Kill the Beast!

While I have been spending a lot of time on what it means to sanctify ourselves I started thinking about what it means to "wait upon the Lord."  I've got some really great thoughts floating around in my head, BUT I got side tracked by something else.  It's the mentality of Gaston and the towns people - "kill the beast!"

Our country has turned into everyone shouting at each other.  Both sides are guilty of this mentality.  No one wants to row a lifeboat out and pull an unlikely friend into the boat.  We have an "all or nothing" attitude.  We are using our oars to beat each other.  What got me started on this?  The lovely friend making and keeping apparatus -fb!

I'm going to do something that will seem scandalous, but there is no breech of identity and I don't think I can get the context without it - I'm going to use actual quotes.  This isn't to shame anyone, just to get us all to think about things for a minute.  For full disclosure, I put my actual comments as well, so there could be no accusations of skewing things.  I also didn't post everyone's comments, because like I said, it's about context not some kind of fb war.

It all started with a link to a new ad.  One about graham crackers and same gender parenting - is that the politically correct way to say that now?  I don't know, I can't keep up.  Anyway, below is her caption for that:

"I'm sure the Tea Party is coming out of their skin over this one! Get use to it, because this is the New America, home of the free!"

Someone then tried to tell her what the tea party was really about and what their motives are in a very polite manner and we got this:

"Who said this is what motivates them?!?!? Their prejudice, bigoted, opinionated and Ill-informed."

This is the point I found this on my newsfeed.  She posts oodles of this kind of thing, I usually just move along, but on this day, I just couldn't.  She apparently didn't think it possible that any of her friends were those she spoke about.  Below is what I said.  I even included the "please forgive me for what I just said because I used a smiley face."

I would say that comment is ill-informed, prejudice, opinionated and divisive Julie 

She then posted a link to a 'credible' source backing up her claims.  There was a couple of other people commenting and telling her she was wrong and she said there was plenty of 'evidence' out there and we should 'google' it. To which I replied for the last time:

So what is it that you are trying to accomplish? Making friends or loosing them? Building bridges or burning them? Would you ask an evolutionist about creationism expecting the truth or vice versa? Or how about an anti Mormon about Mormonism? We need to be coming together as Americans not looking for ways to hate each other and throw logs on the fire!

So, what's the point of all of this.  While not a single person commented, who shared her opinion, she got some 'likes' on hers….which bolstered her convictions about the path she was on. (I'm actually surprised that there weren't more comments in her favor because there are usually tons of them - is there a shift coming?  Who knows) This agreement leads to - "other people agree with me so I shouldn't feel bad about what I just said" kind of mind set.  Well, Gaston got a town of like minded people to follow him up that darn hill.  He had presented them with 'google' research to lay credence to the claim that the Beast was evil and needed to be destroyed.  Because of my friends 'evidence' she now had a license to hate.  She can say whatever she wants because 'those people' are beasts and should be destroyed.  Even if it were true, that kind of language isn't a life boat out to persuade someone to come around to the correct way, it is an- I'm going to beat you and kill you because there is no getting in the boat for you - ever!

Now, do I think I'm ever going to persuade her that the lies she believes are untrue?  Doubtful.  She is married to a union boss in silicon valley.  I met her when she was stuck living here in a house she was trying to sell after moving here to help her mother before she passed away.  She wasn't an active member of the church and her immediate family aren't  members, but we hung out and had great conversations.  We have so much in common.  She moved back to CA and back around the influence of her circumstances and this side of her has taken dominance.  What I knew is that she would never put up with anti mormanism and know what this attitude did to our pioneers.  She knows how that game is played.  All I was doing is trying to remind her of that.  

My lesson in yw tomorrow is on the atonement.  If you can really transport yourself back to that time and feel what everyone was feeling.  There was a whole lot of "kill the beast" going on.  They actually succeeded and crucified him.  After all the name calling and trying to catch him doing something wrong, being spit upon, after his friends slowly turned on him and left him, after he was humiliated and beaten and I mean beaten, he was nailed to a cross. He was mocked and given vinegar to drink.  He felt alone and forsaken.  What does he do?  After making sure his mother was cared for….he said "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do"  

Now, can you say.  Really and truly say that you are capable of the same kind of forgiveness?  Are we able to answer the question "who is my neighbor?"  

If you think about it, there was never a sequel to the movie called "Belle and Beast's revenge" and that certainly wasn't Belle's approach when dealing with the beast in the first place.  Like I said, everyone -both sides- are guilty of not extending this kind of forgiveness or helping our neighbor.  If I can get my friend "in the boat" about not treating each other like this, I've got to not beat her over the head once I pull her in.  Not say, I can't believe you were like that and all your friends still are and this is why we are in this mess.  I should say "welcome, glad you're here."  We are going to have to except that they are bringing a lot of differences with them into this boat.  When we get someone to admit that the healthcare system is horrible, we don't want to blame them further and tell them they deserve the mess we are in because they pushed for it.  We want to say "welcome, glad you're here." 

For someone to believe that everything they believed is wrong - it's a mind unraveling event.  It is beyond monumental and they aren't going to feel safe if we are standing there with our torches and pitchforks waiting to kick them while they are down.  

The only beast we need to kill is our own individual pride beasts!  We need to fight that beast off each and every day.  We might be in a bad mood while we are helping the pharisee (was it a pharisee that the samaritan helped- I don't know- but you know what I mean) but, we still need to do what is right - even if it hurts while we're doing it.  Even if when we put our oar out, the person grabs it from our hands and starts beating us with it.  Sometimes people's "fight or flight" instincts take over and they loose the ability to reason - like the lifeguard who goes out to rescue the drowning swimmer and the person drowning - in an instinctual effort to save themselves- tries to drown the very one that swam out to save them.    

So, my question:  If we really understood who our neighbor was, what would it change?  If we really knew how to apply, "father forgive them for they know not what they do what would it change?  

I made a video for the family history project we were doing- a week or so before the reelection- about what I felt the big test of our time was - the ability to love each other and have the attitude of "they know not what they do."  I felt like it was going to be the separating of the wheat and the tares.  I didn't say it on the video but I talked about it with friends that I was worried that we are the children of Israel and we are wandering in the desert waiting for the generation of the hard hearted to die off before gaining entrance into the promise land.   Anyway, I started crying very unexpectedly during the video and couldn't figure out why I was.  I think I know, now.  I had no idea how true what I was saying was.  How much I would see transform so rapidly.  The world is on fire and the only thing that will save us is people turning their repentant hearts to God - whether the saving comes in this life or the next, it still needs to happen.  Every one of us needs saving.  There is no one holding the superiority card that gets out of repenting and turning their hearts to God.  It's time to get serious!

One last thing.  I took this picture this morning.  There was a thick mist that went all the way down to the ground.  It is very unusual for us to see this.  What I loved is that the sun came out and cut thru the mist of darkness.  Even in our darkest hours God's light can break thru to lead and guide us.  His purposes are always fulfilled.  We don't always know what those purposes are, but we need to have faith and trust in the light.  When we feel like it's impossible to be a good samaritan we can rely on the strength of the Lord to help us and make up the difference- He can help our hand reach out the oar to our 'enemy.'  Look at how such a horrible event turned out in the end for the Beast.  Look at how the crucifying of Christ turned out in the end.  There is hope and peace in the light of Christ.

Time is short, there's much to do, let's do it!