I’ll Never Be a Saint, or The Tale of the Broken Bodhisattva

Thursday, February 20, 2025

One thing I struggle with in the progressive liberal religious world is an over-extended idea of love.

This might sound strange, especially as a key cornerstone of my theology is that God must be good, the most good, and anything that portrays God otherwise is wrong.

I’ve been watching Soul Boom, the podcast by actor Rainn Wilson. He has a lot of interesting people on, and a few problematic ones. He seems to have a genuinely good heart but sometimes he and his guests (thinking now of Anne Lamott) embrace the notion that God’s love is so expansive that God loves MTG as much as God loves Rainn Wilson. Invariably the pains of parenting and loving children who struggle with difficult situations like addiction come up.

The missing piece in my opinion is that there’s a big difference between loving your kid who struggles with addiction, or makes mistakes, or is disorganized and messy…and loving someone who is engaging in intentional harm.

I’ve challenged students on this—“We must be loving and caring for all people.” Ok, is there a limit? A line? The child molesting Nazi, are you going to hug him and get warm fuzzies?

I am particularly aware of this now that the United States is being dismantled from inside, by a Boer, a Bolshevik and a Bastard. Sometimes our actions are problematic. Sometimes we embody those actions or the rather we remake our inherent self into a monstrous one intentionally. I think it’s dangerously stupid to uncritically bestow a loving nature on all people. It’s unpopular but the truth is, some people are evil. They have chosen to transform themselves into evil. Hitler is not loveable. I don’t know how God feels about him, but I don’t think it’s appropriate for us to presume that we can imagine a love that embraces Hitler.

I often tell others that the best I can do with certain people is not to harm them. This is a short list, given the billions of people who live on earth. There’s a store a few minutes from my house that is dedicated to the cult of The Felon. I cannot understand why. Do I love the people behind this store? No. Do I interfere with them at all? Also no. That’s the best I can do.