NORTON META TAG

Showing posts with label revenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label revenge. Show all posts

17 December 2025

VIDEO & ARTICLE: Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, criticizes Bondi’s handling of Epstein files in Vanity Fair interview 16DEZ25

 

IF fascist fotze trunt susie wiles was NOT MY pres drumpf's / trump's mom there is a good chance she would have eaten him right after he was born sensing there was something very wrong with him! This from PBS.....

VIDEO & ARTICLE: Trump critical of Rob Reiner in wake of killing & Trump Seizes on Rob Reiner’s Death to Attack the Hollywood Director 15DEZ25









Susie Wiles, Trump’s chief of staff, criticizes Bondi’s handling of Epstein files in Vanity Fair interview

Dec 16, 2025 1:24 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump’s understated but influential chief of staff, criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and offered an unvarnished take on her boss and those in his orbit in a series of observations that were published Tuesday in Vanity Fair. The magazine’s two-part profile of Wiles immediately sent shock waves through Washington while sending the West Wing into damage control.

The first woman to ever hold her current post, Wiles pushed back on what she described as a “hit piece” that lacked context. But neither she, nor other West Wing officials who came to her defense, disputed any details in the profile — a wide-ranging narrative that included Wiles’ assessments of the teetotaling Trump as having “an alcoholic’s personality,” Vice President JD Vance as a calculating “conspiracy theorist” and Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. as “quirky Bobby.”

On Epstein, Wiles told the magazine that she underestimated the scandal involving the disgraced financier, but she sharply criticized how Bondi managed the case and the public’s expectations. She said at one point that Trump’s tariffs had been more painful than expected. She conceded some mistakes in Trump’s mass deportation program and suggested that the president’s retribution campaign against his perceived political enemies has gone beyond what she initially wanted.

But Wiles, who managed Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign, broadly defended the president’s aggressive second term agenda, including affirming that Trump wants to keep bombing alleged drug boats in the waters off the coast of Venezuela until that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduro, “cries uncle.”

Wiles pushed back but without any denials

After the comments were published, Wiles disparaged it as a “disingenuously framed hit piece on me and the finest President, White House staff, and Cabinet in history.”

“Significant context was disregarded and much of what I, and others, said about the team and the President was left out of the story,” she wrote in a social media post. “I assume, after reading it, that this was done to paint an overwhelmingly chaotic and negative narrative about the President and our team.”

Wiles did not deny the comments that were attributed to her.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt also rose to Wiles’ defense, writing on the X platform that, “President Trump has no greater or more loyal advisor than Susie. The entire Administration is grateful for her steady leadership and united fully behind her.”

White House budget chief Russell Vought added his praise as well, posting on social media that Trump’s West Wing through two presidencies has “never worked this well or been more oriented towards accomplishing what he wants to.”

In her interviews, Wiles praised Vought while describing him as “right-wing absolute zealot.”

The chief of staff criticizes the attorney general

Trump tapped Wiles after she managed his 2024 campaign. She is known for shunning the spotlight, so it is rare for her to speak as extensively and openly as she did about the president to the magazine, which published its lengthy interview with her — and other members of the White House staff and the Cabinet. Wiles has been speaking to Vanity Fair since just before Trump took office last January.

Asked about Epstein, Wiles said she hadn’t tracked the public focus on “whether all these rich, important men went to that nasty island and did unforgivable things to young girls.”

She said she has read the Epstein file and that Trump is “not in the file doing anything awful.” He and Epstein were friends before they had a falling out.

The Justice Department is facing a Friday deadline to release everything it has on Epstein after Trump, who had objected to the release, signed legislation requiring that the papers be made public.

Wiles criticized Bondi’s handling of the case, going back to earlier in the year when she distributed binders to a group of social media influencers that included no new information about Epstein. That led to even more calls from Trump’s base for the files to be released.

“I think she completely whiffed on appreciating that that was the very targeted group that cared about this,” Wiles said of Bondi. “First she gave them binders full of nothingness. And then she said that the witness list, or the client list, was on her desk. There is no client list, and it sure as hell wasn’t on her desk.”

An insider’s look at the president with ‘an alcoholic’s personality’

Wiles, over the series of interviews, described the president behind the scenes very much as he presents himself in public: an intense figure who thinks in broad strokes yet is often not concerned with the details of process and policy. She added, though, that he has not been as angry or temperamental as is often suggested, even as she affirmed his ruthlessness and determination to achieve retribution against those he considers his political enemies.

Trump, she said, has “an alcoholic’s personality,” even though the president does not drink. But the personality trait is something she recognizes from her father, the famous sports broadcaster Pat Summerall.

“High-functioning alcoholics or alcoholics in general, their personalities are exaggerated when they drink. And so I’m a little bit of an expert in big personalities,” she said, adding that Trump has “a view that there’s nothing he can’t do. Nothing, zero, nothing.”

On Venezuela, Wiles said Trump wants to keep the pressure on Maduro.

“He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” Her comment, though, seemed to contradict the administration’s position that the strikes are about stopping drugs and saving American lives, not regime change.

She said the administration is “very sure we know who we’re blowing up.”

The continued strikes and mounting death toll have drawn scrutiny from Congress, which has pushed back and opened investigations.

Trump’s vengeance comes with a purpose, Wiles says

Wiles described much of her job as channeling Trump’s energy, whims and desired policy outcomes — including managing his desire for vengeance against his political opponents, anyone he blames for his 2020 electoral defeat and those who pursued criminal cases against him after his first term.

“We have a loose agreement that the score settling will end before the first 90 days are over,” Wiles said early in his administration, telling Vanity Fair that she does try to tamp down Trump’s penchant for retribution.

Later in 2025, she pushed back. “I don’t think he’s on a retribution tour,” she said, arguing he was operating on a different principle: ”‘I don’t want what happened to me to happen to somebody else.’ And so people that have done bad things need to get out of the government. In some cases, it may look like retribution. And there may be an element of that from time to time. Who would blame him? Not me.”

Asked about the prosecution of New York Attorney General Letitia James for mortgage fraud, Wiles allowed: “Well, that might be the one retribution.”

Related


Barrow reported from Atlanta.



25 August 2025

FBI Raids the Home of John Bolton & FBI raid targeting Bolton crosses a line in the Trump revenge campaign 22AUG25

 

Patriotism wasn't the reason bolton decided to be a drumpf / trump sycophant, he was seeking power for himself and so decided to ignore the authoritarian aspirations of drumpf / trump. He didn't care what the drumpf / trump-pence administration did to the nation, to Americans in general. He was out for himself just like every other traitor of democracy in the drumpf / trump-pence and now the drumpf / trump-vance administrations. You brought this on yourself bolton, you other magat cultist, take note. From Mother Jones and the Washington Post.....

FBI Raids the Home of John Bolton

Kash Patel wrote on X, “NO ONE is above the law.”


The FBI on Friday raided the Maryland home of John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during President Donald Trump’s first term before becoming a vocal Trump critic. Agents were seen entering Bolton’s home around 7 am ET, nearly the exact same time that FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X: “NO ONE is above the law…@FBI agents on mission.”

The probe, which reportedly relates to a previous investigation launched during Trump’s first term over whether Bolton improperly handled classified information, is the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s use of law enforcement powers against perceived enemies. Though Patel’s Friday social media post did not explicitly refer to the Bolton raid, the two men have a fractious history. Bolton made several appearances in Patel’s 2024 book The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy, including in an infamous appendix listing “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State.” In the book, Patel also blasted Bolton as an “arrogant control freak” and personally blamed Bolton for delaying Patel’s hiring in the first Trump administration.

Bolton has been especially outspoken in recent weeks over Trump’s negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In turn, Trump attacked Bolton on Truth Social as “really dumb.”

FBI raid targeting Bolton crosses a line in the Trump revenge campaign


This case underscores the danger of putting partisan hacks in top law enforcement jobs.



Seven months before the FBI’s Friday morning raid on John Bolton’s home and office, Donald Trump revoked the former national security adviser’s clearances and took away his security detail. The president did so even though intelligence showed that the Iranians would love to see Bolton dead for helping orchestrate the killing of Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.
Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, Trump made clear that he sees the raid as fair-game payback for the legal travails he endured during his years out of power. The president complained that FBI agents went through his son’s bedroom and his wife’s drawers when they searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022. “So I know the feeling,” he said.

The pursuit of 76-year-old Bolton underscores the danger of putting partisan hacks in top law enforcement jobs. The government needed to show probable cause to get a judge to sign the search warrant, so it’s possible there was a rock-solid predicate for the search. But Trump’s promises of retribution and revenge make the government’s motives suspect. So does FBI Director Kash Patel putting Bolton on a list of members of the “deep state” in his 2023 book “Government Gangsters.”

It is a valid fear that the case against Bolton is a fresh instance of the old Soviet saying, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” It comes against the backdrop of federal investigators looking for dirt on other Trump critics: New York Attorney General Letitia James, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), former FBI director James B. Comey and former CIA director John Brennan.

Trump does not conceal his view that the Justice Department should maintain no independence whatsoever from the White House. On Friday, while wearing a hat proclaiming “TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING,” the president speculated that the search could turn up evidence that Bolton is “a very unpatriotic guy.” Trump added that he did not have advance knowledge of the search, although it would have been fine if he had because he is the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.

The administration appears to be relitigating a fight it lost five years ago when the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to stop Bolton from publishing his tell-all memoir about his tenure as national security adviser. Bolton emphatically denied that the book, based on notes he had taken, contained classified material. After a career White House staffer said Bolton had made the necessary edits to get the green light, the national security adviser who succeeded Bolton ordered an additional clearance review by a Trump loyalist.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had harsh words for Bolton in 2020, even as he allowed him to publish: “Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States,” he wrote. “He has exposed his country to harm and himself to civil (and potentially criminal) liability.”

Subsequently, under Attorney General William P. Barr, the Justice Department opened a criminal investigation, convened a grand jury and issued subpoenas regarding whether Bolton had mishandled classified material. But the investigation was closed without charges during the Biden administration. Some sources told The Post the investigation that prompted Friday’s search is focused on the book, but at least one other said it’s a broader inquiry.

Trump hardly has the moral high ground in any discussion about the handling of classified material, but accusing others of what he himself has been accused of has long been part of his M.O. During his decade as the dominant figure in American life, Trump has ushered in an elevated baseline of bipartisan cynicism. There is little pretense that Lady Justice is blind.

The president has steadily eroded norms built up during the post-Watergate era. Some Democrats were too willing to disregard those same norms because they were determined to get Trump by whatever means necessary. Now, Trump is more powerful than ever. His weaponization of government seems destined to fuel a protracted tit-for-tat cycle.

Consistent principles must be enforced against members of both parties, but how? Courts can help, as illustrated Thursday by the New York appellate panel decision to void an excessive half-billion-dollar judgment against Trump. Still, proving malicious or selective prosecution is exceedingly difficult. Rebalancing the scales of justice requires independent-minded prosecutors to employ forbearance. Just because someone can be charged with a crime does not mean they should be.

13 February 2014

Sermon: Losers, Amish and the Reign of Christ 24NOV13

ANOTHER moving, meaningful and down to earth sermon to listen to from Rev Nadia Bolz-Webber.

Click here to listen along —-> 2013-11-24 nbw sermon
33When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ 34Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. 35And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!” 36The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, 37and saying, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” 38There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews.”
39One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” 40But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” -Luke 23:33-43
Two and half years ago lost the worship space we had been using and I felt we had been thrown under the bus by people who were supposed to have our back.  It wasn’t right and, on principle, I was not about to drop my fists.  I was on the phone one day with my friend Sara, going off on a full-on Nadia-style rant detailing all of this.  Finally Sara said to me: “Nadia, you are actually right about all of it” I thought to myself “Thank you. Exactly.  That’s why I am fighting” Except then without skipping a beat she added “You are right about all of it AND…it doesn’t matter” Wait. What? Are you kidding me? If you are right about something, then what else CAN matter?
That was before I realized all the ways I had participated in creating the situation we found ourselves in.
I tell this story today, because knowing that our reading for today, for Reign of Christ Sunday, was going to be the crucifixion text, I’ve been obsessed all week with the fact that three times in this text during his crucifixion, people say to Jesus, “save yourself”.
Seriously Jesus, you healed the sick and raised the dead and performed wonders and miracles, so we know you have it in you…for God’s sake man, save yourself. If you are the son of God, if you are the messiah, then why on Earth are you allowing yourself to be humiliated like this. Make it stop.  You’re embarrassing us.  And why are you being such a loser, anyway?
See, we humans tend to be obsessed with winners and losers, insiders and outsiders, good people and bad people. And we can only win if someone else loses. This is the game. Some win, some lose. It’s everywhere.
And that win-lose, good-bad, insider-outsider thing we are all engaged in?…I know this is a little pop-psychology-y but think that it is somehow linked to our own fear of death and loss and fear that we are not loved.  So we fight, and compete and argue based on principle. Or we send passive aggressive emails when we feel wronged.  Or we talk trash about someone who has hurt us.  All of which I have either done or considered doing in just in the past week alone, but none of which will ever fend off loss or convince me I am worth anything in the ways I think they will in the moment.
Which is where Jesus enters the story…annoyingly.
Jesus shows us that these strong at the expense of the weak, rich at the expense of the poor, good at the expense of the bad ways of being together debases everyone involved.  The bully is as dehumanized by bullying as the victim.
In our win-lose way of understanding things it would have made a lot more sense for Jesus to have come and be a superhero, kicking ass and taking names. Showing everyone how strong God is by winning at our game.
Instead, at the cross we see that Jesus came and showed us how strong God is by voluntarily losing at our game.
No wonder people kept yelling “save yourself!” If you are God, then have some self-respect. Because that’s what we would do. But that’s the thing about God.  God doesn’t seem nearly as interested in self-preservation as we are.  God isn’t self-preserving, God is, by nature, self-giving…not in the way that keeps abused women abused.  But in the way that loves the abused and the abuser. Which is to say, God is self-giving in ways that don’t seem to make a lot of sense to our ideas of win-lose, right-wrong, insider-outsider.
And that’s the reign of Christ.
He’d been trying to tell us this the whole time: by having a mom without status, and there being no room in the Inn for his birth, and by gathering around him, not a team of all-stars, but a motley crew of losers and then pissing THEM off by also insisting on eating with the winners anyway.  He tried to teach us maddening things – things that de-stabilize our systems of trying to get-over on people by saying that the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  If you want to find your life then lose it. The greatest among you must become servants. If someone slaps you offer them the other cheek as well. If someone asks for your coat, give them your shirt too.  Why? Because like being right about everything… It doesn’t matter.  All of this losing can happen and we will still be ok.
None of this losing matters because the source of our worth, the source of our dignity, the source of our lovability does not lie in the – who is right who is wrong, who is good who is bad, who wins and who loses game. Our worth, dignity and lovability lies in Genesis 1:26 and our having been created in the image of God.
I think this imago dei, this image of God, creates in us a longing for what is real and beautiful and redemptive. And even as we are drawn to self-preservation and the game of winners and losers, there is something in us that always knows it’s all a lie.
I think this is why, despite the countless stories of revenge that could be told, that story from 2006 of the shooting at an Amish school continues to be told and continues to pull at that place inside all of us, the imago dei, reign of Christ, kingdom of heaven place that longs for the Gospel. On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts walked into a one-room Amish school house and shot 10 young girls before taking his own life. The response of the Amish community was not one of self-preservation, saving themselves, revenge, or winning in any way.  The response was one of pure Gospel and this is why it is still told to this day. We recognize the real thing when we see it.
Amish community members affected by the shooting offered forgiveness.  They refused to hate. Instead they visited and comforted the shooter’s widow.  Reportedly, “one Amish man held the shooters sobbing father in his arms, for as long as an hour, to comfort him”[1].
I may feed my desire to be right, to get over on others, to make people who have harmed me pay for what they’ve done by narcotically consuming movies, TV shows and video games that indulge my revenge fantasies. But it’s an empty high and then I crash. But the reign of Christ is significantly quieter than a Jean Claude Van Dam movie.  Jesus of Nazareth kept saying the kingdom of God is like things that are hidden and small and easily missed. He also said that the kingdom of God is within you. Quiet, hidden, small, easily missed.  But unmistakably THERE. There within the image of God from which you were created, is the kingdom of heaven, wanting to be known, wanting to be expressed, wanting to be lived and absolutely lighting up when it hears the real thing. Within it is your beauty, your value, your dignity. And it has absolutely nothing to do with being right, or making your point, or saving yourself or winning or losing.
Catholic theologian James Alison puts it this way – he claims that at the cross it is as if God is saying to us:
“I’ll occupy that space of loserdom to show you that I’m not out to get you, that I really do like you. Then you need no longer engage in that awful business of making yourselves good over against, or by comparison with each other. Instead you can relax about being good, and as you relax you will find yourselves becoming something much better, much richer in humanity than you can possibly imagine.”[2]
And I have to believe that the Image of God within us, that source of our worth and dignity and lovability from where our longing for truth and beauty comes – is nourished and honored every time we come here and once again hear that we are loved like crazy by this crucified God who doesn’t mind losing.
Last week one of you, who was raised in an abusive home with a fairly crazy mother, wrote me an email to say that something in you had changed as a result of 2 years of hearing in this church of the unconditional love and grace of a God who wants to be known. Your mom had emailed something a little crazy to you about her life and had said that strangely she feels God’s presence and love right now.  And you told me that for years you had tried to be a good Christian and make yourself love and forgive your mother.  But inevitably the past you would have rolled your eyes and resented what your mother had just written you and you would have tried to make a point about how insane she is.  But instead, and before you even realized what was happening your first thought this week was “of course God is present to and loving her”  You had begun to relax and believe it so much for yourself that even believed it of your abusing mother.
This, brothers and sister, this is the reign of Christ.  It is within you. And the true source of your dignity, worth and lovability… and nothing else matters. Not really. So relax and find yourselves becoming something much richer in humanity than you can possibly imagine. Amen.


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_school_shooting
[2] James Alison, Jesus the Forgiving Victim; Listening for the Unheard Voice (Raven Foundation)
About Nadia Bolz Weber
I am the founding Pastor at House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. We are an urban liturgical community with a progressive yet deeply rooted theological imagination. Learn more at www.houseforall.org
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2013/11/sermon-losers-amish-and-the-reign-of-christ/ 

25 February 2011

Sermon on Loving your Enemy (even if you don't mean it) from Sarcastic Lutheran 20FEB11

A sermon we all (especially me) need to HEAR in these very difficult times.
Sermon_sm



Sometimes when I’m bored I kinda like to fill in sound effects that I think the crowd listening to Jesus might have responded with. He takes familiar passages And says “you have heard this (and everyones like “yeah!) and then he goes but I say this” (and everyone’s like booo)   he does this with messianic authority several times in the Sermon on the Mount like in today’s reading when he says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ (and everyones like “yeah!) 39But I say to you,  if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; (and everyone’s like boo!) 
Jesus takes the part of the law of Moses which prevented disproportional punishment….  the let the punishment fit the crime statute found in Exodus 21 and turns it on it’s head like Jesus loves to do. OK, fair enough.
But then the next part says this.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

So where exactly is it is written you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies?  That’s just not found in the Torah.  I searched for it…it’s not there, sure the love your neighbor thing is in the old testament but hate your enemy?  good luck , it’s like trying to look for “God helps those who help themselves” It’s simply not in the Bible.  But then I realized why love your neighbor and hate your enemy sounds so familiar …. ‘cause, it might not be in the Bible, but I’m pretty sure it’s in my heart.  It’s like, in our DNA.  So if you’re trying to find where Love your neighbor and hate your enemy is found don’t look in the old testament…look here.  When I realized this it felt like a bad horror movie “the phone call is coming from inside the house” See In my heart I want to savor my anger and resentments.  I mean you may be able to turn them into love but my anger and hatred is special.  It’s justified and if I can get other people to hate the people I hate then all the better.  Knowing why each of my enemies clearly deserves to be hated is like a big delicious meal, until I realize I’m the main course.  Because hatred is simply a corrosive form of spiritual bondage.  So Jesus says Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you.
          Now before we go on let me say this: loving your enemy and praying for those who persecute you is not the same as saying that it’s ok that someone has caused you emotional, spiritual or physical harm. I don’t think Jesus is saying that we should dismiss, discount or diminish the very real harm done to us by damaged people.

So when Jesus says love your enemies I just don’t think he means try and muster up a positive emotional feeling about despicable people. Loving those who persecute you is simply not the same as saying you should feel affection toward the people who have hurt you, or that you should feel fondness for people who are mean to you at work.  I just don’t think this about our feelings. Because the Greek word Jesus uses when he tells us to love our enemies is Agape and  Agape love simply isn’t about what we feel in our hearts.  It’s not a sentiment. I actually don’t think it has to do with feelings at all…agape is the love that’s only possible through the indwelling of God’s spirit.

 And I don’t think he means think nice thoughts even.  Remember when your mom made you apologize to your brother or sister and you just kind of phoned it in “sorry.” and she was like “say it like you mean it…it doesn’t count if you don’t mean it”  Yeah…this isn’t like that.  I think loving our enemies might be too central to the gospel…too close to the heart of Jesus for it to wait until we mean it.  I don’t mean it. And my heart, remember… the very place where I found that impulse that I am to love my neighbor and hate my enemy isn’t going to purify itself.  So if God is waiting for that same heart to feel nice loving warm pink fuzzy things about someone who is my enemy well, I think God might be waiting awhile. 
So if it’s not a feeling we try really really hard to create in our own hearts maybe Agape-ing… loving our enemies is actually an action.  Because given the choice between feeling the thing and doing the thing I think the doing of the thing that is what’s critical here. And maybe “really meaning it” is not the prerequisite to just doing it and maybe the action we take is simply this: you pray for those who persecute you.  Commend them to God.  You don’t have to feel affection for them…just hand em over.   Because this counter-intuitive act of enemy love requires prayer.  It doesn’t require the right feelings of niceness or generosity, It requires that we commend our enemies to the one who has perfected the love of enemy. It requires being in the prayerful presence of a God who was killed by God’s enemies and then rather than retaliation, rather than violence, rather than an eye for an eye God used that same death to be the very thing that ends up being the source of their salvation.
So maybe when Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you it’s not so that you can be good.  It’s so you can be free. this freedom from the corrosive distortions of hatred this freedom from having to protect our selves and prove ourselves and preserve our rightness.  Well, this is the freedom of the Gospel.  This is the freedom of a God who loves God’s own enemies enough to die for them.
I’ll end with a story about how you just never know when God might make your enemy your friend.  A man named Chris Roseborough hosts a conservative Christian talk radio show called Pirate Christian Radio. And a couple months after he had spent 2 of his shows talking about me and how I am disobeying God by being a female pastor and how I’m a heretic because I have gay folks in my church and well, you get the idea.  Well a couple months after this he showed up to a conference I was speaking at in the Twin Cities.  Now you should know something about me.  My first response to almost everything is screw you.  Now I almost never stay there but I almost always start there. God usually pretty quickly moves me to something a little more gracious but that doesn’t change my wiring.  I’m a fighter.  So when I heard he was there I went into a little mini rage screw that guy he shouldn’t even be here, don’t show me who he is I’m not talking to him.  Clearly he was my enemy.  But the next day a middle aged guy with a beer gut and a bad goatee walks up to me after I had spoken extends his hand and says “Hi. I’m Chris…” I swallowed hard, extended my hand said a quick “help me” prayer and we proceeded to have a conversation about our need for God’s grace and forgiveness of sins and the Eucharist.  A conversation in which he cried twice.  At the end I said “Chris, I have 2 things to say to you. 1. You are a beautiful child of God and 2. I think you and I were desperate enough to hear the gospel today that we might even hear it from each other.  Now Chris calls me about every couple months and we talk for like an hour.  He hasn’t written about me or talked about me on his radio show and he’s gotten in a lot of trouble form his followers for calling me his friend.  Now…did this happen because I managed to make my heart feel really nice warm fuzzy feelings toward him? clearly not.  I can’t stand the guy.  This was a loving-my-enemy that only could flow from the heart of a forgiving God.  The same God who in the book of Ezekial says I your God will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I  your God will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And THAT is what freedom feels like.  May it be so. Amen