YeKengalé

I’ve lifted from my draft folder the following unfinished post, written during the pivotal days before the January 6th insurrection when Trump was still challenging the election results through the Courts:

I recommend every American believer, of whatever stripe and persuasion to daily tune in to Pat Robertson’s 700 club and Dutch Sheet’s Give Him 15. Equally instructive is to follow the blog posts and videos of Mario Murillo, Hank Huneman and scores of others who have interpreted the Biblical injunction to pray for leaders in Government as a sacred obligation to become prayer warriors for Trump – those who wage war in heaven to procure the overturn of the US election results while their earthly counterparts on Trump’s legal team wage war in earthly courts for the same objective.

I understand the cosmological filters of the various camps in Christianity – right, left and center. The exercise is a meaningful one for any who wishes to understand what I have called the deep fissure in American Christian identity that for any true believer should be a matter to be studied and understood, not dismissively ignored – blissful ignorance a trick that works for some at times, but can also be a disastrous mistake. All true Christians are invested in what the scripture calls the Unity of the Faith. That alone should motivate investigation.

Too often, the reflexive defence against naked evil is blindness – as if shutting the eyes makes unpleasant things disappear (only relatively true). But what is not seen is covered by/clothed with darkness and therefore not naked at all. I understand the reasons we walk backward with sheets to cover all kinds of inconvenient truths, but truth concealed is truth inoperative, it takes an observer to activate an experience.

The real reason we choose ignorance is often fear. Fear however and responsibility are polar opposites. The latter requires courage and confidence.

I understand the reluctance of the neo-cessationist (that includes most so called believers who are satisfied with the god of their tradition and experience… who live in a world where the god-space has already been neatly carved out and apportioned ….who claim the god of Abraham as their personal god, yet are unwilling themselves either to sacrifice their sons or step out of their well laden boats to walk upon water) to delve in the somewhat maddening world of dreams, visions, angels, demons, miracles and prophecies, even though such is the stuff of Abraham’s God and the God Jesus revealed as loving Father.

Even the modern Christian atheist/agnostic, in tune with the wonderful world we have created with science and technology is unwilling to even consider mystic claims of the past or present that might unsettle the equilibrium of that seemingly stable world, regardless how volatile it gets.

I also am acutely aware of the genuine fear of confusion/ confoundment of those self aware enough to recognize that they do not possess the conceptual tools (whether theological or scientific) to investigate this world estranged from their personal experience and would rather lump every supernatural claimant from within or without the church into one bag to be avoided as much as possible since what matters in this modern world are human institutions. They, not spirit have the greater agency. (Since so many believe this to be absolutely true, it shouldn’t hurt to temporarily explore a ‘what if?’)

Even us clamorous charismaniacs for all our boisterous enthusiasm, seeing spirits under every rock and by every river, each of us the Almighty’s BFF, need to judge ourselves from time to time, regardless of how many dead we’ve raised and Jordans parted. The Unity of the Faith requires us to walk in love with our brethren, although we would rather shout them down disdainfully from protected pulpits, surrounded by sycophants, secure in our personal religious fiefdoms, arrogant, unapproachable and hypocritical.

The mental filters of the unbeliever ( I include Christian unbelievers of the Bishop John Shelby Spong / Richard Dawkins [ a self described secular Christian] variety) do not allow for this discussion; so, such are excluded from the conversation. Such a mind cannot conceive of, much less judge angels. The best such a mind can come up with are claims of charlatanry, superstitious delusion, mass hypnosis (though few would claim to understand just what that is or how it works), or some such ‘natural’ explanation, like plagiarism ( as was asserted to explain the relationship between the teachings of Kenneth E. Hagin and E.W. Kenyon, or the controversial false predictions of Prophet Brian Carn and Psychic Cheryl Lynn; their limiting beliefs on the nature and scope of consciousness find no alternative causal probabilities beyond human trickery to explain what Freud might have called extreme synchronicity.)

What happens when you are divinely, unrepentantly deluded? On more than one occasion Yahweh’s recipe for impending destruction was unshakeable delusion..