A Need For Healing

What amazes me about the current state of our country is not the hatred. White Americans have hated Native Americans since the Vikings banged ashore. White Americans have hated black and brown Americans since they first found they couldn’t exist without them. White politicians have hated since they first found that hatred produces votes. Others just find hatred sexually arousing and a good substitute for performance.

No, what amazes me is deeper than that, much deeper. I know folks who normally appear as those whom the Galilean would call his “brothers and sisters in grace.” They are kind, generous, delightful to talk to, pleasant in all outward aspects and ready to help with the flash of an eye. They can even quote scriptures with ease, particularly the “letters” or the Old Testament. Unashamedly, they specialize in “thoughts and prayers.”

Then, they click on social media. The Galilean weeps.

They post the most hateful, vicious, hideously false, divisive messages that one can imagine. Stuff, much of which must emanate from the Russian Meme Factory, as hideous as one can imagine. Posts that aren’t intended to express a debatable idea, but only to guarantee their hatred bona fides, much of it directed at those whom the Galilean loved the most.

What is wrong here?

I don’t think they are bad people in general. Rather, I think it simply indicates that, somewhere, there is an abscess on their soul. Let us all hope (or pray if we choose) for a great healing. That would make the Galilean smile.