Peace

Matthew 24:11-12 – “Then many false prophets will arise and will lead many astray. Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many people will grow cold.”

It gets boring writing about current politics, but this is exactly what we are seeing in the US today; conspiracy theories and corruption. Conspiracy theories used to be fringe beliefs that most right-thinking people could see were false. Today, some of these beliefs are mainstream, regardless of the fact that they are false. Pizzagate is a great example. In case you haven’t heard of this theory (lucky you), it involves Hillary Clinton sexually abusing children in the basement of a pizza parlor. The pizza parlor in question does not even have a basement. That didn’t stop one “hero” from going there and shooting up the place, trying to rescue those non-existent children.

This is the danger of spouting lies and not calling out those who believe in such lies. They get repeated and people want to believe. Fox News is in the business of keeping these theories alive and in the news. If you watch them, you support a big piece of the problem with conspiracy theories, even if you yourself do not believe them to be true.

The false prophets of the NRA are succeeding in their quest to make us all live in constant fear so that we’ll buy more guns. More guns leads to more gun violence. A young man in Florida killed three people in addition to himself, because he lost a video football game. Without access to guns, this person and the three others who died, would probably still be alive. A young man was shot and killed a few blocks from us last week. A drunk man, angry at some perceived slight, drove down and shot him. Again, no guns, no shooting, no death.

Hearing the false prophets’ explanation that the violence in Florida was due not to guns, but rather to the use of headphones. How stupid does the NRA think we are? it’s enough to make the angels weep. The NRA’s hearts have grown cold. They only care about themselves. False prophets and lawlessness are harming many people around the world.

Yet, these conspiracy theories and corruption are nothing new. Jesus’ world was rife with violence and corruption. The Roman soldiers only had swords, yet they were every bit as cruel and heartless as those who put children in cages and those who thought it was a good idea to do so. This is because unlearning what we learned as children is disorienting, painful, and scary. Who wants any of those things? So, we double down on our smug refusal to see people who do not look like us as people. We become easy prey for conspiracy theorists. Anything is better than admitting our coldness and cruelty to ourselves. This is the gehenna, the hell that Jesus talked about. Some of us have lived in this hell all our lives. In doing so, they make a hell of the lives of those around them.

There doesn’t seem to be much peace in that thought. However, we can control our own thoughts, our own beliefs, our own reflections, our own actions. We can leave that hell, if we are there, anytime we want to by clinging to the truth. We can create peace in our households and neighborhoods by being peaceful in our interactions. 

Peace is a worthy goal in this time of lies and propaganda and fear-mongering.