Written by Bishop Andrew Gentry   

Beloved Friends,

Most everyone Christian or not, believer or not, is acquainted with the amount of money the religious establishment of the time paid Judas to betray Jesus. It was the grand total of 30 Pieces of Silver which was a considerable amount for the time and would not be insignificant today for that matter. It is not of course the value of the silver that is important but rather what the silver meant. The meaning as everyone knows was betrayal. Judas even went so far as to attempt to justify his actions by "donating the silver to the Temple Treasury for the relief of the poor"! Poets and philosophers, theologians and psychologists, have written copious volumes on the bitter taste and often damning effect of betrayal. Betrayal by persons whose friendship you thought you had or by a person whose love you thought was true and faithful is perhaps the most bitter betrayal of all!

I have had the sad occasion to witness the effects of betrayal on people. I knew a person whose integrity and sincerity was above reproach. His commitment to the welfare of others especially the poor and the powerless was well known and fully documented. But sadly for him he had one great "weakness" which was that he trusted his friends and his employees to a fault. Because of this unfortunate and misplaced trust an organization that he headed was betrayed most bitterly and selfishly, as was he and others who depended upon the organization for a livelihood. This good and decent man when he learned of the betrayal accepted the responsibility for his failure to exercise oversight and resigned his position. He was thoroughly exonerated in a subsequent investigation by the appropriate legal authority. But this was not to be the end of it for him. People he had known and whom he considered "good people" and more to this whom he considered his friends would not be satisfied with his loss of his job or the mark upon his record of public service. No instead one individual who gleefully sought his head like the leader of a wolf pack decided that she would embark on a campaign to make him suffer as much as she could. Not because she or for that matter the majority of the others who were in that herd of mercenary inspired Judases were angry at the supposed loss of availability to the poor and ill housed but because they ultimately shared in lack of oversight and ultimately in the indebtedness that this inaction occurred and accrued. She cared more for her reputation that she thought she had amongst the local elites than she did for the poor and or oppressed. This was a person that my friend had helped on several occasions including but not limited to being a shoulder to cry on when her own family had excommunicated her from their fellowship. But there was one of my friend's association who because of his timidity and indeed silence in the face of such character assignation despite over 30 years of knowing my friend allowed the witch hunt to go forward. He though Catholics had apparently forgotten that the great English jurist St. Thomas Moore once remarked that the maximum of the law is "silence gives consent"! Yet another so called friend even encouraged this pack of wolves to go after my friend's home and any assets that he had, again not for justice, but because of guilt ridden irresponsibility on his part and that of his fellow conspirators. They did not even make the appearance of wanting to donate to their version of the "Temple Treasury"!

What these disciples of Judas did not realize was that my friend had discharged his responsibility by the exoneration given to him by the appropriate legal entities and rage though they might he was was also discharged of the debt that unbeknownst to him had been incurred. Add to this that the very articles of incorporation of his now former employer specifically relieved him of any responsibility.

But they would not relent for they smelled blood and blood was what they wanted. What followed was a very public trial, countersuits, enormously bad press and the exposure of the intent behind their campaign as well as their own culpability in all matters related to the sad events that had taken place. In the end they lost and my friend again was exonerated. Their organization disbanded and they were left to relieve the indebtedness any way they could. What it ended up costing them was far greater than their 30 Pieces of Silver but I have often wondered if they understood that or if they ever accepted their own responsibility!

It has been many years since this happened and for each of the participants a toll was exacted but it was the poor and the defenseless that suffered the most. Eventually young folke who cared about justice and human rights did organize and thus provided the services sorely lacking and in a ironic twist of fate my friend was asked to be a consultant.

Betrayal at what price??????

Peace
Bishop Andrew Gentry
The Church of All Saints and Sorts
A Congregational Catholic Church and an Intentional Eucharistic Community