lingering betrayals.

and the remnants of good friday

A few weeks ago, I asked the question (and still ask):

Why is there a fear of betrayal to a church that does not truly have any commitment to you?

Betrayal implies some sort of a previously established connection. That there’s been agreements made beforehand between the two (or more) parties on how to show up in space and place together. And, I’m thinking about how betrayal is an almost uncomfortable word to use here, too, because it doesn’t quite fit. To say that the Church (or Adventist Church in particular) has betrayed the member assumes that there was a high level of concern and commitment from those entities on how they show up, or provide, or care, or love, or coexist, or tend to those in connection — and some can say there hasn’t been.

The question of “why is there a fear of betrayal to a church that does not truly have any commitment to you?” has been weighing on my mind this week when thinking about the increasing visibility of Black women’s refusal to “take the higher road,” play into respectability politics, rush into forgiveness when whiteness and disrespect show its head, or being a humble servant of God, and also that we’re in the midst of Holy Week, especially as this is sent to you on Good Friday.