Saturday, December 16, 2017

PERSECUTION OR THE ENTRY THAT WROTE ITSELF

This happens a lot. I start out in one direction.. Then the blog takes over and I end up somewhere else.

An article from Christianity Today. Read it to the end if you can manage it. But, at least as far as I managed to read, not a word about the constitution. You know that short document full of compromises that is the foundation of our legal system. The document that doesn't say one thing about religion until we get to the amendments.

Anybody out there heard of Oscar Romero? He was archbishop of San Salvador for three years 1977 to 1980. Until he was murdered in the middle of mass as he raised the chalice during communion. There is a documentary Monsenor: the last journey of Oscar Romero. I suggest some of the fundies find a copy or stream it to find out what real persecution is.

For starters.
Has your pastor or priest been murdered or disappeared?
Can you have a bible study in your home without the authorities taking notes about who is there?
And who you are?
Is someone taping the sermon or homily. Harder to spot in the era of cell phones?
Seen any graffiti along the lines of "be a patriot" kill a priest?
Had your church seized and turned into a barracks?

Romero probably would have been murdered eventually. But the ending to his last homily is probably what triggered the murder.

"Brothers you came from our own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God which says 'thou shalt not kill.' No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination...In the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression!'

Within two weeks he was dead. The death squad that carried out the murder was probably trained at the School of the Americas located at Fort Benning. I don't believe in divine retribution. It's probably just a coincidence that the man accused of ordering the murder died a few years later of cancer.

Romero? His people call him a saint. One of the these days the church might make it official.

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