On Condemnation and Fear and False Dichotomies

As I write, the tumultuous week of the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination continues. A week ago, we watched Dr. Ford's compelling testimony and Judge Kavanaugh's emotional response.  And since then, pretty much everyone I've read has felt justified in their binary lens, and in feeling increasingly self-righteous, increasingly persecuted, increasingly frustrated, increasingly alienated, and increasingly angry.

This week, a Bible verse jumped out at me:  Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem and some Samaritan cities did not seem to be welcoming him.  His followers, high on their own power and expectation, breathing the atmosphere of unambiguous surety, wanted to call down fire upon the inhospitable towns.  Jesus replied, don't you understand, I didn't come here to condemn, but to save! 

What?  God isn't mostly about putting the sinners in their place?  God is mostly about opening a way for all of us to thrive and grow and love?  Who would have thought that in anything that's been said?

Jesus, evidently.  Instead of condemning, Jesus walked right into the hate, misunderstanding, corruption, horror, and pain of bearing our world's brokenness.  Instead of condemning certain people, cities, ethnicities, groups . . He condemned evil by taking the brunt of it into his own body, to the point of death, and then offering life.

We are all sinners, sufferers, and saints in a massively mixed bag.  And yet we are living in a time and context where, lacking any credible lens with which to make sense of such human mystery, our leaders latch onto our fears and whip them up.  "This woman is out to ruin a man's life for political purposes/greed, watch out men, you might be next, your survival is under attack!" "This man represents all that is wrong with every privilege of race and gender, and if you doubt his guilt you don't support the huge numbers of women in the world who have been sexually assaulted!"  Moral high-grounds abound, fueled by fear and false dichotomies.

Could we take a deep breath and try to embrace what is true?

• A significant number of women experience sexual trauma (1 in 5), and Dr. Ford gave us as a nation a gripping, credible, painful, honest description of hers.
• MOST of those girls and women keep silent, blame themselves, fear disclosure, seek to move on.  When they do speak, MOST of the time allegations of sexual abuse turn out to be true.
• The courage and poise of Dr. Ford sparked a useful national reckoning and awareness of sexual abuse of power, deeply meaningful to many humans.
• Teenagers are still developing their brains, and do things that range from foolish to evil.  Maturity requires we acknowledge our wrong-doing and seek to change, grow, and where possible, make amends. 
• Alcohol dis-inhibits the brain, and people who are drunk perpetrate even more sorrows than people who are not, and they don't always remember what they do.
• We live in a democracy where almost half of people voted knowingly to elect a person to the highest office whose character includes numerous documented sexually abusive/ inappropriate/ immoral/ unkind/ mean statements and actions.  People have chosen to overlook his personal characteristics in order to feel more powerful or secure.  Those same people will most likely also approach the approval of his nominees in the same way, willing to overlook morals and behavior if the nominee can offer them something they feel is worth their vote.
• The Senate judiciary committee hearing was not a court of law to try a case from three decades ago, it was an attempt to listen to witnesses who had serious concerns about the capacity and character of the nominee.  Dr. Ford was heard; Judge Kavanaugh responded, and now the Senate must decide how to weigh his record and potential to serve in view of the unproven but possible criminal deeds he committed many years ago, and in view of the way he has handled himself in the review process.  
• If this case were to be tried, like many others, we must be careful to extend the justice of innocent-until-proven-guilty to all.
• If you want to make America great, it won't happen by glossing over abuse or by shaming the innocent in order to get your side in power.  It will only happen by the day-to-day slow sure transformation that comes from living authentic lives of sacrifice and love.

What would Jesus make of half of us wanting to call down fire from Heaven upon the other half?  I think Jesus might listen with care to each, and then sigh.  From the Gospels we can guess that if he had to take a side, he would side with the less powerful, the wounded, the suffering.  But in so doing he would also see the pain of the other.  He would very likely speak up on behalf of the #metoo movement.  And he would forgive anyone who asked for it.  

This was in my devotional reading from Matthew 27 today: "This is how he is shining the light of God's love into the dark corners of the world:  by taking the evil of the world, the hatred and cruelty and unthinking mockery of the world, the gratuitous violence, bullying and torture that still deface the world, and letting it do its worst to him.  Never let it be said that the Christian faith is an airy-fairy thing, all about having wonderful inner, spiritual experience, and not about the real world.  This story takes us to the very heart of what Christianity is all about; and here we meet, close up and raw, the anger and bitterness of the world, doing its worst against the one who embodies and represents the love of the creator God himself. . . . we are of course outraged that such things should happen.  Yes, Jesus will say to us, and they are still happening around the world today; what are we doing about it?" (NT Wright commentary on Mathew)

Could we channel some of our angst over this very disturbing week into taking up our own crosses, and following Jesus into the hard path of healing?  The world is waiting.