Abomination

In the book The Gospel of Mark, Amy-Jill Levine talks about Mark 13, the Little Apocalypse. 

Verse 14 says, "“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains;"

What is the "desolating sacrilege?"  No one really knows, but it does invite us to speculate on what would be a desolating sacrilege to us.  Levine talks about attending the Oberammergau Passion Play with friends who were involved in translating the into German the Jewish Annotated New Testament.  While on intermission, they went to a nearby Protestant church where they saw "a stained-glass window depicting the 'mockery of Jesus' with stereotypical demonic images of Jews."  She and - and even more so - her German friends were horrified. There are efforts at work to remove the window or place a notice of apology with it.

She asks the important question: "When we see an abomination, what do we do with it?"

In December, 2021, the statue of John C. Calhoun was removed from downtown Charleston, South Carolina.  He had been a statesmen and the vice president of the United States, but he was a staunch defender of slavery. Ironically, they can't find a place to display the statue, even four years later.  All plans of sending it somewhere else have been refused by the recipients.

A neighbor of ours flies both a United States flag and a Confederate battle flag. What do we do about it? I understand that he has the right to fly whatever flag he chooses in his own yard, but I can hope that he would come to see what an abomination it is. It saddens me; it infuriates me. His house is at the top of our entry way hill, so it is what greets visits when they enter the subdivision; it is what our neighbors of color see when they drive home.

When we see an abomination, what do we do with it?