Kings

[XLFD]

One week ago, we visited Rotary (City) Park when a demonstration/protest took place titled "No Kings 3" took place, we related our experience in an article, No Kings, at the local level.  It wasn't until this week that this reporter started to understand some of the perceived ambiguity of the assemblage that took place then. 

The uncertainty of the messaging is evident; you had some speakers and some signs that were well-measured and urging peaceful resolution or persistence.  But you also had too many speeches and signs advocating more aggressive actions and intentions towards our duly elected president and those who would support his various policies.  

While such fringe and cringe sentiments plastered the south end of Rotary Park last Saturday, the absence of a greater relevant message seemed to detract from any meaningful statement that would be lasting after they would vacate the park and reopen the street.  "No Kings 3" day in Ludington came and went with nothing other than some social interactions between like-minded friends and social media posts being the only lasting memory.

The following day began the Christian holy week, starting with Palm Sunday where the scriptures say Jesus Christ entered the town of Jerusalem about 2000 years ago on the back of a donkey, welcomed by crowds with palm branches.  “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” cried the masses according to Luke 19:37-40.  

Certainly, even though he would be claimed to be the King of the Jews over the next five days by friend and foe leading up to his execution on the cross, this noble fellow did not admit or aspire to any earthly realm and assuredly did not reside in any castle.  Instead, he humbly accepted his fate and has since become the most consequential 'king' in history, where entrance into his otherworldly kingdom is sought by billions across the planet.  

The connection between the scheduling of the national "No Kings" protests just before the most holy week in Christianity celebrating the King of Kings didn't fully hit home until yesterday's 11th annual "Cross walk" took place.  I stood precisely where demonstrators were just six days earlier when I took the shot above of the modest procession walking a wooden cross with the simple message "BELIEVE" written upon it as they progressed down Ludington Avenue. 

 

Every Good Friday since 2016 has had Ed Lombard sporting a crown of thorns walking with a wooden cross on his shoulder from the shore of Lake Michigan all the way to the Scottville's city limits.  He is joined by one to two dozen sojourners, many who get an opportunity to carry the cross for him, like Simon of Cyrene.  After taking the picture above, I joined the cavalcade and carried the burden of the cross a couple times for a good distance.  It's always a spiritual experience for me, and this year it helped make some connections and comparisons between two local 'demonstrations'.

The cross walk, emulating Jesus' suffering walk through Jerusalem bearing a cross on a back that had just been sorely whipped and scourged, had a small group walk around 8 miles over a period of roughly four hours, bearing one simple word on a wooden cross asking folks to keep the faith.  This demonstration had a simple goal to remind people of what sacrifice was made about 2000 years ago by the "King of Kings" and how the simple act of humbling oneself and believing may bring one a degree of peace in a chaotic world.  

The "No Kings" demonstration, much larger and more static, is for people to challenge what they believe is a dictatorship, a president who won the popular and electoral vote who is having a surprising rate of success in implementing the policies he ran on and won on.  An executive who regularly humbles himself before the object of his faith, as he very recently did:

So maybe the demonstrators have a point if we consider that Jesus is the "King of Kings" that "King" Donald regularly swears fealty to.  We now have an explanation of why they would call it a "No Kings" demonstration, rather than a singular "No King' one, because the protesters are not only denying the only person in America that they consider the "king", but also that king's self-professed king.  In the biblical book of Judges, it describes the days where the absence of a king in ancient Israel led to a cycle of moral relativism, social disorder, and idolatry, as "every man did what was right in his own eyes".

That's why one sees the aimlessness, puerility, faithlessness, fecklessness, hostility, and dishonesty in the choreographed protests that have become weekly reminders of our area's fringe and cringe marionettes adopting the programming that has become a part of the ideology that desires to topple all kings and disrupt order.  Even the king ruling over the kingdom of heaven.