FINDING RADICAL LOVE Dec. 9, 2013
To me, the Gospel, the "Good News," is all about revealing the eternal freedom (past, present, future) that has ALWAYS been our (everyone and everything). We simply are afforded the HONOR chosenness) of helping others to become aware of it all. We "do" because we "are" eternally free! It's the meaning behind "resurrection," which is the power behind "the cross," which ALL are invited to take up, in whatever LITERAL sense Jesus sees fit for "the cross" to be. For some of us, at least, "the cross" means LITERAL, earthly death, for exposing the illegitimacy of the "idolatry" of " institutional religion" and of ALL that is "empire" (nationalism, statism, kings, presidents, congresses, treasuries, police, etc.). So, I remain excited and eager to experience all of the Joy of Jesus, who loved us mere humans enough to become one of us, in order to show us, in "real time," the way home.
Lately, I have been thinking about, and pondering, my "UNCONFORMITY."
Ched Myers, in BINDING THE STRONG MAN, spoke best what my heart and brain embrace: "The way of nonviolence, as Gandhi said, will not prevail on account of words or argument, 'it shall be proved by persons living ii in their lives with utter disregard for the consequences to themselves.' "
Some HARD demographics have been floating through my total being, of late: 80% of ALL Americans (by survey) profess to trusting in a "loving" God, 80% of ALL Americans (by survey) profess to trusting in a "loving" God, 80% of ALL Americans (by survey) believe in the NECESSITY of a "strong" military, 50% of ALL Americans are considered to be poor (by their government), and 16% (1 in 6) of ALL Americans (including 50% of ALL Native American children) go to bed hungry…EVERY DAY!
I find something tragically amiss in the image presented by these figures. How is one to suppose that the society of which "everyone," or so we are told, desires to be a part, is so schizophrenically paranoid that it is willing to blindly allow its leaders to expend 70% of ALL Federal Revenues on a "strong" military, when its supposed "loving" God is so close at hand? Maybe AMerica's god, like AMerica's so-called god-trusters, doesn't genuinely know how to effectively deal with Love, Power, Justice, Poverty and Starving Children et al.
Thanksgiving day, here in Hell, began with a lull in our otherwise escalating violence. Recently, an inmate fight left a guard injured, which raised the stakes quite dramatically. Add a face slashing and the morning was ripe for an inmate stabbing on my block, for which we received a complimentary lockdown. At dinnertime, our warders were quite cautious, choosing to release our block in small numbers. This was in no small way aided by the greatly pacifying effect of a better-than-average meal, which replaces our norman, pathetically poor fare on 3-4 occasions, yearly. The calming effect was fairly short lived. The following day ended with a fight on our block and with yet another complimentary lockdown.
My fellow inmates have not ceased to drone on about the "black" inmate who stabbed another. Feigning ignorance, they just can't seem to understand why the blacks tend to be so ready to act out their anger in such open manners. When quite a number of my peers asked me for my take on the matter, I responded with demographics: Around 12% of the total U.S. population is African AMerican. African Americans commit less than 12% of ALL U.S. crime yet fill in excess of 38% of ALL U.S. jail and prison beds. Dumbfoundedly, my peers responded with absolute profundity, "You're so naive," then walked away to bitch and moan to someone willing to join in with their "make me feel good" insanity.
Last week, my friend Eileen, lit a candle for me and for all who are precious to me (which is EVERYONE), near the ancient temple wall in Jerusalem, Israel. It was a visual prayer for PEACE. As I shared word of this act of Love with others, the response was most favorable, until it was remembered that Eileen was the friend who was openly critical of Israel's secretive nuclear weapons program, of U.S. complicity, and of Israel's cruelties toward nuclear whistleblower Mordicai Vanunu. The discussion rapidly digressed to BIG BAD IRAN and how they simply needed to bee NUKED. I excused myself, so as not to diminish the act of Love by al prized friend.
Some of the prison's church folks recently came to me, asking that I cease my associations with Jews; which was an expansion of their previous lists; which included sex offenders, rapists, blacks and Muslims. With blood boiling, I informed them that I would no longer be talking with them.
Another friend, Berry, recently sent an article, in which Author Ian Welsh's premise was: "For some time my base scenario has been as follows: We are so screwed." Quite compassionately and masterfully, the author proceeded to voice his urgent concerns regarding our allowed pillage and desecration of all that supports life on our fragile planet and in our fiscal, industrial, military and political institutions. He asked tough questions and offered keen insights, such as those by Wendell Berry: "We Americans are not usually thought to be a submissive people, but of course we are. Why else would we allow our country to be destroyed? Why else would we be rewarding its destroyers? Why else would we--by proxies we have given to greedy corporations and corrupt politicians--be participating in its destruction? Most of us are still too sane to piss in our own cistern, but we allow others to do so and reward them for it. We reward them so well, in fact, that those who piss in our cisterns are wealthier than the rest of us. How do we submit? By not being RADICAL enough. Or by not being THOROUGH enough, which is the same thing!"
I've been pondering what it would mean for me to become RADICAL; THOROUGH. American church and state have long been partners in advocating, perpetrating and perpetuating the brutalization of humanity and the desecration of our planet. To draw a line in the sand, between myself and the originators of such execrable malignity, seems to me to be simply normal and restorative.
My nearly 61 years have borne witness, as my so-called "Christian" society advocated "turning the head," while my black neighbors were brutalized, burned and hanged; while women and children were belittled, mistreated and molested; while injustice and abject poverty were heaped on the backs of minorities and on those already poor; while war-making was celebrated as our DUTY to God. Though our mainstream media and political pundits aid us in keeping our heads in the sand, today our situation is so dire that our children and grandchildren are 100% GUARANTEED to bear the consequences of our abominations. They ARE going to die and it is WE who have MURDERED them…SIGH!
I'm no longer a citizen of the United States of America. I have renounced America's so-called "Christian" religion. I'm nonviolently at war with, and in prison for saying my simple "NO" to our society's EXTREME love of Violence, Racism, Bigotry and Poverty-production. This is my NORMAL!
I'm madly in love with our Creator and with ALL women, children and men; boundlessly and indiscriminately. I'm going to allow my love to become RADICAL; THOROUGH enough to make a change in my little corner of our world that, for years, I was helping to destroy!
