An Unnecessary Illusion

The snow covering and ice sprinkling

gave the illusion of a new world

fresh, undisturbed, untouched and unpolluted.

This was only an illusion, of course.

The pavement and dirt and grime

still lay there beneath the snow

the plastic and cans and detritus still lined the creek bed,

even though it was covered and made beautiful by the ice.

An illusion, but a pleasant one, just the same.

Taken the right way, it gives us license to imagine a better world

a more clean, pure, delightful and beautiful world.

At its very best, it might even inspire us to take up (or continue)

the struggle for a better day and a better world

one improved by our choices and actions

rather than being made worse.

 

Jimmy Carter, the Best Man to Ever be President

 

So very thankful for the lives, wisdom and grace of Jimmy and Rosayln Carter...

 

“A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children.”

“America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense… human rights invented America.”

“We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

“Failure is a reality; we all fail at times, and it's painful when we do. But it's better to fail while striving for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and uncertain than to say, " I don't want to try because I may not succeed completely.”

"the main thing I want to impress on the listeners today is just to use every influence you have to encourage up more attention being paid by banks and by city governments and by state governments and by the federal government to making housing available for everybody, decent housing."

Shame

Shame on Joe Biden for pardoning his son. This is just wrong. It doesn't matter if the other side lives by avoiding justice and decency, it's still wrong for progressive minded people to do it. We MUST stand behind the notion that the rich and powerful and elite are not above justice.

Even if H Biden's misdeeds were not as serious or harmful as the many sexual predatory and harmfully corrupt misdeeds of the "maga" GOP, he should still not be pardoned. This is a black mark on Biden's legacy and sends exactly the wrong message at precisely the wrong time.

Oppose DEI? Why?

There has been and will be on-going a good deal of talk and criticism of the very basic human rights notion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Many of the newly empowered Right are demonizing it and wanting to remove efforts to be more diverse, more equitable and more inclusive. It makes me wonder if they know what DEI stands for... because what reasonable, moral person is against those things?

I also think that some think of DEI as a way to be condescendingly kind to the "poor and needy." It's not.

DEI is based upon well-researched data that supports the very common sense notion that we all do better when all are included. And it's not just a catchy slogan, data supports it. I'll not cite the data here but I can if anyone wants the data/research.

When there are more people from more backgrounds, businesses and agencies (churches, community groups, gatherings, etc) do better. We're more productive and more intelligent collectively than we are individually. Think about it... of course, that's just common sense.

The reality is that...

We don't know what we don't know

We can't see what we can't see

And that's OK.

What's not OK is not beginning with the humility

To acknowledge that there are some things

We don't know and can't see

I work for an agency that helps fellow citizens with disabilities to be more included in the public sphere, including in housing and employment. We have more than one time heard the story that goes something like this...

"Hi, we're trying to get Mary in for a job interview but we can't find an accessible entrance."

"Oh, no problem, there are no steps if you go around back..."

Fine, we go around back, where there is no stairway, but there is ONE step. Mary is in a big heavy powerchair and it can't make it up that one step. We go back to the front office and report this.

"Oh, no problem. You can also get in back by the dumpster, just go around it and there's a door."

Great. The dumpster entrance. We try it, but the dumpster is blocking it. We return to the front office.

"Can't get in. Dumpster is blocking it."

"Funny, we've never had any people come in in wheelchairs reporting a problem."

Pause.

"Think about it. Have you EVER had people come in in wheelchairs? Is it possible you haven't recognized the problem/difficulty because you haven't lived that life?"

More than once, we've heard that kind of story. The details may change, but the end result doesn't.

But the thing is, our fellow citizens with disabilities can and do bring value to employers and agencies. People of color can and do bring value... immigrants, women, LGBTQ folks... we ALL bring something of value and when we're not working for diversity, equity and inclusion... yes, those left out are hurt, but the thing is, we're ALL hurt by that. Businesses suffer from not having a well-rounded work force. Schools suffer from not having a spectrum of students and employees.

We're all better when everyone is included. It's not for "those" people that we include.

It's for all of us.

Magnificat

Mother Mary said

"I rejoice

For behold, from now on

all generations will call me blessed...

or perhaps

many generations will call me blessed

and other generations will try to hold me down

keep me in my place

tell me what to do and when and how to do it

nonetheless, God's grace and justice

will last from generation to generation

the proud will be scattered

the mighty be torn down from their thrones

and the humble, the poor, the outcast,

they will be greeted, welcomed and lifted up

and the rich sent away, empty-handed!"

With a mother like that, 

it's no wonder Jesus turned out the way he did.

Lazarus and the Rich Man

Those who know me know I don't really believe in the notion of hell as has been advanced in many religious traditions. But I do appreciate the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man that Jesus told (sort of depicted, above, in an early art of mine).

As you may or may not recall, it begins by introducing us to "a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed" and who led a life of indulgent excess, not caring for the poor literally outside his gate. And literally outside his gate, in the story, Jesus tells us that poor Lazarus was wasting away in sickness. And eventually, Lazarus dies, as does the rich man.

As an aside, the rich man is never given a name, while Lazarus is named. This is counter to popular traditions of naming the rich and powerful but letting the poor and women remain anonymous. Somewhere in the middle ages, some started calling the rich man, "Dives," (Latin for "rich guy") but that's not in the Bible.

The story continues in the afterlife where the rich man suffers in agony in a flaming hell. Meanwhile, Lazarus is comforted by a loving God ("Father Abraham" in the text), a God of the poor and marginalized. The rich man (somehow) can see Lazarus in the arms of God and begs God to send Lazarus down with just a drop of cooling water... and he begs God to send Lazarus to warn his fellow rich brothers.

And just a note, here: The text doesn't say anything about the rich man being a bad man or that he intentionally rejected God. He was just indifferent to the poor people outside his gate. And I'll also note that in Dives' pleas, he asks God to send Lazarus to tend to him. Even in the rich man's misery, Lazarus is just a servant to be ordered around.

But God reminds the rich man that he had it all in his lifetime and made no time for Lazarus... and that it's impossible to resolve it now. What I find valuable in this parable/story is that God concludes, "Besides, there is a great chasm between us and you..."

I think, implied, is that there WAS and IS a chasm between the rich man who cared nothing for the poor and marginalized, and the rest of creation: It is the chasm that the rich man himself constructed, keeping the poor outside his walls, outside his gates.

The good news, then, is that we can tear down those walls, now, today. We can join together with those living in poverty, those from other nations and backgrounds, those of different races, those with disabilities... we can all come together and work for the good of all, and not just ourselves.

It remains an important and humbling lesson for we who are so rich.

She Started a Band

She started a band
that raised a prayer
that started a chant
a jig, an aire

a movement began
a challenge a fight
which moved like dance
of grace and of light

the community that rose
from the ground to the sky
was full of love
with grit in their eyes

a better day would come
they knew it to be true
because they were the ones
who would see it through.

She started a band
and that's the point.

No Good Humans VS GOOD Humans

The question has been asked about Jesus (and others, a few times) in the pages of the Bible saying something like "There is no one good but God..." as Jesus does in Luke 18 and other places where Jesus is speaking to the "rich young ruler" (who approached Jesus, saying, "Good teacher, why...")

First of all, we have to note at least two things:

1. Jesus (and other biblical authors/speakers) refer to good people. "The sun shines on the evil and the good," for instance. But many other instances, as well. Jesus clearly thought there were good people.

2. The reality that, in spite of what the Bible says, of course, there are good people as good is typically defined/understood. There ARE good people definitionally, in the real world.

Now, dealing with the passage in question. In Luke 18, Jesus is in the context (here and throughout his ministry) of dealing with the legalism and gracelessness of the Pharisees. Jesus even offers a parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else,
Jesus told this parable:

“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. 
For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Following that parable, Jesus reminds everyone (with an eye to the Pharisees who he JUST addressed):

Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

He said that in dealing with the arrogance and gracelessness and self-perceived "righteousness" of the Pharisees.

In THAT literal, specific context of the proud, arrogant, graceless, legalistic Pharisees, the story moves to a rich ruler approaching Jesus - another of the typical antagonists in Jesus' life and message... the OPPOSITE of the humble poor and marginalized that Jesus told us he'd come to preach good news to (and in contrast to the wealthy, powerful and arrogant, who would be "brought down" in Mary's Magnificat and other places). The rich ruler talks and Jesus answers:

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered.
“No one is good - except God alone.

Then, when the rich ruler tells Jesus (rather arrogantly!) that he's kept all the rules since he was a boy (!!) to THAT man (and by extension, the other arrogant legalists like the Pharisees) and THAT man specifically, Jesus says:

“You still lack one thing.
Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”

Jesus using the hyperbolic saying "there is no one good but God" is addressing the arrogant rich and powerful ruler, along with the Pharisees in the crowd and for the benefit of the poor and marginalized people that Jesus came to preach good news to. Indeed, for those humble poor and marginalized folks, THIS response of Jesus WAS good news. "He's taking on the man! He's bringing down the arrogant and powerful rich ones!"

The marginalized poor folks were well aware that they weren't perfect... that they fail to hit the mark. They understood/understand imperfection and the flaws of humanity. They know that they are not perfectly good like God. But the rich and powerful, the arrogant and legalistic like the Pharisees, THEY often didn't know this, blinded as they were by their wealth and privilege.

In the text and context of this story, Jesus makes clear who he is addressing with his "No one is good" hyperbole...

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else...

On the Goodness of Humanity

When I was a young conservative man, I listened to what my conservative Christian teachers told me:

Humanity is totally depraved.
Humanity is evil.
There is no one good, no, not one.

I listened and I believed. I believed it so intently that I could not conceive of this theory being anything but entirely, 100% perfectly correct and indisputable. After all, look at Hitler. Look at those men who would rape women... who would beat children. Monsters. Awful human beings. And there's a reason for that, I was told and I believed: Humanity is evil, corrupt, depraved in every possible way... the human mind in ALL humans was darkened and incapable of understanding good.

So, I was told and so, I believed.

The longer I live, the more I listened to conservative "defense" of this idea, the more that conservatives have pushed me away from believing this is a rational (or biblical, for that matter) opinion/human theory. It is, at the very best, entirely unproven and unsupported and at worst, an awful, oppressive and damaging theory promoted for less-than-noble reasons.

And why have I changed my opinion? Simple reality. I can see with my own eyes that there are indeed, good people in the world. Many of them.

And understand: I'm not saying that all of humanity is good all of the time. Of course, not. There are genuinely bad people deliberately doing genuinely bad/harmful things. There are the Hitlers, the rapists, the abusers. The men who would sexually assault women then boast how they can get away with it because of their power, wealth and position.

But the every day people - especially the helpers - those who teach, who nurse, who nurture, who assist, the social workers, the environmentalists, the people whose jobs are to empower the poor, marginalized, the sick and disabled... I know these people. They are just who and what they appear to be: Good people engaged in helpful activities for positive reasons.

And, at the same time that they're being helpful and working for justice and peace, they're also not engaged in deliberately harmful, "bad" behavior.

The social worker who has worked for 38 years now - all of her adult life - who entered the field because she wanted to be true to God and God's repeated calls to ally with and for the poor and marginalized... and so, for almost four decades has helped homeless people get off the streets, to find housing, to get needed health care, to get out of abusive relationships, to get out of addictions. She has welcomed the poor and homeless into her own home and kitchen. She's helped the children in these homeless families get needed resources. She's seen some of those formerly un-housed children get college degrees and go into helping professions themselves.

And sure, she's sometimes impatient, she has her own anxieties and depressions, but she hasn't stolen, she hasn't assaulted people, she's been faithful in her relationships, she sure hasn't killed.

She is a genuinely good person, a hard worker whose life work has NOT been just to enrich herself, but to find solutions to problems that poor and oppressed people face. She is a genuinely good person, by any rational measure.

And I personally know dozens of people like this intimately. And for those I don't know as well, I know hundreds of people less well whose life stories fit this model. They are clearly good people by reasonable measures. There is no serious evidence of corruption or total depravity or evil in their lives.

They are, to a person, imperfect people. But being imperfect is not the same as being bad. It's just not.

I bring this up because I've been asking this question for years now and trying to find examples for months now: WHERE is the hard evidence to support this claim that all humans are bad people, totally corrupt and depraved... evil, even? WHERE is the evidence that they have "rebellious hearts?" I've asked... as well as asking for a definition of "rebellious heart..."?

And every time, this question goes unanswered and ignored. The few times that anyone even tries to address it, there answer is almost always something along the lines of "We don't have to answer! It's self-evident! It's already proven!"

But it's not. It's just not. Go ahead - do a search for anyone even trying to make a rational case that proves that all humans are evil, bad and have "rebellious hearts..." There's no one even trying to prove it.

They are assuming that the answer is a given - "Of course, people are evil, ALL people! That's why the only just punishment is an eternity of torture!" Just like I believed, when I was a young conservative. But that assumption remains unproven and the unproven nature of the claim is problematic. One can't just bully their way into forcing agreement... especially when you're making a counter intuitive claim - a claim that real world data disproves.

We can SEE good people all around us. Every day. Or at least I can.

The only way I ever see any try to deal with that is, "Well, you're not judging who is good rightly... They may be good by human standards, but not by "god's standards." But when I ask for proof or support for that, the question remains unanswered.

I find it incredibly puzzling, this complete avoidance of the topic.

But the flip side of all of this is that these "people are evil" theorists have helped me see the beautiful goodness of the Beloved Community. There ARE so many people out there being truly good, truly great and what a blessing that is to see in action. So, thank you conservatives, for finally pushing me completely away from the "people are evil" failed theory.

Joy and Unity vs Anger and Division

I am so glad that the Democrats are trying to focus on joy, positive, unity and common ground. Aside from just being more pleasant, I think it makes for a strong contrast with the GOP messaging which is... not so much.

One of the great contrasts could be found in the music each party used at their conventions. For instance, look at the contrast between Stevie Wonder - ambassador of love, joy and positivity- for the DNC Convention, vs Kid Rock for the GOP Convention.

Wonder sang his deeply spiritual and uplifting "Higher Ground..."

"Lovers keep on lovin'

Believers keep on believin', um yeah

Sleepers just stop sleepin'

'Cause it won't be too long, oh, yeah, yeah

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

I'm so darn glad He let me try it again

'Cause my last time on earth, I lived a whole world of sin

I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then

Gonna keep on tryin'

'Til I reach my highest ground, whoo!"

As someone noted about the song: "The chorus references God, second chances, the choice to turn away from sin, a quest for spiritual redemption, and the constant struggle that comes with self-improvement, all with a sunny, relentless optimism and the boundless energy that comes from Wonder’s vocal delivery."

That was the DNC's musical representation.

As contrasted with Kid Rock's, American Bad Ass, which I can't quote directly here because of the sexism, misogyny and vulgarity...

"They call me cowboy, I'm the singer in black

So throw a finger in the air and let me see where you're at...

F*** all, y'all!

...I'm an American bad ass, watch me kick

You can roll with rock or you can suck my d***

I'm a porno flick, I'm like Amazing grace

I'm gonna f*** some h*** after I rock this place..."

Ugh.

The GOP is making itself the party of vulgarity and loyalty to one man.

The DNC is positioning itself as the party of Joy and Unity and a nation bound together by higher ideals of love and kindness and finding common ground. Did you see all the GOP leaders on the DNC stage?

The contrast is jarring and I think the GOP will suffer for it.

Dancing Down Joy

Feminine Divine #15

She stood tall and golden,

this dry summer grass

beneath a setting sun that was

still smacking the ground like

a leather belt

and anger

but
when the breeze blew

she grooved a little

and when the wind gusted

she danced like a storm

and soon

she danced the rain into being

and all the earth danced along

 

Biblical Take on Sin?

Bubba, who has re-appeared on Marshal's website, recently has been suggesting he wants to ask me questions and have a conversation on the notion of sin and morality and harm. He said:

what it is I really want to discuss -- sin vs harm, and whether calling an act sinful qualifies as harmful!

Let's take a look at what he probably means by "Sin." Even though I've done this repeatedly for their sake... I'll take a shot at it again. Not so much for their sake but for mine, to put down in words what I'm learning from what I consider their bad example.

"Sin" is a problematic word. It has all kinds of baggage. Humans have been using their preferred notions of "sin" to beat up on and further marginalize people for a very long time. "Sin," in relatively modern conservative religionist's circles has been used to heap guilt upon people and as a tool to say, "YOU are not one of us, YOU are not a decent human in "god's" eyes. YOU are "totally depraved."

LOOK at that. TOTALLY depraved. AAAGH! That sounds horrible! What do they mean by it?

According to the conservative religionists at "Ligonier Ministries..."

"The doctrine of total depravity
does not mean that all humankind is as evil as it possibly could be.

Phew!

Rather, it means that sin affects the whole person. We are born
corrupted,
poisoned, and
polluted by sin.
Our minds are darkened and we
cannot see or understand the truth.
Our hearts are defiled so that they do not love the truth.
We love what we should hate, and we hate what we should love.
Our wills are in bondage to sin, and we cannot believe the gospel in and of themselves.

Ugh.

Sin, the word typically used in the New Testament... the word used by Jesus... is literally translated as
missing the mark
as in shooting for a target and coming up short. Not being perfect. Not achieving perfection.

Well, of course, humanity is not perfect. No one who is human and self-aware suggests that.

But merely "missing the mark of perfection" is not the same, in any way, as DEPRAVED, much less TOTALLY DEPRAVED.

It is not the same as being "corrupted, poisoned and polluted by sin" (by "missing the mark..."?)

The word SIN has been stained, it seems to me, by the human traditions found in conservative evangelical Christianity and other more repressive religious traditions. So, I'm reluctant to use the word, "sin." It has become a mark of abuse and oppression. It causes nightmares and PTSD in people who have been terrorized by the use of the word, "sin."

But biblically, "missing the mark..."? Failing to be perfect? That, I'm fine with. We humans are, after all, imperfect. We miss the mark of perfection. But what of it? Does that make us actually evil? Worthy of the hatred and punishment of God? I do not think that is rational or biblical.

I'd suggest that it's when you add all these human interpretations, opinions and traditions that "sin" becomes problematic.

This is why I prefer to deal with notions like, "Is this harmful or helpful? Does it promote wholesome healing and community... or division and hatred?" That which is harmful is wrong, is a "sin," in the more negative sense that some human traditions and opinions suggest.

Further, "the Bible" has made no "opinion" on "sin." Rather, human writers and thinkers have offered opinions, in the Bible and afterwards. And those opinions are sometimes helpful and sometimes harmful.

As a starting point.