perseverance & hope

I read something interesting about the virtue of faith recently, and I wonder if it couldn’t apply to all the virtues. The author was distinguishing between faith and belief, and he wrote that faith doesn’t really have an object; that would be belief. When we’re speaking of the virtue of faith, he says you don’t really have faith in something; you just have faith. You can have belief in something, a belief that can either be rational or religious, but faith is more or less an energy, and in our tradition we think of it as infused, it is given to us by God, a sort of power. I was wondering if we couldn’t say that about love too: at first the virtue of love or charity is just a blind force for the good, for creativity. It’s only later that we can choose to what and to whom we can attach our love so that it has an object. This makes sense of Augustine’s notion of sin being disordered love, as in loving popularity more than integrity, or loving possessions more than relationships.

But what I was really thinking about in regards to today’s gospel was the virtue of hope. I’ve spoken about this before, how it’s instructive to remember that the virtue of hope is not wishing for something––“I hope the Cubs win the World Series!” Hope too at its inception is kind of this objectless energy. As Vaclev Havel wrote, Hope is “a dimension of the soul... an orientation of the spirit.” Hope is what propels us forward not just for survival, but for growth and the evolution of our consciousness.

One of the reasons that I am thinking of that is because I heard one commentator say that our current president-elect “gave a certain group of people hope.” But I think that’s wrong; only God can give us hope. It may have looked as if that candidate could fulfill their wishes for what they wanted the country to be like, but only God gives us hope. Our current president wrote a book called The Audacity of Hope, but neither can he give hope. Only God can give hope. It is up to us however to decide for what and to whom we turn that hope into a wish––and we also have to be careful for what we wish for, who we attach that hope to. Our aim might not be high enough.

And the other aspect of hope I am recalling is that phrase also from Vaclev Havel, that “Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless how it turns out.” Hope is “an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.” So Paul’s admonition actually ends with this line: Do not grow weary of doing what is right (2 Thes 3:13).  We should never get tired of doing the right thing, whether it looks like it’s gonna work out or not. That’s the energy of hope.

We can safely guess that when Jesus is saying these things in the gospel today (Lk 21:5-19) he is starting to expect his own death. So it’s all the more powerful then to hear him say, to hear him have this hope, this conviction, this belief based on his faith that ‘By your perseverance you will secure your lives.’ ‘They may seize and persecute you. They will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, lead you before governors and kings… You will be handed over by your own family and friends… ‘By your perseverance you will secure your lives.’ That doesn’t all sound very hopeful in the way that we think of hope, like things are going to work out, but it does sound like the virtue of hope, the energy and a strength to persevere, in spite of all and that by that perseverance we will save our lives.

I was thinking of a couple of examples of this hope and perseverance in spite of the fact that it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna work out. In the spiritual life itself, sometimes it seems as it I keep going over the same stuff over and over again, running up against the same internal roadblocks and landmines; sometimes it seems like I’m getting nowhere. It is difficult sometimes to hold to the promise that we don’t have to be successful, that we only need to be faithful. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the mercy of God is drawing me to its womb. But I know that it’s by perseverance I will save my life. As we sing when we make our monastic vows, Do not disappoint me of my hope! I was remembering our late Fr. Romuald yesterday, when he was out at beautiful Epiphany Monastery in New Hampshire, how even when he was the only one there, which happened a few times, he would still get up each morning and go down each evening and sing the entire Lauds and Vespers. It didn’t matter if there was someone there to support him or if anyone was going to see him or if anyone would ever come and live with him: he knew that that was what he was supposed to do. It’s a worry sometimes for us; what if no young guys come and join us? What if we age out? I try to remind myself that I didn’t become a monk because I thought it was going to be successful and popular. I became a monk because I wanted to be a monk! And by perseverance we will save our lives.

I was thinking of some other current examples that are facing Christians in this day and age, more social. For example, we are not really supported in our defense of life on either side of the political aisle. It’s the same argument over and over again: we’re always having to choose between abortion and all the other pro-life issues. Three states upheld capital punishment, while another state ratified doctor-assisted suicide. And yet, as hard as it is, we have to hold that tension, the seemingly un-reconcilable sides, and be the prophetic voice for the seamless garment, all of life from the womb to the tomb. I don’t have a lot of optimism but, as Cornell West says, I’m a prisoner of hope. We can never weary of doing the right thing.

Believe me, I am sick of hearing myself talk about this, but global warming climate change was never mentioned during the presidential debates this year by either candidate, and our current ruling party is loudly touting the fact that they are going to undo the small steps we’ve made toward better stewardship of the planet. And yet we have the lead of the Holy Father and so, as insignificant as it seems, I’m going keep recycling my plastic milk bottles and other single use disposable items, and printing on used paper, and watching how and what I consume––and that’s only entry level environmental stewardship!––because my hope, my energy tells me that by perseverance in doing what I think is right that I will save my live. I still have to do it; it’s the right thing to do.

This is a big one: It’s easy to say you are a pacifist when there is no one in your face shouting at you. It’s easy to say you want to be a peacemaker when you don’t see any injustice going on around you. On the other hand I actually often find it very difficult, whether it’s the fiery Sicilian blood or the hot Irish temper. (On the Sicilian side perseverance means whoever can shout the loudest and longest wins; on the Irish side perseverance is more like a passive-aggressive game of chicken, whoever can hold out the longest in a steely silence.) At a micro/local level I find it very hard to act consistently in the way that St. Paul is always urging us––to be kind, let your gentleness be known to all––let alone Jesus telling us that the meek shall inherit the earth! But then on a grander level, there was a pastor in Raleigh, Virginia who recounted these incidents in the first days after the election: a home in Noe Valley flying a Nazi flag where kids walk by to get to school; a white middle school student who told a black classmate it was time now for him to get “back in place”; a gay New York City man getting on a bus being told that he should “Enjoy the concentration camps, you [expletive deleted]!”; the NYU Muslim Students Association finding the name of our president-elect scrawled on the door of their prayer room; parents of minority children this week picking up their kids early from schools across the country because they were afraid. The first headline I read this morning: “New York college dorms where three Jewish women live vandalized with swastikas as hate crimes sweep the country.” That stuff makes my blood boil! On the other side I know a lot of people who are fiercely angry right now, burning political figures in effigy, one guy who said he wishes he could punch a certain senator right in the face, and others already threatening a rebellion. It feels very wimpy to be a reconciler right now––and I am certainly not at this point going to tell any of the above people that they should play nice and work for unity for the good of the country. But there is still no way around that beatitude: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God, at a micro and macro level. ‘By our perseverance in that we will secure our lives.’

Our highest common denominator as Catholics after the gospels themselves is the teaching of the Church, plus the words and examples of our leaders. Fortunately we have a great model in Pope Francis right now. With so much xenophobia and discussion about refugees and immigrants, and so much fear of the other (perhaps justifiable fear!) going around in many developed countries around the globe, including our own, it was heartening to read that Pope Francis spoke on Saturday about how Christians should welcome others “without classifying them on the basis of social condition, language, race, culture, religion.” “Mercy is that way of acting, that style,” he said, “with which we try to include others in our life, avoiding closing up into ourselves and into our selfish securities.” And Thursday evening Archbishop Gomez of Los Angeles, the former Opus Dei bishop who is no liberal firebrand, led an interfaith prayer service at the cathedral there. In his comments he stressed the importance of unity between religions and even went so far as to reassure immigrants, even those who were in the country illegally, that the church would continue supporting them no matter what. This is not going to be a popular viewpoint in this day and age, even among our co-religionists, but ‘By our perseverance we will secure our lives.’

There is a good chance that each and every one of us is going to be called to stand up and give our testimony in the days ahead. We might even get pilloried by our families, friends and benefactors, and hated in the name of our faith. We have to “avoiding closing up into ourselves and into our selfish securities.” We have to decide what the object of our faith is going to be, the object of our love, the object of our hope––and make sure that it’s the gospel of Jesus. Even more importantly, we have to build a world of justice and peace in our own little village, in our own families, whether we say anything or not. And it will only be by perseverance that we will secure our lives. Let’s pray that, strengthened by the Word and the Sacrament, we never grow weary of doing what is right.

not one stone

Re-posintg a sermon passed on to me, from Rev. Frank J. Alagna, Holy Cross, Santa Cruz Episcopal Church. He concludes where I have been thinking: Our most urgent task is to ready our selves for non-violent resistance. My own homily for today, same readings, will follow (already posted on the hermitage blog too).

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Not One Stone Will Be Left Upon Another – All Will Be Torn Down

Last Sunday I preached a sermon about our responsibility as disciples of Jesus to affirm the priorities of the Kingdom of God and to advance what is right, good and holy in the public square.  This past Tuesday the nation, at least in the majority vote of the electoral college, made a choice for what is wrong, bad and clearly unholy.  

Let us be clear that there is no ambiguity in the gospel about those things that are counter Kingdom.

- assaults upon women, their dignity and their rights;

- racism and all forms of discrimination against any minority group;

- the scapegoating of any of God’s children;

- violence and any and all encouragements to violence,

- nativism and isolationism that would disengage us from the global relational mutuality which defines our shared humanity;

- a failure to care for the poor, the sick, and not to welcome the stranger among us or at the gate;

- a disregard for the care of our environmental home;

- and putting government at the service of self-interest and corporate greed rather than at the service of the common good. 

There is no ambiguity in the gospel that all these are wrong, bad and unholy and an election does not change any of this.   

Obviously there are some good people who in good faith actually believe that this man will affect changes that will improve their tomorrow.  But on Tuesday did we not also see a staggering number of people in this nation project their dark side and invest leadership in a man with no  demonstrated character and most certainly a false prophet?  

False prophets are those demagogues who appeal to popular passions and prejudices and stoke fear, identify scapegoats, inspire hatred and incite to violence.  This was clearly the strategy of the president-elect.   His words were chosen to orchestrate what was a cacophony of sheer ugliness.  It should come as no surprise that on Thursday the KKK announced plans to hold a parade and victory rally in North Carolina.

Can we be so naïve as to believe that the winner will dance to a tune other than the raucous song that he has been singing on the trail for the last two years?  Personal change that we desire does not come easy.  I assure you that a character that has been fashioned over a lifetime will not be changed by an election to public office. We just don’t work that way. History knows elected popes who have been despicable reprobates.

Recently a good Pope named Francis, warned against false prophets.  He identified false prophets as those, “Who exploit fear and hopelessness, who sell magic formulas of hatred, cruelty, selfish welfare and an illusory security that seeks safety in physical or social walls - walls that enclose some and banish others.” 

The Pope went on to say that there come to be two imprisoned groups,  “Walled citizens, terrified on one side,” and  “the excluded, exiled, and even more terrified on the other.”  Francis concluded by asking the question,  “Is that the life that our Father God wants for His children?”  He ended his address with the admonition, “Dear brothers and sisters, do not be fooled."

The man who was just elected to be the leader of the most powerful nation in the world has never served anyone’s interests but his own during the first 71 years of his life.  And he makes no apologies for this. 

It is an accepted truth of psychology that the best indicator of future performance is past behavior, and in this case the strength of this prediction has been amplified with promises to remake this nation in his own disfigured image.  The demagoguery displayed in this race for the White House can only persist and intensify.  And given his party’s newfound majority in congress there will be few obstacles or checks to its advance.   

While Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”  And while He identified the archenemies of God and of God’s children, Jesus never instructed His disciples to, “Love the demons.”  Rather Jesus admonished His disciples to, “Resist what is evil.”   And He charged and empowered them to drive out demons, to expel and exorcise them.

Demons have no rights in God’s reign and Jesus showed them no respect.  Jesus always commands them to depart.  At one point in the gospel story, a legion of demons were expelled into a herd of swine and driven over a cliff to their death in the sea below.    

So what do we do in the face of what is and what will continue to be a renewed assault on the Kingdom of God and its priorities. 

We first of all must realize that this is not something new and that we have been here before.

In this morning’s gospel Jesus speaks prophetically about the destruction of the temple.  For His audience, the temple was not just one of many places of worship.  It was the only place of worship, for it was the only place on earth where God deigned to dwell. And so for the believing Jew, the destruction of the temple represented utter and complete destruction and terminal desolation.  No temple, no God, no hope.

The human family has known and undoubtedly will continue to know experiences of unimaginable destruction that reverberate to a place of desolation and that would vanquish and gut the human spirit.  Such is the experience being registered by too many these days. 

In our lifetime, too many of these spirit desolating episodes have commanded our attention - From the Holocaust, to the Stalinist purge of the Ukraine, to the Cambodian killing fields, to Bosnia and to present Syrian disaster.

Jesus did not promise us a demon free world, but He certainly did entrust us with the ministry of exorcism and the power to affect the expulsion of evil forces.

So how do we exercise this ministry in the present hour?  

Well, our only response cannot be fear, certainly not capitulation to the fear that engenders paralysis and despair unto death.  Disciples of Jesus do not choose nor live by fear but rather by faith.

Nor can we merely quite our troubled souls with calls to prayer.  Not that we should not pray, but let our prayer be grounded in reality.  Let us not pray that by some miracle, wisdom will enter the mind of a fool, nor that by some miracle right judgment and good behavior will come forth from an adult addicted to his adolescence.  What we should pray for is the grace of repentance and conversion, for without these this one who presents himself as a public reprobate will never evidence wisdom or be capable of right action. So pray that this man will be moved by God to face and own his sinfulness which has been so visible in the distasteful, disrespectful and disgusting words and actions he has directed against so many, and will seek God’s forgiveness and the forgiveness of the many he has hurt and the many more he intends to harm.   

Moving forward he will be the commander and chief of an army of allied haters who will happily participate in victimizing innocent men, women and children because of their race, religion, nationality, citizenship status and sexual and gender identity.  When this brand expresses itself let us remember that we have no obligation to listen to hateful speech, nor to make room for hateful posturing, nor to tolerate hateful actions.  Hate must always be stopped dead in its tracks.  Hate has no rights.  Hate deserves no space.  

Gracefully neither fear nor pious platitudes about prayer are our only options.

I do agree with our bishops that we have an urgent task as a church to listen, to hear, and to understand the pain of those who caste their vote because of the perceived and experienced unresponsiveness of the  establishment to their economic plight, and to seek reconciliation and unity with them.  However, I do not believe that this is our most urgent task in the present moment.  Our most urgent task is to ready our selves for non-violent resistance to the point of civil disobedience before bad things begin to happen to good people and victims begin to pile up.

We have in our span of years have known this witness and seen its effectiveness in the likes of Blessed Martin Luther King and Father Daniel Berrigan and those who walked, marched and bore stripes with them.

If there were ever a time for action, now is that time.  Do we really want to wait for the mass arrests and deportations of our Latino sisters and brothers?  Would that be wise or loving on our part?  Do we want to wait for the introduction of stop and frisk policing on our city streets?  Would that be wise or loving on our part?  Do we want to wait for an escalation of sexual violence against women on our campuses nurtured by the locker room banter and the example of predatory sexual behavior set by the next commander and chief of date rape?  Would that be wise or loving on our part?  Do we want to wait for the start of the third world war and the bodies of our grandchildren becoming carnage or do we put our own bodies on the line now for disarmament on our streets, in our schools and in our world?  

This is not a normal transition in government and we must refrain from the inclination to treat it as such.  We cannot consign those who have been clearly targeted for bad treatment: Latinos, Blacks, gay people, Muslims and young women to the shadows.   We have precious little time to seriously attend to their legitimate fears.  And we cannot normalize a man who has threatened to tear families apart, who has bragged about sexually assaulting women and who has directed crowds of thousands to intimidate reporters and assault African Americans. 

And if you think you are too old to engage in active, non-violent protest and civil disobedience - Think again.  Can you think of a better way to spend whatever is left of our fading breath and failing bodies than as a living sacrifice for the Kingdom of God?  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who suffer for justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Rev. Frank J. Alagna

Holy Cross/Santa Cruz Episcopal Church

November 13, 2016

the lesser evil

The day after the election, I posted the following on our hermitage blog, where I normally only post my homilies. I did it with some hesitation, only because there I am speaking for the entire community and I do not pretend that we all agree on these things. I am going to re-post it here on my own old blog and follow up a little.

* * *

I try so hard to be non-partisan from the pulpit or when speaking in the name of New Camaldoli, but I’ve gotten so many traumatized emails already I feel impelled to respond. I am not preaching today, but I want to address the situation as I see it from the Word of God and our Catholic tradition.

Today in the Catholic communion we celebrate the Feast of the Lateran Cathedral, the cathedral of Rome, in honor of the basilica which is called omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput––‘the mother and mistress of all churches of Rome and the world,’ and a “sign of love for and union with the See of Peter.” As our friend Barry Huddock, now an editor at Liturgical Press, wrote on his blog three years ago:

It’s been over 50 years since the conservative American magazine National Review, under the leadership of Catholic William Buckley, published its now famous “Mater si, Magistra no” in response to Pope John XXIII’s just-published encyclical, Mater et Magistra. Good Pope John had, for the first time in that 1961 encyclical, moved the Church a few steps away from the socially-politically conservative institutions and ideas with which it had generally aligned itself until then and placed it more clearly on the side of policies and reforms that favored the poor. He voiced strong support for government involvement in issues like unemployment, and he called for respect for the right of workers to just wages and to a share in the wealth generated by the corporations that employed them.

Today as we celebrate his See, I feel confident that we can and ought to fall back on the authority of Pope Francis, hopefully with our own bishops here in the US following his line, in regards to Catholic social teaching, and regard the Church as both our mother and our teacher.

It was almost eerily prescient that this should have been the reading that I chose for us to hear at Vigils this morning. Imagine this coming from the Word of God at 5:30 AM the morning after Election Day:

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. … For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. As servants, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor. (1 Pt 2:1-3, 13-17)

The challenge will be to do this while still fearlessly speaking the truth in love (Eph 4:15), while still being like yeast in the dough (Mt 13:33). Now more than ever it is important to fall back on the non-violent example of Gandhi, Dr. King, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela, and all the more reason to keep doing what we do, living as we live. As Therese the Little Flower so famously wrote, “In the heart of the church, my mother, I will be love, and thus shall be everything.”

I found this below to be comforting and good practical advice, from Dr. Ali Michael, PhD.

“‘What should I say to my students after the election if Trump wins?’ a principal asked me recently. Good question. What should we tell our children?

Tell them, first, that we will protect them. Tell them that we have democratic processes in the U.S. that make it impossible for one mean person to do too much damage. Tell them that we will protect those democratic processes ― and we will use them ― so that [Mr.] Trump is unable to act on many of the false promises he made during his campaign.

Tell them, second, that you will honor the outcome of the election, but that you will fight bigotry. Tell them bigotry is not a democratic value, and that it will not be tolerated at your school. Tell them you stand by your Muslim families. Your same-sex parent families. Your gay students. Your Black families. Your female students. Your Mexican families. Your disabled students. Your immigrant families. Your trans students. Your Native students. Tell them you won’t let anyone hurt them or deport them or threaten them without having to contend with you first. Say that you will stand united as a school community, and that you will protect one another. Say that silence is dangerous, and teach them how to speak up when something is wrong. Then teach them how to speak up, how to love one another, how to understand each other, how to solve conflicts, how to live with diverse and sometimes conflicting ideologies, and give them the skills to enter a world that doesn’t know how to do this.

Teach them, third, how to be responsible members of a civic society. Teach them how to engage in discussion—not for the sake of winning, but for the sake of understanding and being understood. Students need to learn how to check facts, to weigh news sources, to question taken-for-granted assumptions, to see their own biases, to take feedback, to challenge one another. We need to teach students how to disagree—with love and respect. These skills will be priceless in the coming months and years as we work to build a democratic society that protects the rights of all people ― regardless of the cooperation or resistance those efforts face from the executive branch.

Finally, remind them―to ease their minds―that not everyone who voted for Donald Trump did so because they believe the bigoted things that he has said this year. Many of them voted for him because they feel frustrated with the economy, they feel socially left behind, and they are exercising the one power they have. We need to challenge [Mr] Trump and his supporters to differentiate between their fears and the bigotry catalyzed by those fears.

In the aftermath of this traumatic election, I hesitate to even exercise my voice in this way. In the past year, I received hate mail and a death threat from white supremacists for blog posts like this―blog posts that are, let’s be honest, fairly insignificant expressions of personal opinion from a person with very little power. I am not a threat. And yet people have threatened me―and my family―for expressing my view that we should build a world in which all human beings can live freely in the wholeness of their identities. I fear that this kind of intimidation will only increase in the event of a Trump victory. I fear that it will worsen tomorrow―as soon as I hit send ― if Trump supporters are emboldened in their aggression towards people with whom they disagree. And yet the only thing that makes me feel safe in this moment―as I stare into the face of a possible Trump victory―is to speak up and speak out, and to invite others to do the same.”

That last paragraph of his was chilling, and is somewhat my own fear, but let us be courageous and take good care of each other. Let none of us, red or blue, feel emboldened in aggression toward people with whom we disagree. Instead, let’s rid ourselves of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander, so as to be yeast in the dough, salt for the earth, speaking the truth in love.  As our Br. Timothy said this morning, calmly and wisely, “God is still God.”

* * *

One of my friends responded saying that while it may be that “not everyone who voted for Trump did so because they believed the bigoted things he said,” everyone who voted for him did so, in spite of those things he said (and did) as though they did not matter, as though that level of bigotry and contempt for women and immigrants and war veterans and the poor were not significant. And they must now take responsibility for that decision. Another sent a link to this very powerful blog, entitled: “White Christians who voted for Trump: Fix this. Now!” (I’ll attach it below.)

Two folks reflected (“chafed”?) at the same verse about “obeying the emperor” (and why I myself said that “challenge will be to do this while still fearlessly speaking the truth in love). One said that this was ever the problematic verse: “it’s the tension with not unequivocally doing the above that gives us the necessary moral guidance we so desperately need: Gandhi, Dorothy Day, ML King, Mandela. Because, of course, not all political governance is God-sent and too often ‘governors’ do the opposite of what Paul supposes.” Another said that the admonitions to “obey the emperor” and honor the outcome of the election sit differently now. She thought that the implications of the devastation that our President-elect and the Congress are “poised to wreak on the poor and most vulnerable among us, and upon the planet itself, are catastrophic.”

As a Christian (and a Christian monk), the first insurmountable hurtle seems to be the conversation that I almost can’t imagine happening but has to happen: a dialogue among Christians who overwhelmingly, at least the white ones, had to be Mr. Trump’s voting block, and the many Catholics, even clergy (my own classmate made national headlines for this) who thought Mr. Trump was the “lesser evil.” Time will tell, but would the election of Secretary Clinton have unleashed a wave of hate crimes and panic? Unfortunately, the kind of intimidation that preceded the election is continuing now that Mr. Trump has won, I suppose they do feel emboldened now, given license and vindicated in their aggression.

Another friend wanted to know what to say to one of his relatives who voted for Mr. Trump based on a singular issue: he could not vote for Secretary Clinton because she said abortion is between a woman and her doctor. I have no better answer to give him than he himself gave to that relative, the “seamless garment,” pro-life in the broadest sense possible, which includes the environment, the death penalty, and caring for the poor. And again, if a vote for someone other than Mr. Trump (there were three other candidates, we seem to forget, and always the possibility of a write-in) was an evil at all, would it really have been the greater evil?

 

One of our monks today at lunch said that at least one bishop, one priest, and one theologian said that he had committed a mortal sin by voting for Secretary Clinton. Would any bishop, priest, or theologian dare to also affirm that voting for Mr. Trump, with all his ethical baggage, was at least equal to that (if it was a sin at all, let alone mortal)?

 

I am trying to find the highest common denominator, and that would be, for me and my “constituents,” Catholic social teaching and the lead of the Holy Father and the American bishops in union with him. So, along with the prophetic voice of the above mentioned evangelical pastor, I was pleased to find among the headlines that Pope Francis came out and spoke about advocating policies of inclusion, saying God’s plan doesn’t exclude people based on their social class, race or religion. Francis told a group of faithful on that Christians should welcome others “without classifying them on the basis of social condition, language, race, culture, religion.” He added “mercy is that way of acting, that style, with which we try to include others in our life, avoiding closing up into ourselves and into our selfish securities.” Of course this comes as anti-immigrant politicians are enjoying a surge in popularity in many developed countries, not just ours. And Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, no social or theological liberal, led an interfaith prayer service Thursday evening in which he stressed the importance of unity and reassured immigrants in the country illegally that the church would continue supporting them after the election of Donald Trump.

 

That’s a start.

 

One of our staff announced today that he is leaving New Camaldoli because he wants to put his body between the Trump institution and the poor and the oppressed. That’s more than a start.

White Christians Who Voted for Donald Trump: Fix This. Now.

White Christians Who Voted for Donald Trump: Fix This. Now. We Christians like to talk about Hell a lot, so let’s talk about Hell a little. Yesterday, in the very first few...