Judas Betrays

Dear Kate,

Loyalty and courage, two of the quintessential human virtues, we don't hear much of them now, and for good reasons too, so we think.

"I value loyalty above everything else—more than brains, more than drive and more than energy," Trump once said, in his book with a title that justifies our unease about him in general and this statement in particular.  The book is called "Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life."  Puke.

I ain't like that, we say.  Disgusting.  The hair the voice the smell, none of that we want, and that he's talking about Greek virtues at best.  But we ain't there anymore.  We've evolved beyond that, acknowledge it or not, because of the new human possibilities made available to us through Jesus Christ and the Christian heritage.  Now we have faith, hope, and love as our ultimate aspirations, and the fruit of the Spirit scattered along our path to glory.

That's why, by default, we would side with the helpless and oppressed, no question and please don't question, even if our big sentiment is rarely matched by our effort to not rely on stereotypes, prejudices, conventional wisdom, and public opinions to sustain our higher moral outlook.

The assumptions are, by now, after all these years of toying with the wrong ideas, we human beings should know by and large what is right, what is reasonable, and are rational enough to do the right and reasonable things.  We are not only all knowing, we are all willing.

Those who know of lesser and will less are, naturally, behind us on our dignified march to progress and perfection.  Give them a hand if we can, save them from their ignorance, make them will our will.  But if they start to question our unquestionable virtues of faith and hope and love and all the goodies we possess in us, we might need to call them out for who they are: oppressors, enemies to progress, on an "old road that is rapidly aging" and are bound to "sink like a stone."

Loyalty entails taking side.  But when you are on the right side and can envision how the world will in due time be made right and all shall exist in an one-sided harmonious togetherness, loyalty is no longer needed.  What a person needs is to submit to what is frankly obvious to all reasonable human beings.  Courage is nothing but sliding into a new better reality and, if called for, burning up unwanted elements from the past and resistance at present, so that our destined glory can come fully sooner than later.

So I wonder, what kind of faith, what sort of hope, what burning sensation we call it love, would make us betray our brothers and sisters?  What shuts us up when we see churches burning, many having nothing to do with the residential school, some oppressed indigenous minorities in their own country?  How sweet a fruit of the Spirit have we tasted for us to stop questioning ourselves in a questionable world, quit trying to be even half honesty when seeking our assured footing in all the uncertain human entanglements?

Who are we finally paying loyalty to to side with no one but our pride and cowardice?

Yours, Alex