Rev. Alba Onofrio

Just when you felt you couldn’t believe in integrity anymore…

In a shocking twist on December 19, editor-in-chief for Christianity Today, Mark Galli, showed an incredible amount of conviction and integrity by coming out in public to the world of conservative Christianity to declare that Trump should be removed from office and behaved in ways that are “profoundly immoral”.

The editor, of course, paid for his sin by getting roasted in the media and losing many subscribers.

But it is worth acknowledging that in spite of a laundry list of grave political differences — he and the magazine steadfastly oppose abortion rights and marriage equality — Galli displayed actions currently unseen in this moment of unwavering devotion to Trump by conservative Christians and ever-looming threats of person and political reprisals for anyone who steps out of line.

We call on the Right to take responsibility for the consequences of their faith: how those theologies land on the bodies of people historically and today.

We call on them to recognize the ways their theology harms LGBTQI people, women, the poor and working classes, immigrants, and on and on. 

We call for consistency: applying one’s beliefs to ALL circumstances, not just when it is politically convenient.

That is called integrity, and in another time this was a requirement for righteousness among Christians. Integrity is what we in communities of faith strive for in our lives.

While it is sad that consistency in this political moment is the low bar we measure hope with, Galli showed the world a glimmer of hope that all people of conservative Christian faith cannot be bought or threatened into staunch submission.

His bold decision to tell the truth about the media outlet’s commitment to Christian values that extends to their position on the impeachment of this Republican president — in a way consistent with their position on the impeachment of Democratic presidents in years past — is nothing short of a miracle. 

In this moment, when so many of us are fighting death, running in fear, and quickly becoming exhausted and numb, it is essential to our survival that we name what we know. 

We are at war. 

So many of us who are not straight, white, rich, male and/or Christian find ourselves on an unanticipated battlefield in our own home; the ammunition is live and the consequences deadly. 

Our bodies are engaged in mortal combat…. and so are our souls.

We are so inundated with news of the latest decrees and targets of this neo-fascist regime that we do not fully attend to the rapid fire assaults on our spirits. Beyond the endless noise of political warfare, there is a deeper crisis going unaddressed.

What is at stake is far more important than national unity, even more important than justice… for it is only in defeating the spirit of a people, that tyranny and death can ever truly reign.

What is happening now is nothing short of spiritual terrorism. And if we lose ourselves in this struggle, if we let those messages of dehumanization, coercive violence, and all-consuming power eat away at our souls, then our bodies will have little left to fight for.

This is spiritual warfare, and we must resist the death that seems to be coming at us from all sides. We must do the profound internal work of keeping our spirits alive alongside the critical communal work of saving our peoples from violence.

Spiritual violence is physical violence. It propels, reinforces, and antagonizes physical violence that leads to our death. The mosque burning in Victoria, Texas just hours after the signing of the executive order for the Muslim ban is a relevant example.

A distorted and corrupt version of Christianity moralizes these attacks and reinforces the systems of domination that say it is justified and acceptable for us to be murdered in the streets, attacked in our homes, and slaughtered en masse in our spirits.

One fundamental problem is the nature of power itself. Because of Christian Supremacy, we have come to equate power with control and domination, both of which are fear driven. “God-fearing” has long been a way to describe Christians, but it is a very specific version of God, i.e. Father-God-Patriarch-Judge-King, that uses divine power to intimidate and coerce submission. This is toxic theology.

This particular political moment is not one to get lost in our hurt feelings about losing the election or the exposed reality of the depth of racism, greed, sexism and xenophobia that is present in the hearts of our countrymen. We need to understand this is war, and a struggle between death and life, not just at a legal or cultural level. 

What is at stake is far more lasting than a political regime. It is the future fate of our eternal souls. Will we die on this capitalist altar of greed? Or will we save our souls and live? 

There is a legacy of evil that has come to reign. It is oriented towards death and despair, and it could lead to destruction for many of us. How we fortify ourselves and our peoples to actually engage in spiritual warfare is essential. 

We must train ourselves spiritually to be ready and prepared to combat these forces of evil that are encroaching on our people’s ability to live. We must resist these deaths not only in a physical way, but also in our spirits. Because these forces lead to our harm and annihilation by our own hands, as well as by the State and its allies.

So at this particular moment, it is not about combatting that power of brutality with another more brutalizing power. The nature of power as we understand it must change.

Claiming our own agency, cherishing our own power and nourishing it in our own bodies and souls is a commitment all of our freedom fighters must make.

Power over others that requires their subjugation leads straight to death for the oppressor and the oppressed. If we have learned anything from our history, I hope it is that lesson. We must now reorient ourselves to understand true power as the antithesis of fear-based domination. 

May we come to know and love and grow in ourselves the omnipotent power that comes through Creator to Creation, through the earth, through our bodies, through our bloodlines and our breath, through our histories and our ancestors that leads us all toward life abundant.

Rev. Alba Onofrio
November 23, 2016

Listen for a second. Can you feel it? That pulsating….

When I stop thinking so hard. When I stop trying to comprehend how this political moment happened. When I stop trying to strategize the next moment, and take a pause from chasing after my people to make sure they’re still alive…

After the tears and before the hope, it comes to me.

And it sounds like Truth to my Spirit… like a call to my aching heart.

When I am still, when I get out of my own head, out of my own way, I can feel it come into me. That pulsating thing, under my feet.

Flowing from the depths of the earth, through the black fertile soil under my feet—

The seeds breaking through the hard clumpy dirt to reach the sun…

[Image – Painting of seeds, Rise Up]

Can you feel it? Listen. There it is again…

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

It is as if all of Creation is pulling for us. In all its many forms telling us not to let this be our dying day:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The ocean tides rhythmically against the sand:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The super moon flooding us with light, creating shadows in her wake, just over the horizon:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The wind sweeping us off our feet, strong and cold, keeping the calling birds aloft in flight:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The doe gently nudging her fawn after birth:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The thunder storming down upon our ears: Don’t let this be your deathbed! Don’t let this be your end!

Rise.    Rise.    Rise.

The sun, burning off the chill of apathy with hot stinging fingers, calling our souls like the vapor:

Rise.    Rise.    Rise. 

This is still more death to come; we can smell the decay. It scares us, and we grieve the truth that has been revealed in us and dread the helplessness of what comes next.

But we are a people who Rise and Rise and Rise.

Time and time again, we have faced impossible odds. We have felt the looming fear of uncertainty and heard the sharpening of the executioners’ blade in our ears. Death is a familiar stench. We know it too well; the taste of iron still fresh in the blood that fills our mouths.

Mouthfuls of hate rather than the bounty of earth that we each and every one deserve. This moment is a victory for fear and hate. It threatens our very lives.

But let us Rise Up and remember that we are an Easter People.

We may not all be Christians, but we all attest to power of the resurrection: of souls renewed and bodies healed and minds opened and movements changed.

May the death that comes be that of the systems that kill us, rather than the bloodshed of the ones we love. May a theology of Life shine through the thick fog and the Truth of Abundance be made clear to show us the way. It is time for a moral awakening in this land. It is time for a reckoning. It is time for repentance and renewal. It is time for the Easter People to Rise Up and set the souls of the peoples aflame with the good news of great joy which has always been, and must always be, for all of the people.

Amen.