Almond Raca Pt. II

Almost like clockwork, I have been getting these incredible headaches at about 3:30 nearly everyday. (That's a horrible sentence). I haven't been sleeping well, but I think my lack of sleep stems from the headaches rather than vice versa. But back to violence...

What I want to distinguish is the difference between physical force, which isn't always violence, and a violent... animus?, which isn't always physical. I think this animus is at the heart of Jesus' intensification of the law in Matthew 5.

So remember I made mention of Pat Robertson the other day? I actually watch TBN so I can catch this stuff right away- that and I'm a bit of a loser. Anyway, when I first caught it I didn't think people would make that big if a deal about it because a.) his audience would likely think it not too far out and b.) he says a lot of kooky things that get overlooked by the media. But then it got some traction (as they say). I still don't think his primary audience think it too far out, but I did. And I do. So I wrote a post- and if you remember, I wrote about his comment being stupid- like sin stupid. Now "everyone's" writing about it- whatever- I was first. But a lot of it is coming from the perspective of "Look what hypocrites Christians are," or "He's not one of us."

The thing is: he is "us." We're not doing a very good job these days of knowing what it means to live as the Body of Christ- what it means to be filled with and live under the power of the Holy Spirit- to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect. (That sounds a little out there). If you read his "apology", note that he specifically apologizes for calling for someone's assassination- he apologizes for his statement. The sentiment he justifies and rationalizes. It's okay to want someone dead, he just shouldn't have said it on TV. He's wrong, not just his words, but his heart. We're wrong when we focus so much on Christianity being some sort of program for developing middle class civility and values and that's what we're doing if this apology seems to cut it. Maybe that's a jump.

I've been reading through Ecclesiastes and thinking a lot about the conceptions of wisdom and folly- or being wise versus a fool. Robertson's comments- a lot of his comments are evidence of folly. Now that's a pretty horrible thing to say because it doesn't just mean he says dumb stuff or sometimes looks a little silly. It seems to mean he doesn't really have a clear idea of who God is, who he is, or what life is really all about. He (Pat) has since said he didn't say what he said (oops, that was a lie). Then he said he said what he said out of frustration. I don't know if Pat is a fool. (Ha- there's my loophole!) He seems to be doing foolish things. But more to the point he seems to be trying to confess that something has taken a hold of him. He's trying to tell us, it's not the Holy Spirit that is leading him but this animus, this desire for destruction. He has become frustrated to the point that he wants, not just to spread his misery around a bit like a Tobor beater or the kid that beat me up and threw my back pack on the roof of the school in 2nd grade even though he had no idea who I was and didn't necessarily want anything from me other than for me to be hurt, someone dead and that'll kill him.