Start with Religion and Politics, End with Religion and Politics

Start with Religion and Politics, End with Religion and Politics

 

The entire concept of Christmas, I don’t want to say Christianity, because I don’t want to limit it to Catholicism, but if I go back to the beginning, the concept is that God or Spirit, whatever you choose to name it, came together to inhabit a human form on this earth, at least the little I understand.

Okay, so God came to inhabit a human form. And then through, get this, politics, politics at the time, this gentle, compassionate, all loving being was seen as threatening to the powers that be. For what would happen if this non-imposing being somehow drew people to follow him? Then people would no longer listen to, or be able to be controlled by, those in power, and those in power would lose their “power” and God forbid that should happen, and so what do they do? They kill that which is threatening their power. And the Romans thus eliminated the threat that they didn’t even understand instead of taking the risk of trying to understand.

Essentially, they said, “See? He is not a god but is mortal. He bleeds, he suffers, he dies. He is only human and is not some all-powerful being, not some God descended to earth to save all those praying to be saved. He is a mockery, and not a Messiah.” And just like that, goodness and light and kindness and compassion, acceptance, love, real love, agape love, is killed. At least so they thought. But here is my point, and I am not trying to make any theological arguments as I am not a theologian.

That complete love, the divine, the spirit of God, in many religions the idea that there is a fragment of God in each of us is a common thread in religions, especially Native American beliefs. With Jesus Christ the idea is he died so that we could all have a piece of the divine within us if we accept Him in our heart. There are many variations, and in my faith, there are a few that believe that Jesus was the Messiah, very few, and most believe She or He has not come yet.

I, however, believe we all have a fragment of the divine within us, we all have a fragment of the material that exploded when the big bang occurred billions of years ago when our solar system and our galaxy were formed. In each of us we carry some piece of the whole and this is part of what connects us all to each other on this earth, that we are all cut from the same original cloth. We are all related. If we traced our origins back far enough, we are all related.

When Christ was crucified humanity managed to attempt to snuff out one who represented love and peace. I think there is a connection to the idea of accepting Jesus as one’s savior, and the idea that there is some of the divine in each of us. There is some fragment of the ancient beginnings of the universe that is within us, that is part of our atoms, molecules, cells in our body. Some of humanity at the time Jesus was crucified, those in control of the power, sought to snuff out the idea that there is love in each of our hearts and that love conquers all.

We still struggle with this to this day, and in the world, we have many areas of turmoil, of inhumanity to man, wars, hatred, small-mindedness, selfishness, racism and bigotry, and all that goes along with that. Things have not changed all that much from the time Jesus was crucified. Or maybe they have. I don’t know. I want to believe they have but lately I have much doubt.

I am hopeful that the good in the world is greater than the evil. That love and compassion is greater than greed and selfishness, greater than the brutality of careless lashing out and aggression. I am thinking of our current president and what it would take for a large percentage of our population to display our displeasure with all that he stands for. What would it take to rid ourselves of him and his appointees who are destroying the protections we have put into place for our resources, our environment, our female rights, our diversity, our compassion, our society as we know it?

What would it take to say, “Stop. We had enough of you. Stop. You are a disgrace to our humanity and to the very fabric of our democracy. We want you to stop before you do more damage than you’ve already done.”

Here is an individual that seems to lack the spark of the divine within himself. Or it is so buried under layers of hurt or pain that he cannot access any honest display of compassion, of vulnerability, because that would be showing weakness, and we all know by now that bullies have been bullied in their lives. Probably very early on.

Here is a person who knows no other way. His vision is not only making America “Not Great”, his actions are serving the Putins of our world who want to see America’s role as a world leader diminished, tarnished, and in ruins. And we will pay dearly for it if we allow him to continue his destruction of the basic tenets of our government and our society, and our humanity.

nmitchk@aol.com

Categories

Archives