‘You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say to you, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell’ – Jesus, in Matthew 5:21-22 (NLT)
According to Jesus, words matter. The things we say, the things we suggest, have meaning, both for those who hear them and for the state of own hearts. Holding another person in contempt, such as we evidence when we call someone a disparaging name or curse them, is serious business. Sticks and stones may break our bones, but when we say things that put another person’s physical, spiritual, emotional, or psychological well-being in danger, we imperil our very souls. Treating people with decency and respect, valuing them as fellow pilgrims on the journey of life, holding them up instead of tearing them down, even when we are talking about those with whom we may have reason to disagree, matters to Jesus.
Yesterday, the United States House of Representatives voted to censure one of its members. You probably know the story. Representative Paul Gosar from Arizona had posted on Twitter a doctored anime video depicting himself flying through the air with a sword and slashing at the neck of New York’s Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. In the video, blood sprays from the wound as AOC’s neck snaps back, lifeless, and dead. Gosar then turns his attention to President Joe Biden, his next apparent victim.
Decency in political discourse seems to be on its last legs in this country, but even so, this was beyond the pale. In defense of the motion to censure Gosar, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi remarked, ‘We can’t have members [of the House] joking about killing one another.’ That such a defense had to be made at all is illustrative of how bad things have become in America.
Not surprisingly (I wish I could say something like ‘shockingly’ here), Pelosi’s view of the matter was not supported by the members of Gosar’s party, all but three of whom voted against censure (two, Representatives Liz Cheny and Adam Kinzinger admirably voted in favor, a third Republican Congressman, David Joyce, who ironically serves on the House Ethics Committee, voted ‘present’ – hardly a profile in courage there). To many opposed to the motion, the video was ‘just a joke.’ How on earth it can be considered acceptable to joke about murdering a woman (or anyone for that matter), I cannot begin to understand. But when you consider further that AOC has been vilified by conservatives and right wing zealots for years (the former’s rhetoric fueling the hate of the latter; the two groups are becoming increasingly indistinguishable), that as a result she receives a daily briefing each morning about the latest threats against her life, that, on January 6th, she was among those most likely to be murdered (or worse) by the insurrectionists at the Capitol, one might think that, perhaps, Republicans would realize the dangers of such a ‘joke,’ and that, further considering Gosar’s affiliations with neo-Nazis and right wing thugs, it wasn’t a joke at all but a calculated attempt to raise the temperature of hate against a rival, liberal member of Congress, her safety be damned. There certainly wasn’t anything funny about that video. In fact, if you or I had posted it, we almost surely would have received a visit from the Secret Service.
I can hear the conservative AOC haters now: but she’s a Socialist! This was just meant to highlight how dangerous she is; that we are at war for the soul of our country (this has actually been said in defense of Gosar). Come off it. I don’t care if AOC is a strident Communist (which she isn’t). You don’t treat anyone like this. Not if your Mama raised you right. And especially not if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, who, remember, demands that we not speak or act in ways that hold others in contempt or risk placing their lives in peril.
In support of the motion, AOC took the floor and gave a speech that is exactly what our country needs to hear as it continues to slouch toward the annihilation of decency. You can watch her speech here. I urge you to do so. I would go so far as to say that, whatever your politics are, if you can listen to her words and disagree with her on this matter, if you can listen to her words and continue to defend someone like Gosar, if you can listen to her words and continue to believe that it is acceptable to treat anyone the way she has been treated by Trumpian political operatives, then, to paraphrase a friend of mine, your moral compass, if you ever had one in the first place, is irretrievably broken, and you need to get yourself a new one.
I am glad the censure motion passed but disappointed that it did not pass unanimously. It is a sad day indeed when Congress, a body that I, like AOC, was once taught to hold in the highest regard, cannot even agree to protect the safety of its own members, when political disagreements are resolved, not in a spirit of civility and common unity, but with vicious attacks and diatribes, if not full on violence, and when such attacks, diatribes, and violence are defended, almost to a person, by one of America’s two political parties.
I take some consolation that, at least for now, a low bar has been set: it is not acceptable for members of Congress to even joke about murdering one another. That the bar is so low is enough to make one weep. I can only hope that this small step might be part of a longer journey to make decency, if not great, at least normal again.
Under Christ’s Mercy,
Brent