This Summer Sunday morning congregations may be smaller yet it's likely that wherever two or three are gathered together they will repeat a version of the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father. It's understandable that many of those praying will mumble through the "deliver us from evil" phrase without much thought for how that applies to this moment. Is evil the deliberate drowning of illegal migrants by smugglers? Of course. What about those involved in creating child pornography and the sexual abuse of children. Without a doubt.
Evil has reared its ugly head in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend, through crowds protesting the removal of a statue glorifying Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Symbols of the racist Confederacy of the Civil War are being removed across the American South since white supremacist Dylan Root walked into a church prayer group and murdered several black members who initially welcomed him into their midst.
This was more than a quiet march, which still would have been suspect. Neo-Nazis were photographed making the dreaded Hitler salute. Confederate flags were on display and white supremacist slogans were chanted as marchers walked through the streets carrying torches.
State officials decried what transpired and clergy gathered as a counter-protest, although it appears that they were taunted and even roughed up by the supremacists. The next day counter-protestors gathered, fighting erupted, and a car was driven into those opposing the white supremacists, killing one person and injuring others.
Make no mistake, this is blatant racist evil, and the tepid response of the White House is telling. Hitler is long dead, even though his horrendous ideas aren't. So, if the supremacists aren't saluting Hitler, who are they acknowledging? White supremacist leader David Duke gave credit to the president for emboldening those who want to "make America great again" with his exclusionary, polarizing vision for the nation.
I find this so disheartening and while many Christian commentators and pastors are condemning this nonsense, there is little emerging from the right-wing evangelical world to declare this as a gross violation of Christ's teaching.
What has been going through your mind? Has the United States lost it's mind, and it's soul?
Let's continue to pray for sanity and justice.
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