“When I was in trouble I called to you, Most High, and you answered me. Save me from liars and deceivers!”
Psalm 120: 1
The psalms are a wonderful source for reflection and prayer. Our human dispositions have not changed that much since they were written.
Psalm 120 is titled “Enemies of Peace” in my psalter. I am left reflecting that, yes, liars and deceivers are the enemies of peace and we are witnessing the outcome of lies in our current situation.
What if these lies and deceptions had been nipped in the bud? What if we had a better system to weed them out of our communications? As I look back over the past four years it seems to me that lies were tolerated, shrugged at, and sometimes laughed at, but seldom defeated or overturned, until the lies were accepted as truth.
It turns out it is true that if a lie is repeated often enough, it becomes true to people and it affects how they see the world. The unhappy fact is that it is nearly impossible to convince people that the lie they have accepted is in fact a lie. Look how many people believe the election was fraudulent, even though there is no evidence for that belief, and the courts have failed to find any basis in fact for that belief. The lie is believed solely because a president says so.
I suspect that the acceptance of the lie has a lot to do with white supremacists wanting an excuse to attack a government that is too accepting of diversity. An excuse of misogynists who cannot accept the equality of women now evidenced in a women vice president elect. They recognize that “their country” is being taken away from them, for they sincerely believe that this country was meant for white men, not people of color and certainly not for women. People of color and women may live here, but they are not to have equality or share power with white men. That is the loss these men are seeing in the election of Joe Biden, even though Joe is a white man.
We need to keep calling out the lie and at the same time rejoice that our country is changing. We are becoming more diverse and at least a few women are taking their place in positions of power, and we are the better for it. We are moving toward the radical equality practiced by Christ Jesus. As it says in Galatians 3: 28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
My beloved ones, resist the liars and deceivers and stand for truth and peace.
Bishop Kedda
Bishop Kedda 