by Irene Daniel
For the past few weeks we have witnessed the consequences of our American choices, and now must come face to face with the human beings who are suffering from an international crisis of our own making. The drug consumption in the United States drives the greater and greater demand for them. Since most of them come from South America, it is necessary to traffic these drugs through Central America and Mexico; creating a culture of violence that none can escape, except to just leave.
As if that weren't bad enough, what we give back in exchange is the fresh hell of guns and gangs that we export to them, empowering the violence that naturally flows therefrom. These children were strong enough to survive, not only their war-torn homeland, but the treacherous journey to the US border. When I see the throngs of "patriots" and "Christians" surrounding buses full of these incredibly brave children, I wonder how many of them could have overcome any one of the many challenges these young refugees have endured. I would bet exactly zero on the air-conditioned Americans to make it through a hell like that.
And then to be greeted by American flags, angry white faces and signs saying, "JESUS WOULD OBEY THE LAW!"
They're kidding, right? Jesus was murdered because he was a trouble-maker, a rabble-rouser of the highest order. Jesus made it his mission to disrupt the inequity and brutality of the status quo of his times, which served only to empower the powerful and enrich those already unjustly enriched.
The Son of Man went about his mission in various ways: preaching justice, peace and love to those on the margins of society, empowering them Spiritually; healing the sick on the Sabbath at no cost; encouraging youth and lavishing his love on children; as well as empowering women, even menstruating and "fallen" women, which was very taboo at the time.
And one day, he became so angry at the money-changers in the temple, exploiting the impoverished in the name of God, that he took a bull-whip to them all, overturning their tables full of money; and generally causing a huge ruckus. This act directly challenged and threatened the rules of the game, as set by the very Pharisees who, like their self-righteous counterparts today, didn't want the convenience of their Darwinian status quo upended.
Jesus specifically disobeyed the law of his time and his people by healing the sick on the Sabbath. When reprimanded by the Pharisees, he retorted by holding up a mirror to their hypocrisy for being more concerned with obedience to arbitrary rules, than with the suffering of human beings right before them. His shocking display of violence at the temple was definitely not in keeping with the moral conduct expected of him in Jerusalem at that time.
Jesus realized how the elite and powerful use rules and boundaries and tradition to exploit those without power and without means. So, how did the Jesus of the Sermon on the Mount become a compassionless observer of rules? When did the famous challenger of the Pharisees, become that which he abhorred?
The true message of Jesus, as well as with any religion, is to love one another, and to recognize the soul of the stranger, the heart of the homeless beggar, and to preserve the innocence of our children. To be a disciple of the Son of Man is to surrender one's very soul to the power of love and acceptance of everyone and, especially, to see past our differences to the oneness of our humanity.
Oneness. Humanity. What is it about these words that the, so called Christian right can't seem to understand? It seems that they believe that God, with Jesus at his right hand, created the USA just for stingy white people, and no one else.
How Christian is that? How American is that?
Those angry "Christian" "Americans" shouting at children, telling them that they are "less than" don't deserve to call themselves either.
The least we could do is provide them refuge from the hell we created for them. It's the very least we should do.
Irene Daniel Copyright 2014 All rights reserved.
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