Guest commentary by Mark McHugh
It is worth being really honest about this moment historically as historical erasure is already underway.
The calls for “peace” right now, by some, without calls for truth-telling, only postpone that which is being named. Peace is not brought about through illusion, nor pseudo truth, nor conspiracy. To quote Miroslav Volf, “Peace is … unintelligible and unimaginable apart from the truth of Jesus Christ.”
In the interest of truth, then, it’s worth saying that the peace, reconciliation and healing being called for by our most desperate leaders are distortions of Jesus’ own words. These words will not be weaponized against Jesus, nor should we, as Christians, let them be.
In the interest of truth, it’s worth acknowledging that the terrifying events at the Capitol last week were incited by the religion of white supremacy in service to the idol of political gain and, more particularly, the idol of religious nationalism.
In the interest of truth, it’s worth saying that the signs in the crowd last week that read “Jesus saves” represent an idol Jesus that is foreign in every way to the first-century Jew revealed in the Bible. Jesus saves when captives are set free, when the poor are lifted up, when the naked are clothed, when the hungry are fed, when the sick are healed and when those who do wrong are forgiven. Jesus saves not by conquering for political gain, but by being conquered by those whose very idol and purpose is, in fact, political gain. The signs on the Capitol grounds, therefore, reveal a misguided theology of the smallest, most sordid and most shameful sort. And we are not deceived.
In the interest of truth, it’s worth saying that this week’s events do not impact all of us equally. The images of a noose on the Capitol lawn and a Confederate flag in the rotunda are traumatic emblems of what Black Americans have been telling white Americans for centuries now, and most recently, in this moment of would-be-racial-reckoning. Such a reckoning will not occur, until, as white Americans, we recognize the distortions and falsehoods within our own narratives. These distortions must be unmasked even – and especially – when it’s painful to do so.
Until all people are included in flourishing life, shallow calls for “peace” will remain the sham that they are, particularly for those most marginalized. And sadly, Jeremiah’s words will again prove prophetic: “They dress the wound of my people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all” (Jeremiah 6:14).
MARK McHUGH is co-pastor at Harrison Square Presbyterian Church in Centralia, Washington. He’s an optimist, as shown by his love for the Seattle Mariners, who haven’t made the playoffs in 19 years.
