Rumblings. 2.6.26
Rumbling.2.6.26
1. I know almost nothing about Bad Bunny’s music. I know he’s the halftime headliner at The Super Bowl. I do know the political and religious right are counter programming against his halftime show. No surprise, is it? (sigh, how fragile they are)
His remarks at the Grammy Awards spoke to me.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say: ICE out. We are not savages. We are not animals. We are not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.” … “I know it’s tough not to hate on these days, and I was thinking, sometimes we get contaminados – I don’t know how to say that in English – the hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.”
Then he dedicated his win to “all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country to follow their dreams.”
2. I am tired
of Jesus draped in flags
like a campaign banner,
his words trimmed to fit a slogan,
his wounds edited out
because they make donors uncomfortable.
Tired of a Christ
who blesses borders but not bodies,
who flips no tables
unless they belong to the poor,
who preaches “law and order”
while standing on the neck
of the broken.
They make him loud,
angry,
armed with talking points—
a Jesus who never weeps,
never washes feet,
never says love your enemies
without a footnote explaining
why it doesn’t apply this time
They quote him like a weapon,
sharp verses ripped from the sermon,
while the whole mountain
is conveniently ignored.
Blessed are the meek—
they whisper—
but what they mean is
blessed are the strong.
It can't be meek.
Meek is woke.
I am tired of crosses
turned into logos,
resurrection reduced to
“winning,”
and salvation confused
with staying in power.
This Jesus they sell
would not survive
his own gospel.
He would deport the Samaritan,
silence the prophets,
and call the crucified criminal
a threat to public safety.
But the real Jesus
is still out there—
brown,
poor,
unarmed,
walking toward the places
they warn us not to go.
And I am tired enough now
to say it plainly:
If your Jesus fears compassion,
despises the stranger,
and bows before Caesar,
then whatever name you use for him—
it is not the Christ of the Gospels.~ Allan R Bevere
Oh yes, I am tired and weary of this fake Jesus and those who bow before it. But my faith in the real Jesus, not the caricature, keeps breathing life into my tired soul. It reminds me to rest but never to stop caring.
3. I’m proud to say that I never for an instant considered going to a theatre to watch the documentary, “Melania”. I don’t do well with propaganda.
4. Satire by Borowitz
“Hoping to calm nerves after his government arrested reporters Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, on Friday Donald J. Trump reassured the staff at Fox News Channel that he does not consider them journalists. “It’s true that I’m engaging in a systematic attack on the First Amendment rights of journalists,” he told the Fox employees. “But obviously none of that applies to you…”
In a sentiment widely echoed by his colleagues, “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy responded, “Mr. President, we weren’t really worried.”
——
“In a Truth Social post, Trump boasted, “For the past 54 years, the Kennedy Center has been plagued by audiences. I was able to fix that problem in just twelve months!”
5. “Pierre Teilhard de Chardin said that “we reach moral maturity on the day that we realize that we really only have one choice in life: Genuflect before something higher or begin to self-destruct.” ~ Ron Holheizer, OMI
Who or what are you genuflecting to? How’s that working for you? Not well? Do something about it.
6. Thankfully, a judge in MN finally intervened in the case of Liam, the boy wearing the blue hat. He is at home. Who knows for how long? It’s all so incredibly disturbing.
Nothing about ICE raids speaks to valuing human life. Their job is not really about immigration enforcement. It’s not about going after the worst of the worst. It’s first of all, about stoking fear in the lives of ordinary Americans. That’s why ordinary Americans are being persistently resistant. I pray that’s you.
7. Word on the street is that pastors who preach the “Sermon on the Mount” are getting clobbered by congregants who don’t like their ‘woke’ approach.
8. We were at a dinner party the other night. Everyone present was a person of faith, Presbyterians and Episcopalians for the most part. Most were new to us.
The other guests were thoughtful, interesting people. They laughed easily, asked questions, and responded well to each other. Did I sense we were on the same page theologically and/or politically? It didn’t matter. If something controversial had come up, I’m pretty sure the conversation would have been rich with measured, well considered insight.
It was all quite freeing. It felt safe.
9. I try to strike a balance between being informed enough to speak cogently about current events and not getting stuck in unproductive and unnecessary news loops and echo chambers.
10. “I know who I am. The sound is unmistakable . The question is, am I safe enough, am I well enough, am I loved enough to be able to admit it? I don’t know who you are yet, but I believe you do. Who are you when it all goes quiet at night? Who are you by daybreak? What are your loves? Where do you come from?
Trace the lines on your hands. What stories are etched there? Can you be still long enough to listen for something true when the noise of the world seeks to muffle the sound of your interior world? ~ Cole Arthur Riley
When I read and pondered this, the work required to answer her questions sounded very much like a divine assignment.