“A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”” Matthew 21:8-9
“But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered. “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!”
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate.
But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Matthew 27:20-23
Crowds are strange things.
On Saturday, I attended the Alaska Governor’s Prayer Breakfast with keynote speaker Tyler Thompson, one of the lead writers of The Chosen, joining Governor Dunleavy and other dignitaries in honoring the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
As it was the day before Palm Sunday and the start of Holy Week, there was a reverence and anticipatory tone in the room as the floor-to-ceiling window views of the Chugach Mountains gave us true perspective. Talk about edification.
And then we exited the ballroom.
As we turned toward Town Square, those same third-story windowpanes presented another reality. The Anchorage No Kings protest was in full swing.
Initially, I told myself that was the last place I wanted to go. Vitriol. Anger. Vulgarity. Emotions over logic. Not the after-dinner mint one wants to complement such a perfect feast of truth.
I’m convinced as ever that those in the No Kings crowd are irrational, emotionally animated, misdirected souls. But I’m equally convinced that Jesus loves them
But, as my wife has reminded me over the years, I have an incurable disorder she’s affectionately dubbed CSB or “conflict-seeking behavior.” In some ways, because my vocation exists in the political/religious intersection, this disease has given me energy and drive. But it gets me in trouble as well at times.
Stay away from that unhinged crowd. Don’t get tangled up and disoriented from the true and good and beautiful I had just experienced.
But I walked two blocks and entered the fray.
It became evident this was their congregation – complete with liturgy, worship music and even preaching.
Their signs spoke of another King, whom they wanted to crucify. It was stark. Was this really the city I grew up in? I mean, we’ve always had divisions – politically and culturally – but this just seemed different.
I kept thinking how cool it would be if we could get that many people to create signs, manifest passion and organize for the Alaska March for Life next month that Alaska Family Council is hosting. I know the majority of Alaskans don’t believe in abortion on demand, through the third trimester for any reason and on taxpayers’ dime. But the No Kings crowd seems to take their “religion” more seriously.
Just last month, a judge in Indiana molested the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by granting the ACLU’s claim that a law protecting the unborn “violates religious freedoms by burdening the ability to obtain an abortion in accordance with their sincerely held beliefs.”
These people don’t just make signs and chant slogans that lower our public discourse into the sewage – they believe it like those bending their knees in houses of worship.
The next day, as I came in late to my own church service, we had a guest speaker. A medical doctor. He had been kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan while doing missionary work. His gentle, quiet words put another spin on the thoughts I’d been having about the Trump haters.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
The great Apostle Paul, the doctor noted, was one of the greatest “terrorists” to have meandered during Biblical times. He was the Osama Bin Laden of the day for people of “The Way.” They feared him and despised him. Until the road to Damascus. Until life was breathed into him by the Creator of the Universe.
This doctor, who had been convinced early on that his captors would end his life, ultimately began to see them not as terrorists, which they most certainly were on most measures, but as image bearers. Lost like the great Apostle. But grace has a way of catching up to us. It finds us – hunts us down, actually. We accept it. And then we extend it.
Because God demonstrated his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That realization provides clarity when we so quickly look at others as lost. We were all lost once. Yet Jesus on the cross said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
I’m convinced as ever that those in the No Kings crowd are irrational, emotionally animated, misdirected souls. But I’m equally convinced that Jesus loves them every bit as much as those who called out and worshipped the true King in the Dena’ina convention ballroom.
May that reality animate each of us more as we face the cultural, political and spiritual battles ahead.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
13 Comments
There are people who regularly attend churches who could be spoken in the same way “irrational, emotional, animated, a misdirected” in their worship. They don’t seem to know what they are doing like an addict goes to his fix for a high. The churches doing their worship services are designed in to give that feeling in their spectators to get an emotional high.
I pretty sure that the even the Alaska Governor prayer breakfast just like a church service was designed in giving the same feeling exhibited at the No kings protest too in its crowd: a drug High of superiority.
Of course Jesus loves them, but He probably doesn’t care much for what they say and do. In order to believe what they believe, they must engage in rank calumny, and to do what they do, they must acquiesce to their anger. They may have started out thinking they were being kind, or noble, or righteous, but they were swept off the narrow path by forces they most likely do not understand. Passion can be a great thing, but when it is motivated by lies and anger, it serves a much darker purpose.
Paper 194 – Bestowal of the Spirit of Truth
194:3.4 (2063.2) If religion is an opiate to the people, it is not the religion of Jesus. On the cross he refused to drink the deadening drug, and his spirit, poured out upon all flesh, is a mighty world influence which leads man upward and urges him onward. The spiritual forward urge is the most powerful driving force present in this world; the truth-learning believer is the one progressive and aggressive soul on earth.
Yawn.
Sweetie, if you are so terribly bored by this website, why are you here, exactly?
Clearly not the reporting.
Thank you for writing this Mr. Minnery.
No one aligning themselves with this administration is a true Christian. Love thy neighbor. Accept the stranger. “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” You are a fraud. No man is above the law. A pretty basic tenant woven through the entire constitution. You pray for a pedophile protecting sexual abuser. They protest against that. Save your self righteous god loves them anyway crap. The hypocrisy reveals the true character of all these religious, white privilege loving bigots.
“Make not the mistake of trying to pluck a mote out of your brother’s eye when there is a beam in your own eye. Having first cast the beam out of your own eye, you can the better see to cast the mote out of your brother’s eye.”
J. – You are right – Trump is NOT a KING –
Trump IS the PRESIDENT of the UNITED States.
So. Save your righteous hypocrisies that reveal the childish behavior of a name calling, finger pointing anti- white racist bigot (using some of your own words).
And J., my boy, Remember, when you point your accusing finger at another person, 3 other fingers are pointing directly back at you.
so j. i need your address as i need a nice place to live mine sucks.
you and your family can stay to provide food and other sordid things
“emotionally irrational” is an interesting term, Minnery. Christians blazed the path for irrational thinking. For example, perhaps the most important christian event is the resurrection. Yet returning to life after death is impossible. Using rational thinking won’t reconcile the resurrection with scientific reality.
1600 Pennsylvania Avr
Thankful for the suggestion but I am not a man of god. To me scripture is the easiest way to point to the hypocrisy of those that believe these MAGA ideals and republican platitudes align with God. The people that cheer the rich and hateful while constantly casting judgement on those in need. I am not loyal to any religion, god or political party. But I do pay attention to math, science, scripture and other matters of importance that affect not just my life but those around me. So watching the chaos unfold in our government, where this administration continues abandoning any legislation that would resemble how god would govern (food for the hungry – SNAP/food stamps, care for the sick – Medicare, treatment of the immigrant – ICE) for tax breaks, a larger national debt, more war, etc… ensuring our children will be servants to billionaires, while the religious admonish themselves of any responsibility is entertaining for me. I did not vote for this. “Christians” voted for this and still believe they are righteous. The Pope condemns war and our treatment of immigrants and the MAGA “Christians “ want to school him on what the bible actually means. Similar to when someone points out how nothing this administration has done is In line with actual Christian values (protecting pedophiles, waging war, infidelity are big no nos) and the offended immediately quote scripture instead of reconciling their own actions. So spit scripture, own the libs, wrap your soft ego in the red, white and blue of patriotism. Three years from now when we are no longer leaders of the free world, our economy is in shambles and all the billionaires separate themselves from us like it’s the hunger games, own it! You’re getting exactly what you voted and prayed for. I am pointing at you with three fingers pointing right back at me. Happily!!