The Anglican archbishop here in Vancouver hates this blog, as does one of the priests I used to be in communication with. When this priest and I were on speaking terms (and we still would be on speaking terms if she would have the courtesy to answer my last two or three emails), one day over coffee she informed me that Her Nibs was not amused with my random scribblings. in my nasty little blogposts. They wanted to know why there appeared to be such a huge contrast between the Aaron they thought they knew in person (nice, polite and kind), and the rantings and ravings of this precious and pernicious blog. Or, why couldn't my blog be more like Jesus? I should add here that the Anglican version of Jesus is exactly that, a nice, kind polite man, rather like an English upper middle class gentleman farmer who likes to spend his Sundays shooting pheasants and his Saturdays fox-hunting, and who wouldn't dream of offending or ruining your day by telling you the truth about anything. The priest didn't reply when I asked her if that was the same Jesus who yelled, "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites!"
Oh yes, there are many faces to love: tender, meek, kind, humble, and compassionate. but then compassion can be set on fire and become a blazing fireball of divine indignation and the vindication of justice, the defense of the helpless and vulnerable: speaking truth unto power and openly challenging and defying systems of injustice and oppression Beginning of course, in Mother Church, which more often than not is the first bone yard full of festering hypocrisy that needs to be dealt with and cleaned out.
By the way, I also said to the same priest, in a kind and gentle voice, with a smile on my face, that by the way, she can tell Her Nibs the Archbishop that I am going to write whatever the fuck I want in this blog, or anywhere else. Oh, the puss on her when I said that! Is there any wonder that the Anglican Church (at least the paid Christians Division) seems to hate me so much.
I just had a brief chat downstairs with another tenant in my building. He is a little bit older than me and we are both original tenants here, which is to say that we have lived here since Candela Place opened more than eighteen years ago. He was not wearing a mask, and we both were waiting for the elevator. I asked him if he could put on a mask please, and he cited some excuse, possibly a valid one, that he had a respiratory issue about wearing masks. So, I replied that he wouldn't mind then going up in the elevator alone, and I'll wait for the next one. He retorted that so far no one in this building "has it". I replied, Not yet anyway, and this is how we help prevent the virus from getting in here. He replied that it's all fear. I said that it's common sense. We don't want other people to get it so we all have a responsibility. He repeated that it's all fear. I said, no, we are looking out for one another and this is love, and that is what we are called to do.
As he entered the elevator alone, he muttered something indecipherable, and I waited for the next one, which seemed delayed, so I took the stairs. Hey, it's seventy-one steps, but I need the exercise.
I shouldn't be surprised by this person's attitude. We never did get along with each other. He is a Christian fundamentalist, and last I knew, extremely homophobic, neither does he seem to like anyone who doesn't agree with his distorted vision of the Christian faith. Which is too bad. And please note that I called him a Christian fundamentalist, and not a fundamentalist Christian. There is a difference I think. This man strikes me as a fundamentalist with a Christian label, so, probably doesn't really have much of a relationship with God, whereas a fundamentalist Christian has a relationship with God but interprets his faith through a more or less literal reading of the Bible. I have known both. They tend to be rather narrowly focussed, but Christians who are fundamentalists are also genuinely kind and loving and compassionate people, which to me is what really counts even if I don't happen to agree with their theology. They are still people who love. just as there are also Anglicans who are real Christians, because they genuinely love. There might even be the odd priest who fits that category, but I have yet to meet any.
But a fundamentalist could be a hardcore Baptist, Catholic, or pick any one, or a hardcore Muslim, or a hardcore Orthodox Jew, or a hardcore Buddhist (I mean the kind in Burma who are raping and slaughtering the Rohingya Muslims), or a hardcore atheist, or pick any one. But they are generally rigid and inflexible thinkers with cold hard little hearts that will simply take whatever faith or nonfaith out of context in order to suit their own cruel and callous worldview, and will simply rot inside their own little prison. And these are people who are most to be pitied because they have most likely grown up and gone through their lives completely deprived of unconditional love.
But love itself is a challenge. A huge challenge. Love does not entitle us to judge others but equips and empowers us to walk in their shoes, to learn what it is like to live in another's skin. This is also called empathy, but this is also key to seeing love set in motion among us, once we have stopped complaining about how awful everything is, once we have gone into the silence to reflect a bit, once we have really opened our own hearts to consider what part we could play in order to change things just a little bit, starting with ourselves, and reaching beyond ourselves in order to touch and be touched by one another's lives.
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