So many have a view of Jesus as a NICE MAN who just loved everybody.
Jesus did love - taught, commanded and modeled AGAPE Love - active commitment on behalf of the other, even enemy and stranger (Luke 10:25-37). That love does not always allow being nice. It DOES mean standing with and advocating "the least", the most vulnerable and those that society (and church) has judged, disenfranchised and marginalized. The gloves come off for that sometimes.
Jesus dispelled any thoughts of a prophet of God being like a "reed shaken by the wind", and He was just speaking about John, the one sent to usher in the Great Prophet, Jesus (Luke 7:24-35). Jesus then went on to compare that generation of God's people as spoiled, entitled brats who want what they want, and want the Prophets of God to give them what THEY want. That ain't happenin'. It wasn't then, and isn't now.
Jesus, the Prophet, lamented over the city of God, because they rejected His Good News and refused to embrace the Kingdom Values God wanted them to live (Matthew 23:37-39). This touching, tender and tragic sharing is the lament of a Prophet who came and gave, even embodied the message of God in New Covenant, but who was rejected and about to be killed like so many prophets before Him. The tragedy, though was not for Him, but rather for what it meant for them. Walking away from God's Good News, from God brings destruction of self. The corruption of the powerful and wealthy who refused to learn about Agape Love sharing in Radical Community, permeated the whole society, and the message of Jesus fell on deaf ears, even hostile ones. It would mean their own destruction, just as ignoring, rejecting or killing the prophets of old meant.
Jesus, the Prophet did not mince words. He warned of false prophets who would come with slick words and seeming innocence, but who would bear much different fruit. He warned His followers to discern the prophets by the FRUITS they bear (Matthew 7:15-19).
Jesus, the Prophet warned about future false prophets, too, who could do signs and wonders but who were none-the-less false because they did not tell the Truth of God. They lead astray because they lead away from Jesus' Good News of Humility, Self-Sacrifice, commitment to the other and acceptance of all people. They lead astray because they convince people that this faith is just about Worship, Praise and Tithes in order to get personal favor and blessings, when they have a Gospel of Jesus that teaches that this faith is about living Agape Love with "the least", the outcast, and even stranger and enemy (Mark 13:202-7).
Jesus, the Prophet warns of Religious Leaders who like to dress up in finery, take places of honor and make it all about power, position and wealth. These are the ones who fleece their flocks. They use pleasing language and appear to be pious, but theiy devour the most vulnerable for their own gain. Jesus declares as the Prophet of God that they will receive the greater condemnation (Luke 20:45-47).
Jesus, the Prophet warned the rich, the satisfied, the smugly happy and the well respected (Luke 6:24-26). Jesus the Prophet taught the karma of God's Kingdom regarding Judging and refusing to forgive, saying that what we give is what we will get (Luke 6:37,38). Jesus, the Prophet warned about bearing no fruit and bad fruit, pointing out the hypocrisy of giving outward signs of devotion and allegiance without actually following the Lord (Luke 6:43-49).
Jesus, the Prophet spoke WOE to the religious leaders (and their followers) who tithe but neglect doing what His Good News demands in justice and Agape Love, for always promoting their own position, saying that they look good on the outside but are DEAD inside to God (Luke 11:42-44).
Jesus, the Prophet spoke WOE to those who manipulate the law of God to benefit themselves and hurt others in a false authority, giving up true knowledge and keeping it from others, thus keeping them from knowing and living His Good News (Luke 11:45-52).
Jesus, the Prophet taught parables about The Rich Fool (Luke 12), the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16), the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20) and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) to teach Kingdom Values to be lived in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now.
Jesus, the Prophet taught the rich young man what it takes for the wealthy to be right with God, and what God values (Mark 10), and taught how the wealthy can repent of their hubris and value for wealth over people (Luke 19).
Jesus, the Prophet addressed the world with Kingdom Values in His Good News. He taught, commanded and modeled Agape Love as a WAY OF LIFE WITH GOD. Jesus did not sugar coat anything. Jesus showed great compassion and kindness with those who were marginalized, disenfranchised, exploited and abused by the powerful and wealthy. Jesus addressed the ones who created the plight of "the least of these", out of love for them and a desire that they repent - change their thinking and direction - so that they could turn and walk with God. Jesus, the Prophet told the Truth of God to God's people, and what it would take for them to live according to God's Will. That is what a Prophet does. Jesus, the Prophet was ignored, rejected and killed. That is what people do who want to live outward appearance, form and false piety without truly living what God wants, people who want salvation and other perks of claiming the name, without living the sacrifice taught, commanded and modeled by Jesus on behalf of "the other", which is Agape Love. Jesus shared HIS vision of the last day, when He would return. It was clear. There are a lot of folk who think that they are sheep (even prophesying, wonder working, demon casting sheep - Matthew 7:21-23) who will find that they are goats at the judgment because Jesus, the Prophet makes it all about how we live Agape Love with each other (feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick and imprisoned and welcome the resident alien in our land), and many church leaders, politicians and others in our nation have made it about power, wealth and personal favor and blessings.
Jesus is a Prophet - indeed, the Great Prophet.
God, while looking upon Moses and Elijah, the Law and Prophets, told the disciples of Jesus, "This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to HIM!". He is the voice of God. You can want Him as Savior, but you must also then receive Him as Lord of your life. And if you do, then you must hear Jesus say to you, "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', and do not do what I tell you?" (Luke 6:46).
I love Jesus. I love His gift of Redemption and Salvation. I love His Grace. I love His Agape Love and the Good News of what it means to LIVE THAT in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now. I love Jesus, the Prophet. My whole life is about living what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled as faithful living with God. It is that simple. It is that hard.
Pastor Jamie
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Monday, September 19, 2016
The Kaufy Scale of human interaction
Yes, I have my own scale,
regarding openness to others who are different from self...
It is a scale that may reflect prejudice, even bigotry
It may reflect the desire of folk for homogeneity
It may reflect one's xenophobia, sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, etc., etc.
You see, I have always been in the "majority" (of power) culture,
not by choice, and as I grew, not with any delight regarding that status,
because I saw the inequities and how it affected people I cared for, people I loved...
So, I learned. I soaked in the data with those in the "majority" culture AND those who I loved
who were not in it.
I learned about love and hatred, and apathy.
You see, the opposite of love is not hatred, but apathy. It is JUST NOT CARING.
Love and hatred are passions. Apathy is chosen absence of feeling, attitude, action, presence.
Those in the "majority" culture have never had to understand or empathize with those who are not in it. It is the "privilege" of being in the "majority" culture. People not in that majority of power, MUST understand well those who are in it in order to get along in life, but those in the "majority" culture are the ones to whom others must conform. Assimilation to the "majority (of power) culture" has always to some degree meant survival for those not in it. That has always troubled me. Inequity and inequality are falsehoods manufactured and forced upon some by others, with created "reasons" of "superiority" or "inferiority" to justify the ruthlessness of some over others.
The truth is that some will always be bigoted and discriminatory based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any number of other differences. We always seem to focus on our differences and assign "better than" or "not as good as" values to them. Until we are accused of prejudice, at which time some folk try to claim they are "colorblind".
"Colorblind" means a person is among the privileged who through their entitlement falsely assigned can ignore the wonderful qualities of others not the same as themselves, and render much of who they are and what they value invisible, rather than acknowledge it with value. It is APATHY - the opposite of LOVE.
So, my scale...
reflects human development (or a lack thereof) within individuals and groups of people...
Keep in mind that there are continuums of degree within each "stage" of development...
CELEBRATION (seeing the good in others' differences from self, and embracing them... even seeking to be with others who are different from self by choice, in delight)
ACCEPTANCE (understanding differences are ok, accepting others for who they are, interacting well with others who are different in most settings, though not always in diverse settings by choice)
TOLERANCE (will acknowledge and tolerate those different in degrees of civility - though still some false belief of one's superiority and the other's inferiority- note that this is often the stage of "blind spots" of bigotry, where systemic and institutionalized bigotry are allowed to live, and often the stage in which folk will claim one "token" friend or acquaintance in order to claim full acceptance of others who are different)
INTOLERANCE (learned prejudice, bigotry, with power it leads to discrimination, saying or
doing hurtful things by choice to others because one falsely believes they are "superior" or "right" compared to the other)
APATHY (not caring, because one is removed from people who are different, it is a non-issue
because one is so removed from ANYONE different from self, no emotional investment)
*some may argue this is better than intolerance, but not from a human development
standpoint...
It is through exposure, interaction and face to face encounter that we learn to accept and even celebrate others. Arrested human development regarding social interaction is CHOSEN and TAUGHT. It is unconscionable and immoral, and it damages one's soul because it hurts others. One cannot be right with God if one actively or passively hurts others.
That is my scale. Those are my opinions. As always, this and $3 will get you a cup at Starbucks.
Pastor Jamie
regarding openness to others who are different from self...
It is a scale that may reflect prejudice, even bigotry
It may reflect the desire of folk for homogeneity
It may reflect one's xenophobia, sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, etc., etc.
You see, I have always been in the "majority" (of power) culture,
not by choice, and as I grew, not with any delight regarding that status,
because I saw the inequities and how it affected people I cared for, people I loved...
So, I learned. I soaked in the data with those in the "majority" culture AND those who I loved
who were not in it.
I learned about love and hatred, and apathy.
You see, the opposite of love is not hatred, but apathy. It is JUST NOT CARING.
Love and hatred are passions. Apathy is chosen absence of feeling, attitude, action, presence.
Those in the "majority" culture have never had to understand or empathize with those who are not in it. It is the "privilege" of being in the "majority" culture. People not in that majority of power, MUST understand well those who are in it in order to get along in life, but those in the "majority" culture are the ones to whom others must conform. Assimilation to the "majority (of power) culture" has always to some degree meant survival for those not in it. That has always troubled me. Inequity and inequality are falsehoods manufactured and forced upon some by others, with created "reasons" of "superiority" or "inferiority" to justify the ruthlessness of some over others.
The truth is that some will always be bigoted and discriminatory based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation or any number of other differences. We always seem to focus on our differences and assign "better than" or "not as good as" values to them. Until we are accused of prejudice, at which time some folk try to claim they are "colorblind".
"Colorblind" means a person is among the privileged who through their entitlement falsely assigned can ignore the wonderful qualities of others not the same as themselves, and render much of who they are and what they value invisible, rather than acknowledge it with value. It is APATHY - the opposite of LOVE.
So, my scale...
reflects human development (or a lack thereof) within individuals and groups of people...
Keep in mind that there are continuums of degree within each "stage" of development...
CELEBRATION (seeing the good in others' differences from self, and embracing them... even seeking to be with others who are different from self by choice, in delight)
ACCEPTANCE (understanding differences are ok, accepting others for who they are, interacting well with others who are different in most settings, though not always in diverse settings by choice)
TOLERANCE (will acknowledge and tolerate those different in degrees of civility - though still some false belief of one's superiority and the other's inferiority- note that this is often the stage of "blind spots" of bigotry, where systemic and institutionalized bigotry are allowed to live, and often the stage in which folk will claim one "token" friend or acquaintance in order to claim full acceptance of others who are different)
INTOLERANCE (learned prejudice, bigotry, with power it leads to discrimination, saying or
doing hurtful things by choice to others because one falsely believes they are "superior" or "right" compared to the other)
APATHY (not caring, because one is removed from people who are different, it is a non-issue
because one is so removed from ANYONE different from self, no emotional investment)
*some may argue this is better than intolerance, but not from a human development
standpoint...
It is through exposure, interaction and face to face encounter that we learn to accept and even celebrate others. Arrested human development regarding social interaction is CHOSEN and TAUGHT. It is unconscionable and immoral, and it damages one's soul because it hurts others. One cannot be right with God if one actively or passively hurts others.
That is my scale. Those are my opinions. As always, this and $3 will get you a cup at Starbucks.
Pastor Jamie
Sunday, September 11, 2016
The Prophet - Amos
Amos was not a professional Prophet. He wanted folk to know that. He saw how the professional Prophets used their position for self gain at the expense of the truth of God - the role of the prophet. You see, telling the future is NOT the role of the Prophet of God (Nabi). That is a "seer". A Prophet tells what God's will is and what the benefits are of following God's will and what the consequences are for not following the will of God.
Amos offered angry words because God was angry.
Amos offered a warning to ALL the nations around Israel and Judah, including God's people in that kingdom, because God is the God of ALL nations and peoples, and God expected them ALL to act differently than they were in the world - THIS PART of God's Kingdom. God warned the nations through Amos, and the threat of Assyria was looming to be the hand of God in teaching the nations, including God's chosen and delivered people, the consequences of mistreating each other.
It was a time of relative prosperity, peace and military might with Israel and Judah. The people were gaining in affluence and quite content. But how they got that and what they did with it were not pleasing to God. Amos had been kicked out of the royal sanctuary at Bethel because of his conflict with the priest Amaziah and others who did not tell what God wanted, but rather taught that prosperity and strength was a sign of God's favor.
He was forced to give a harsh word in a pleasant climate to people who had benefitted from corruption and had gotten their power and wealth on the backs of other nations and those within their own nation (the real reason for their prosperity and power). They were ruthless and oppressive toward others, and that did not please God.
And so, he started with oracles against Israel's neighbors and addressed their abuses of other nations around them.
Then he turned on Israel for her sins of exploitation and injustice with her own people.
Finally, he shared God's vision of coming doom as a consequence of God's people not living within the Law God provided for them - to love God and love Neighbor as self.
It was for their greed and lust for power that Israel and Judah were to pay the price.
Amos did not mince words, even called them derogatory names - Cows of Bashan - and quite clearly laid out what God was displeased about -
their exploitation and oppression of the poor and keeping them down for their own benefit (4:1-3)
personal gain on the backs of the poor, ignoring the needs of the poor they exploited (5:10-13)
daring to worship and sacrifice as if they could be pleasing to God, while doing injustice
(5:21-27)
those with opulent wealth who live lives of luxury while others in the nation suffer (6:4-7)
those who set the system to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor, in an attempt to
"own" them, and cheating those who have no power for personal again (8:4-7)
Things would change. They would be conquered, all of them and sent into exile, which meant that they would lose everything. The nation had collectively sinned. The priests, the false prophets, the king, the wealthy who controlled the wealth and power had all hurt those most vulnerable, and they would have to pay the price for it.
We can believe that we are the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, and that because of our "exceptionalism" we are entitled to gain more off the backs of other nations and those who live within our own nation. We can be the most ruthless in the world, but claim to be "Christian" and therefore that we are blessed because of our worship and praise. We can mistreat the most vulnerable here and abroad for our own gain. If we do, we are NOT living what God wills.
How we treat others is ALL about our relationship with God. Our worship and praise, even tithes (sacrifices) are meaningless if we ignore the needs of the most vulnerable or exploit others for our own gain at their expense. God is the God of ALL nations and peoples. God will use as God's right hand, whatever and whomever GOD chooses to bring the people of God into the Love of God and Neighbor that God wills. It is not about purity and holiness, worship, praise or tithes. It is clearly about how we treat others who God loves.
Read Amos. Look at our nation and its practices through military might and economic influence. This is America's Prophet, here and now.
Pastor Jamie
next week: The Prophet - Jesus
Amos offered angry words because God was angry.
Amos offered a warning to ALL the nations around Israel and Judah, including God's people in that kingdom, because God is the God of ALL nations and peoples, and God expected them ALL to act differently than they were in the world - THIS PART of God's Kingdom. God warned the nations through Amos, and the threat of Assyria was looming to be the hand of God in teaching the nations, including God's chosen and delivered people, the consequences of mistreating each other.
It was a time of relative prosperity, peace and military might with Israel and Judah. The people were gaining in affluence and quite content. But how they got that and what they did with it were not pleasing to God. Amos had been kicked out of the royal sanctuary at Bethel because of his conflict with the priest Amaziah and others who did not tell what God wanted, but rather taught that prosperity and strength was a sign of God's favor.
He was forced to give a harsh word in a pleasant climate to people who had benefitted from corruption and had gotten their power and wealth on the backs of other nations and those within their own nation (the real reason for their prosperity and power). They were ruthless and oppressive toward others, and that did not please God.
And so, he started with oracles against Israel's neighbors and addressed their abuses of other nations around them.
Then he turned on Israel for her sins of exploitation and injustice with her own people.
Finally, he shared God's vision of coming doom as a consequence of God's people not living within the Law God provided for them - to love God and love Neighbor as self.
It was for their greed and lust for power that Israel and Judah were to pay the price.
Amos did not mince words, even called them derogatory names - Cows of Bashan - and quite clearly laid out what God was displeased about -
their exploitation and oppression of the poor and keeping them down for their own benefit (4:1-3)
personal gain on the backs of the poor, ignoring the needs of the poor they exploited (5:10-13)
daring to worship and sacrifice as if they could be pleasing to God, while doing injustice
(5:21-27)
those with opulent wealth who live lives of luxury while others in the nation suffer (6:4-7)
those who set the system to benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor, in an attempt to
"own" them, and cheating those who have no power for personal again (8:4-7)
Things would change. They would be conquered, all of them and sent into exile, which meant that they would lose everything. The nation had collectively sinned. The priests, the false prophets, the king, the wealthy who controlled the wealth and power had all hurt those most vulnerable, and they would have to pay the price for it.
We can believe that we are the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth, and that because of our "exceptionalism" we are entitled to gain more off the backs of other nations and those who live within our own nation. We can be the most ruthless in the world, but claim to be "Christian" and therefore that we are blessed because of our worship and praise. We can mistreat the most vulnerable here and abroad for our own gain. If we do, we are NOT living what God wills.
How we treat others is ALL about our relationship with God. Our worship and praise, even tithes (sacrifices) are meaningless if we ignore the needs of the most vulnerable or exploit others for our own gain at their expense. God is the God of ALL nations and peoples. God will use as God's right hand, whatever and whomever GOD chooses to bring the people of God into the Love of God and Neighbor that God wills. It is not about purity and holiness, worship, praise or tithes. It is clearly about how we treat others who God loves.
Read Amos. Look at our nation and its practices through military might and economic influence. This is America's Prophet, here and now.
Pastor Jamie
next week: The Prophet - Jesus
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Cumulative Causation and Black Americans
Since I was 10, I have seen how my friends of color have been treated differently, have been viewed with contempt and have systematically been held back, down and out by the "majority" culture.
I taught Sociology and Cultural Diversity for eight years at a community college.
I have seen what I have seen and have studied what I have studied, and it has led me to understand that those who accuse Black Americans of being the cause of their own victimization do so out of deep seeded guilt and a residual fear and hatred that have evolved for hundreds of years.
Cumulative Causation is the concept that there is a cumulative effect from consistent practices over time that affects circumstances in the present.
So, enslave people for hundreds of years based on their race, make them and others believe that that is their plight because they are "inferior", regardless of their rich history and accomplishments...
Refuse them their freedom, ownership, education and the practice of their original culture and religion...
Subject them to your religion and beliefs that it justifies victimizing them and that it rationalizes how you treat them...
Then, free them from their slavery, but only because you are forced to do so...
Then, as they begin to RECONSTRUCT their lives in freedom (1875 Civil Rights Act and 16 black Congressmen elected)...
As they begin to gain property, teach their children in schools, build businesses and form associations that promote progress...
DECONSTRUCT IT ALL (late 1870's segregationist Southern Democrats elected to Congress)...
by writing legislation that disenfranchises them intentionally, systematically... (1890-1908)
and by "allowing" terrorist organizations (KKK and others) to terrorize them...
keep Jim Crow laws on the books that keep them from having power (poll taxes, tests, etc.)...
arrest their men for minor offenses and give them ridiculously long and harsh sentences...
when they finally get out, take away their right to vote and eliminate their ability for gainful employment...
segregate... refuse to fund their schools, keep public services from their neighborhoods (rural AND urban)...
Lynch men, women and children publicly and for no "reason"
scapegoat them for any problems in society so that future generations will believe the myth of inferiority and learn to fear and hate them...
And when they rise up and participate in society, even contribute to the good of the nation...
Harlem Renaissance (1917, ff.)
ignore it (WWI soldiers) and treat them badly even while they are doing it... and when they protest, kill them (Red Summer 1919)...
Then, when the depression hits because of the mismanagement of the nation's wealth by the robber barons who disproportionately benefitted themselves and other white citizens at the expense of black citizens, it will naturally destroy the fragile accumulated wealth of those who have most struggled to gain, despite systemic efforts to keep them from getting them...
Keep them out of public universities by ANY means necessary... and if they set up their own schools, publicly de-value them compared to the other schools...
And where they are STILL thriving, despite attempts to hold them back, down and out... ATTACK them openly, sometimes with government forces (1921 Greenwood, Oklahoma - U.S. Air Force bombing), or "allow" whole communities to be murdered (1923 Rosewood, FL)... and even bombing those who protest or stand up to the bigotry and discrimination (Philadelphia, 1985), even burning down whole communities (65 homes)...
Base school funding on property taxes, so that the poor (rural and urban), disproportionately people of color who have already been held out, down and back, get fewer resources, books and less qualified teachers for their schools...
Red-line neighborhoods so that people who are gaining economically cannot buy homes there, solely because of their race...
Flee any neighborhoods where people of color move in, build suburbs so that white folk can be separated from "those people" for decades... build up your schools, businesses and other social institutions that keep them out...
Where people of color live, give sub-standard public services... besides schools... like clean water, landlord laws, affordable housing, public safety, trash removal, transportation, grocery stores... and with the stereotypes the police will a. view the population as adversaries, b. arrest young black men for minor offenses and c. ignore the plight that drugs have on the population, allowing drug trade to go unchecked...
Then, when property values have been destroyed, "re-gentrify" - encourage the wealthier and whiter to move back in, raise rents and property taxes to eliminate the population living there, renovate the properties and rent or sell for higher profit and "take back" the city for those who once fled it, put more money into the schools and public services and bring in "better" businesses, driving out the unique, culturally rich businesses that were there...
And where will the people go? Who cares? Where they can afford - other ignored areas with poor public services and schools and businesses...
then, later, give different penalties for drugs used in poor areas (crack cocaine, pot) from those popular in affluent areas (powder cocaine), until the epidemic of hard use (heroin) hits the white population in the suburbs...
Profile black drivers, pedestrians and homeowners in their own homes...
Resurrect the lynching practices of the last century by the police... refuse to prosecute or to convict those who do the murders, like those a century before did... then, when folk protest, provoke riots with riot patrols... blame them for being unreasonable to violent... jail participants and send them to for profit prisons...
Privatize education and make it for-profit, so that those with no money have no chance at all anymore, and then use them as profit fodder for the for-profit prisons...
But make sure, throughout this history of intentional and systematic hateful discrimination, you blame the victims of it for being lazy, violent, prone to addiction, ignorant and therefore "inferior" to the bigoted, ruthless, unconscionable, immoral folk who created it and perpetuate it still today...
And, just as an added kick in the head, reverse Affirmative Action efforts that were an attempt to combat and counteract the effects of cumulative causation, claiming that it is "reverse discrimination", also claiming, like ancestors a century ago, that it is the white folk who are in danger of being disenfranchised (or American Christians by American Muslims)... to further drive home the hatred and justify discrimination in the future...
THAT is cumulative causation... or at least my meager attempt to explain it...
Yes, there are exceptions who rise in spite of these realities. They were supported by people who did all they could to give them opportunities, and they were just as bright and driven as anyone else, as are so many others who have not had quite the same favorable conditions within which to grow. They are not lauded by society, but used as tokenized excuses to continue doing what is being done because they "prove" that others could do the same... some of them reach back and do all they can to help fight the barriers to success and bring others along... others take what they can and claim that it is their "superiority" alone that has brought them to their success... and some of them even promulgate the negative stereotypes about people like them in order to elevate themselves, if no where else, in their own minds...
It is hard for a people to accumulate familial wealth and build strong communities, promote higher education and build successes when this has been their reality for generations...
All the white folk I know who think they are "self made", were made by a system that promoted them just for being white, above those who are not... had doors opened for them... no barriers put up in front of them... and were told throughout their years that they were "superior" just for being white... even if they were poor, because at least they were white... so, if they did not succeed, they had a ready made scapegoat to put all of their bitterness and hatred on...
I recognized that I had doors open to me that my friends did not have opened to them, just because of the color of their skin. I recognized the hateful stereotypes, de-humanizing efforts and vilifying practices that hurt people of color. I resented it, because I loved many of them. I still resent it. I still love them.
We continue to live this reality in 2016. It is not 1866. It is not 1916 or 1966. Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression, mass incarceration, uneven sentences, unequal education, unaffordable housing, red-lining through gentrification, unavailable employment, unsafe living conditions, unequal pay, privatizing for profit public services (education, prisons) and other factors have been revived to continue this CUMULATIVE CAUSATION at the expense of many of my sisters and brothers. I resent it. I love them. I will continue to expose it and fight it.
Pastor Jamie
I taught Sociology and Cultural Diversity for eight years at a community college.
I have seen what I have seen and have studied what I have studied, and it has led me to understand that those who accuse Black Americans of being the cause of their own victimization do so out of deep seeded guilt and a residual fear and hatred that have evolved for hundreds of years.
Cumulative Causation is the concept that there is a cumulative effect from consistent practices over time that affects circumstances in the present.
So, enslave people for hundreds of years based on their race, make them and others believe that that is their plight because they are "inferior", regardless of their rich history and accomplishments...
Refuse them their freedom, ownership, education and the practice of their original culture and religion...
Subject them to your religion and beliefs that it justifies victimizing them and that it rationalizes how you treat them...
Then, free them from their slavery, but only because you are forced to do so...
Then, as they begin to RECONSTRUCT their lives in freedom (1875 Civil Rights Act and 16 black Congressmen elected)...
As they begin to gain property, teach their children in schools, build businesses and form associations that promote progress...
DECONSTRUCT IT ALL (late 1870's segregationist Southern Democrats elected to Congress)...
by writing legislation that disenfranchises them intentionally, systematically... (1890-1908)
and by "allowing" terrorist organizations (KKK and others) to terrorize them...
keep Jim Crow laws on the books that keep them from having power (poll taxes, tests, etc.)...
arrest their men for minor offenses and give them ridiculously long and harsh sentences...
when they finally get out, take away their right to vote and eliminate their ability for gainful employment...
segregate... refuse to fund their schools, keep public services from their neighborhoods (rural AND urban)...
Lynch men, women and children publicly and for no "reason"
scapegoat them for any problems in society so that future generations will believe the myth of inferiority and learn to fear and hate them...
And when they rise up and participate in society, even contribute to the good of the nation...
Harlem Renaissance (1917, ff.)
ignore it (WWI soldiers) and treat them badly even while they are doing it... and when they protest, kill them (Red Summer 1919)...
Then, when the depression hits because of the mismanagement of the nation's wealth by the robber barons who disproportionately benefitted themselves and other white citizens at the expense of black citizens, it will naturally destroy the fragile accumulated wealth of those who have most struggled to gain, despite systemic efforts to keep them from getting them...
Keep them out of public universities by ANY means necessary... and if they set up their own schools, publicly de-value them compared to the other schools...
And where they are STILL thriving, despite attempts to hold them back, down and out... ATTACK them openly, sometimes with government forces (1921 Greenwood, Oklahoma - U.S. Air Force bombing), or "allow" whole communities to be murdered (1923 Rosewood, FL)... and even bombing those who protest or stand up to the bigotry and discrimination (Philadelphia, 1985), even burning down whole communities (65 homes)...
Base school funding on property taxes, so that the poor (rural and urban), disproportionately people of color who have already been held out, down and back, get fewer resources, books and less qualified teachers for their schools...
Red-line neighborhoods so that people who are gaining economically cannot buy homes there, solely because of their race...
Flee any neighborhoods where people of color move in, build suburbs so that white folk can be separated from "those people" for decades... build up your schools, businesses and other social institutions that keep them out...
Where people of color live, give sub-standard public services... besides schools... like clean water, landlord laws, affordable housing, public safety, trash removal, transportation, grocery stores... and with the stereotypes the police will a. view the population as adversaries, b. arrest young black men for minor offenses and c. ignore the plight that drugs have on the population, allowing drug trade to go unchecked...
Then, when property values have been destroyed, "re-gentrify" - encourage the wealthier and whiter to move back in, raise rents and property taxes to eliminate the population living there, renovate the properties and rent or sell for higher profit and "take back" the city for those who once fled it, put more money into the schools and public services and bring in "better" businesses, driving out the unique, culturally rich businesses that were there...
And where will the people go? Who cares? Where they can afford - other ignored areas with poor public services and schools and businesses...
then, later, give different penalties for drugs used in poor areas (crack cocaine, pot) from those popular in affluent areas (powder cocaine), until the epidemic of hard use (heroin) hits the white population in the suburbs...
Profile black drivers, pedestrians and homeowners in their own homes...
Resurrect the lynching practices of the last century by the police... refuse to prosecute or to convict those who do the murders, like those a century before did... then, when folk protest, provoke riots with riot patrols... blame them for being unreasonable to violent... jail participants and send them to for profit prisons...
Privatize education and make it for-profit, so that those with no money have no chance at all anymore, and then use them as profit fodder for the for-profit prisons...
But make sure, throughout this history of intentional and systematic hateful discrimination, you blame the victims of it for being lazy, violent, prone to addiction, ignorant and therefore "inferior" to the bigoted, ruthless, unconscionable, immoral folk who created it and perpetuate it still today...
And, just as an added kick in the head, reverse Affirmative Action efforts that were an attempt to combat and counteract the effects of cumulative causation, claiming that it is "reverse discrimination", also claiming, like ancestors a century ago, that it is the white folk who are in danger of being disenfranchised (or American Christians by American Muslims)... to further drive home the hatred and justify discrimination in the future...
THAT is cumulative causation... or at least my meager attempt to explain it...
Yes, there are exceptions who rise in spite of these realities. They were supported by people who did all they could to give them opportunities, and they were just as bright and driven as anyone else, as are so many others who have not had quite the same favorable conditions within which to grow. They are not lauded by society, but used as tokenized excuses to continue doing what is being done because they "prove" that others could do the same... some of them reach back and do all they can to help fight the barriers to success and bring others along... others take what they can and claim that it is their "superiority" alone that has brought them to their success... and some of them even promulgate the negative stereotypes about people like them in order to elevate themselves, if no where else, in their own minds...
It is hard for a people to accumulate familial wealth and build strong communities, promote higher education and build successes when this has been their reality for generations...
All the white folk I know who think they are "self made", were made by a system that promoted them just for being white, above those who are not... had doors opened for them... no barriers put up in front of them... and were told throughout their years that they were "superior" just for being white... even if they were poor, because at least they were white... so, if they did not succeed, they had a ready made scapegoat to put all of their bitterness and hatred on...
I recognized that I had doors open to me that my friends did not have opened to them, just because of the color of their skin. I recognized the hateful stereotypes, de-humanizing efforts and vilifying practices that hurt people of color. I resented it, because I loved many of them. I still resent it. I still love them.
We continue to live this reality in 2016. It is not 1866. It is not 1916 or 1966. Gerrymandering, Voter Suppression, mass incarceration, uneven sentences, unequal education, unaffordable housing, red-lining through gentrification, unavailable employment, unsafe living conditions, unequal pay, privatizing for profit public services (education, prisons) and other factors have been revived to continue this CUMULATIVE CAUSATION at the expense of many of my sisters and brothers. I resent it. I love them. I will continue to expose it and fight it.
Pastor Jamie
Thursday, August 25, 2016
The language of hatred
Ah yes, I read somewhere that "the power of life and death are in the tongue."
What awesome power, to be able to lift up, enhance and promote life with one's words. What a GREAT privilege to use one's word to defend the defenseless, lend power to the powerless and voice to the voiceless! What an opportunity to heal wounds, fill hearts and engage minds in positive building.
Silence in need is the withholding of said power. It validates the tearing down, corroborates with the emptying out, lends itself to the beating up.
And then, there is the language of hatred. Intolerant, vilifying, de-humanizing, objectifying, lying, stereotyping, profiling, antagonizing, provoking, demeaning, hurting and striking out.
It is the language of those who feel inadequate, fearful, unstable, insecure and just plain hateful.
I hear it a lot on the TV, on the street and on the radio. I read it in the papers, blogs and posts.
I hear it aimed at folk who have been systematically held down for hundreds of years.
I hear it used against some whose people were systematically wiped out.
I hear it used against folk who have been exploited and then used in order to justify throwing them out.
I hear it used against folk who want to practice their faith in the same neighborhood in which they have lived for years.
I hear it used against 51% of our population, sometimes by those among the 51%.
I hear it used against "bleeding hearts" and "do-gooders", as if those are bad people.
I hear it used against those who have been held down, back and out by the rest of us, and who live on the streets.
I hear it used against people of other sovereign nations that we have invaded and occupied, or whose resources and people we exploit, waste and destroy for the profit of our own corporations.
I hear it used against parents trying to get a living wage for their 50 hours of work each week, so that their children can live.
I hear it used against parents who accept public assistance so that their children can go to a doctor.
I hear it used against people who contribute to society and who just want what everyone else wants in life, and who happen to be lesbian or gay, bi-sexual or transgendered.
I hear it used against people who do NOT value profit over people.
I hear it used against young people for how they dress, what music they listen to and what slang they use.
I hear it used against "those people" because they are "not us".
It comes from some pretty ignorant, fearful, insecure and hateful folk.
And sometimes, it comes from some loving folk who are just plain fed up.
And it shapes our discourse. It affects our conversations. It shapes our interactions and relationships in society, in church, in home, in school and at work. It builds walls and not bridges.
The language of hatred tears down and does not build up. It rips out and does not plant. It destroys and does not enhance life. It separates and does not bring together.
The language of hatred is easy to find.
The language of love is more elusive.
The silence in the face of that is deafening.
What comes out of YOUR mouth? It reflects what is in your heart and mind. Putting it out in the world around you CREATES the world within which others live. It also creates the world within which YOU live.
Pastor Jamie
What awesome power, to be able to lift up, enhance and promote life with one's words. What a GREAT privilege to use one's word to defend the defenseless, lend power to the powerless and voice to the voiceless! What an opportunity to heal wounds, fill hearts and engage minds in positive building.
Silence in need is the withholding of said power. It validates the tearing down, corroborates with the emptying out, lends itself to the beating up.
And then, there is the language of hatred. Intolerant, vilifying, de-humanizing, objectifying, lying, stereotyping, profiling, antagonizing, provoking, demeaning, hurting and striking out.
It is the language of those who feel inadequate, fearful, unstable, insecure and just plain hateful.
I hear it a lot on the TV, on the street and on the radio. I read it in the papers, blogs and posts.
I hear it aimed at folk who have been systematically held down for hundreds of years.
I hear it used against some whose people were systematically wiped out.
I hear it used against folk who have been exploited and then used in order to justify throwing them out.
I hear it used against folk who want to practice their faith in the same neighborhood in which they have lived for years.
I hear it used against 51% of our population, sometimes by those among the 51%.
I hear it used against "bleeding hearts" and "do-gooders", as if those are bad people.
I hear it used against those who have been held down, back and out by the rest of us, and who live on the streets.
I hear it used against people of other sovereign nations that we have invaded and occupied, or whose resources and people we exploit, waste and destroy for the profit of our own corporations.
I hear it used against parents trying to get a living wage for their 50 hours of work each week, so that their children can live.
I hear it used against parents who accept public assistance so that their children can go to a doctor.
I hear it used against people who contribute to society and who just want what everyone else wants in life, and who happen to be lesbian or gay, bi-sexual or transgendered.
I hear it used against people who do NOT value profit over people.
I hear it used against young people for how they dress, what music they listen to and what slang they use.
I hear it used against "those people" because they are "not us".
It comes from some pretty ignorant, fearful, insecure and hateful folk.
And sometimes, it comes from some loving folk who are just plain fed up.
And it shapes our discourse. It affects our conversations. It shapes our interactions and relationships in society, in church, in home, in school and at work. It builds walls and not bridges.
The language of hatred tears down and does not build up. It rips out and does not plant. It destroys and does not enhance life. It separates and does not bring together.
The language of hatred is easy to find.
The language of love is more elusive.
The silence in the face of that is deafening.
What comes out of YOUR mouth? It reflects what is in your heart and mind. Putting it out in the world around you CREATES the world within which others live. It also creates the world within which YOU live.
Pastor Jamie
Sunday, August 14, 2016
"Re-"Gentrification - "the spoil of the poor is in YOUR houses" Isa. 3:14
It used to be called "re-gentrification", until folk got wise to its meaning - that a neighborhood was "re-peopled" by other people. Now it is just Gentrification, implying that no one lived there when the "gentry" arrived. Much like "discoverers" of a land on which millions have lived for thousands of years. It is a term and act of hubris - of self-centered sin.
It is at least as old as Isaiah - 3:14, 15 and 65:21,22. Trampling the poor for one's own gain is older, but also addressed by the prophets - Amos 8:4-7 and elsewhere.
Gentrification is the pushing out of poorer folk for the sake of richer folk, so that they can buy property cheaply and restore it, bring better services to a neighborhood and take it over. The old sayings that "the rich get what they rich want" and "white folk get what white folk want" go together.
For some, it is the "taking back" of properties that they abandoned in the 60's during "white flight". For others, it is the recognition that, like with what we did to native Americans, this land that was abdicated to "those people" in the past we now find some value in (new beltline, some culturally diverse and popular offerings that are attracting people, etc.), we must get back because it will become MORE valuable.
Cities intentionally create this reality by letting neighborhoods go without police protection, schools go without enough resources, businesses not getting service support and making poor city services for the residents the norm. Realtors create this reality intentionally and arbitrarily, convincing folk that these properties are a "steal" (and they are, quite literally) and that the neighborhood is an "up and comer". Developers create this reality intentionally by buying up properties and fixing them up to attract a few folk first, and then the many come as more and more of them look better. Unscrupulous landlords/slumlords create this reality by collecting rents for years from folk while not doing any work on the properties, and then kicking them out when they know the value of the property is higher. They all benefit. The richer, whiter folk who move in benefit. Those who have lived there, some for thirty years, who have rented or who have not had high paying jobs or who have had some financial or medical tragedies, or who are now on a fixed income lose. As property values go up because "those people" are moving in, they get pushed out.
It is the same with renters, landowners with little money and local, individually owned businesses. As property values go up, taxes go up and rents go up and folk cannot stay where they are. Many businesses are then just closed, because without enough start-up capital, they cannot start over again, and properties in the communities they have served for many years are too expensive to lease or buy now in order for them to stay.
Some folk move in, younger and whiter, because they love the city and they can afford a house, which can be the start of the realty/developer gentrification process. Some of them love the city for its diversity and the realness, even grit of the city. Some of them moved from the suburbs and want to make the neighborhood like the suburbs, the school like the suburbs, the restaurants and stores like the suburbs and the neighbors like in the suburbs. They will get better city services, better police responses, better schools and better businesses because they demand it - because people with money and of the majority culture get what THEY want. They profile the people of color and poor folk living in the neighborhood, treat them as if THEY are intruders in their neighborhood, objectify folk and never REALLY get to know them but judge them as being "less than" they are.
Some folk who have lived in the neighborhoods see it as their time to cash in. They were slumlords or property speculators (whether with business or residential properties), buying up houses and apartment buildings and renting them without taking care of them, or for some, letting them sit vacant until the property values go up. As soon as they can, they evict those living in their rentals or jack up the prices so high that they cannot pay their rent, get them out, refurbish the properties now because it will PAY THEM to do so, and sell them. They are unscrupulous and ruthless folk. People were foolish to give them their trust, but often faced with few other choices did just that, and now they are hurt for it.
Realtors and developers are another story. Some of them ignore major issues on their buildings but make them LOOK really nice and jack up the price out of greed, but also to artificially drive up local property values, trying to make folk believe they are worth the high prices. Doing this with multiple properties at a time gives the appearance of some change happening in a neighborhood, and these folk, well established in a business of arbitrary "location, location, location" property values, cash in at the expense of those pushed out AND those who bought the place with multiple, hidden issues.
Those who have been victimized - those who have been pushed out, react differently. Some get angry and go the area meetings, the city and voice their opinions. It is too late for them, but folk do get to hear what is going on, and maybe someone else will be able to fight the process because of this "heads up" or at least have time to plan moving with a little more time. they do not want to see this happen to someone else in the weeks and months to follow. Others say nothing and move as best they can. This allows others to be blindsided and not see it coming for THEM.
The truth is that with all this being done intentionally, residents in neighborhoods have to get MORE intentional about KEEPING CITY SERVICES, SCHOOL SERVICES and BUSINESSES healthy in their city neighborhoods in the first place, and intentional on DEMANDING that a percentage of housing in EVERY neighborhood be set aside and preserved for those on low or fixed income.
The bad news is that folk, even those who have seen it before, don't see it coming. Even when others who are vocal point it out, they put their head in the sand or believe that there is nothing they can do about it. The bad news is that the unscrupulous, ruthless, unconscionable and immoral slumlord, realtors, developers and home buyers will intentionally do whatever they need to in order to benefit themselves through the exploitation and at the expense of whoever they can exploit. They smile in your face, are friendly at neighborhood gatherings, serve you their homemade brew, fix up your house for you, drink and laugh and sit on your porch with you but are always looking for the opportunity for personal gain at the expense of whoever provides an opportunity. And folk often know it but never expose them for it, which helps to victimize the next family who happen into their path.
The good news is that there ARE folk who know the Agape Love that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled. They actually ARE followers of Jesus who live what Jesus offered as a better Way. There ARE folk who know what is going on, and who are NOT silent about it. They will do what they can, out of love for neighbor, to keep others from being hurt by this insidious, evil process. The good news is the hope that, as even in the time of Isaiah, justice, equality and equitable treatment will be the end because people who love God and neighbor DEMAND it.
So, where do YOU lie in this GENTRIFICATION picture?
What will YOU do about it?
Pastor Jamie
It is at least as old as Isaiah - 3:14, 15 and 65:21,22. Trampling the poor for one's own gain is older, but also addressed by the prophets - Amos 8:4-7 and elsewhere.
Gentrification is the pushing out of poorer folk for the sake of richer folk, so that they can buy property cheaply and restore it, bring better services to a neighborhood and take it over. The old sayings that "the rich get what they rich want" and "white folk get what white folk want" go together.
For some, it is the "taking back" of properties that they abandoned in the 60's during "white flight". For others, it is the recognition that, like with what we did to native Americans, this land that was abdicated to "those people" in the past we now find some value in (new beltline, some culturally diverse and popular offerings that are attracting people, etc.), we must get back because it will become MORE valuable.
Cities intentionally create this reality by letting neighborhoods go without police protection, schools go without enough resources, businesses not getting service support and making poor city services for the residents the norm. Realtors create this reality intentionally and arbitrarily, convincing folk that these properties are a "steal" (and they are, quite literally) and that the neighborhood is an "up and comer". Developers create this reality intentionally by buying up properties and fixing them up to attract a few folk first, and then the many come as more and more of them look better. Unscrupulous landlords/slumlords create this reality by collecting rents for years from folk while not doing any work on the properties, and then kicking them out when they know the value of the property is higher. They all benefit. The richer, whiter folk who move in benefit. Those who have lived there, some for thirty years, who have rented or who have not had high paying jobs or who have had some financial or medical tragedies, or who are now on a fixed income lose. As property values go up because "those people" are moving in, they get pushed out.
It is the same with renters, landowners with little money and local, individually owned businesses. As property values go up, taxes go up and rents go up and folk cannot stay where they are. Many businesses are then just closed, because without enough start-up capital, they cannot start over again, and properties in the communities they have served for many years are too expensive to lease or buy now in order for them to stay.
Some folk move in, younger and whiter, because they love the city and they can afford a house, which can be the start of the realty/developer gentrification process. Some of them love the city for its diversity and the realness, even grit of the city. Some of them moved from the suburbs and want to make the neighborhood like the suburbs, the school like the suburbs, the restaurants and stores like the suburbs and the neighbors like in the suburbs. They will get better city services, better police responses, better schools and better businesses because they demand it - because people with money and of the majority culture get what THEY want. They profile the people of color and poor folk living in the neighborhood, treat them as if THEY are intruders in their neighborhood, objectify folk and never REALLY get to know them but judge them as being "less than" they are.
Some folk who have lived in the neighborhoods see it as their time to cash in. They were slumlords or property speculators (whether with business or residential properties), buying up houses and apartment buildings and renting them without taking care of them, or for some, letting them sit vacant until the property values go up. As soon as they can, they evict those living in their rentals or jack up the prices so high that they cannot pay their rent, get them out, refurbish the properties now because it will PAY THEM to do so, and sell them. They are unscrupulous and ruthless folk. People were foolish to give them their trust, but often faced with few other choices did just that, and now they are hurt for it.
Realtors and developers are another story. Some of them ignore major issues on their buildings but make them LOOK really nice and jack up the price out of greed, but also to artificially drive up local property values, trying to make folk believe they are worth the high prices. Doing this with multiple properties at a time gives the appearance of some change happening in a neighborhood, and these folk, well established in a business of arbitrary "location, location, location" property values, cash in at the expense of those pushed out AND those who bought the place with multiple, hidden issues.
Those who have been victimized - those who have been pushed out, react differently. Some get angry and go the area meetings, the city and voice their opinions. It is too late for them, but folk do get to hear what is going on, and maybe someone else will be able to fight the process because of this "heads up" or at least have time to plan moving with a little more time. they do not want to see this happen to someone else in the weeks and months to follow. Others say nothing and move as best they can. This allows others to be blindsided and not see it coming for THEM.
The truth is that with all this being done intentionally, residents in neighborhoods have to get MORE intentional about KEEPING CITY SERVICES, SCHOOL SERVICES and BUSINESSES healthy in their city neighborhoods in the first place, and intentional on DEMANDING that a percentage of housing in EVERY neighborhood be set aside and preserved for those on low or fixed income.
The bad news is that folk, even those who have seen it before, don't see it coming. Even when others who are vocal point it out, they put their head in the sand or believe that there is nothing they can do about it. The bad news is that the unscrupulous, ruthless, unconscionable and immoral slumlord, realtors, developers and home buyers will intentionally do whatever they need to in order to benefit themselves through the exploitation and at the expense of whoever they can exploit. They smile in your face, are friendly at neighborhood gatherings, serve you their homemade brew, fix up your house for you, drink and laugh and sit on your porch with you but are always looking for the opportunity for personal gain at the expense of whoever provides an opportunity. And folk often know it but never expose them for it, which helps to victimize the next family who happen into their path.
The good news is that there ARE folk who know the Agape Love that Jesus taught, commanded and modeled. They actually ARE followers of Jesus who live what Jesus offered as a better Way. There ARE folk who know what is going on, and who are NOT silent about it. They will do what they can, out of love for neighbor, to keep others from being hurt by this insidious, evil process. The good news is the hope that, as even in the time of Isaiah, justice, equality and equitable treatment will be the end because people who love God and neighbor DEMAND it.
So, where do YOU lie in this GENTRIFICATION picture?
What will YOU do about it?
Pastor Jamie
Monday, August 8, 2016
America's Original Sin
I believe that our ORIGINAL SIN as a nation is not Racism alone, as some have said, but HUBRIS - that false sense of superiority that leads one to "look down upon" or hurt others.
It led us to the mistreatment, de-humanization and genocide of the people who lived here long before we "discovered" this land.
It led us to the slavery, objectification and holding down, back and out of our black sisters and brothers for generations which still suffer from its effects and current expressions.
It led us to occupy and steal lands from Mexico, and then to the exploitation of Braceros and the de-humanization, objectification, vilifying, scapegoating and now deportation of those we consider "mojados".
It has led us to conquest, not only militarily and politically, but economically through our dominance of the WTO and other organizations. Our economic colonization is done for the sake of the billionaires who own or profit from our corporations now.
It led us for many years to stereotype, ostracize and discriminate against our LGBT sisters and brothers.
Our HUBRIS allows us to believe that we are ENTITLED and PRIVILEGED. It allows us to create "free market" practices that bail out the wealthy and penalize the poor. It allows us to hurt whoever we want because, "it's not personal, just business". It necessitates three justice systems - one for the powerful and wealthy, one for the middle class and one for the poor and black or brown.
It has led us to fund our schools unequally and "re-gentrify" neighborhoods - yes, "take them back"/steal them from the people who have been living there with horrible services, and provide stellar services for the more wealthy and more white who move "back in". It has led us to pay those who we have victimized through poor education, much less - not enough to live on, while we pay executives huge bonuses after they have driven companies into the ground and have eliminated jobs.
It has meant the incarceration of our own at an alarming rate, the illegal incarceration of others across the world, the invasion, destruction and occupation of multiple foreign countries at a time. It has meant our meddling covertly and blatantly in the political affairs of sovereign nations. It has caused the collapse of foreign economies for the sake of our corporations, and the exploitation of workers, pollution of environments and wasting of resources at home and abroad.
Our hubris is that out of which comes our XENOPHOBIA, ETHNOCENTRISM, SEXISM, RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, CLASSISM, NATIONALISM and EXCEPTIONALISM... ALL of which have meant that whole peoples have been hurt or destroyed. It leads us to victimize others and then blame them for their own plight - the conditions WE created and forced upon them.
I was in Junior High School when I knew that I was called to ministry. I was in Junior High School when I saw that my black and brown friends were treated differently, even in my own home by my own father. I was in Junior High School when I saw people I cared for get mistreated just because of the color of their skin, and realized how different I was because we were poor. It was in Junior High School that I started to hear the teachings of Jesus in a new way.
American "Christians" can get their praise on, give their tithes and expect their favor and blessings all they want, but the CHRIST they claim to Worship and follow...
Identified with the Poor... BECAME poor to identify with them.
Reached out to those who were foreign, ethnically, racially and religiously different from Him.
Associated with those who were outcast from society.
COMMANDED that we love our neighbor AS OUR SELVES... and defined neighbor as the one who is different from self, even stranger and enemy.
Raised and Motivated an ARMY (5,000 men plus women and children) to march for the Kingdom of God and its values, in the face of a occupying Roman Army that held very different values based on their hubris.
... and said that the sheep at His judgment will be those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned...
... and that the GOATS will be those who exploit the poor, refuse the hungry, strip people of what they have, deport the resident alien and prevent them from entering our land, and who ignore the sick and their needs or exploit them for profit, and create more in prison, rather than rehabilitate them and who refuse to create REAL justice in the land.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled humility. Agape Love comes from a humble heart.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled equitable treatment. His law of Agape demands it.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled Grace and Mercy, instead of exploitation, de-humanization, vilification, objectification and the relentless punitive treatment of others.
Jesus taught us Agape Love - commanded Agape Love - modeled Agape Love that necessarily includes forgiveness and a refusal to judge others, and is UNCONDITIONAL, SELF-SACRIFICING, ACTIVE COMMITMENT ON BEHALF OF THE OTHER, EVEN STRANGER AND ENEMY, AND CERTAINLY THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US.
Jesus' followers in the 1st Century lived that - they reached out to others who were ethnically, racially, religiously, sexually different and the world took notice of this astounding, radical love and the radical community that arose from it.
THAT is the good news. Jesus demands something else. People CAN follow what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled in how we live in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now.
The bad news is up to us as Christians and Americans. Will we continue to claim the name of Jesus and walk away from His Way as He taught, commanded and modeled it in the Kingdom Values we have as witnessed in the Gospels, or will we follow Him - go where Jesus went in society?
Will we let our HUBRIS as a nation continue to take us further from Jesus and His Way, or will we humbly learn to live Agape Love with our neighbor, even the most vulnerable, even the stranger and our enemy? Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters." Which will it be?
Pastor Jamie
It led us to the mistreatment, de-humanization and genocide of the people who lived here long before we "discovered" this land.
It led us to the slavery, objectification and holding down, back and out of our black sisters and brothers for generations which still suffer from its effects and current expressions.
It led us to occupy and steal lands from Mexico, and then to the exploitation of Braceros and the de-humanization, objectification, vilifying, scapegoating and now deportation of those we consider "mojados".
It has led us to conquest, not only militarily and politically, but economically through our dominance of the WTO and other organizations. Our economic colonization is done for the sake of the billionaires who own or profit from our corporations now.
It led us for many years to stereotype, ostracize and discriminate against our LGBT sisters and brothers.
Our HUBRIS allows us to believe that we are ENTITLED and PRIVILEGED. It allows us to create "free market" practices that bail out the wealthy and penalize the poor. It allows us to hurt whoever we want because, "it's not personal, just business". It necessitates three justice systems - one for the powerful and wealthy, one for the middle class and one for the poor and black or brown.
It has led us to fund our schools unequally and "re-gentrify" neighborhoods - yes, "take them back"/steal them from the people who have been living there with horrible services, and provide stellar services for the more wealthy and more white who move "back in". It has led us to pay those who we have victimized through poor education, much less - not enough to live on, while we pay executives huge bonuses after they have driven companies into the ground and have eliminated jobs.
It has meant the incarceration of our own at an alarming rate, the illegal incarceration of others across the world, the invasion, destruction and occupation of multiple foreign countries at a time. It has meant our meddling covertly and blatantly in the political affairs of sovereign nations. It has caused the collapse of foreign economies for the sake of our corporations, and the exploitation of workers, pollution of environments and wasting of resources at home and abroad.
Our hubris is that out of which comes our XENOPHOBIA, ETHNOCENTRISM, SEXISM, RACISM, HOMOPHOBIA, CLASSISM, NATIONALISM and EXCEPTIONALISM... ALL of which have meant that whole peoples have been hurt or destroyed. It leads us to victimize others and then blame them for their own plight - the conditions WE created and forced upon them.
I was in Junior High School when I knew that I was called to ministry. I was in Junior High School when I saw that my black and brown friends were treated differently, even in my own home by my own father. I was in Junior High School when I saw people I cared for get mistreated just because of the color of their skin, and realized how different I was because we were poor. It was in Junior High School that I started to hear the teachings of Jesus in a new way.
American "Christians" can get their praise on, give their tithes and expect their favor and blessings all they want, but the CHRIST they claim to Worship and follow...
Identified with the Poor... BECAME poor to identify with them.
Reached out to those who were foreign, ethnically, racially and religiously different from Him.
Associated with those who were outcast from society.
COMMANDED that we love our neighbor AS OUR SELVES... and defined neighbor as the one who is different from self, even stranger and enemy.
Raised and Motivated an ARMY (5,000 men plus women and children) to march for the Kingdom of God and its values, in the face of a occupying Roman Army that held very different values based on their hubris.
... and said that the sheep at His judgment will be those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned...
... and that the GOATS will be those who exploit the poor, refuse the hungry, strip people of what they have, deport the resident alien and prevent them from entering our land, and who ignore the sick and their needs or exploit them for profit, and create more in prison, rather than rehabilitate them and who refuse to create REAL justice in the land.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled humility. Agape Love comes from a humble heart.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled equitable treatment. His law of Agape demands it.
Jesus taught, commanded and modeled Grace and Mercy, instead of exploitation, de-humanization, vilification, objectification and the relentless punitive treatment of others.
Jesus taught us Agape Love - commanded Agape Love - modeled Agape Love that necessarily includes forgiveness and a refusal to judge others, and is UNCONDITIONAL, SELF-SACRIFICING, ACTIVE COMMITMENT ON BEHALF OF THE OTHER, EVEN STRANGER AND ENEMY, AND CERTAINLY THE MOST VULNERABLE AMONG US.
Jesus' followers in the 1st Century lived that - they reached out to others who were ethnically, racially, religiously, sexually different and the world took notice of this astounding, radical love and the radical community that arose from it.
THAT is the good news. Jesus demands something else. People CAN follow what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled in how we live in THIS PART of God's Kingdom, here and now.
The bad news is up to us as Christians and Americans. Will we continue to claim the name of Jesus and walk away from His Way as He taught, commanded and modeled it in the Kingdom Values we have as witnessed in the Gospels, or will we follow Him - go where Jesus went in society?
Will we let our HUBRIS as a nation continue to take us further from Jesus and His Way, or will we humbly learn to live Agape Love with our neighbor, even the most vulnerable, even the stranger and our enemy? Jesus said, "You cannot serve two masters." Which will it be?
Pastor Jamie
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