📧 “Looking to smooth things over”
Robert and Tim (and [redacted]);
It's advent and it feels obligatory to revisit where we find ourselves and figure out the path forward.
I don't know who has theological training, other than Fr. Jim, but when the Baptizer called out for the way of the Lord to be made straight, he was drawing on the Hebrew concept of atonement, kāp̄ar. The word is something like tar, and asphalt; it is what we use to pave roads. The Day of Atonement was the holiest day of the year because it made YHWH accessible, a slow work of leveling out the imbalance of power by bringing low the mountains and, thereby, raising up the valleys.
You have more power than I have, and you abused the power you have. To help you make things right, let me make explicit what you did wrong.
When I submitted an opinion piece the conclusion of which was 'the republican veep did bad, he should repent.' To my knowledge, Robert never sought to "get a response from the [Trump] campaign." When I pitched a similar piece using information easily verified online, Robert insisted on a "fact-check" that could have taken all of 90 seconds. Here, I'll do it for you;
When was AB556 passed? 2013, see the Legiscan database
Harris was AG at the time? Yes, you can also check her wikipedia page.
Is CA AG compelled to implement new laws? Yes, see Article V, Section 13 of the California Constitution
Is her former Department compliant with AB556? Not if it excludes "military and veteran status"
There, I did your fact-checking for you. Here's the kicker: You paid me for work that helped one political party at the expense of the other. In other words, that sure sounds like a federal campaign finance violation.
Here is where I'm at: Matthew records one instance of Christ telling those who would follow him to turn the other cheek (5:39), but he proclaims "Woe to you hypocrites" seven times in chapter 23. I'll work with the most "deplorable" people if they're honest, but I don't work with hypocrites.
I want my work taken off your website. It damages my character to be associated with religiously motivated, partisan politics.
My community has been left out in the cold to die for long enough by political extremists, and I need them to know they can trust me. I wouldn't trust someone if I knew they'd applied a prophetic word to one campaign while protecting the other. I do not trust America Magazine, but trust is flexible.
If you want to level things out, then do the work you claimed you valued, Robert. Pursue the facts and report them. I won't be write for you, but you cannot claim to be ignorant anymore. That's the double edged sword of conscience, like a word, once discovered it can never be undiscovered. If the facts above are all that remain, then the IRS may have questions about how many other authors you turned down who had complicated things to say about the Democratic party and its nominees.
Atonement sucks when you're the one looking down on people, huh?
