We are not salvaging anything. Everything must go... Praying our Democracy

I found this gem as I was preparing to write a different post.  But it seemed to me to still be relevant 7 months later, especially as St Paul's prepares to Pray Our Democracy -- praying for its return to health.  Enjoy

Captain America:  Winter Soldier:

Maria Hill, who works for Fury, saves them from the transport van and takes them to a hide-out where they learn that Fury has not died.  They create a plan to destroy Project Insight:

Maria Hill and Fury explain the plan.  They need to breech the three carriers and replace their targeting blade with our own.  All three carriers need to be linked for their plan to work.

Fury:  We have to assume that everyone on those carriers is Hydra.  If we can breech those carriers then maybe we can salvage…

Cap cuts Fury off:  We are not salvaging anything.  We are not just taking down those carriers, Nick, we are taking down SHIELD.

Fury:  SHIELD had nothing to do with it.

Cap:  You gave me this mission Nick.  This is how it ends.  SHIELD has been compromised.  You said so yourself.  Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed.

Fury:  Why do you think we are meeting in this cave?  I noticed.

Cap:  How many paid the price before you did.

Fury:  I didn’t know about Barnes (Bucky)

Cap:  Even if you had, would you have told me?  Or would you have compartmentalized that too?  SHIELD, Hydra they all go.

Maria Hill:  He’s right.

Fury looks around for an ally.  No one agrees with Fury.

Fury:  Well, it looks like you are giving the orders now Captain.

The Current State of our Country:

I’ve been reading the news, paying attention to what is happening, and watching Stephen Colbert (because honestly that is the only way I can ‘watch’ news, through humor).  The current state of our country is not good.  It feels like Hydra has overtly (not sneakily) invaded our government and taken over.

Rally after rally, Trump spews hatred.  He insights chaos in those who attend.  He laughs or ignores hatred filled chants that arise in the midst of his speeches.  He stops talking to allow them to chant.  This is evil at work.

Where and when will it all stop?

Many of us are putting our hopes in the 2020 election.  We must elect someone else President.  As if the election of a Democratic President will end this hatred that has arisen, this culture of violence that Trump has ignited.  It will not.  It would, hopefully, begin to shift the narrative because the President of the United States has a tremendous platform to do that from.
But it is not THE answer.  It is one aspect of a shift we are all seeking.

We are not salvaging anything

The NRA must go.  They must go in order for us to move forward and create reasonable gun-control bills like other countries around the world.

White supremacy groups must go, along with those organizations and politicians that support them.  There is no place in this country for hatred!  No place!!

This may not be a popular thing for me to write (being a Pastor and all), but some Christian institutions must go.  Those institutions that support homophobia, racism — they must go.  They are not Christ-like in any way.  

If they followed the Way of Jesus, they would be out protesting for asylum seekers to be welcomed in this country, not working to shut down the borders.  If they followed the Way of Jesus, they would be seeking government aid to end the epidemics of homelessness, hunger, mental illness, drug-addiction in this country, not seeking to cut those programs.

As Jesus told this parable he said “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me….‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’” (Matthew 25: 35-36, 40)

It must all go! 

There is no salvaging institutions that are steeped in corruption, greed and evil, that have lost their way.  They must go to make way for Good.

Because when a vacuum is created, something new can be planted.  To plant Good at the scale we need to, we must dismantle the institutions that feed and protect this insidious hatred that has invaded our culture.

Then and only then can we rebuild the Moral Center of our culture and country — a Moral Center aligned with Love, Compassion, Justice, Peace and Harmony, no matter your spiritual path.

The Sacred calls us to be the Voice, and ones to lead the charge!

Will you join in this important work?​

Will you step into leadership as Captain America does?

Join St Paul's UCC as we Pray Our Democracy each Sunday during Lent.  We will gather in our chapel from 12:45p to 1:15 p MT to imagine a healthy, healed, whole, balanced democracy, and to hold that image of health, of justice, of compassion and peace, that image of God's Economy in prayer.

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