We have to get over this idea of being conciliatory. Of having the proper tone. Of not wanting to make people uncomfortable. What if tearing down the empire, calling out the bad intentions of our ancestors and disrupting the friendly comfort of our local church is the whole point? The social order is what is broken. The social order is what Jesus came to upend. And the social order is bigger than any one of us. If we are trying to be empathetic to the oppressors then it makes sense that we’d need to be understanding of empire, and of course our institutions of church will need to line up to that understanding. But I’m pretty sure that’s not what Jesus came for.