Earlier today, I berated my congressional representative in a public forum. I was upset at her use of propaganda, a tactic that’s typical of the American political right win. In my response on her social media page, I used a pejorative term to describe the politics of many of my neighbors, who after all elected this woman to represent our district.
I called them “trumpanzees.”
Someone else took issue with my post. They took the time to look up some information about me, noted that I am a member of the clergy, and asked me whether or not I had read the Bible. I started to respond to them, but then decided better of it. An online argument rarely accomplishes anything except creating bigger headaches.
So I’m responding here instead. On my long-neglected blog.
First things first. My detractor decided that, since I have the title of “clergy,” I must be Christian. That was his first mistake. I’ve been active clergy for almost twenty years now in the Pagan community, and recently completed my training and ordination in the Troth, establishing me with further credentials as Heathen clergy. I doubt whether either of those terms would mean much to my heckler, but it’s an important distinction.
See, I don’t follow the creed laid down by the Bible. Of course I respect other people’s property and right to go on living; that’s just common moral sense. I don’t pay attention to the numerous edicts handed down in, say, Leviticus, which in addition to making a scant mention of homosexuality, also damns the souls of those who eat shellfish or wear clothes woven of different materials.
As a Heathen, I do put credence in some of the lore I’ve read. There’s a lot of wisdom, for instance, covered in the Viking age Hávamál, and for purposes of this article today, I’m looking hard at Stanza 127, which translates to, “Where you recognize evil, call it evil, and give no truce to your enemies.”
Mind you, I have read the Bible several times. As I said above, it doesn’t represent my spiritual path, but there are certainly lessons to be learned from it. It didn’t take me long to find a verse that sounds an awful lot like #127 above, and that’s Isaiah 5:20 “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
I think those lines are applicable because I see evil in the Republican party of today. I’m disgusted with the party’s willingness to vilify innocent people for the purpose of political gain – that to me is the epitome of evil. I’m disgusted that the party continues to follow a traitorous conman, because of his continued ability to sway opinion. The former president is evil to me because I see in him a person willing to say and do anything that will bring him personal gain, no matter who gets harmed in the process. And my representative plays along willingly, because it brought her to the position she holds today.
About that name-calling. It’s not the worst thing I could think of to call somebody who blindly follows a creature as hateful as the former guy. I feel almost sorry for them, they’re in that position that Mark Twain was thinking of when he said, “It is easier to con a man than to convince him he has been conned.” But if my using a negative term to describe a group of people makes even one of those people stop and wonder why I, a person who rarely ever has a cross word for anyone, would say such a thing? If that one person looks a bit harder and begins to question the beliefs they’ve subscribed to, the ones they’ve been told are the truth? Then it’s justified. Because I’m using that term to call out some things I see as evil.