My friends…
It seems that now, more than I can ever remember in my brief time on this planet, that we, as a nation, see vastly different things when we look at the same object. I believe that these differences are the product of our desires for reality, and not that which is ‘real’ outside of our own experience. This, of course, raises the question: “Does objective reality even exist, and if it does, is it relevant? Or is objective reality merely the whole collective of our individual realities?”
You can believe me when I say that objective, non-experiential reality does exist and it is quite relevant; especially when we each plow into it like a car into a brick wall. The wall, my friends, is accountability for our actions and the composition of this wall varies with the level of your personal power, wealth, and race as defined by the current set of imperial social norms.
Examples:
If you are ‘poor and powerless,’ then the wall is not only made of brick, but there will probably be long, sharp spikes mounted firmly to it and facing the direction from which you approach. You barrel toward this thing at a high rate of speed and, strangely enough, are thrown from the ’79 Mustang convertible by an ejector seat you had no idea existed mere moments before contact. You then either smash directly into the bricks, or are impaled on the spikes like an enemy of Vlad Tepič.
If you are white, then there are fewer spikes and your chances of surviving your contact with the wall increase…slightly. However, you will still be pretty messed up. If you are black or latino, there’s almost no hope of even reaching the bricks whole. The spikes are everywhere, and if you don’t hit the wall like an Olympic diver scoring a perfect 100, then it’s ‘spike city’ for you, and your rotting carcass will hang there as a warning to all who come after.
That is the ‘accountability wall’ for the poor and powerless. It may seem a grim representation of the world in which we live, but I must insist on its accuracy. I, and others who have witnessed the poor’s interactions with the state and its many bureaucratic tentacles, know this by experience. It is not something that is intellectualized, or formed in the philosophical nether-regions of our brains. We see it with our eyes, hear it with our ears, taste it on our tongues. We touch it with our hands and smell it with our noses. It is real.
But enough of that. Let us journey now to a happier, more enjoyable existence. If you are wealthy and powerful, then the accountability wall is actually a mountain of goose-down pillows. You barrel toward this thing at a high rate of speed and leap from the driver’s seat of your Jaguar convertible just before you hit the pillows screaming “Wheeeee!!!” You are then gently slowed to a halt by the pillows. If you are white, then there is little or no end to the pillows. If you are black…well…then you’re not in this paragraph, you’re in the next paragraph. (please skip the rest of this paragraph and begin the next). The wealthy white people lie there with smiles on their faces as a welcome to all who come after.
Unfortunately, even of you are a black American with lots of money, the pillows are actually bricks painted to look like a mountain of fluffy, welcoming fun. You better stay in the convertible and hope that the seat belt and the air bag save your life, because if you jump from the car, your “Wheeeee!” is going to end with your brains splattering out of your cranium in every direction onto the wall.
There are those who deny the reality of the images above. These are the cadres of the extreme political right whose political favorites now sit in the seats of power in this country. Their general reaction to the images I painted above are that I, like all ‘liberals’ as they call us, just seek to divide us with such images. This is ridiculous. You cannot blame the divisions of race and class in this country on those who point to that which already exists, but that is what they will do if they can.
I have stated before the quote of Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis [1856 – 1941]: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have our wealth concentrated into the hands of the very few, but we cannot have both.” This statement stands as a charge to each of us to seek the equitable distribution of wealth to which it refers. This equity of which Justice Brandeis speaks is not the equity generally associated with Karl Marx, but the equity desired by God.
God understands that on this earth there are only limited resources available and all of us must share these. So we must ask ourselves how we want this overall distribution of wealth to look. Do we, as followers of Jesus Chris want this to look like the oligarchies of the past and present; in which wealth and power are concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, and the ever growing masses of the poor are left to fight among themselves for what is left? Or do we want to see a world in which all people not only have an equitably shared access and right to the scarce resources of our Mother Earth, but also to the respect of each other, and to the right to worship the God of Love as their conscience dictates?
The former is an accurate portrait of the America we see today. The latter is a portrait of the the kingdom of heaven we hope to establish here on earth. That, after all, is the charge that Jesus gave us. When he instructed His disciples on how to pray and said to them, as part of this prayer; “Your kingdom come, and your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven…” He did not mean “Yeah, if you could take care of this and send Your kingdom here as we sit on our asses and grow fat and lazy on the wealth we can extract from the planet and each other, we would really appreciate that.”
Unfortunately, the majority of evangelical Christians in the American Empire have decided that the second statement is what Jesus really meant, and the rest of us would see this clearly if we would just read between the lines properly. I feel so stupid! How could I not see that Jesus was not really The Prince of Peace, but rather the Sultan of Mutual, Unfettered Exploitation!
However, now that I have seen the light, allow me, before I close, to give you a few examples of American Evangelical ‘Power Church’ interpretations of scripture (these are, after all, the products of extensive research):
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” does not mean that we are engage in the thoroughly exhaustive work of looking at those who claim to be our enemies and tell them aloud I/we love you, let us set aside that which separates us and be friends. It really means “Bomb the shit out of those the state determines are your enemies and shut the hell up about it.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” does not mean that we should assist all people we see in making peace not only between them and others, but within themselves as well. It really means “Are you kidding me? Okay, sure, make peace with fellow Christians, but those God-damned Muslims gotta go. This is a war for our very survival!”
“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” does not mean that the desires of my life are always secondary to your will. It really means “let your will be done…so long as it isn’t too inconvenient, doesn’t cut into defense spending, and definitely doesn’t cause me any physical discomfort. Seriously.”
Folks, our world quickly approaches a crossroads and a point of decision. On one side stands Jesus; calling us to follow Him and his commands to love each other regardless of all worldly concerns. On the other side stands the red brick and white steeple church which defiles His name; calling us to obey authority, accept war, greed, hatred, judgment, self-righteousness, and to embrace all of the other evils of this world.
I suggest that you go with Jesus, and to help you, I have one piece of advice in the overwhelming bit of weirdness that this post has become. Rid yourself of your bible, your ‘religion,’ and go somewhere alone; not once, but many times. Once you’re there, have a conversation with God. Start to know Him in a secret friendship that is just between the two of you. This, my friends, is what Jesus meant for prayer to be. This, my friends, is the relationship God wants to have with each of us.
Over time, I am certain you will find that His great love is not only never-ending, but that His love for you is His greatest joy. You will also discover that His greatest sorrow is that much if not most of what humankind’s holy books contain is complete bullshit. It is bullshit that has pulled us away from Him for the sake of worldly power; nestled comfortably in the hands of the very few, most of whom are rolling down off of their mountain of fluffy, welcoming fun.
Peace and Love to all,
Niemand