I WANT TO BE CLEAR

That last post was a rant about a specific branch of Christianity that seems to be unique to America. But not all American Christians belong to the "I accepted Jesus as my savior and that is pretty much all I have to do."

Some of the first responders to natural disasters are often the Amish. Somebody else may be doing the driving but men show up with their tools and get to work. UMCOR, the United Methodist Council on Relief, is often there just behind the Amish and the Mennonites. Nuns run half way houses and support day care centers in inner cities. Good grief Dorothy Day is pracitically up for saint hood. Journalist, anarchist, (oh that word) and devout Catholic, she was one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement.

Martin Luther King was a minister whose faith was the foundation of his belief in civil and economic rights not just for African Americans but for everyone. the irony is that his growing radicalism is largely ignored in mainstream America. It's as if the last five years of his life didn't happen. He gave that famous speech, went to Memphis and, well you know the rest.

Thomas Merton was a cloistered Trappist monk whose biting commentaries in support of peace and against nuclear weapons were supported by his faith, not in spite of it.

Those few who know me, know that I have a twisted sense of humor. I just had this vision of that itinerant rabbi back up in wherever God/dess hangs out. "I tramped around Gallilee and Judea for three years. I didn't really preach anything that Amos, Micah, Jeremiah and the rest hadn't already preached. Thanks for the miracles by the way. I went up against the temple establishement who turned me over to the Romans. I freakin' died. Maybe it WAS temporary but going through the one to get to the other was pretty darn painful. And this is what some of my so called followers are claiming in MY NAME?????" Fill in the blanks after that.

If I've stepped on any toes it was not my intention. But I do have to wonder what does go on in the world on the other side of the veil. If the spirits do try to help or have so many of us have become so spiritually tone deaf that we may end up spending a few cycles as dung beatles to teach us humility.