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 audience. 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. 11.4.22 

1. “We should probably stop putting people who are preparing for the rapture in charge of anything.” Liam Neeson 

Rapture theology actually looks forward, in kind of a freaky and disconcerting way, to the world becoming a hot mess and then the rise of an authoritarian leader who steps in to create his own warped version of order. When that happens ‘rapturists’ believe they’ll be whisked away from it all. They won’t have to deal with the ensuing chaos. Instead, they can just watch it unfold from their easy chair in Heaven. 

Honestly, that’s hard for me to wrap my arms around. Bottom line is that when things get ‘ugly’ there’s a whole lot of folks who are pretty excited about what they think is their imminent ‘beam me up Scotty” moment. And they’re not thinking at all about their role in creating the ‘ugly’. 

2. Esteemed journalist Bob Woodward said:  “Trump put the Presidency into a moral free fall.”

That pretty much says it all. He was able to do it because his personal life has been in a moral free fall for a long, long time. It’s the habit of his life. 

The sad thing is that he’s been enabled to keep falling by a healthy contingent of religious people (primarily evangelicals) who believe he’s God’s provision for what’s ailing us.

Thus, instead of speaking truth to power, his enablers decided being close to power is a better gig. But they will be sorely disappointed for they are serving a narcissist who demands to be treated as royalty but desires only the accountability reserved for a new born child.

History is not going to treat any of this well. 

3. On the Camino de Santiago a pilgrim encountered these words: “Yo estoy aqui, yo estoy aqui ahora,” or “I am here, I am here now.”

To be present to the present moment simplifies life. In truth, it’s all we can count on. 

4. “Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford.” ~ Ecclesiastes

To do this is to remind ourselves that “God is good all the time.” And as we share in that goodness, we are asked to give generously of our time, treasure and talents. 

5. “Don’t tell someone you love them and then vote for someone who will hurt them.” Don’t know who said this but I’m on the same page. 

Did you know that almost every single member of one of our political parties voted against lowering prescription drug costs, tackling climate change, common sense gun laws, repairing the tax system, and lowering health care costs? Did you know that the dismantling of Social Security is on their mind? And yet, they still tell us they care. They don’t. They’ve sold themselves to the highest bidder. 

6. It’s sinful what we continue to do to the Dreamers. There’s still no pathway to citizenship for these young adults who migrated here as children. Their grace period is coming to a close soon. Why do we think ‘keeping them in limbo’ is still a sane and God honoring policy? 

My guess is that certain powerful people are still appalled by the parents of Dreamers who actually believed the hype about America, who believed that America actually saw “comforting the afflicted” as a virtue and that pathways to citizenship could be found. 

So, our country will keep punishing the victims, using them as pawns in some crazy game of gotcha for as long as we can because that’s what we do these days. And if they need to be forced back to a homeland that doesn’t want them – so be it.

Lord have mercy on us. 

7. “Martin Luther King Jr. defined agape love as willingness to serve without the desire for reciprocation, willingness to suffer without the desire for retaliation, and willingness to reconcile without the desire for domination.” ~ Richard Rohr

We miss it – this agape love- because we think everything is transactional. If we don’t get something back in return, we’ve been taught that it has no value. That’s so shallow but it’s the reality for many. 

8. “The poor tell us who we are. The prophets tell us who we can be. So we hide the poor and kill the prophets.” ~ Phillip Berrigan, SJ

Why is our world so afraid of embracing and being taught by the poor and so dismissive of the prophetic voices calling us to be faithful to our truest, most authentic self – the self God envisioned for us from the beginning?

9. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” ~ Alvin Toffler

They’re stuck in a world that no longer exists, lacking the skills and knowledge to navigate through this time and space effectively. Love the essence of what “learn, unlearn, and relearn” represents. 

10. Within hours of Elon Musk taking control of Twitter there was a 500% increase in the use of the ‘n’ word on that site. Surprised? I’m not. Concerned? Terrified might be a better word. It’s not just Musk either. There’s a cast of characters on the radical right who lack character, wisdom  and boundaries. Somehow, someway their followers don’t mind a bit. It gives me the shivers.