Heckling in Christ's Name?

 

 

heckle --

past tense: heckled

 

interrupt (a public speaker) with derisive or aggressive comments or abuse.

1. "he was booed and heckled when he tried to address the demonstrators"

   synonyms:

   jeer, taunt, jibe at, shout down, boo, hiss, harass; informalgive someone a hard time "he was heckled by the drunk in the back of the room"

This has been a bleak couple of weeks in the United States with murderous attacks on minorities and a white supremacist threatening political figures and their supporters. Along with this the current administration has responded to a rag-tag caravan of desperate people from Central America as though it was an advancing army, mobilizing the military and spreading false information about who is part of this group of a few thousand.

In the midst of this came word of a United Methodist pastor who challenged Attorney General Jeff Sessions during a speech on religious freedom. Most reports suggest that Sessions was "heckled" by Pastor Will Green, followed then by Baptist Pastor Darrell Hamilton. There was nothing derisive or abusive about what they did, unless quoting Jesus and speaking prophetically could be categorized as heckling. Oddly, it was Green who was "heckled" by others in the audience. Most reports fail to name the pastors nor do they identify the powerful words from Matthew 25:

"I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was a stranger and you did not welcome me.
I was naked and you did not clothe me,
I was a stranger and you did not welcome me...
I was in prison and you did not visit me,"

Green went on to say "Brother Jeff, as a fellow United Methodist, I call upon you to repent, to care for those in need. To remember that when you do not care for others, you are wounding the body of Christ."

Both men were escorted out by security guards -- so much for religious liberty. Sessions responded by describing this as an attack and claiming that the bible didn't have anything to say about secular states defending their immigration policies. Curiously, Sessions had quoted the bible to support the harsh approach the States has taken only a few months before. He misused a verse from Romans 13, but apparently he has the freedom to cherry pick bible verses.

I admire these pastors for having the courage to challenge what they consider unethical and unlawful behaviour as citizens who are also Christians. It seems that evangelical Christianity has been coopted by empire in the United States and have lost any sense of providing a critique of the immorality of the current regime at every level.

What do you think about what they did? Too impolite and un-Canadian? Or was it prophetic?