The struggle between an open society welcoming all and closed societies goes far beyond our own borders. We decry Putin’s ideological framework calling the West corrupt because of our official policy statements on being open to all. But, as we all know, what we say and what we do are often quite different.
This perceived performance gap, as it were, is what Jesus decried when he called the Pharisees hypocrites. It’s not just DeSantis who claims that teaching hard truths about our history constitutes indoctrination, and then turns around with their own version of indoctrination. Attempts to soften our past constitutes hypocrisy, to be sure.
Matching public statements and private actions is what Jesus called the Pharisees to do. Hiding behind so-called biblical literacy is little more than creating another kind of interpretation to justify old prejudices, carving out people from God’s full welcome into the kingdom Jesus calls us to live.
Prayer for the Day
You call us to love one another and have set no limits;
But we do not love each other without reservation.
You call us to be open to the infinite number of rooms in your mansion,
But we delineate the rooms of faith with dogma and creeds.
Open our minds to your infinitude, open our hearts to your love
Given freely to all who seek to reflect you in mercy and peace,
In the name of the One who gives us a new vision of your kingdom,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
One thing you can’t hide – is when you are crippled inside.
- John Lennon, songwriter (1940-1960)
The self-righteous scream judgments against others to hide the noise of skeletons dancing in their own closets.
- John Mark Green, American novelist
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. … Woe to you, scribes and hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Matthew 23: 13-14, 27-28