#rare moment when it is arguably 100% appropriate to tell people they are going straight to hell if they don’t shape up (:

[chamerionwrites]

Man I was trying to be nice about it because ime Christians are frequently well-meaning albeit astonishingly naive about these things (been there done that brutally disabused of those illusions, so yknow, my sympathies), but if I see one more post about how brave and relevant that sermon to Trump was I’m gonna SNAP. That kind of chance to speak truth to power and you ask for mercy? For mercy? From people who clearly despise weakness and vulnerability of any kind? FOR people who have done nothing wrong? Mercy? MERCY? That’s what you think is called for here?

Sorry but who the hell are you preaching to, because it isn’t those ghouls in the pews. If I am being very unkind, I suspect it’s to the audience of liberals who already agree with you, and who will shower you with praise for soothing their consciences and stroking their egos. It’s funny - and predictable - that conservatives are shriekingly furious about what was frankly a pretty milquetoast sermon. It’s sad that people are so accustomed to Christians kissing up to power that the softest hint of dissent is welcomed with such relief and admiration. If I’m being generous I think maybe you didn’t know what to say but felt compelled to say something, and kudos for having a backbone I suppose - but I also think you’re bad at your job.

Because it is not difficult to be much, much clearer and braver and more relevant than that. The only thing those people believe in is fear and force and power. If you really want to get through to them, speak the language they understand! Put the actual fear of God in them! It’s so easy you don’t even need to write a sermon; you can read right from the Bible. James 5 is a real classic:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

Or you could try Habakkuk 2:

Woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion! How long must this go on? Will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their victim. Because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man’s blood; you have destroyed lands and cities and everything in them.

Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high, to escape the clutches of ruin! You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it.

Zechariah 7:

And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’”

But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry.

Matthew 25:

Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”

They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?”

He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

I’m quite fond of Isaiah 58, personally. Really drives home the point that surface religious observance is not just worthless but actively offensive when you’re oppressing the vulnerable:

For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?”

Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for people to humble themselves? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and lying in sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.