Something Is Wrong Here, Part 2

 

In Post #1, I mentioned that I fear some Christians are not following Jesus's example and teachings, especially when it comes to treatment of what society considers 'outcasts.'  Sometimes I feel like our Western Society has sold out to selfishness and capitalist empire-building. Unfortunately, it started in the early centuries of the Church, around the Third Century AD, when the Church began to buy into the Roman Empire's power-structure way of thinking. Power over others became a higher focus than witnessing to and helping others. In my opinion, if Jesus had thought power was the answer, he would have overthrown the Romans and started an earthly empire of his own.  Many of his early followers expected him to do exactly this.

Instead, Jesus told Pontius Pilate (the representative of the world power of Rome who claimed to have power over him), "You would have no power over me if God had not permitted this." And Jesus added, "My kingdom is not of this world." Over the centuries, the Church sought to establish 'peace' by overcoming the foes they disagreed with. Forgetting that Jesus had promised them "Peace the world cannot give."

But the focus of the church, especially as it moved into the Medieval years, became accumulating wealth and political power, and Jesus's teachings were gradually pushed aside. There were a few 'revivals' over the centuries, but they came and went. Selfishness and thirst for power took over again. In a world where we are supposed to be compassionate and cooperative, instead we fight and compete over the earth's finite resources.

I see our country following the path of the waning Roman Empire--the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The ones with the power are considered above the law. Just look at the recent ruling of the Supreme Court about former presidents having immunity from prosecution. If they weren't guilty of anything, why do they require immunity in the first place? This is so far off-base from the system of Checks and Balances the founders of our nation tried to put into the Constitution that it breaks my heart.

Our nation is headed down a very dark path that has led to the fall of many nations over the centuries. And too many people deny it. Bob Dylan said it well decades ago in his song Blowin' In the Wind: "How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see?"

It may take decades, but we will go the way of the falling Roman Empire, and all the fallen empires that preceded it. The men with the military backing will seize more and more power in order to overthrow the duly elected government. True freedom will be sacrificed for 'comforts and the good life', but at a great cost. (Another picture of this was drawn by George Orwell in his prophetic book 1984.)

Those who don't have the security and comforts of a good life, will be told it's their own fault for being lazy and inferior. At times the masses will rebel and be put down. Leadership will become dictatorship for the sake of  'national security', at the expense of personal liberty. The Pledge of Allegiance will be a pitiful echo of an achievement and dream never reached: "liberty and justice for all."

Perhaps it was a bad omen from the very start that the Liberty Bell cracked. 

Something Is Wrong Here

 I like to watch the birds at my feeders. It's kind of discouraging sometimes, though, to see how they fight over the food. Naturalists would call it "Survival of the fittest." But I see selfishness, especially when two hummingbirds fight over four flower-shaped spigots. Why can't they share?

I guess it's part of our fallen world. Humans do it, too. We want to hoard our possessions, build fences around our property to keep others from having a share. Some have way more than they need, and others have too little. Republicans bristle at the concept of equal distribution of wealth. But it's just plain old selfishness--like little children refusing to share. I know I'm guilty, too. I don't give to charities as much as I should. I have more "stuff" than I need.

America is full of this greed and selfishness. We consume many more times than our share of the earth's resources. And now the little bits that were set aside for the future early in the Twentieth Century--our public lands, national forests, and national parks--are being greedily eyed by the rich industrialists and entrepreneurs to develop--as if they haven't abused and raped enough of the land already.

Some even want to build a "fence" around our whole country to keep the "undesirables" out--the people they don't want to share with or help. Sure, we let some immigrants in, in the past. In fact, unless we're Indigenous People/First Nations, all of us are immigrants.  And look at how we treated those First Nations, plus the poor immigrants who came after the first settlers in this country. Unfortunately, many of the people who fled to America in the 1800s were paid sub-low wages and forced to work in sweatshops and undesirable, dangerous jobs--only allowed the "left overs". A few have risen to the top, and even fewer of those have turned back to help those below them. Instead of building decent housing for those less fortunate, the successful ones build second, third, etc. mansions for themselves. 

The worst part in this century is that many "Christians"--the groups that used to lead the charities, have turned to building their own "empires" instead--bigger and fancier church buildings, for instance. The leading voices who should be advocating for the poor, outcast, "undesirables", are the very ones speaking out against them and supporting the agendas of the rich, who want to turn our country into their private playground and estate--locking the rest of the world out.

Have they completely forgotten that Jesus had "No place to lay his head"? He was homeless! Besides that, he went out of his way to help those undesirables and outcasts. The only people he criticized were the rich religious establishment. I fear that there are way too many people these days who call themselves Christians but are not following the example and teachings of Jesus.

Tune in to my next blog for more on this subject.