Good Friday

Today is Friday. 

Yes. Yes, it is Friday.   

Specifically it is Good Friday for Christians and I have the day off from work.

I don’t have the day off from work as part of some personal religious observance on my part.

I have the day off from work because my employer whose primary functions are centered around the investing and management of money is one of hundreds of private institutions in America that observe Good Friday as an official day off. 

So thank you Jesus for dying for my sins and getting me the day off from work. 

I don’t mean to sound snarky about that. Hey, a day off from work is a day off from work.

But it does underscore that sense of privilege that too many Christians feel so entitled to.

Name a date that the businesses shut down for that is centered around a Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or any other religious event. There isn’t one.

Yet there are Christians who while living in a country that shuts down a lot of businesses in deference to their calendar still insist that they are under attack, their faith is threatened. 

It is a mind set that has shown up during the current coronavirus pandemic quarantine. Most churches have been smart, shutting down in person worship services and working with online options through Facebook and Zoom. But there have been so-called Christians who have defied the call to help their fellow man in a time of crisis by staying away from each other. No, they have insisted on still gathering together, as if defying both government directives as well as common sense as some kind of testament of their faith when such actions are a willful expression of pride and selfishness.

The thing is the Christian faith is under attack, it is being threatened but those dangers are coming from within.

Especially in the last four years, alleged Christians have done so much to undermine the basic message of Jesus Christ in pursuit of an ideology rooted in fear and exclusion.

Yes, I am talking about those who support Donald Trump.

In support of a man whose only consistent ethos is “What’s in it for me?”, these alleged Christians undermine the very Savior they profess to follow because, through Trump, they’re getting what’s in it for them.

It’s that same mentality that’s driving these same people to defy social distancing. What’s the point of being a “good Christian” if no one can see you doing it? There’s nothing in it for them to be a “good Christian” alone in their homes. They need to be seen making a spectacle of their faith in a public setting.  “Look at me!” they proclaim in defiance of society and government. “Look at me, showing my devotion to my God!”

What’s in it for them to stay home? Nothing.

So today’s Good Friday and I have the day off from work.

I think I’ll just stay home. Which these days means I’m also hanging around the office.

_________________________________

I kind of hope...

...this has been cancelled.  

Tomorrow, Songs For Saturday, I get my country music on with a couple of tunes from Merle Haggard and John Prine who recently passed away.

Cinema Sunday looks at a Ben Stiller comedy and Monday is a Doctor Who post with a NEW Doctor Who adventure.