When free speech is responded with consequences and people losing their livelihoods, then speech is no longer "free."
Yet another way that authoritarianism cracks down against those who dare to say anything that's counter to the "national party line"
It's not just that Trump won. It's that Joe Rogan, Dana White and Brett Favre won. Jailed insurrectionists won. The Alitos and the Thomases won. Vladimir Putin won. Racism won. Misogyny won. Sexism won. Global warming won. Xenophobia won. Most of all: Fear Won. That's what hurts.
America is ruined and on the brink of the 250th anniversary, this country has chosen "my honor is loyalty" and "one nation under 45" as their mottos to forever be etched in whatever history books are even left in the future.
Today is a dark day for democracy and the world. Fascism is the new flavor of America, and I can't begin to imagine those elders who literally fought against it watching their grandchildren and great- grandchildren openly celebrating it.
Kamala Harris didn't lose, America did.
As a nation, we collectively failed her—and in doing so we failed girls and women, the LGBTQ community, people of color, Muslims, Jewish people, immigrants, the sick, the poor, the elderly, the people of Ukraine, and Gaza, and the planet.
It's unthinkable, that instead of being able to celebrate a beautiful, hopeful new chapter in the story of this nation with a leader who appealed to the best of our natures—we will instead be holding a postmortem for democracy as we enter our 250th year, stewarded by a malevolent sociopath who despises empathy and shuns the law.
I truly thought we were better than this, that our shared humanity would show up. I thought we would reject this hatred and ugliness once and for all.
I hate being wrong about the majority of the people of this nation.
I don't know what's ahead. All I know is that good-hearted human beings are more necessary now than ever.
We did all that we could to avoid this moment, but now that it's here we'll just have to decide who we will be.
There is no way to comprehend or measure how grievous an error this is, but the only thing the decent people of this nation can do is wake up tomorrow and fight like hell for what we still believe is worth the fight, and we will.
I'll be doing that with whoever has the strength to join me.
I'm mourning the country we could have been and the one we apparently are—but I refuse to give up believing that compassion is the right path, that diversity makes us better, and that love is greater than fear.
The unsurprising thing about the early results of this election cycle is that there has been consistent evidence of one candidate not fit to lead, yet his followers continue to cry out and shout out in not so subtle ways "My honor is loyalty" all across the country...
Still resting in the stirred spirit of my first @FestHomiletics. So much to chew on, let dissolve into my being, let flow through my spiritual bloodstream.
Can't wait for next year's Festival!
First full day of @FestHomiletics and I have been thoroughly and fully blown away and challenged by wise and prophetic voices to truly engage the whole of the Biblical canon from every angle and at every layer. And God's wisdom will illuminate. How, you may ask?
#Homiletics2024