"I Will Spue Thee Out of My Mouth."
If you are a Christian, you will recognize the title of this post as scripture, from Revelation 3, verses 15 and 16. Here, John the Revelator writes the words of Christ to the church of the Laodiceans:
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Rev. 3:15-16, King James Bible)
The imagery is quite shocking, especially when we read the footnotes in the King James Bible, which identify "spue" as the Greek word for "vomit." In the LDS printing of the King James Bible, the footnotes also tie "lukewarm" to the topical guide entries for "apathy" and "Apostasy of the Early Christian Church."
Christ, then, tells the Laodiceans that apathy toward the Church—or apathy towards him—is not only unpalatable, but intolerable. Not only would he rather they be beside him than be indifferent, detached, or unconcerned, he would rather they be against him, too.
When I was young, I often wondered about these verses. I wondered why—Why?—would Christ prefer extremes in faith? Why would passiveness be so bad as to use one of the most descriptive words to illustrate his distaste for it?
I think it's because he's a god of action. He and God the Father want us to use our free will to make decisions and to own them. They want us to believe, to create, and to do. They want us to move in a direction—whether it's forward, backward, or sideways. I'm certain they want us to choose to love one another, but I think they'd rather we make mistakes than stand still.
I think this kind of action extends to all areas of life, including politics. It is, of course, no surprise that I support liberal ideologies, and lately, I find myself getting more irritated with the undecided electorate than the Trump supporters. I'm less worried about the people who think Trump is America's savior than I am about the Democrats in Congress who aren't doing much to stop this administration's activities. I'm concerned that my brother thinks Trump and his cabinet will be a net-neutral on our country, and I'm disturbed that many of my fellow country-men and women still refuse to read the news. If Christ indeed despises apathy, I'm beginning to see why.
I'll spend the next several posts writing about politics, and I won't mince words. I believe we're in a time when silence isn't good enough, complaisance is a vice, and a refusal to sit idly by is God's will.
Thing I'm thankful for: my little void of a black cat