Beautiful people,

If you are disgusted, dismayed, and/or befuddled by the goings on in the white house… so much so that the term “evangelical” is one that either you once claimed and now disassociate with completely, or maybe a faith you never believed anyway, yet still arises in you an overall antipathy when you hear it. In order to see things in proper perspective, and place the responsibility for outcomes where they belong, I’m going to suggest separating these two things… White House, and Jesus.

Stay with me.

I offer you my filter. It has served me so well over the years. I call it simply, “The Jesus Filter” and it goes something like this:

“Does it look, sound, taste, and feel like Jesus? Is it lovely and kind, symphonic, sweet, hopeful (always, always, always hopeful) and in your spirit bring about peace and joy and love for all people, animals, and the earth?”

If not, it is not Jesus. Not the one I know, anyway, and that’s the only one I can offer. I won’t say what it is because I don’t really know. I don’t always know much of anything for sure, but I often know what something is not, by running it through this filter.

So go ahead. Give it a go. Tell me how it works out for you. Are things easier to discern? Are you able to take something done in the name of Jesus (or Christianity which are not always the same thing) and separate it from the Jesus who ate, drank, wept and walked with the very ones labeled “outcast”? Who washed the feet of his followers and said, “this is an example of how you are to love”?

The one who said, “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”?

Stay faithful, friends. Hope is not lost. Set your mind on what is good, true, and noble. Then bring it to earth.

This day.

Love, Val