While I comment on urgent topics, including race, I do my best to avoid specific political views. I am a commentator who seeks to add perspective, and that perspective is intended to be as fair, biblical, and thoughtful as I can make it. I am willing to suggest views that are unpopular or that do not fit one of the common narratives.
Here’s one such view: I oppose, and I am ashamed of the mob action to violently occupy and disrupt the Congress in the U.S. Capitol building on January 6. While I realize there are other topics, none of them begin to excuse or explain the error or evil of that day. OK, there may be other inexcusable events. So what? And what was most shameful? Associating the name of Jesus with this action by some who occupied the Capitol.
Metaphor: In order to understand events and their implications, I need a metaphor, and I do not have one yet. I do have an idea: “Long ago a sailing ship was in the harbor preparing for the next leg of its long trip, but it started to drift. Some saw the drift and said,”This must stop,” while others said, “This drift is progress….” You get the idea. Send me a metaphor if you have one.
Scripture: I may have no metaphor, but I do have a Scripture, thanks to Dan Allan of Ashland, who is preaching in Zechariah. The verses (below) are highly edited from Zechariah 7 and 8. Sobering. (For those who may need to hear it: yes, I understand context, exile, and theocracy). Just read it, please.
7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius. 2 The people of Bethel had sent to entreat the Lord 3 “Should I mourn and fast in the fifth month, as I have done for so many years?”
And the Lord said, 4 “Ask all the people ‘When you fasted and mourned for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? 7 Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous?’”
8 And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: 9 ”This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’
8:15 Do not be afraid. 16 These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17 do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,” declares the Lord.
7:13 ”‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. 14 ’I scattered them among all the nations. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’“