I am saddened by the news of former president Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis. I’m even more saddened by the reaction of some who profess to be supporters of our current president. The emotional and psychological abuse is real and it is the pure definition of evil – intentional saying or doing something with the purpose to harm and/or cause fear. The tool of evil is to dehumanized humans so that we stop seeing the image of God in each other.
In particular, all of the comments along the lines of ‘if they are so smart why didn’t they catch this earlier’ simply prove the ignorance of the ones who say it (and need I mention the fear mongering of making up ‘cancer diagnosis’ words and stages). There is absolutely no way to say and do such things that can be even in the same dictionary with words like “compassion” and “be like Jesus”. To twist a cancer diagnosis (or any medical condition) into a political meme or conspiracy is beyond mean, it’s evil.
Let me share with you a personal story. Four weeks after Jim and I were married he was diagnosed, by annual checkup and with no symptoms, with prostate cancer. It was still stage 1 and he had 40 radiation treatments over the next 8 weeks and then tested regularly after and his PSA remained low for a decade. And then it didn’t. They ran tests to see if the prostate cancer had returned or metastasized to his bones. It hadn’t. Jim had many symptoms and spent a lot of time and energy going to doctors to discover what was wrong. The docs would say “oh, it’s X so do Y” and one symptom would clear up. And then return. We spent almost two years driving to doctors, doing blood tests, body scans of various flavors, hospital stays, you name it. We weren’t sitting around just wondering and neither were the doctors and medical teams. For the most part, docs can’t just order up any ol’ test. There are protocols that insurance companies make them go through because insurance company profits run our medical system. Finally we got to the test that said his pancreatic cancer markers were high and so they looked at his pancreas. It was stage 4 and metastasized to his liver and possibly his kidneys. That was in July. He died in October.
No one accused us of not doing enough. No one asked “how could ‘they’ have missed it”. The people who love us gathered around and grieved with me and Jim’s family. BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT KIND, COMPASSIONATE PEOPLE DO. If you are applauding the hateful statements made by those in the political party that is not the Biden’s political party, think about how you would respond if you lived through the story I just told you.
If you are applauding the hateful statement and you also claim to follow Jesus, let me assure you, you are not in this case. You need to step behind Jesus and freshen up your compassion and reorient what you label love. Let the love of God shape your eyes to see the image of God in everyone.
If you are being silent in hopes no one will notice, you need to speak out against the hate, because that’s what Jesus would do. When we don’t stand up to the bullying, the dehumanizing continues. Let God shape your heart with the courage to speak up for goodness and compassion.
And, yeah, I am not naive enough to think that those who are applauding and saying amen to the bullies’ statements even read my unknown blog, but maybe it can help those of us who want to be kind, compassionate people who follow Jesus speak more love into this world. Maybe it will give us the strength and courage to love more loudly than their hate.
And if somehow this little note from an Episcopal priest in a small town in the middle of Texas makes its way to the Biden family, please know you are in my prayers. God’s peace be with y’all.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 