back and chose to follow his ways. They built small communities rooted in mercy, justice, and humility. The way of Jesus spread.

Many see the issue of immigration as the catalyst for the federal government to reestablish and expand the dual state by normalizing routine violations of the fourth and fifth amendments and dehumanizing entire groups of people in order to justify the inequality.

 If you read this far and you’re wondering why people are opposing I.C.E., it’s because they believe in the rights of the individual. They are not fighting to protect criminals; they are fighting to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution from a federal government they see as destroying it.

The ethos of the way of Jesus is love. 

The Christian ethos understands that to seek justice means doing the right thing, even when we might get punished. It means to practice mercy, even if it costs us everything. It means to walk humbly, not claiming that we have all the correct answers. 

 Jesus taught that the only way to truly live in obedience to God, is to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. This means that sometimes obedience to God requires disobedience to unjust systems.

Christians need to take responsibility for the face of Christianity. It’s not enough to just whisper under our breath that they don’t speak for all of us. No. This is fascism and it is not compatible with Christianity. It’s not a wing of Christianity. It’s not a doctrinal disagreement within Christianity. Fascism is not the way of Jesus.

 Let me tell you a story…

One-party rule doesn’t always come in with guns blazing, it comes when we are too afraid to dissent.

Beware of demonizing language used against the opposition party.

Beware of threats of punishment (banishment or violence) for perceived disloyalty.

Beware of threats of violence for perceived disloyalty.

Beware of actual banishment or violence for dissent or disloyalty.