Lions

One of the social media feeds I watch is images and videos of animals in a South African game reserve.  Being able to watch, even remotely, the animals in their natural environment normally makes me simultaneously homesick, and comforted.

Today’s highlight, however, was extraordinarily disturbing.  It was a video of two male lions eviscerating and eating another male lion.  He was doomed to die, with his innards spread all over the place, yet he was still fighting back with all that he had left.  This broke me.  Partially because of the cruelty of the aggressors to their own kind, but more because it is a gruesome illustration of the conservative church in the USA. 

Comfortable white Christians are riding the wave of their perceived influence on political power, while verbally and emotionally eviscerating those who dare to question where this trend is headed.  As a legal immigrant in a culture that is increasingly punitive of all immigrants, legal or otherwise, I am unable to speak out about the corruption of the leadership, failure of the checks and balances in the constitution, and the normalization of greed, cruelty, and lawlessness.  I hide in my cave, muted, and hope that no one notices that I am here, while biblical norms evaporate in the society around me.  Man’s inhumanity to man is rampant, and celebrated, even an especially among christians.  Commands to love God and love neighbors are secondary to the priorities of money, security, and so-called freedom. 

Should I fulfil my ministry as a teacher and fight back, albeit futilely, while my innards are spread all around, or hide out and just hope to survive until God steps in (Ps 13)?