“The Christ within who is our hope of glory is not a matter of theological debate or philosophical speculation. He is not a hobby, a part-time project, a good theme for a book, or a last resort when all human effort fails. He is our life, the most real fact about us. He is the power and wisdom of God dwelling within us” (Brennan Manning, Abba’s Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging).

Tonight, I had a semi-crazy notion. I wondered, “What would Brennan Manning say about all the political mess we’re in where we seem to grow more divided every single day?”

He might have a few strong words for a President who uses his office as a kind of bully pulpit to shame and mock those who disagree with him. He might bemoan the alm0st complete lack of compasion coming from the so-called religious right.

He also might have a few words for those whose motto was “Love trumps hate,” yet in turn mocks and jeers the current President and whose anger borders on hostility.

He’d say that Abba’s children should be a prophetic voice that cries from outside the political spectrum, whose message is that Jesus loves each and every one of us (even the Trumps of the world) as if we each were the only ones to love. He’d say that no one is beyong the reach of the grace of God.

I believe he’d say that kindness and compassion are way more fitting of a child of Abba than name-calling and fear-mongering. He’d remind us that our ultimate allegience is not to a political party, platform, or ideology, but to the person of Jesus. Not to a flag, a president, and a nation, but to a King and a Kingdom.

“Whenever I allow anything but tenderness and compassion to dictate my response to life–be it self-righteous anger, moralizing, defensiveness, the pressing need to change others…I am alienated from my true self. My identity as Abba’s child [a child of God] becomes ambiguous, tentative and confused” (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out).