Imprecation

Is this any way to run a country?

Is there an honest politician in the house?

Behind the scenes you brew cauldrons of evil,

Behind closed doors you make deals with demons.

-Psalm 58: 1-2, The Message

It happened again last night. A madman with a gun went on a rampage, and now we are sending our "thoughts and prayers" to another community and rending our garments about this woeful and "unavoidable" tragedy.  It makes me want to spit fire.  I'm going to take a different route though, I'm going to listen to Eugene Peterson's advice and learn how to cuss without cussing, using the imprecatory Psalms like 58.

They're good stuff for moments like this, because frankly, I've run the gamut of taking this on like a reasonable person.  I just give up trying to talk sense to people who are willing to accept consequences like what happened in Orlando, San Bernardino, Oregon, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, I don't even what to list all the places because I don't want to type that much, and seriously, I type fast.  So this is not going to be a rational argument for sane gun control, this is going to be curse on the idolatry of violence that warps our souls to the point where we really feel this sort of thing is inevitable.

You are entitled to your opinion, but people are dying because we lack the spine to be grown ups.  I'm tired of watching our President and our congress people, who we elected to make decisions in the best interests of our nation, throw up their hands and say there is nothing they can do about this stuff.  There is something they can do, they just don't have the guts to do it.  And I'm tired of all the good people of this country, including the gun owners, accepting and voting for politicians who don't have the guts to do anything about it, because they jive with other opinions and positions.  This and war are becoming my make or break issues.  I'm tired of letting the Hawks run the show, they are not just people that disagree with me, they are what the Bible often describes as the "Wicked," they profit off of war, they hold power through fear, and they are evil, demonic and violent.  Here's more Psalms:

God, get me out of here, away from this evil;

protect me from these vicious people.

All they do is think up new ways to be bad,

They spend their days plotting war games.

They practice the sharp rhetoric of hate and hurt;

Speak venomous words that maim and kill.

-Psalm 140: 1-3, The Message

What can you do about such tragedy?  First, reject the "sharp rhetoric of hate and hurt," if anyone uses it reject them as leader, they are not worthy.  Don't have a choice?  Yes you do, you always do, write letters, if they represent you, hold them accountable with your voice and your vote.  Do your homework, if the people on your ballot have the support of the NRA or have ties to warmongering companies like Haliburton, don't vote for them, even if you might agree with them on economic policy, or other issues, don't accept their "cauldron of evil" and their demonic deals.

Make peace your priority, not just security for you either.  Think of all the people, who may be strangers to you, who are going to die because you accepted and elected a person who would not stand up to the wickedness that is rampant in our world, and no, I'm not talking about the Muslims, or even the mentally unstable people who are often the perpetrators of these crimes. I'm certainly not talking about the LGBTQ people which are too often the target of the venomous words of people in my own line of work. I'm talking about the people who create the system where this sort of violence happens and fight to keep it going in the face of such atrocity, because they're getting rich.

Moloch and Mammon have always been fast friends. They are a symbiotic duo that can twist the human soul rather skillfully. Violence and greed keep us locked in cycles that we think are so unbreakable that we feel utterly powerless to confront them, but we can, like no other people in the history of the world, we can, and thus we should, indeed we must.