Tuesday, January 22, 2019

NOW THAT THEY ARE SAFELY DEAD


Repost from an earlier entry on MLK day. King isn't the only prophet who safely dead and can't speak for himself. 

Now that he is safely dead
Let us praise him.
Build monuments to his glory
Sing hosannas to his name

Dead men make such safe,
Convenient heroes:
They cannot rise to challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.

And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to build a better world.

So, now that he is safely dead
We, with eased consciences
Will teach our children
That he was a great man…knowing

That the cause he lived for
Is still a cause. And that the dream
For which he died is still a dream.
A dead man’s dream.

Carl Wendell Hines Jr. in Drum Major for a Dream

This piece was written in memory of MLK Jr. However it could also describe the fate of the teachings of a certain footsore rabbi who came a cropper when he went against the combined power of Rome and the Jerusalem power structure.

We don’t know what HE taught. He didn’t write anything down. People with their own agendas did write things down and out of those writings at least one author has identified eight distinct theologies. And he believed that seven of those were wrong.

Now that He is safely out of the way we can make just about anything we want out of the scraps that were allowed into the accepted canon and proceed to beat each other over the head with them and build fences with safely locked gates. Above those gates are the words Keep Out.


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