No Worse Flaw

"Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, and their actions are evil;

not one of them does good!"

― Psalm 14:1

"But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ."

 ― Galatians 3:22

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Dear Kate,

I am sure you don't follow Canadian politics closely, let alone the small politics of speaking about politics.

The story I am sharing with you now is not a small one, only made small because that's how we Canadians handle things politically.  We Canadians know how to handle things, everything, politically, correctly, mostly with no comma in between.

Wendy Mesley, a veteran of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (a federal Crown corporation, our "national public broadcaster") certainly doesn't feel it small.  It was losing a 40 years legacy over a couple of careless words, after all--for her.  For us?  A morning's headline gone by midday.  Here's her story, and the following excerpts I quote:

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"For almost 40 years, my name had a prefix: I was 'the CBC’s Wendy Mesley.' And all that time I never wanted to be seen as an enemy of change. I’ve always tried to give voice to those who aren’t being heard; I’ve fought against the status quo my whole life. It’s why I got into journalism...

None of that matters now. I hurt people I never meant to. After a scandal last year, my prefix is now gone, the split with the CBC is official, and I have retired. The company gets a rebrand, and I go away...

A storyteller became the story – even worse, I became a scandal...

Trusting [CBC] was my second big mistake. The CBC did not offer me any public support...

I also believed my punishment would be proportionate, because people would come to understand there’s a difference between a reporter repeating a hateful remark with colleagues while in pursuit of a story, and a gleeful racist trying to draw blood. I was wrong about that too..."

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How can such a smart, seasoned journalist make so many mistakes, and actually not naming her biggest one, which also grows on a fundamental distrust, becoming the biggest mistrust one could have?

For 40 years she thought she was fighting on behalf of some good people against some bad people.  If only she didn't make that mistake.  If only she knew the story of the day, the story of the century, the story of mankind, has always been human beings fighting against God.

I am sure I have the table turned on me just now, me being so stupid for being so smart, proposing some archaic storyline, outmoded understanding about politics and humanity as a whole.

I know Christians who, on a sunny habitable afternoon, would speak about an all-loving God and how in turn we are called to love our enemies, only to sample other verses from the Bible to give voice to often violent justice causes they now thought justified.  They would speak about the downfall of oppressive men (gender neutral language never needed in this case, for those who are otherwise always correct politically), and, of course, how Jesus hated the Pharisees (an all-male cast, again), "a brood of vipers" He called them.

If only we didn't make the mistake to think Jesus was talking about someone else.

Surely there must be bad people out there we must fight against, bad elements in our society we must help eliminate, still we say?  Of course.  I wouldn't be writing here day after day for being amoral.  What I am saying is, it's the neat division between good and evil that gives our complex moral universe a simple-minded treatment, darkens our thirst for facts, "information" picked and chosen, to support our even stronger propensity towards action, actions that render Jesus' dying on the cross unnecessary, downright embarrassing.

If only Wendy Mesley has read a David Adams Richards novel or two, she wouldn't be so surprised by how the human story would necessarily go, embarrassingly.

"There is no worse flaw in man's character than that of wanting to belong."

Yours, Alex