Here it comes. The 'sermon' that's been brewing at least since 2010 and has boiled over with the latest shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde. Gentle (usual) readers, for the full effect here, you need to imagine me in front of a crowd of dough-faced ammosexual bipeds preaching this. I hope you can tell when I'm at the top of my lungs and when I drop my voice so that my hearers must strain to hear me. Anyhow, here goes.
"Howl, howl, howl, HOWL! O, you are men of STONE!!" King Lear, Act V, Scene 3
Indeed you are. Men and women with hearts of stone upon which you whet your Bowie knives of hate!
Remember this: I come from the same stock as you and I am historically a Southerner. A 'scalawag', yes, and proud of it, but a Southern white nonetheless.
Another senseless, completely unnecessary massacre of little children and all you do is fold your hands and mumble some version of 'Lord, Lord' so uselessly as you weep crocodile tears it makes me want to SCREAM--which, come to think of it, is exactly what I'm doing!
Anyone with so much as a nodding acquaintance with the truth can see what a COP-OUT that is on your parts! Then again, y'all already have plans for much larger massacres already, ain't that right? Plans to basically kill all that really makes our country great to whatever extent it is, don't you? To end any nonsense about 'equal justice' and 'equal opportunity' and so forth? If, after you do this and you keep mouthing the same empty phrases, DO YOU REALLY THINK ANYONE ON THIS PLANET WILL BELIEVE A WORD COMING OUT OF YOUR LYING MOUTHS?!?! Or don't you care if anyone believes you or not?
An anti-Christ figure has shown you how to tilt the table so you can keep on winning 'elections' indefinitely and you have eagerly grasped at what he's shown you! And apparently you don't care how much of a sham those elections will come to be thereby! And I know why. Remember, I am one of Y'ALL.
Another man was elected to the White House. A decent man, a gentleman, with a fine education and a personality to match. He was and still is, apparently, an excellent father and husband. He and his attractive and gracious wife have two smart, pretty and goodhearted daughters. At least, let's hope so. And your reaction to him, entirely because of the color of their skins (don't even try to babble lies and rationales here; remember, I'm one of you!) is probably the biggest telltale about what (I can't say 'who') you really worship.
Oh, LBJ had y'all down pat when he said, somewhere along what was then the new I-40 in 1964 to the young Billy Don Moyers, as he still called himself, "If you can make the lowest white man believe he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him someone to look down on and he'll empty his pockets for you."
And one of the best colored men was elected to the White House and y'all just couldn't stomach how much better he and his family still are than the lowest among us, ain't that right? Admit it to yourselves, because only if you do can God's Grace in Christ Jesus reach down and pull y'all out of the pit YOU have dug for yourselves by electing one of the lowest among us to be this good man's successor!
You have shown yourselves to be idolaters to our common paleness of skin and your AR-15s with clips of between 50 ans 100 rounds and NO followers of Christ Jesus! I can perceive little to no signs of God's Holy Spirit moving amongst you, although that might be my problem too! If so, explain it to me if you can!
Montgomery Gentry sings a song titled Some People Change. Google the video on Youtube.It is to that kind of change I call y'all right now. It involves some relatively mundane things. Once you change, tune out Fox, OAN and Newsmax (all of which make things up) and tune in CNN, MSNBC and the old major networks. They make no bones about their editorial stance but neither do they make up lies and call them 'news'. You'll get better information from them.
Second, start trying to connect with African-American and/or Latino churches. Speak with them and listen. When they speak of their experiences with racism, remember that's not necessarily a reflection on you but is against the system as a whole.
I could preach a whole 'nother sermon about that, but I expect most of y'all need a meal by now. Just remember to tip your servers rightly; twenty percent of the check or better if they do a good job. Anyhow, learn what you, as working people, have in common with your working brethren of duskier hues. And, most importantly, organize together with them to make a new and larger 'us'.
Above all, vote for no one who's trying to make life harder for some of you. Because that 'some' will eventually include you, whatever you may do, if you don't see and oppose such measures. And you may not see that coming without our brethren of color. They're much better trained to perceive such designs than most of us yet are. For at least that reason, we need them as much as they need us! Remember that! I think I can safely say, it's this kind of thing Jesus wants us to do. Listen without agendas and don't fear to ask questions; we all have things we don't know but should know.
And remember, sin has a collective dimension as well as an individual one. Nations and, yes, churches, synagogues, mosques or what-have-you, can be caught in sins--mostly sins of false certainty or want of charity and welcome to the stranger. Fight those sins when you bump up against them.
Finally (do I hear sighs of relief?) remember that our apparently common theology tells us that we are ALL sinners, every last one of us. We need to fight sins inside our countries and churches and so on, but we cannot expect sin's absence anywhere, nor should we. Remember, we don't stop being sinners once we grasp Jesus's Hand of
Grace! His Grace gives us a fighting chance AGAINST our sins both
individual and collective!
If we are to be 'pro-life', we need to make it so children can go to school without fear of being mown down by a maniac with an AR-15. We need to make it so another mouth to feed won't mean dire hardship, or shaming, for anyone and that all of us--the expanded 'us'--can have the education and/or training we need for what we want to do. And that no medical emergency will wipe any of us out financially!
And, Archbishop Cordileone, allow a humble man to caution you as regards your own allies in your cause and to remind you that Jesus shared meals with everyone, with his opponents as well as his disciples. Let politicians look to their consciences but perhaps Eucharist should be given as Jesus would give it. I know money's hard to find but what has your archdiocese been doing lately to help families, mothers and little ones? Again, a humble man's question. And what do the SGCs in your archdiocese make of your action? You do know that abbreviation and what it means, right?
Now is the time, brothers and sisters, to turn from the weapons of death and heeding calls for division to the means of life for ALL and building a larger 'we' than this planet has yet seen. Remember we have been pioneers. Now is the time to resume that status. Pioneers for better lives for ALL!
