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Faithfulness Is Often Boring

 I have ignored the latest events in Minneapolis, because it does not serve to make bold pronouncements and attach the name of Jesus to them. To leave no room for a variance of interpretation is its own form of blasphemy. I will say that I'm praying for the soul of Alex Pretti, and everyone affected by his death.

I can also say that the general restrictionism of the administration and its deportation quotas increases the chances that innocents get caught up in the web of immigration enforcement.

I once heard that faithfulness was a long obedience in the same direction. I think evangelicals find that boring. That's why "Red" evangelicals like to pretend they are being persecuted by a desperately wicked left-wing secular government--even if this narrative isn't wholly meritless--and "Blue" evangelicals like to pretend that this administration is the reincarnation of the Third Reich, even attaching the name "Gestapo" to ICE, and all of its actions--not to say that all criticisms lack merit--and so on.

For my part, if I cannot determine precisely what is true, I can't make firm moral judgments about it. Denzel Washington once said that if you don't read or watch the news, you're uninformed; if you do, you're misinformed. In that spirit, I refrain from comment on every detail of every event. I don't intend to say that great passion will never have a place; I do say my passion will wait.

To believe the gospel of Jesus Christ is heroic in itself. To obey Jesus the Lord is our portion. If I'm called to rescue the vulnerable, or overthrow a tyranny, I will receive the grace to do those things. But the saints weren't ever self-aware of being the Frodo Baggins of their times; they simply knew that if the wicked took their lives, the Resurrection and the Life would vindicate them. They weren't self-appointed inquisitors of the errors and idolatries of others, either.

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