Butch's Blog for 3/23
Butch Ritter
Jeremiah is my favorite prophet because he is everything I am not. Like most clergy, I want to be liked and am willing to wear a muzzle, willing to keep some (many) thoughts to myself. However, today I am hearing the words of Elijah in my soul: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me.” (Romans 11:3) It’s not that anyone is trying to kill me. It’s that I don’t want people upset with me.. Why would anyone be upset?
Well, somehow, no matter what the topic it has become a political issue. I have a sister, a wife, no daughters but there are 3 granddaughters. As far as I know, none of them are sluts. No matter who pays for the contraceptives, they are not sluts (remove granddaughters from this narrative- none are in elementary school yet).
I can understand the illegal immigrants issue, but I do not understand the lack of grace in the discussions.
I do not grasp the massacre of the innocents in Afghanistan. While everything has yet to be settled, the one suspected of the shooting is being housed near us.
There is another school shooting and another courthouse shooting and another young person gunned down on the streets of Kansas City.
I pick up the daily paper and there are multiple insanities being written. Race, poverty, health, and education issues require something more than slogans, more than “Fight insanity with inanity”. I am so old that I don’t think I have a birth certificate.
Walter Brueggemann, a brilliant and bold prophet, spoke to a roomful of preachers on the topic of prophetic preaching. “Say as much as you dare say at this time, under these circumstances.”
Complicity with silence, however, is not acceptable.
We must speak about the widespread cruelty brought to our attention daily. That is not a Republican/Democrat issue. It is not a liberal/conservative issue. It is a human issue.
Butch