"If Jesus was to preach like He preached in Galilee, They would lay Jesus Christ in His grave."
-Woody Guthrie
There are warmongers masquerading as Christians in our country today. Their strength rests in bombs, violence and hate, but inside they are weak. They lack the courage to create a lasting peace through the love and compassion that Jesus Christ and all the other peacemakers of our time preached of. We as a human race, in order to preserve our dignity and our freedoms, must rise up against those who believe that they can abuse and oppress any member of humanity for their own personal gain. It is with this kind of unity that we will realize that the select few hold views of war and oppression while the rest are brutalized and shaped by the inhumanity of those in power.
Religion is a great thing in the hands of the right people: these people of faith must not only reach out to help the voiceless but must preach the true principles and values that were hijacked from the people and altered to benefit the elite. Having faith in the courage and determination of our fellow human beings and acting upon this unity will cause the earth to shake, and once mighty kingdoms shall fall. Religion has no place in our government, but it must have a place in our democratic movement in order for people to have the courage to stand up: we shall be empowered and make great things happen.
Jesus Christ was a man who helped the poor and blessed the peacemakers: I can only imagine what Jesus would say about the so-called Christians who defend war and preach hate while lining their pockets with wads of cash. Many television personalities who support the War in Iraq call themselves Christians, labeling the war a humanitarian effort. But I would argue that spewing hate in the name of Jesus is as immoral as using His name in vain. If you listen to what they say you would assume that someone by the name of General Jesus had ridden across the world leading a powerful army, forging peace and love through brute force. However, we must educate, not bomb: rebuild, not destroy. What would be a real miracle is if these backwards souls realize that we could have paid to educate every single child in the world with what we are spending on the Iraq War alone, just to name one example. Jesus forged the road to peace and justice through nonviolent means, not through poverty, war, plutocracy and revenge. Now that it is our turn to lead in these efforts, will we pursue cause of peace or continue grasping at the last straws of war?
Encouraging us to stand up for the vulnerable, the voiceless and the oppressed, Jesus understood that it is up to all of us to help the less fortunate because it is the moral thing to do. Yet our "Christianist" President gives tax cuts to the wealthiest among us while leaving the less fortunate to drown in New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina hit. Now instead of the meek inheriting the earth, their land is being stolen from underneath their feet. With a growing income gap between the middle class and the wealthy, and with "Chief executive officers in the United States [earning] 262 times the pay of an average worker in 2005," it is plain to see that Bush's priorities are not those of Jesus or other religious prophets. All that matters to him is the all-mighty dollar, a false idol that was unimportant to Jesus in comparison to the well-being of humanity. The imposter religion preached by those in the current administration as well as many other political and religious figures has forged a secure power structure meant to benefit those at the very top, corrupting them and leading them not on a moral path but on a path farther from God. Though deceivers preach moral values to get elected their words are empty and their inaction is criminal.
The Judas Iscariot that will lay waste to the decency of humanity is still alive and well in those who deny the power of peace and love, in those whose loyalty rests with oppressors who cause massive suffering instead of using their hands to feed the hungry, aid the oppressed and re-till the soils of the earth. The golden rule, "thou shall not kill," has been transformed from a practice to a formality for those seeking power, control and dominion over earth's resources and the less fortunate. Those who seek to achieve their goals through violence rather than uncovering their love for all of humanity, whether those using terror are in power or are being oppressed, have no place in our society. Jesus challenged the wisdom of these so-called authority figures with nonviolence, and so must we. We can either carry the message of peace in our hearts or let these lessons be lost forever in the collective voices of unreason and intolerance, echoing not from our hearts but from the mouths of fools, warmongers, and deceivers. Their words are weak and their weapons futile, for our collective resolve can never be broken even from the mightiest wave of hatred.
When we stand up for what is right, even in the face of overwhelming obstacles, what seem like insurmountable mountains in front of us will crumble, becoming grains of sand withered through time. For those of you who believe I sound overly optimistic, I too am aware of the long and treacherous road we have to embark upon to achieve our goals. However, I feel that more people than you think are longing for this kind of optimism. They have witnessed the most heinous crimes of humanity in their lifetimes and may feel powerless against what they see as inevitable. We must remember, however, that what we as a people forge is inevitable, and forfeiting our humanity and power to those who attempt to take away our freedom, our dignity, our compassion, our tolerance and our democracy is not our fate as long as our courage and our collective faith in peace between all peoples grows stronger with every passing day. The time has come to act for the wellbeing of all humanity and to put religion in the hands of those that will not abuse and distain it: our own.
Sources:
Reuters (2006, June 21) CEOs earn 262 times pay of average worker, Reuters News Service
http://go.reuters.com/...
Pastordan (2006, July 6) For the Christians. Daily Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/...
(I did not use quotes from it to write my article, but it was a great article)