Blessed are the Pure in Heart

 

Follow the Leader

“How dare that mystical rabbi

Propose otherwise

That less is more

The first shall be last

And vice versa

That the greatest are servants of all?

What was that homeless

Itinerant mystic smoking

Declaring happy are the humble

Poor in spirit peacemakers?

What did he know

He who had only twelve followers

On his Twitter account?”

Jerry Wright (A Mystical Path Less Followed, p.107-108; Chiron Publishing, Asheville, NC, 2021)

          After allegations of abuse, the FBI raided a church in Augusta, GA this weekend. By some accounts, they found an arsenal of heavy weapons and handguns. The Southern Baptists have just published a list of the known sexual offenses of their clergy going back several decades. At the Vatican’s embassy in DC, charges of child pornography have been filed, and at the Hillsong mega-church in NYC, the pastor was relieved of his duties for extramarital affairs. On the website “Culture Watch,” under a banner saying, “Look to Jesus” there is a headline from August 2021 reading, “Church Scandals and Scandalous Christians” that attempts to explain this phenomenon of abuses and excesses by Christian clergy. My question is, what on earth is going on in the Christian church?

          I could be wrong, but I think the most regressive denominations clamp down on the sex lives of their pastors so hard it produces aberrant behavior. The sex drive cannot be suppressed any more than one can suppress a hiccup or a sneeze. When it is denied or debased, it simply goes underground and appears as dark behavior. Libido can be channeled into creative activities, into dedication to a cause, or into passionate preaching, but it cannot be denied, suppressed, or repressed without consequences.

          So, one wonders, where is Jesus in all this? That passionate and compassionate itinerant preacher, that minister of body and soul, that Nazarene who changed the world with his message of love and acceptance, that mystic of the open table and healing for free—where is he in the church today? Has so much time passed that we just don’t remember his teachings? He, who said “you are the light of the world,” who led a movement from the back of a donkey, who humbled himself by washing the feet of his followers—his message still resonates today if you can find it among the scandals and misdeeds of his church.

          We can individually and collectively retrieve that innocent faith if we try. It can’t however be corrupted by politics, or capitalism, or indifference to suffering. The one who claimed, “blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god” tried to show us the way home. How many of us will follow?

                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                  Jane