By TJ Redden
Reader Contributor
I am absolutely heartbroken for Sandpoint. Our town is no longer even recognizable.
Once a peaceful place filled with kindness and neighborly care, where people minded their own business and we all could breathe free, is now a hate-mongering pit of vipers spewing judgment and exclusion, all the while claiming moral superiority.
Our schools and libraries, which are supposed to be places that enable people to increase their knowledge and gather information, are being censored in the same way Nazi Germany did prior to WWII. When somebody wants to control you, the first thing they do is to take away access to information.
I am heartbroken about the loss of wide open spaces, and about a place that cared about its people and land, but now the City Council ignores the citizens’ concerns and agents of the city are doing backflips to capitalize on their positions by permitting all kinds of development without any concern for the quality of life.
The whole thing is heart wrenching.
I’m heartbroken that I no longer feel comfortable going to the Festival at Sandpoint because someone might decide to un-alive the entire audience. Not to mention, the candidates promoting such a thing are seemingly oblivious to the two looming economic consequences of such a possibility: the first being the huge decrease of income for local businesses, and secondly another court proceeding paid for by tax dollars to both prosecute and defend the challenge-for a second time.
The first one costs Bonner County taxpayers approximately $70,000 just in damages to the city of Sandpoint, not including the time and money of the attorneys and departments used to press those charges from Bonner County. The total sum is not transparent; however, being a resident of both the county and the city, I had the privilege of paying for both. Now, they want to try again.
Oh, and the third consequence might be if someone does commit such a heinous act, that there could be thousands of lawsuits against our city.
Being that our population is the perfect demographic for such a tragedy, such action does not seem too far-fetched.
I am heartbroken that my faith has been hijacked by Pharisees — that so many promote their allegiance to “God, Guns and Family,” which confounds me as to why not the Constitution?
I also don’t recall guns mentioned in scripture, the words used for weapons in Hebrew does not translate to guns, it translates to swords and sabers, and perhaps a cannon. It certainly doesn’t call for anything short of forgiveness.
I am also confused whether the new Christian fundamentalists stand with Israel or are anti-semitic? From my understanding, Christ was Jew, and without his crucifixion there would be no salvation. You can’t have it both ways.
If you do stand with Israel, and claim to be a follower of Christ, how do you justify the genocide in Gaza? Or the expulsion of American citizens and foreigners? I imagine it’s the same way you justify taking away women’s health care, children’s education and our public lands: “because Jesus.” I believe Matthew 25 addresses that.
I was born and raised in church, and studied scripture at Whitworth. I know heresy and manipulation when I hear it. When someone cherry picks and jumps around trying to link their personal beliefs to Christ to justify their actions, I smell heterodoxy.
Somehow masculinity got confused with anger and femininity with subservience, and the call to make disciples as a free pass to threaten people you don’t know or care about.
I used to attend church regularly here in town, but haven’t in years. I know that there are still good clergy out there that preach the Greatest Commandment, but I recently attended a community meeting within a local church, whose leader took to the pulpit for more than 30 minutes to espouse that only he — and his congregants — knew the truth, and again cherry picked and jumped around to make scripture for his purpose. I would like to take this opportunity to remind him, and others, to take time to revisit James 3, and then flip to Matthew 7:15-23
So, you see, I am heartbroken that what once was a peaceful, loving community has been poisoned, and that a loving God has been transformed into a hateful angry God — a far cry from the savior I knew, who attracted disciples by applying abundant grace and loving kindness to be a living example of how we ought to treat each other.
If you feel the only way to change someones opinion is a gun; if you are preoccupied with your neighbor’s genitalia; obsessed over their marriage; speak ill of those you don’t understand or agree with; want to remove food, shelter and health care; and destroy creation, you are but a “clanging cymbal” (1 Corinthians 13).
I can tell you that if you know Christ in your heart, and have been changed by grace, that you know all these things are not what Jesus would do.
I’ve heard it said that, “You know when you’ve created God in your own image when he hates all the people you hate.”
I am heartbroken to watch Sandpoint lose what made it so special in the first place: kindness.
TJ Redden is a Sandpoint resident.
