About a year ago a senior pastor at a local church told me the biblical passages about the poor were directed at the spiritually deprived, versus the undeniable comprehension of the word to define those of meager means. They lied.
Perhaps six years ago I was seeking help for those without a roof from a pastor at a local church. They said they had tried “that” with Black people and it doesn’t work. What followed was a condescending conversation so disturbing: that I changed my perception of their title from pastor to racist.
The brutality of Christianity was once described as a cult by the Christopher Columbus contemporary; Bartolomé de Las Casas, in describing the genocide of 15-million indigenous people in what is now the Virgin Islands. All perpetrated in the name of Christianity.
I hold no false-hope that a bearing witness Letter to the Editor will cause eons of un-Christ like Christian leadership to abate from their devilish ways. I do, however, hold tremendous hope for the goodness of the individual, without malice or conflict, to have tough discussions with church leaders and elders and to choose more loving paths when it’s clear you’re sitting in a hollow pew.
Good and decent people are plentiful. I hold these tenets self-evident, not just for the few, but for all houses of Christian fellowship.
— Bill Mash, Chico
