This is an audio version of Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider hearing. You may agree or disagree with what he says but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 6.10.22 

1. “One of the most cowardly things ordinary people do is to shut their eyes to the facts.” ~ C.S Lewis

FOX News, to their shame, is not covering the January 6 hearings. They know what they’re doing. The network doesn’t  want their audience to see and hear what their hosts have been covering up for the past couple of years.

2. Saint Augustine writes in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Many believe that this sentence captures the essence of the desire that dwells in the deepest part of every human being. It’s the desire to know and be known by God. 

3. “In the wake of deadly mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, Representative Chris Jacobs of New York, a congressman serving his first full term in the House, stunned fellow Republicans by embracing a federal assault weapons ban and limits on high-capacity magazines.

Speaking from his suburban Buffalo district a week ago, about 10 miles from the grocery store where 10 Black residents were slaughtered, Mr. Jacobs framed his risky break from bedrock Republican orthodoxy as bigger than politics: “I can’t in good conscience sit back and say I didn’t try to do something,” he said.

It took only seven days for political forces to catch up with him.

On Friday, facing intense backlash from party leaders, a potential primary from the state party chairman and a forceful dressing down from Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Jacobs announced that he would abandon his re-election campaign.

“We have a problem in our country in terms of both our major parties. If you stray from a party position, you are annihilated,” Mr. Jacobs said on Friday. “For the Republicans, it became pretty apparent to me over the last week that that issue is gun control. Any gun control.” ~ Nicholas Fandos and Jesse McKinley, NY Times

One of the members of Congress, a Republican from Florida, showed up in a Zoom committee hearing about gun laws with his own firearms on the table in front of him.  I just shook my head in disgust when I watched the video. This is the kind of immature approach to a serious issue that is indeed worrisome and potentially dangerous. What kind of person does this especially after what we’ve been through in the past few weeks? Will someone like this vote for common sense gun legislation?  Nope. He’s driven a stake into the ground. As have his colleagues. My biggest fear is that they will embolden the crazies who are eager to use all those assault rifles and high magazine revolvers they bought. How many crazies are there? Who knows? Too many, I’m thinking.

I wrote this to a Canadian friend. “We in America don’t have the moral or political resolve to solve gun issues.  This is our ‘sin’. We will do everything we can to parse, excuse, and justify anything that has to do with ‘guns’. But we won’t do what’s necessary to dive deeply into the issue and come up with legislation that will help to resolve the fact that ‘kids’ are being killed and that  guns are being sold to people who shouldn’t be allowed to possess a pea shooter. The 2nd Amendment has become our 11th Commandment. That is to our shame. It’s what is making us the laughingstock of the free world.”

4. Anita and I enjoyed watching an Amazon Prime documentary called “Jesus Music”. Of course, Anita knew and interviewed many of the folks featured. That made it even more fun. Tommy Coomes of LoveSong caught my attention when he said: “Faith doesn’t get passed on automatically. Every generation has to fight for it.” 

Sometimes fighting for it doesn’t happen until you fight against it for a while. I find that much of the fighting isn’t against God. It’s a fight with the institutions that represent God. Some end up throwing both God and the institutions away. And then what?

5. “Because I promise you, America – we are not as divided as we’re being told we are…. How about we get inspired? … Maybe set an example for our children, give us reason to tell them, ‘Hey, listen and watch these men and women. These are great American leaders right here. Hope you grow up to be like them.’ And let’s admit it: We can’t truly be leaders if we’re only living for reelection…. We’ve got to make choices, make stands, embrace new ideas, and preserve the traditions that can create true progress for the next generation.”

As Matthew McConaughey finished and left the podium, James Rosen from Newsmax called out: “Were you grandstanding just now, sir?” ~ Heather Cox Richardson

No, James Rosen, you were listening to a patriot. Sadly, you and your ilk don’t know one when you see one anymore. 

6. “What if it was exactly at the point at which the words go wobbly, at which they start to slip through our fingers, that we might find ourselves able to take an unobstructed glimpse into holy truth?” ~ Janet P. Williams

If this isn’t one of those times when words are wobbling, and answers don’t come easily, I don’t know what would qualify. I do believe that our good God is, indeed, trying to get our attention. Let’s open our eyes and unplug our ears, holy truth is trying to tell us something. And it’s important.

7. Jesus was ready, willing, and able to jump to the aid of anyone being bullied. Now, he asks us to do the same thing. 

8. “I do not want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.” ~ Margaret Chase Smith,  GOP Senator from Maine, June 1, 1950. 

This was a brave response to her party’s love affair with Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. She bravely stood against a man who caused so much deep hurt and harm. I pray that kind of bravery still exists today. Instead we’re getting this:

“If you’re a Republican, you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they’re coming after you… Of course you’re gonna lie. Everybody lies!” ~ Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX)

This guy is a piece of work. Screws loose everywhere you look.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once wrote: “The temptation is powerful to close our eyes and wait for the worst to pass, but history tells us that for freedom to survive, it must be defended, and that if lies are to stop they must be exposed.” 

9. What’s the hardest thing to say? 

I’m sorry 

I’m scared 

I’m unsure 

I don’t know 

I need help 

It’s my fault.

Worcestershire

Worcestershire. That’s a given. 😀

Now what’s next. Which of the remaining ones are hard for you to say out loud?  It might make for a good journaling exercise or a great discussion starter for a small group.

10. “Skepticism is a virtue. It requires a willingness to question conventional wisdom, and the guts to accept something after you discover that it’s actually true.

Denialism, on the other hand, is a willful rejection of reality. It’s safe and easy, and unproductive. Because there’s no room to change your mind.

… Skeptics are a key to the scientific method, organizational design and even investing. Often, people in denial pretend to be skeptics. It feels more powerful than acknowledging that we’re simply avoiding change.” ~ Seth Godin

Sticking your head in the sand has never been a particularly good idea. And yet, I know people who do it religiously. Habitual avoidance is cowardice. Deciding to not know serves no one well. It diminishes the impact of your life.