A stained-glass window at Kilmore Quay in Ireland depicts the first call to Peter (Simon) and Andrew to stop casting their nets into the Sea of Galilee and instead turn over their lives as followers and to become “fishers of men.”
I honestly am not certain about either of my parents’ political leanings, which is probably why I grew up to be a registered Independent. I do know that mom was religious, and the home always had plenty of religious symbolism, e.g., crucifixes, Mother Mary’s etc. I’m guessing dad mostly voted Republican. My brother recently told me a story about how incredibly long it took until dad finally, one night, started yelling at Nixon on the TV and saying, “You’re a f*cking LIAR!” But he noted that it took a long, long time for that reality to finally hit home.
We are at a crossroads right now in our country. We either rise up, together, and make a vow to stop feeding the social media sh*t-fest which only serves the current plutocracy…or, we continue to watch (and favor) the perversion of religion and anti-intellectualism that has engendered this new “Alt-right” nationalist and white supremacist movement that has co-opted and corrupted religion as its core value.
As I wrote about in a different post, the rise of White Nationalism and its affinity to religious symbolism is not new. It was at the heart of the SS and Nazism. Hitler himself believed that he was doing the job of the Almighty Creator. These exact events are occurring now across the globe but, specifically, also in the United States.
We are in the ‘long con’ right now, one that is fueled by someone who realistically is nothing more than a twelve-year-old Twitter troll. For three years white nationalists have been gaining momentum and seeking validity. Just today we see the so-called ‘Proud Boys’ marching in Portland, Oregon. The group spent months in online chat rooms preparing for a white nationalist march with serious online plans to promote violence. They arrived in Portland with religious symbolism, Nazi symbolism, clothing that had bible passages on it and a whole lot of political paraphernalia supporting the current occupant of the White House. They are playing the long con game for this guy, responding to the tweets, going off to the alt-right chatrooms and planning violence and sometimes, lately, mass murder.
Now is the time for religious leaders to stop cutting bait and to get back to their calling, their ministries, and once again become fishers of men. In the past month, with mass shootings taking place and manifestos being published on alt-right websites, religious leaders have completely ignored the fact that neo-fascists are corrupting and polluting religious symbols for the purposes of spreading terror and death. Those in faith communities need to be illuminating this reality to faithful and strongly denounce this perversion. Instead, these leaders have gone out and told their ‘congregations that the con man on Twitter is the one in which to listen. They have invested in the con, the scheme. A scheme that is causing death and terror around the country.
There must be a point where they do a ‘dad’ and finally start yelling at the TV. Remember, it wasn’t too much when the con man trashed a Gold Star family, disrespected a POW, shamelessly mocked a handicapped person, bragged about cheating with a woman, actually did cheat on his wife only months after she gave birth, bragged about sexual assault, bragged about looking at teenage girls naked in a locker room, called an entire nationality rapists and criminals, etc. No, the con man sold it…and it came in easy to spew three syllable catch phrases. “I alone can fix it.”“I am the smartest, I have a really big brain.”“I know the ‘best’ people.”“I know more than the generals.”“I’m really rich!” A small, self-absorbed con man and Twitter bully sold them a bill of goods. The Godly ate it up.
When are the religious going to stand up for what is right? The long con is on. The alt-right has swallowed it, draped themselves in flags and crucifixes and picked up weapons, attacking synagogues and Walmarts. When is the dad yelling at the TV moment going to happen?
We might be seeing some cracks in the con game. A couple of prominent political people have come ‘out’ in the past month to denounce the con man and point out the hypocrisy of pushing the con narrative. They join any number of true conservatives who have steadfastly refused to be played by the con since its inception. They warned us years ago that the deficit would not ‘Be erased in just a year. Believe me.’ As we see now, it has ballooned to over $1 trillion and the national debt has risen by over $3 trillion. Meanwhile, manufacturing indexes are down, taxes have gone up for the bulk of the country…and that is not including the tariff/tax passed on to consumers. Meanwhile, drug prices did not ‘Get so low that your head will spin.’ And we don’t have ‘Much better, much cheaper health care at a FRACTION of the cost. Believe me.’
The last couple of ‘rallies’ the con man threw had empty seats. The most recent one in New Hampshire had huge holes throughout the venue. This could be a sign that more and more dads are finally looking at the TV and yelling “You’re a f*cking LIAR!” Now the religious leaders must follow suit.
It is hard to admit when you have been conned. It is far easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled. In statistical analysis, and in psychology, there is what is called ‘Regression to the Mean.’ If the religious people in the country initially fell prey to the con man, willing to turn a moral blind eye because they bought the con, then it is incumbent on them now to see this con for what it is worth…bodies piling up, kids in cages, alt-right white nationalists parading around in bible verse t-shirts…and to get back to the roots of the church and of true ministry. Catholicism is based on Agape. No matter what the faith, it is time to denounce the con man and reclaim a sense of moral justice for our world. A regression to the mean would be standing up to the obvious moral vacuum of the con man and the perversion of religion for terrorist ends.
If what you see on a Twitter feed is something that you would not allow your own twelve-year-old to do, then it is time to stand up and remind the congregation about what is in alignment with the Word. It is time for you to once again become Fishers of Men. Note: This may require some yelling at your TV.