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I’m an Anglican Priest in the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and I get to serve in the Parish of St Margaret of Scotland, in the beautiful city of Halifax, NS, that sits on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people.
My pronouns are he/him/his. My theology is primarily Christo-centric – Jesus is at the centre and it is against Him that all values are bounced off. I believe all people are created in the image of God and are children of God and are heirs to the throne of God – no conditions – therefore every single person we meet deserves our love, and respect.
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Thanks, Rev Ed. Something to think about.
It really bothers me when the wise words of someone like Paul are parsed and edited to fit specific agenda. Paul understood the simple truth of Jesus' teaching: Love is all.
What that pastor did when choosing to only read the verses from Romans urging obedience to authority reminds me of the story of a man who bought a yoghurt drink from a convenience store and walked into the parking lot idly shaking it. When he took off the cap, he was immediately inundated with a spray of sticky liquid, as was the windshield of his car. That is when he read the WHOLE message on the bottle: "Do Not Shake". It's kind of important to know the whole message.😉
While this isn't the focus of your message – it's important to remember that "the authority…instituted by God" in the US is our Constitution the the government that it seeks to set up. The president is a mere steward of the Constitution! Grace and peace to you Rev Ed!
Thank you Ed.
Thank for your thoughts. I’ll be sharing this with others. P.S. I needed to hear this myself
Muhammad, The Bab, and Baha''u'llah echoed these sentiments. Ya think we might be getting the idea?
There’s a clip of Trump before he was president, where he said he wanted to start a civil war, to destroy everything, so he could get rich from rebuilding.
This is because he is not smart enough to make money legitimately.
He is the world’s worst bad faith actor, since Adolf Hitler.
I live here in the USA. It bothers me, because I keep hearing people in congress and pastors continually saying America is God's chosen country. I have read through the bible several times. God did not tell Abraham that America was his chosen land . nowhere have I seen America spoken as God's only chosen people.
Thank you. I often suspect that the most important thing a person can do to facilitate tong-term change is work on themself.
So these verse banterers must agree that god put Biden in power. But they don't. There scripture only applies to trump or whoever they decide it applies to. So who is God? Is He Himself or is he them? Have they assumed sole power of interpretation and infallibility? The Confederacy dis obeyed the authority in power. So did the leaders of the American revolution. And for that matter all incumbents should remain in power. This inconsistency is exactly why people outside the churches look down on the thumping variety of churchians.
I appreciate this interpretation of Paul very much — and I am the reverse of a Paul fan. I'm so glad for the Christians who "cherry-pick" verses and interpret them in favor of love, not "obey or be punished".
If it does not include loving and respecting everyone, treating them well, and answering their needs it is not what Christ asked. I agree that you should follow the law unless it is unjust. If I choose to break a law I disagree with then I must be willing to take the punishment. That is what I think Paul is getting at.
The real power of any Nation is the people. No one rules without the consent of the people. MLK won because the people said no more.
God bless you Rev. Ed for giving me a kinder way to love God. God bless you all! Believer or not Kindness wins every battle by not joining in. Non-believers can drive the lost Christians crazy just by being super nice. Ask Canada, USA used to bug the shit out of them but we surrendered to nice.
Thanks! Another great reflection
I'm a Groucho Marxist or political agnostic,
70yo.
North Alabama
Learning.
I hope
Have you thought about live chat?
Be your own god?
Amen 🙏 ❤
Perfect timing. I have been watching the late Bishop Spong and am in the middle of one of his many books, "Jesus for the Non-Religious." He spoke to this at a talk way back in 2005, actually addressing this even earlier. He makes very valid points how and why we got to this place. I know he was a controversial man, but oh so wise. The Episcopal Church was lucky to have him pushing, opening eyes, asking tough questions. Now it is on all of us to call this behavior out and push back, in love of course. ❤
🙏
It's time to put down the Bible and only pick it up when you can read through your heart, not your head, your heart knows love, you head nose best, best is what ever you want it to be
Remember Samuel warned the Israelites of the horrors of having a king. There were bad religious leaders and bad kings.
Blindly accepting oppressive leadership means no Moses, no deliverance from slavery; Saul a mad king who had fits of insane rage, went to war and lost, and committed suicide; it means allowing the crowd to give Bar-Jesus a pardon while the innocent JESUS was brutally tortured and crucified with no evidence to condemn him.
NEVER tfg.
It's quite thought-provoking to question the meaning of the word, "authority," in this context.
The idea of doing what we can, especially loving our neighbors also resonates with me.
I have found that most often what I can do is use my words.
Because I live and teach so near to our southern border, I often use those words to comfort too many young people whose lives and families are shattered by our policies (the US).
I'm also ever learning how to use those words to call out the cruelty and brutality (evil, in a word) that shatters lives and families.
I hope that we all use our abilities (gifts) to do what we can.
My apostasy from Christianity is directly related to this biblical text that you are elaborating on. I just can't take people who said that Bush was put there by God and then believe Obama was the antichrist and then worship Trump seriously. If Jesus is real then these people have much more to fear from him than I do. I'm not trying to be rude or condescending to you or any of your subscribers sir. 🙏❤
Problem is if he got back in power he is going to terminate all rules , regulations and articles found in the constitution.
❤
As so often happens when those who use scripture to make political points, "cherry picking" verses negates the authority the user intends…
We lived in a flawed world, let's concentrate on doing the things necessary to improve the lives of our neighbor & those in need!
As a Christian a man of God a believer, I appreciate your perspective & thoughts. God bless you Rev. Ed.
Art P.
Los Angeles CA USA
When a “ruler” is a person of unchanged immortality that acts the exact opposite of “godly” there is no way I would respect or honour that ruler.
Self aware not self righteous is one motto I strive to live by.
Thank you so much!
I hope y'all can forgive my being even more wordy than usual, but I'd like to share a few relevant quotes, from Dr. King's, "Letter from Birmingham Jail."
1) "One may well ask: "How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?" The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust."
2) "…Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire […]
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. […]
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate… who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice…"
Have noticed that these same MAGA Christians never think that God may have sent Trump as a form of judgment rather than a blessing. Wonder why?
"Paul"'s letter to the christians in Rome doesn't really apply in most nations today. When Paul was writing, authority was determined by birth mainly, and it makes sense to attribute their position to God's will because of that. But our leaders were put into position by us, and answer to us.
So this week a pastor was arrested for keeping his church door open to homeless during the ongoing hard freeze. Arrested. The infraction: no overnight residents allowed on the first floor in any building in a business zone in that city. No exceptions. But let’s see how this plays out. I know ppl who get arrested regularly for feeding homeless. But now it’s a spreading trend of cruelty and malice. Is there an explanation for this intentional increase in deranged cruelty?
Amen Ours is The constitution It is not no president who is just a fraction of representation of its peoples and it's not necessarily the Congress, the justice department another splinter rule by not of the majority.
God Bless thank you for these videos on God made trump..We need more speaking out about this.. Religious extremism fanaticism and distortion is very bad and it's growing, politics and religion be coming corrupt,We Are seeing things like the world seen in the 1930s Europe.. this video God made trump is blasphemy and brain washing..You can see this coming for decades. Take this for thought on Jan 6th riot they were carry Bibles , Crosses , flags saying God and guns, flags with Jesus ,at the Capital this is evil and very dangerous.. Jesus is peace and Love… please keep up the good work and spread the light of Jesus..Theres many ways to read the book Revelation it warns us of times like these. Thanks
Thank you for your prayer.
The problem is that the Christian Fundamentalists and Trumpists, want someone to tell them what God wants. The truth, that they need to work it out for themselves based on their conscience, circumstances, and experience, is too difficult.