Moira's Story....

I speak of Moira Greyland who wrote “The Last Closet: The Dark Side of Avalon.” Moira’s story is an important one, one Christians especially need to hear, and it’s not a pleasant story at all, it’s a story of horrific child abuse, psychological, emotional, sexual, that has left lasting scars. It’s an important story because it shatters some myths, demolishes some narratives about the LGBT community and it reveals the downside of tribalism, the way morality can become totally subjective, right or wrong being defined not by what you do, but by who you are.

It is a dark abyss of moral ambiguity, a  really challenging swamp to fight your way out of.

Moira is not alone either, there are literally hundreds of thousands of us who grew up in some really abusive, emotionally devastating situations, situations fueled by the sexual revolution, by narcissistic parents, and by extreme liberalism or by what some would call the far left. The culture we created by throwing out all tradition, all morality, all standards, did some major harm, damaged some real live people and left lasting scars.

I have a memorial to those who did not survive, a number of children whose lives ended in suicide, addiction, or devastating health issues caused by extreme stress, PTSD.

I watch the #Metoo movement, the #churchtoo movement,  one might even say I am well pleased by the Great Shaking going on, but in the back of my mind, or rather burned into my very soul, is this keen awareness that faith does not cause child abuse, that “patriarchy,” is a false flag, that there are thousands of hurting, broken people who barely survived the sexual revolution, feminism, our attempts to redesign society into this utopian vision of sexual freedom.

Moira like me, found the Lord, even in the midst of abuse, of moral ambiguity, of cultural genocide, even in the midst of extreme atheism. Perhaps a better way to say that is, the Lord found us. 

It’s hard to put a positive spin on such darkness, such horrific evil, and there’s this need to make people understand how awful the damage really is, how painful, how it was literally the theft of a child’s mind, body, and spirit, impacting every area of your life. There is no nook or cranny of your very being left untouched.

I don’t want to gloss over that, I don’t want to minimize the harm, but I do want to celebrate a couple of things,  I want to praise the Lord, I want to infuse this darkness with hope, hope that I often see lacking when Moira’s story is being retold. Life is short, there are huge celebrations that should not be missed, a full inheritance from the Lord waiting to be claimed. Chaos, confusion, shame, the remnants of PTSD, need not define you anymore. Jesus Christ came to set the captives free and He restores, He redeems, He replaces what has been stolen, ten times over. But that is a promise that must be claimed. We have not because we ask not.

It’s a message that needs to be shouted from the rooftops until life and life abundant is just pouring into every nook and cranny of every abuse victim anywhere. You are not what has happened to you, you are not your past, your identity need not live there within the dark places anymore. The harm done is real enough, but complete healing can be just as real.

Sometimes I fear that as our culture exposes victimization, toxic secrets, and begins to speak the truth, we often leave out the part about how the Lord can rewrite the whole story, surprise us with His many plot twists, that the broken parts are actually beautful to Him, that they can rise up to Him like fragrant poetry. There is beauty lurking in our suffering, it is part of what makes us human. Our humanness is beautful because we are made in His image and He is beautful. He is more beautful, more powerful than we can even imagine, and we have been fashioned in His likeness.

Today I haven’t got scars, instead I have a melody of poetic praise that lifts His name on high, a flair for the melodramatic, a sharp wit and the strength of some real gallows humor. That is the kind of beauty He can hand us for our ashes. Don’t forget the hope, the hope in Him is real, it has an evidence and a substance that is tangible.

I going to post the entirety of Psalm 91,  and speak life over anyone who fears their scars are too big, who has not yet claimed freedom, claimed their full inheritance of resoration and healing that the Lord promises.

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.  A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.  Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.  Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;  There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.  For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.  Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.  Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.  He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.  With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.”

“Jubilee Theonomy”

“Jubilee theonomy,” I totally snagged that from Pastor Wilson, a timely phrase indeed because I was just thinking of writing about jubilee and what I call the Great Divide between alleged liberals and conservatives.

Jubilee for those who don’t know is, “a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year  is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.”

Now in my way of thinking we are living in perpetual jubilee, Jesus Christ is our jubilee. As prisoners we have been set free, no longer slaves to fear, our debts forgiven, and the mercies of God are now particularly manifest. Praise the Lord!

Why then do we not relate to one another in this same spirit? Why are we still taking hostages, making wage slaves out of people, and burdening them with excessive debt? Why are we living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world and yet the top 3% hold all the wealth? Why do we as conservative Christians so often dismiss the poor as lazy, ignore the cries of women who have been abused, and mock those who try to speak of racism?

Why are we so blind to the fact that all things are not equal, that people do not all have the same opportunity, and that toilet water tends to always flow downhill? That is to say,  government policies often create poverty. Drugs for example, never enter a community without permission from somebody’s corrupt or incompetent leadership. Look at Indian reservations, some of the poorest place in the country. That’s what excessive Gov often creates.

Why then do we blame the poor? If a man doesn’t work he shouldn’t eat. Guess those people, unlike me, just made really bad life choices. Too bad you don’t have the Lord’s favor like I do with my private jet and prosperity ministry…..funded off the backs of lonely widow’s social security checks.

Theonomy for those who don’t know,  “posits that the Biblical Law is applicable to civil law, and theonomists propose Biblical law as the standard by which the laws of nations may be measured, and to which they ought to be conformed.”

That’s all very well and good, but traditionally evangelists, fundamentalists, conservatives, have been quick to condemn sexual sin, especially the sexual sins of the little people, because when it comes to their own, they have nasty habit of denying it, justifying it, or covering it up. Why do we not apply our theonomy to other sins like usury? Theft? Abuse? Corruption? Racism? Pharmakeia?

Seriously, inquiring minds want to know, why? I mean, all in good humor here, but I myself would much prefer to speak of sexual sin too, rather than Mexican drug cartels, predatory lending, organized crime, and the staggering number of women who have been abused in the churchian world and not heard or protected. The horrific number of raped children, both boys and girls, the desperation that can send people running towards both homosexuality and abortion.

Yes, that’s some ugly stuff! Taking responsibility as Christian conservatives for the collective misery we have enabled and created in the world ain’t so easy. You have to humble yourself, lean into grace, realize you aren’t perfect. No plea bargains either, like trying to declare the other side is worse. Flat out, they often are! This boondoggle they created between Obamacare, pharmaceutical companies, and the opioid crisis, the biggest public health threat to hit us in a hundred years, is quite a sight to behold.

A sight to behold. A totally preventable, completely predictable, tragedy of epic proportions.

Believe it or not, I tend to lean very conservative in my politics, opinions, my theonomy. However, my loyalty, my heart, is not to a political party or an ideology, it is actually resides with those at the bottom of the food chain, those Jesus Christ would call the “least of these.” Yes indeed, there are some issues there, too. Sin does not curve around victims of abuse, drug addicts, the homeless, placing them in this magical zone of sin-lessness. People at the bottom of the swamp aren’t all fuzzy kittens of purity and grace.

However, they are often victims of grave injustices, of the unacknowledged sin of all that toilet water that came downhill and washed them right off the beaten path.

“Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. “

Excuse me for stating the obvious here, but the world is plumb full of law breakers who failed to love and the collateral damage of that truth is strewn all over the place. To sit up all high and mighty, as many do, weilding a little sword of truth, claiming to be in possession of biblical thenomy with a giant log in our own eye, just doesn’t cut it for me. It smells like axe body spray, I mean hypocrisy.

As I have written before, my heart is with the least of these, it always has been, likely it always will be. The reason why I like many conservative ideas and ideals is becasue I can see the benefit many of those ideas bring down to those who struggle.

So why than are conservatives, especially conservative Christians, not leading the way when it comes to social justice? Why have conservatives so often ignored the cries of those who are hurting? Why are we not leading the anti poverty initatives, the racial reconciliation, the #Metoo movement?

The undeniable truth to me is that far too often the theonomy of the conservative heart is built around pride, predjudice, and privilege. Jubilee for me and not for thee.