Emeritus professor of Peace & Social Justice Studies. Liberation theologian. Activist. Former R.C. priest. Married for 48 years. Three grown children. Eight grandchildren.
Just yesterday, our extended family returned from a week in Alaska celebrating a landmark birthday of our daughter. She and our son-in-law observed the occasion by treating us all to a week-long cruise in our country’s northern-most state. Here are my reflections on this never-to-be forgotten experience.
Unplugged for a week In Nature’s wilderness. We cruised Alaska’s Inside Passage 12 pilgrims (five of them small children) Finding divine presence Everywhere Including games Of Yahtzee, Go Fish, Poker, War And endless rounds of Monopoly.
We started out In Petersburg’s fishing village With its canneries Reeking of halibut and salmon, Boats of all sorts, And Alaskan natives All wearing Levis, Weathered baseball caps Padded parkas And rubber boots Reaching beyond their calves In the mid-August rain.
Our vessel was a 100-foot yacht Called “Golden Eagle,” With its crew of five All under 30 – Its captain of 27 years Eager to talk of God Justice and Karl Marx, A wondrously skilled cook, Two naturalist guides Wise and competent beyond their years, And a delightful 20-year-old concierge.
With them, we hiked, kayaked, fished And immersed our selves In Alaska’s stark wonder Beyond anything Previously experienced: Spruce-covered mountains Blue calving glaciers Whales by the score, Sea lions, seals, otters, bald eagles, Wild churning waterfalls And a steaming hot spring Beside an icy lake,
All the while We read Michener's Alaska With its tales Of seductive cave women 12,000 years ago Of huge mastodons Saber tooth tigers, And giant Grizzlies 11 feet tall, Of sailors, miners, clergymen Saints and remorseless sinners Who slaughtered unsuspecting natives And purposely vitiated them With rum, racism and rapes Of native teenage girls Afterwards kicked and spat upon, Of heroic Eskimos With their mighty sled dogs, And enormous capacity To endure cold, long journeys Stupid Russians And even denser Americans.
It was the familiar story Of imperialist settlers And their colonial theft Of native wealth Arrogant beyond belief Imagining that white men Have a Manifest Destiny To ravish, torture, and kill Their humble betters Destroying Everything in their path Leaving chaos in their wake And Mother Nature prostrate, And bleeding to death.
Once we entered An empty lighthouse On a tiny island – A stubborn relic Of FDR’s New Deal, A sometime research center For maritime scholars And whale-trackers Who live there like monks Each summer And sleep in spartan bunkbeds Leaving behind crude sketches Of whales with Signature painted flukes, Along with Flashlights, compasses, charts And scattered coffee cups –
All proof Of purposes other Than ours And of transcendent life forms In that vast harsh outpost Across the well-worn foot path That became Captain Bering’s Strait For millions Man and beast alike.
Readings for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time: Is. 66: 18-21; PS. 117: 1-2; HEB. 12: 5-7, 11-13; LK. 13: 22-30.
Messages from God can come from the most unlikely places – even from our enemies and those our culture considers inferior and evil. That’s the teaching I find in today’s liturgy of the word. There God speaks to Babylonians through Jews, and to Romans through Christians. This suggests to me that God might be evangelizing Americans today through Muslims. _____ Consider our first reading from Isaiah.
Imagine yourself a Babylonian in the 6th century BCE. You belong to an empire – one of the most powerful nations the world has ever seen.
In 586 your people conquered a small insignificant nation called “Israel.” Its leaders have been taken captive, and for more than three generations (586-516) have remained prisoners of your country. They are your enemies. You despise them as inferior, superstitious and violent.
Now towards the end of the 6th century, one of their “holy men,” someone called “Isaiah,” claims that those captives, those refugees, those “fugitives” as Isaiah calls them, are agents of the single God of the Universe. They have been sent specifically to call you away from your polytheistic worship of your Gods, Anshar, Ea and Enlil, and to recognize that there is only one God. They call him Yahweh. This God has special care specifically for refugees, slaves and outcasts in general.
For you, recognizing that entails releasing the prisoners your government has held captive for so long.
Even more, Isaiah says you and your proud people are being called to actually worship that God of refugees, political prisoners, and slaves! That means putting their needs first, while subordinating your own.
As Babylonian, you find all of this incredible and obviously insane. ______ Now to grapple with today’s gospel selection from Luke, imagine that you are a Roman living towards the end of the 1st century CE.
You belong to an empire recognized to this day as the greatest the world has ever known. As with the Babylonians more than 500 years earlier, Palestine and its Jewish people are provincial possessions of the empire; they are your captives. Roman legions continue to occupy Palestine whose haughty people resist their occupiers at every turn.
“Jews are nothing but terrorists, every one of them,” you think.
Among the most infamous of those terrorists was a man called Jesus of Nazareth. You’ve learned that he was a Jewish peasant crucified by Rome about the year 30 CE. You’ve heard that a new kind of religion has formed around that so-called “martyr.” In fact, his followers acclaim him by a title belonging to the Roman emperor alone – Son of God. To you that sounds absolutely seditious.
In any case, this Jesus asserted that the God he called “father” was blind to people’s national origins. He told a parable (in today’s gospel) whose refrain from a thinly veiled God figure was, “I do not know where you are from.” Apparently Jesus meant that in God’s eyes no nation – not even Rome – is superior to any other.
You wonder, was Jesus blind? No nation superior to any other? Did Jesus not have eyes to see Rome’s power, its invincible army, and feats of engineering – the aqueducts, the roads, the splendid buildings and fountains?
According to Jesus, Israel itself is not above other nations in the eyes of God. Nor are his own followers better than anyone else. Even those who drank with him and shared meals with him could not on that account claim special status in God’s eyes.
In fact, the only “superiors” are what Jesus called “the least” – his kind of people: artisans, peasants, the unemployed, beggars, prostitutes, lepers, immigrants, women and children. As in today’s reading from Luke, Jesus calls these people “the last.” In God’s eyes, they are “the first,” he said. Meanwhile those who are first in the eyes of Rome, Israel, and even of his followers end up being outcasts.
Worse still, many Romans, especially slaves and criminals, are embracing this new religion. Some in the Empire’s capital city are already worrying that if not stopped, this worship of an executed criminal from a marginal imperial province might undermine the religion of the Roman Gods, Jupiter, Mithra and of the emperor himself.
How absurd, you think, that Romans could be schooled in matters theological by riff-raff, Jews, and terrorist sympathizers. _____
Finally, imagine that you are an American today. Many think that your country is the proud successor of Babylon and Rome. In fact, the United States may have surpassed Rome’s greatness. Certainly, it has the most powerful military machine the world has ever known. It has the capacity to destroy the earth itself, should its leaders take that decision.
Some attribute America’s greatness to its embrace of the faith of Jesus of Nazareth and to its partnership with Israel, the biblical People of God. As a result the U.S. has become the light of the world, the “city on a hill that cannot be hidden” (Mt. 5: 14-16). America can do no wrong.
This is not to say that its leaders aren’t fallible. They make their share of mistakes and even commit crimes. Yes, they torture, support dictators across the planet, imprison a higher percentage of their citizens than anyone else, drop atomic bombs, even threaten the extinction of human life as we know it, and have declared a state of permanent war against virtually the entire world.
But as a nation, the United States, you continue to believe, is idealistic; it stands for democracy, freedom and equality. As a result, America continues to enjoy God’s special protection.
Nevertheless, there are those in your midst who say that none of this is true. They are like the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob living in 6th century Babylon. They are like the first Christians who refused allegiance to Rome. They are the foreigners found in U.S. prisons all around the world – in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.
By and large, those prisoners, those (in Isaiah’s terms) “fugitives” and exiles share a religious faith (Islam) that is as difficult for most Americans to understand as it was for Babylonians to understand Jews or for Romans to understand Christians. The faith of those held captive by America today is largely the faith of poor people called “terrorists” by your government – just as were the Jews and early followers of Jesus.
However, closer examination shows that Allah is the same as the Jewish God, Yahweh. Moreover Muslims recognize Jesus as the greatest of God’s biblical agents.
With that in mind, you realize that Muslims routinely invoke their faith to resist U.S. imperial rule. And they are critical of the use of Judaism and Christianity to justify oppression of their brothers and sisters in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Bahrain, Somalia, throughout the rest of Africa and elsewhere.
Could it be that these exiles, captives, fugitives, “terrorists,” might be your empire’s equivalents of 6th century Jews in relation to Babylon and of 1st century Christians vis-a-vis Rome? Could they possibly be God’s agents calling us Americans away from heartless imperialism and to the worship of the true God (even if called “Allah”)?
Are our Muslim captives reiterating the words of Jesus in this morning’s gospel: God is oblivious to people’s national origins and to physical ties to Jesus? The Master “does not know where we are from” even if we’ve shared table with him. It makes no difference if we’re Jews or Christians, Babylonians, Romans, Americans, or Muslims.
Only the treatment of “the least” is important in God’s eyes. And for us Americans, those “least,” those “last” happen to be the poor of the Islamic world against whom our government has declared permanent war. And what is their God’s demand? It’s simple: Stop the war on us and our religion!
Is their God – our God – trying to save us – and the planet from the crimes of American Empire?
The fates of Babylon and Rome hang over us all like Damocles’ sword.
Dan Geery is a friend of mine who publishes regularly on OpEdNews. His first novel, A Summer with Freeman, is terrific book — so well written. Its sparkling and hilarious prose seemed like the work of a veteran novelist, not that of a first timer. The dialog is funny and realistic. And the whole story about fourteen-year-old Joey Simpson and his first summer with a new friend, fifteen-year-old Freddie Freeman, made me recall my own coming of age as I’m sure it does for most of Dan’s readers. This is movie-quality work.
Set in the 1950s, the book has all the elements most of us recall:
Unhappiness at school
Summers with time to do the unthinkable
Building forts and get-aways from parents and younger siblings
Experiencing bullying
Trying to be tough, despite it all
Overriding interests in comic books, girls and sex and early dabbling in cigarettes and liquor
Fascination with cars and driving
Key friendships with bigger, tougher, older, and wiser guys who were “wilder” and devil-may-care
Early crushes and idealizations of their objects, who often turn out to be the opposite of what the crushes fancied
General confusion before the mysteries of life
For me, the most unforgettable moments included:
Narrow escapes from the local bully and his gang especially in a furious bike-get-away and a concluding showdown at the local swimming hole
Freeman’s wild ride in the convertible he vengefully “borrowed” from the bully himself
An encounter with a pretty, flirtatious waitress in the local diner
Joey’s painful meetings with the women of his dreams, Maggie and Anabelle
Joey and Freeman’s downing two bottles of gin in the woods
Catholic Joey’s confession to an overly-inquisitive priest
I must admit that I once tried my hand at writing book-length fiction. And, according to my guide, Writing a Novel and Getting it Published, it transformed me into a successful novelist at least according to the book’s definition. It said a successful novelist is “any writer who has completed a project generally recognizable as a novel.” By those standards, yes: I made it. However, that’s where my success concluded. My novel turned out to be stodgy, moralistic, and filled with “telling” rather than “showing.”
Daniel Geery’s first novel, A Summer with Freeman, has none of that. It’s a rollicking read and an evocative entertaining tale that will have you smiling, if not laughing, from beginning to end.
Readings for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time: JER 38: 4-10; PS 40: 2-4, 18; HEB 12:1-4; LK 12: 49-53
Today’s
gospel excerpt presents problems for any serious homilist. That’s because it
introduces us to an apparently violent Jesus. It makes one wonder; why does the
Church select such problematic passages for Sunday reading? What’s a pastor to
make of them?
On the
other hand, perhaps it’s all providential. I say that because, today’s gospel
might unwittingly help us understand that even the best of imperialism’s
victims (perhaps even Jesus) are drawn towards reactive, revolutionary, or
self-defensive violence. After all, Jesus and his audiences were impoverished
victims of Roman plunder. By the standards most Christians today accept, they
had the right to defend themselves “by any means necessary.”
Here’s
what I mean. Without apology, today’s reading from Luke has the ‘Prince of
Peace” saying, “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish
it were already blazing . . . Do you think that I have come to establish peace
on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
In a
parallel passage, Matthew’s version is even more direct. He has Jesus saying,
“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to
bring peace, but a sword.”
Is that
provocative enough for you?
What’s
going on here? What happened to “Turn the other cheek,” and “Love your enemy?”
There are two main
answers to the question. One is offered by Muslim New Testament scholar, Reza
Aslan, the other by Jesus researcher, John Dominic Crossan. Aslan associates the shocking
words attributed to Jesus in this morning’s gospel directly with Jesus himself.
Crossan connects them with the evangelists, Luke and Matthew who evidently
found Jesus’ nonviolent resistance (loving enemies, turning the other cheek)
too difficult to swallow for people living under the jackboot of Roman
imperialism.
For his
part, Aslan points out that the only God Jesus knew and the sole God he
worshipped was the God of Jewish scripture. That God was a “man of war” (Exodus
15:3). He repeatedly commands the wholesale slaughter of every foreign man,
woman, and child who occupies the land of the Jews. He’s the “blood-spattered
God of Abraham, and Moses, and Jacob, and Joshua (Isaiah 63:3). He is the God
who “shatters the heads of his enemies” and who bids his warriors to bathe
their feet in their blood and leave their corpses to be eaten by dogs (Psalms
68: 21-23). This is a God every bit as violent as any the Holy Koran has to
offer.
For
Aslan, Jesus’ words about turning the other cheek and loving enemies pertained
only to members of the Jewish community. They had nothing to do with the
presence of hated foreigners occupying and laying claim to ownership of Israel,
which in Jewish eyes belonged only to God. Accordingly, Jesus words about his
commitment to “the sword” expressed the hatred he shared with his compatriots
for the Roman occupiers.
In
other words, when it came to Roman imperialists, Jesus was not a pacifist. He
issued no call for nonviolence or nonresistance. Quite the opposite.
John Dominic Crossan
disagrees. For him the earliest layers of tradition (even the
“Q” source in Matthew and Luke) reveal a champion of
non-violent resistance. In fact, the Master’s earliest instructions to his
disciples tell them to travel freely from town to town. But in doing so, they
are to wear no sandals, carry no backpack, and no staff. He instructs: “Take
nothing for the journey–no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt”
(LK 9:3).
Crossan
finds the prohibition against carrying a staff highly significant. The staff,
of course, was a walking stick. However, it was also a defensive weapon against
wild animals – and robbers.
So,
with this proscription Jesus seems to prohibit carrying any weapon – even a
purely defensive one like the staff all travelers used.
Apparently,
that was too much for the evangelist, Mark. Recall that he wrote the earliest
of the canonical gospels we have – during or slightly before the Great Jewish
Rebellion against Rome (66-70 CE). Matthew and Luke later copied and adapted
his text for their own audiences – one Jewish (in the case of Matthew), the
other gentile (in the case of Luke). Mark remembers Jesus’ directions like
this: “He instructed them to take nothing but a staff for the journey–no bread,
no bag, no money in their belts” (MK 6:8).
Notice
that Mark differs from what Crossan identifies as the earliest Jesus traditions
upon which Matthew and Luke depended. Instead of prohibiting carrying a staff,
Mark’s Jesus identifies the staff as the only thing Jesus’ disciples are
allowed to carry. Evidently, that seemed more sensible to a pragmatic Mark than
the words Jesus probably spoke. I mean, everyone needs to at least protect
themselves from violent others.
Matthew
and Luke prove even more pragmatic. By the time we get to them (almost two
generations after Jesus’ death and fifteen or twenty years after Mark), we find
their Jesus commanding that his disciples carry, not just a staff, but a sword
– an offensive, lethal weapon. Matthew even portrays Jesus’ right-hand-man,
Peter, actually armed with a sword the night Jesus was arrested. Jesus has to
tell him: “Put away your sword. Those who live by the sword will perish by the
sword” (MT 26:52). (It makes one wonder if Peter was absent the day Jesus gave
instruction about turning the other cheek and loving one’s enemies. Or is Aslan
correct about Jesus’ militancy?)
In
other words, on Crossan’s reading, it is the gospel authors, not Jesus himself,
who subscribe to belief in the blood-spattered God of the Jewish Testament.
Jesus’ God was the Forgiving One who recognized no one as enemy, and who (as his
later actions showed) refused to defend himself. His dying words were about
forgiving his executioners.
Crossan
reasons that this more pacifist Jesus is probably the authentic one, precisely
because his words (and actions) contradict so radically the Jewish tradition’s
violent God.
So,
whose words do we encounter in today’s gospel? Can we attribute them to the
historical Jesus or to his disciples who found themselves unable to accept the
Master’s radical non-violence?
Whatever
our answer, the shocking words we encounter today remind us that even people of
great faith (Mark, Matthew, Luke – or perhaps even Jesus himself) despise
imperial invaders. Their arming themselves and fighting revolutionary wars
(like the 66-70 Uprising) are completely understandable.
In any
case, by gospel (and Koranic?) standards such rebellion is more justified than
the entirely unacceptable violence of imperial invasion.
Does
any of this shed light on ISIS response to U.S. Middle Eastern invasions,
bombings, torture centers and dronings? As a Christian, what would be your
response if foreigners did in our country what U.S. soldiers and pilots are
doing in Arabia? Would you be a non-violent resister as Crossan says Jesus was?
Or would you take up arms – the way violent insurgents have done in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Ethiopia, and elsewhere?
Which
Jesus do you follow? Can you understand religious people who in the face of
United States imperialism say: “I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I
wish it were already blazing . . . Do you think that I have come to establish
peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Sunday’s New York Times carried a thought-provoking editorial by opinion writer at large, Charles Warzel. It was entitled, “Epstein Suicide Conspiracies Show How Our Information System Is Poisoned.” The article lamented the power of Twitter and other social media to spread toxic conspiracy theories reflecting our current culture’s worst “choose your own reality” tendencies.
According to Warzel, Twitter and other versions of social
media have actually “outmatched” the power of the mainstream media (MSM). And
this to such an extent that an FBI field office recently identified fringe
conspiracy theories as a domestic terror threat.
Warzel illustrated his point by focusing on Twitter speculation regarding the Clinton’s involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein “suicide” and on President Trump’s role in advancing the theory. The editorial complained about resulting “dueling hashtags” with their viral accusations of foul play.
The unexpressed message of the whole exercise seemed to be that
conspiracy theories are bad in themselves and that one would do better to
simply accept the more reasonable official story emanating from the CIA, FBI,
and prison officials that Epstein actually did commit suicide as
explained by those official sources. Fevered accusations of foul play are ipso
facto unreasonable.
Others whose opinions have appeared in sources such as OpEdNews have made that point more explicitly. Forget exciting conspiracies, they cautioned, simply accept the boring reality that Epstein killed himself just as we’ve been told.
The point I wish to make here strongly disagrees. I contend
that in cases like Epstein’s mysterious death, conspiracy theories are not only
good; they are inevitable and necessary. Additionally, the overwhelming power
of Twitter and other social media to “outmatch” that of mainstream media
represents the public’s healthy recognition of the fact that the government
officials and the MSM (like The New York Times) are no longer reliable.
Their “official stories” must be presumed false unless otherwise demonstrated
by irrefutable evidence. Such evidence will come to light not by internal
investigations, but by full legal process involving (yes!) conspiracy theories,
discovery and trial.
“Conspiracy” Is A Legal Category
My first point is to recognize the fact that the term “conspiracy”
is not synonymous with fiction or paranoid fantasy. It is a legal term referring
to the crime that occurs when two or more people plan actions forbidden by law.
In other words, criminal conspiracies happen all the time. People go to jail
for them.
In fact, “conspiracy theories” are routinely employed by
prosecutors who use them to initiate investigations when such crime is
suspected. Without lawyers’ conspiracy theories, there would never be any criminal
trials involving two or more suspects.
With such theories in mind, prosecutors gather evidence. Some of it is circumstantial or inferential (it’s usually what sparks legal inquiry). Other evidence constitutes direct or “smoking gun verification. Juries and judges evaluate evidence of both kinds. When it is convincing beyond reasonable doubt (based on direct and/or circumstantial evidence), the legal system convicts conspirators and sentences them accordingly.
The bottom line here: It does not discredit a theory to call
it “conspiratorial.”
Official Stories Are Suspect
My second point is that the public has not merely good, but excellent
reason to discount official theories about, well, EVERYTHING! Think about:
Iraq and Colin Powell’s testimony before the United Nations about the certainty of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction
The New York Times’ endorsement of his testimony as “masterful and compelling”
The literally thousands of obvious lies that our current chief executive has uttered – and how he adds to them each day
Secretary of State (and former CIA chief), Mike Pompeo’s boastful admission that he and the agency he formerly headed lie, cheat, and steal on a routine basis. In fact, he said, the CIA sponsors whole courses for its agents on how to do so effectively. (Imagine a witness at trial admitting on stand that he is an inveterate liar. Would his testimony be taken seriously?)
The testimony of numerous CIA defectors revealing that the CIA has routinely conspired to assassinate heads of state and others considered enemies or persons who know too much
Epstein’s Death Is Welcome
My third point is that there exists reasonable circumstantial and direct motive for suspecting that important people had good cause to want Jeffrey Epstein dead and that he was murdered accordingly. All of them are related in Whitney Webb’s comprehensive historical account of government-sanctioned sex enterprises like Epstein’s. In fact, Webb’s four-part series ends up detailing motives for Epstein’s murder on the part of the powerful including the following:
Epstein was a convicted pedophile who preyed on underage girls. (He even called his private plane “the Lolita Express.”)
Bill Clinton with his checkered sexual history traveled on Epstein’s plane at least two dozen times.
Donald Trump admired Epstein for his taste in younger women.
Trump has been described (e.g. in Webb’s series) as “mentored” by Roy Cohn, another pedophile who used tape recordings and videos for purposes of blackmail.
Alexander Acosta was told to back off prosecution of Epstein because of the latter’s association with “Intelligence.”
It is standard operating procedure for “Intelligence” to film and record sexual deviance for purposes of blackmail and evidence-gathering.
Epstein sponsored frequent parties involving a virtual Who’s Who of world leaders and other celebrities.
The parties were also said to be attended by “call boys” and “call girls.”
Epstein had tapes of sexual deviance, some of them locked in a safe indicating their special content.
Reasons for suspecting that Epstein was killed or purposely allowed
to commit suicide include the following:
Epstein was an extraordinarily important federal prisoner.
After his arrest, he was placed on suicide watch – at least for a time following his apparent suicide attempt last month.
He was sequestered in a highly secure federal prison presumably with special capacities for monitoring inmates on such watch, including video cameras and guards trained for such duties.
Nonetheless, Epstein somehow found himself with a rope, a belt, with sheets or some other material sufficient to hang himself.
He was inexplicably given unmonitored time to accomplish the task.
Where Do We Go from Here?
There is no claim here that the details presented above somehow “prove” foul play regarding the “suicide” of Jeffrey Epstein. However, they do provide basis for reasonable conspiracy theories sufficient (and necessary) to warrant legal indictments – perhaps of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s reputed procurer of unsuspecting girls. The conspiracy theories in question warrant discovery processes, trials, presentation of evidence, deliberation by juries of peers, verdicts, and eventual clarification of the whole Jeffrey Epstein saga.
Only such legal processes will yield truthful conclusions. Internal investigations by proven and admitted liars will not do. Neither will out-of-hand dismissal of “conspiracy theories” as though the phrase exclusively describes fictional fantasies or paranoid imaginings. As presented by Charles Warzel and others such dismissals simply mean that the theories in question are socially, culturally, and politically unacceptable – too threatening to consider. So, rational analysts should back off.
Actually, as shown above, the theories are good and necessary. And so are the vilified social media through which The People thankfully counteract MSM disinformation and its defense of the given order and the official stories undergirding its undeserved legitimacy.
I could hardly believe my eyes Saturday morning, when I read in Alternet that Jeffery Epstein was found dead in his jail cell of apparent suicide. And I find it hard to believe that he killed himself, especially since he’s been on “suicide watch” since the discovery of apparently self-inflicted bruises on his neck last month. Instead, I suspect he was killed by the CIA. My suspicion is based on my close reading for the past few days of muckraker, Whitney Webb‘s three-part expose´, “The Jeffery Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail.”
Webb’s series makes the point that the Epstein pedophilia scandal threatened to blow apart the entire U.S. government house of cards. It opened up a potentially devastating window not only on the sordid lives of Epstein and his close friends, Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, but on the profound corruption of the entire U.S. government and of international politics as a whole. Though connected with the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church, the scale of the Epstein branch of institutionalized child abuse absolutely dwarfs the shameful hypocrisy of justly vilified ecclesiastical criminals.
Epstein’s federal trial was scheduled to begin next summer. This means that the details of his crimes (and, more importantly, those of his high-placed patrons’) would steal headlines at the height of the general election of 2020. The evidence to be presented there is said to comprise more than one million pages.
In the light of what I’ll detail below, one can only imagine the surprises contained therein and whom those pages implicate. And given Epstein’s close association with Donald Trump and the Clintons (not to mention the other billionaire residents of Palm Beach Island in Florida), the trial and evidence presented at that crucial moment would likely have had an impact of the presidential election. Wayne Madsen for one, speculates that it may have already influenced the resignations of several Republicans from the House of Representatives.
Epstein, of course, is the alleged hedge fund tycoon whose central role in a pedophilia network came to light when he was arrested last July on Federal charges of sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. Previously, he had been convicted of molesting an underage girl, but had mysteriously served what’s been described as the most lenient sentence in history for crimes like his — 13 months in a county jail during which he was free to leave during the day.
Alexander Acosta, Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor was responsible for securing the ludicrous sentence, when Acosta served as Attorney General for the Southern District of Florida. On Epstein’s arrest last July, the FBI found hundreds of photos, videos, and recordings of child molestations some of them allegedly involving prominent public figures.
According to Webb’s expose´ , the Epstein story is merely the tip of a dark iceberg much bigger than most of us realize. The darkness below the surface stretches back more than 75 years. It involves not only Epstein, but the CIA, its Israeli counterpart the Mossad, the Mafia as a CIA asset, the mysterious MEGA Group of influential billionaires, many government officials, and other high rollers with familiar names.
Webb’s series unveils what she terms “Government by Blackmail” an all-encompassing political strategy that began at least as far back as the conclusion of the Second Inter-Capitalist War. As the phrase suggests, Government by Blackmail consists in luring heads of state and other powerful world figures into compromising situations (often with underage “prostitutes” of both sexes), filming them in the process, and then using such evidence as leverage to extort huge sums of money, to extract favors and actually shape the world’s political economy. It extended to the Mafia, for instance, a virtual license to kill without legal repercussion.
As an alleged intelligence asset himself (of either the CIA, Mossad, or both) Epstein’s job was to gather the required evidence. To that end, he placed in compromising and seductive situations government officials from across the world. His mansions, private islands, and fleet of jet planes provided the venues. They were the sites of fabulous parties featuring alcohol, drugs, and underage “call boys” and “call girls.” All the locales were equipped with sophisticated recording devices, both audio and video, and two-way mirrors for recording acts of criminal pedophilia and other crimes or embarrassments on the parts of Epstein’s “friends” and acquaintances. Invitees included heads of state from across the planet Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, of course, among them.
But, Webb reveals, Epstein is only the latest iteration of Government by Blackmail. He’s the clone of figures like the Mafia kingpin Myer Lansky, and Lew Rosenstiel (of Schenley distilleries). During the ’70s and ’80s Rosenstiel, Lansky’s close friend, regularly threw what his fourth wife (of five) called “blackmail parties.” According to Webb, the photos and recordings gathered there long kept Lansky out of trouble from the federal government. They also delivered entire cities to Mafia control in the post WWII era. In fact, Lansky entrapped for blackmail purposes, numerous top politicians, army officers, diplomats and police officials. He had photos of FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover in drag and performing homosexual acts.
Rosenstiel’s protegee and successor as blackmailer-in-chief was Roy Cohn, who at the age of 23 was a close adviser of Senator Joseph McCarthy. More importantly, he was also associated with Mafia bosses, J. Edgar Hoover, the Reagan White House and has been described as a mentor of Donald Trump. His mentor!
Simultaneously, Cohn took on the central role in the blackmail pedophile racket Lansky and Rosenstiel had started. As usual, its main targets were politicians often interacting with child prostitutes. That was the source of Cohn’s power. So were his dear friends in high places including (besides Clinton and Trump) Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy, Barbara Walters, Rupert Murdoch, Alan Dershowitz, Andy Warhol, Calvin Klein, Chuck Schumer, William Safire, William Buckley, William Casey, and top figures in the Catholic Church.
It’s those latter figures that connect Cohn’s pedophile ring as inherited by Jeffery Epstein with the Church’s scandal. It directly involved “the American pope,” Francis Cardinal “Mary” Spellman, and Cardinal Theodore “Uncle Teddy” McCarrick. Father Bruce Ritter’s Covenant House (a multi-million-dollar charity for homeless and run-away boys and girls) was also deeply implicated. In fact, when Ritter’s involvement in sex acts with his underage protegees came to light, it was secular powers more than ecclesiastical forces that rallied to his defense.
Another pre-Epstein blackmail king was Craig Spence, a former ABC News correspondent who became a prominent DC lobbyist and CIA agent. All during the 1980s he provided child prostitutes and cocaine for Washington’s power elite. For purposes of blackmail, Spence used the now-familiar devices of video cameras, tape recordings, and two-way mirrors. His little black book and “favor bank” records have been described as involving a Who’s Who of Washington’s government and journalistic elite, this time including Richard Nixon, William Casey, John Mitchell, Eric Sevareid, John Glenn, and key officials of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, as well as media celebrities and military officers. According to the Washington Times, during the Bush administration, Spence had permission to enter the White House late at night to supply “call boys” to top level officials there.
Significantly, in the light of Epstein’s demise, just shortly before his death (also quickly ruled a suicide) Spence expressed fears that the CIA might kill him — apparently for knowing too much about connections between Nicaragua’s Contras and CIA cocaine smuggling to support them. But according to Spence himself, his knowledge went much deeper. Shortly before his similarly alleged suicide, he told Washington Times reporters: “All this stuff you’ve uncovered (involving call boys, bribery and the White House tours), to be honest with you, is insignificant compared to other things I’ve done. But I’m not going to tell you those things, and somehow the world will carry on.”
The Contra connection shows how in all of this, the Great Enemy of the hidden powers described here (involving the White House, CIA, FBI, Mafia, Mossad, powerful lobbyists, “fixers,” and billionaire political donors) was socialism and communism. The latter’s world project was 180 degrees opposed to governance by the moneyed elite as represented by the blackmail project of Epstein and his predecessors.
And so, it was important for blackmailers to support the prosecution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, back McCarthyism and J. Edgar Hoover, to undermine the Soviet Union, attack Cuba and Fidel Castro, protect organized crime bosses, and to make sure that projects like the Sandinista Revolution of 1979-90 failed. To those ends, it was even more important to inveigle left-wing politicians and officials from socialist countries into the international blackmail dynamic described here.
As for Epstein himself, following Cohn’s death (from AIDS) in 1986, he quickly took up his mentor’s mantle. As described earlier, Epstein became an FBI informant in 2008 — yet more evidence of the agency’s long-standing involvement with and protection of pedophile rings for purposes of blackmail.
In summary, the Epstein scandal has finally made public a decades-long pedophilic blackmail operation at the highest level. Ultimately run by the FBI and CIA, (i.e. with the knowledge, approval and participation of law enforcement), it has involved prominent politicians, businessmen, police and military officials, celebrities, and ecclesiastical officials. The scandal has touched the current U.S. president and may still bring him down.
In the meantime, it has left behind a trail of broken lives in the persons of the children exploited for the pleasure of old white men whose debauched proclivities have been parlayed into economic and political power. On Epstein’s watch, the operation has spread to Central America and beyond, becoming truly international in the process.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Pizzagate fascinated right-wing conspiracy theorists. It alleged that the Clintons were somehow involved in a child prostitution operation run out of the Comet Ping Pong restaurant and pizzeria in Washington, D.C.
If an allegedly debunked (?) Pizzagate theory caused such stir, and if an epidemic pedophilia expose´ within the Catholic Church has brought it to its knees, one can only imagine the revolutionary potential of the documented disclosures that would inevitably have come to light in a Jeffrey Epstein trial. It had potential to reveal pedophilic involvement by public figures far surpassing the scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. It could still bring down not only the Trump administration, but the whole international House of Cards.
Readings for 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: WIS 18:6-9; PS 33 1,12, 18-19, 20-22; HEB 11: 1-2, 8-19; MT 24:42A, 44; LK 12: 32-48
Despite their apparent obscurity, this week’s readings should be powerful and encouraging for people of faith. They are about faith that enables followers of Jesus to see what remains opaque to a purblind world.
By definition faith cannot adjust to what the world takes for granted. It is commitment to what materialists cannot see – to what the mainstream denies. After all, the world’s normalcy exalts individualism, money-grubbing, meaningless entertainment, oppression of “the othered,” endless war, and the never-satisfied quest for pleasure, power, profit, and prestige.
Faith, on the other hand, believes in a world that remains
unseen by the dominant culture. It’s the world as it comes from the hand of
God: beautiful, simple, loving, forgiving, and belonging to everyone.
As a result, people of faith are called to stand with those
our dominant culture rejects. In “America,” that means standing with the poor
and homeless, with immigrants, Muslims, people of color, LGBTTQQIAAP humans,
socialists, communists, environmentalists, and social justice warriors. .
. That’s the short list, today’s
readings suggest, of those who are favored by God.
Put more simply, faith realizes that all of us are one. All
are children of God. All creatures from smallest to greatest are loved by God.
It’s that simple. It cannot be said too often. That’s why some of us formally celebrate
creation’s oneness each week with others who share our simple outlook. That’s
why the world’s spiritual teachers of all faiths insist that each day must
begin with some spiritual discipline (such as meditation or centering prayer).
Such quiet time reminds practitioners that we do not belong to this world.
That’s why Jesus told us to “pray always.”
There is nothing more important than living from the truth that all creation is one. NOTHING! That faith alone can save our world from the impending disaster sadly looming on our near horizon in the form of nuclear war and climate disaster.
But it is so hard to swim against the stream, isn’t it? It’s
exhausting. After all, we’re surrounded by daily events that contradict it at
every turn. Everything in our world conspires to tell us that we’re atomized
individuals hostile to everyone unlike us. Think of the daily mass shootings,
endless sanctions of designated enemies, obvious public lies, redefinitions of
truth, police brutality, worship of money, resources absolutely wasted on war, and
the distortions of God and religion for selfish purposes. Think of our belief
that our country, the principal cause of the world’s problems, is somehow
special, exceptional, and favored by God. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
Thank God for Sacred Scripture that calls us back to Center.
(That’s the beautiful thing about the Bible – almost alone in ancient western
tradition it represents the consciousness and voice of the poor, rather than those
of kings, generals, and court prophets.)
In any case, and for what they’re worth, here are my “translations” of this week’s readings as they’d be understood by their authors who were themselves marginalized people surrounded by Great Powers intent on exploiting and even obliterating them. Please read them for yourself here. At first, and in their original form, they might strike you as obscure. However, read thoughtfully, they are powerful. So, here’s what I take them to say in these dark times. See if you agree.
WIS 18:6-9 (A reflection on Israel’s Exodus)
Our tradition is that of An enslaved people Exhibiting the meaning Of faith As courageous commitment To an unseen glorious future Where the mighty Are dethroned And brought to justice While the exploited Are exalted As God’s own people.
PS 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22 (Blessed are the people God has chosen to be his own)
Yes, God’s Chosen People Are the famished And those threated By death. They are driven by A divine Life Force Calling them To struggle for justice. The Force is kind And protective Of the oppressed.
HEB 11: 1-2, 8-19 (Follow the example of our forebears)
In fact, Faith is a verb, An active commitment By the hopeless poor To a just future That the world Cannot even see. It’s what our ancient ancestors Lived by Giving them hope Even when they were Only a few immigrants Among a hostile Foreign people Fearful that the poor Unbelievably fertile “invaders” Would eventually outnumber And replace them.
MT 24: 42A, 44 (Don’t give up the fight)
So, wake up! God’s future will dawn Just when the World’s saying “That can never happen.”
LK 12: 32-48 (These readings are meant for everyone)
Yes, we might be small in number And it might take a long time, But we are the agents God has chosen To bring about Our Master’s future Where money’s not important, The rich serve the poor, The thieves are thwarted, And empires overthrown By true humanists, Yes, humanists Like Jesus And us!
Last night Peggy and I accompanied Peggy’s brother to a local theater to see Quentin Tarantino’s “Once upon a Time in Hollywood.” All of us came away disappointed and wondering why we didn’t leave the theater about half an hour into this two-hour-forty-five-minute marathon, even though it featured A-list actors including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, and Al Pacino. We all agreed the film was too long, too slow, too violent, and on the whole seemed pointless.
I’m glad we didn’t leave. After-thought has made me realize that we would have missed a thought-provoking and revealing parable about entertainment-fantasy and its influence on our lives. Even more, the film had the epic quality of all the great classics, Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Lord Tennyson’s Ulysses. It was about our lives’ journeys, their purpose, about love and friendship.
After all, the film’s very title alerts the viewer to Tarantino’s larger intent. “Once upon a time” is the way all fairy tales, myths, legends, and fables begin. They are vehicles for teaching larger truths — for rewriting history. Typically, they feature:
A main character (all of us) facing decline and
death
A long, twisted journey
Its quest for meaning in the second half of life
The character’s double who is more grounded and
wiser
A child who inspires and teaches
An alternative community representing the story’s
readers
And mirroring the condition of the main
characters
Class struggle between the communities
A blind man who more clearly sees life’s true
purpose
A dog who saves the day
All resulting in insight about how our lives
might be different
Significantly, “Once upon a Time in Hollywood” is set in 1969,
the year of the bloody murder of actress, Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and
four of Tate’s friends at the hands of the infamous Charles Manson family of
hippie stoners. In fact, the whole story can be understood as a commentary on
that tragic event as encapsulating American life with its senseless violence specifically
provoked by the art of directors such as Quintin Tarantino. As such Tarantino’s
own film is a kind of self-parody – yet another feature often characterizing
the great literature just referenced.
“Once upon a Time in Hollywood” is about a washed-up TV
actor, Tom Dalton and his stunt-man double, Cliff Booth. Tom’s an actor whose
identity has been fixed by the success of his past role as an old West bounty
hunter. Everybody knows him that way. But in mid-life, he suddenly finds
himself jobless, filled with self-doubt and lacking clear direction. He wants
to maintain his Hollywood image and lifestyle and is terrified with the
prospect of losing them. Who is he without his on-screen role? He’s afraid of
death and life’s inevitable call to enter its second half.
Meanwhile, Tom’s stunt-man double (his real self) is a doer. He’s entirely capable of accomplishing in real life, what Tom does only in film. Whereas Tom pretends to be brave, take chances, fall off horses, fight and prevail, Cliff actually does those things. What’s more, Cliff’s not worried about his image or living large. He’s content to be in effect Tom’s butler and chauffeur. His home is a beat-up Airstream trailer; he eats Kraft Macaroni, and his only companion is his fierce and obedient pit bull, Brandy. The dog is actually Cliff’s better half; like his master, he’s simple, faithful, loving, and valiant. Brandy is to Cliff what Cliff is to Tom.
So, shadowed by his double and better-self, Tom sets off on
his journey. Tarantino drives the theme home by introducing virtually every
character in terms of their footwear – cowboy boots, sandals, go-go boots, and
bare feet. Everybody’s on a journey. Tom’s
own has him advised by standard Hollywood types – always telling him how to
cope with life’s changes by adopting new roles, different costumes, makeup, facial
hair, and public image. For them, everything is image and performance.
However, Tom’s best professional advice comes from an
eight-year-old girl far wiser than her years. Trudi Fraser tells Dalton to sober
up, pay attention to his craft, be true to himself in the roles he plays, and
never break character. As a result of listening to her, Tom delivers his
greatest performance in a film called Lancer. For him, it’s the turning
point in his professional journey. Yet, we find, there’s much more for him to
learn. Life’s not merely about professional success.
It’s his better self, Cliff Booth, who makes the deeper
discovery. And ironically, it’s the
Manson Family who conveys that truth. Led on by a flirtatious Siren, Cliff suddenly
finds himself in the midst of the Manson family. Significantly, they live in an
abandoned movie lot owned by a declined movie mogul, George Spahn.
Over the objections of the Manson Family members, Cliff
insists on consulting his former colleague who turns out to be a blind oracle
revealing life’s true meaning. He’s Booth’s interior voice who’s deeply asleep
and must be shaken back into awareness. Sightless, old George can’t even
remember his former meaningless life. He doesn’t recognize Booth or remember
who Tom Dalton is. He only knows that Squeaky Fromme (Manson’s best-known
disciple) loves him and that he wants to please her. Loving her is what’s truly
important to him, nothing else.
Moreover, the Manson community itself teaches Booth. It proves
to be deeper and more loving than the Hollywood assemblage of self-seeking individuals
that the Manson Clan mirrors. Yes, they spend their lives in exactly the same
way of their better-off counterparts. They even live on an abandoned movie lot
and spend their days watching old movies on TV. For them, it’s all sex, drugs,
and rock and roll.
However, overwhelmingly composed of women, the Mansons have
abandoned the Culver City rat race. They dumpster-dive for food. But more
importantly, they exhibit solidarity, sympathy and support for members who
suffer or are in danger.
The contrast leads them on the one hand to resent the actual self-centered lives of Hollywood personalities, and on the other to imitate their on-screen violence. (Here’s where the class-struggle comes in.) They reason: The films we’ve watched from childhood have taught us lessons. The actors we’ve admired have advocated senseless violence, and they live like selfish pigs. So, let’s get our revenge and do some violence on them.”
And that brings us to Tarantino’s ironic, over-the top, cleansing and healing climax. (Spoiler alert!) In a riot of shooting, stabbing, beating and burning, Hollywood’s fantasy triumphs over real life. The heroic dog, Brandy comes to the rescue; the Mansons are decimated; Sharon Tate, her child and her friends are saved. History is re-written.
But more importantly, in terms of Tarantino’s fabulous intent, Tom Dalton and Cliff Booth discover their actual identity with one another. The two halves of Tom’s personality are united in expressions of their deep friendship. Tom gets over himself and joins a larger community of literally resurrected souls.
As a result, all of us are called to resurrection, love, and
friendship. We’re called to own our True Selves.
Readings for the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time: ECC 1:2; 2:21-23; PS 90: 3-6; 12-14; 17; COL 3: 1-5; 9-11; MT 5:3; LK 12: 13-21
Marianne Williamson shone brightly again during
the first night of the second Democratic debate. This time, with only nine
minutes of exposure, she had the whole country talking.
As with her first appearance, her name was the most Google-searched among her nine debate rivals. And afterwards, the Washington Post, for instance, noted her contributions with headlines like “Marianne Williamson Had A Big Night in the Democratic Debate,” “Marianne Williamson Made the Most of Her Limited Time . . .,” “Marianne Williamson Makes the Case for Reparations in her Breakout Debate Moment,” and “I’ve Worked for Marianne Williamson. She’s No Kook.”
Additionally, “Democracy Now,” the following day gave more time than ever to Marianne’s remarks about the Flint water crisis, and about reparations, though, in the process, Intercept columnist, Mehdi Hasan felt compelled to dismiss her (without explanation) as “a little bit kooky, let’s be honest.”
Meanwhile Cody Fenwick writing for AlterNet favorably included Marianne’s comments about reparations among his “Nine Best Moments” of the primary debate. However (significantly for our focus here) his article, “Here Are 9 of the Best Moments and 7 of the Worst from the 2020 Democratic Primary Debate,” created a special category for what her campaign considers her most significant remark. Fenwick classified the following as a “Moment that Defied Category.” He wrote, “In the course of a rousing speech about the shameful government-triggered water crisis in Flint, Michigan, the author’s speech took a bizarre turn: ‘If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I’m afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days.’” Without further comment, that statement concluded his article.
Thinking it somehow “bizarre,”
Fenwick was evidently confused by the reference to a “dark psychic force,” even
though Williamson immediately explained its meaning. She was referring to “the
collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country.” His
confusion resulted, I think, from Williamson’s entry into unexplored debate
terrain as she attempted to drive the conversation deeper than the clichés and
normalized insanity that characterized many of Tuesday’s exchanges (like Steve
Bullock’s disagreement with Elizabeth Warren about first use of nuclear
weapons).
What “dark psychic forces” did Williamson have in mind? Judging from her books Healing the Soul of America, and The Politics of Love, they are habits of mind and spirit inculcated by a culture that tolerates, if not celebrates:
The collectivized
hatred she specifically referenced
The mind-set that
actually considers first (or any!) use of nuclear weapons as acceptable
White supremacy and
white nationalism
American
exceptionalism
Imperialism and
neo-colonialism
Child abuse at our
borders
Regime change wars
An all-encompassing
gun culture reflected not only in law, but in our films, novels, newspapers,
and magazines – and especially in military policy
That’s just the short
list of the dark forces in question. But for Williamson, all of them can be
synopsized in the single term “fear.” Systemically, they can be summarized in
the term “capitalism” and the terror-filled interlocking systems of individualism,
competition, and greed that system inspires.
And that brings us to the theme of the liturgy of the word for today’s 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time. On my reading, all of them present a light-hearted critique and rejection of the underlying spirit of capitalism. But see if they speak to you in that way. Take a look at them here.
In any case, what follows are my “translations”:
ECC 1:2; 2:21-23 (A Book of Hebrew Wisdom)
Accumulating property And money Working hard to get it Worrying about it Losing sleep over it . . . Is all foolishness. And in the end, You can’t take it with you. How silly to fret About possessions!
PS 90: 3-6; 12-14; 17
So, soften your heart. Life is short It passes Like the seasons Like grass. You might even die In your sleep tonight. Instead, enjoy life NOW. Be happy and kind And careful In whatever you do. That’s true prosperity.
COL 3: 1-5; 9-11
As St. Paul says, Use your Christ consciousness To look beyond The material To discover True wealth – Your invisible life Within. After all, Happiness Has nothing to do With idolizing money Or pleasure, or deceit. It’s all about Living with The consciousness of Jesus That all humans (wherever they come from) Are sisters and brothers.
MT 5:3 (Blessed are the poor in spirit)
In fact, Christ’s values Are the exact opposite Of the world’s.
LK 12: 13-21 (Parable of the wealth-obsessed rich man who dies in his sleep)
So, don’t be foolish Worrying about Inheritance and money You didn’t even work for. After all, Life’s not about How much you have. Instead, Laugh with Jesus At fools who spend Entire lives Focused on mammon Only to die Before they’ve had time To enjoy the rich Life God has given To everyone Equally.
Notice how the readings lament and make fun of lives based on greed and focus on material accumulation. Such goals produce anxiety, sleeplessness, jealousy, and frustration. They end with a completely wasted life and early death.
As opposed to the Prosperity Gospel, this is what Jewish Wisdom Literature, the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth, and leaders like Marianne Williamson have to say about excessive material wealth. It's not the point of life. Instead, love, justice, and the inner peace and community they produce is what fullness of life is about.
Readings like today's remind us of the gloomy and literally unspeakable (i.e. off-limits for discussion) forces that drive our culture. They are encapsulated in our economic system that emphasizes individualism, competition, violence and fear. The system is capitalism-as-we-know-it.
By bringing that up and in terms of "dark psychic forces," Williamson places herself beyond normal political discourse. To mainstream commentators, that makes her puzzling, bizarre, weird, and "kooky," even kookier than those advocating the omnicide of nuclear war.
However, to those of us seeking escape from business as usual, it made her the best candidate on last Tuesday's stage.
The favorable reaction to Williamson's statements there shows that increasing numbers are recognizing her truth.
Readings for 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time: GN 18:20-32; PS 138: 1-8; COL 2:12-14; LK 11:1-13
Today’s readings are about the role of prayer in changing
consciousness. On this topic, they share with us the understandings of Abraham,
the Psalmist (sometimes called David), Paul of Tarsus, John the Baptist, and
Jesus himself.
As you’ll see immediately below, all of the readings address
changing our ideas about God from the One who punishes and kills to a merciful
Father who wants us to be happy. The readings are about God’s mercy towards
enemies and kindness to strangers. They’re about persistence, generosity,
abundance, about sharing bread, eggs, and fish – and about debt forgiveness. As
always, in a Christian context, they explain the New World Order that Jesus
called the Kingdom of God.
In this (over-long) election season, I can’t help but make
the connection between those readings about prayer and its mind-changing power
on the one hand, and the candidacy of Marianne Williamson on the other. That’s
because Marianne is the most prayerful spiritual leader I’ve come across in my
lifetime of engagement with theology and with people attempting to connect with
the Reality that some still call “God.” As such, Marianne’s candidacy credibly
promises to change world consciousness from one dominated by fear and
necrophilia to one characterized by forgiveness and reverence for life. I’ll
explain how in a minute.
Today’s Readings
However, before I get to that, here are my “translations” of today’s readings about the miraculous power of prayer even as exemplified by Ms. Williamson and the great biblical figures just mentioned. Please check here to see if they coincide with your own understandings:
GN 18: 20-32
Sheik Abraham, The product Of bedouin violence, Comes gradually to understand That Yahweh listens To prayers On behalf of innocents Otherwise lost As collateral damage In mayhem Inspired by Tribal lust For war.
PS 138: 1-8
Yahweh, then, Is not vengeful But kind and truthful, Close to the lowly And far from the proud Protecting his petitioners And saving them From those who Would do them harm.
Col 2: 12-14
Thank you, Jesus, For freeing us from The world’s lie That we are condemned By a necrophilic God And morbid legal system Instead of freed By One Who forgives And offers us An entirely new Way of Life."
LK 11: 1-13
To get there, Jesus taught his friends The prayer of his mentor, John the Baptist: “May God’s Kingdom Come soon With its abundant daily bread And the same mercy (And debt forgiveness!) That Abraham Came to understand.” In God’s New Order, And despite human reluctance (And the midnight hour) Bread, eggs and fish Will be shared Even with inconvenient And rudely persistent visitors In God’s Holy Spirit That enables it all.
The Marianne Connection
Those readings about prayer evoke reflections on the candidacy of Marianne Williamson. As I was saying, I’ve never come across a person who so naturally, easily, and comfortably prays. Unabashedly, she invokes miracles one after another – just what we need in these troubled times.
But please note this: for Marianne Williamson, “miracles” do
not refer to woo-woo magic events “out there” contrary to the laws of nature.
Instead, they are profound interior changes in consciousness just like the one
experienced by Abraham in that reading from Genesis.
And change in consciousness is precisely what we need in
these times of overriding threat from systems-induced climate chaos, from
nuclear war, and from the underlying fears and insecurities fostered by
“leaders” such as Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Manuel Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro
and the other fascist heads of state.
With those monsters in mind, I’m driven to imagine how a
Marianne Williamson presidency would change planetary (yes planetary!) thinking
from processes governed by fear embodied in those men, by (mostly state)
terrorism – a specifically fear-inducing tactic – to one governed by love and
reverence for life.
The miraculous change intimately connected to today’s topic of prayer, would go something like this:
On Marianne’s accession to the presidency (actually, long before), the entire world would scour her books for clues to her real identity – just as they did with President Obama’s Dreams from My Father and with Mr. Trump’s The Art of the Deal.
Some would read Marianne’s spiritual guidebook, A Course in Miracles (ACIM) or (more likely) what Marianne describes as her ACIM CliffsNotes, A Return to Love.
Others would even take up the daily discipline described in ACIM’s volume II, A Workbook for Students.
In any case, the resulting analysis, commentary and direct experience would get people everywhere discussing ACIM’s basic ideas with the same fervor currently given to Mr. Trump’s “fake news” and “alternative fact.” Those ACIM ideas hold that:
Our world of fear-induced violence is a completely human fabrication making Americans in particular (as Chris Hedges puts it) “the most illusioned people on earth.”
No one is actually attacking us. Instead, according to Marianne’s analysis, most of the world’s violence is induced by an economic system that financially rewards human destruction fostered by the Military Industrial Complex, Big Pharma, and Big Oil. In other words, capitalism-as-we-know-it is our enemy including its ideological defenses.
The way out of the resulting morass is forgiveness. That is, we must realize that the ones our culture habitually blames are actually innocent. Our problems are not caused by immigrants, non-whites, LGBTQQIAs, not by the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, Syrians, Libyans, Somalis, Iraqis, Iranians, Yemenis . . . Forgiveness means accepting the fact that all of those just mentioned are not only our sisters and brothers. THEY ARE OURSELVES. Or as ACIM puts it, “There is really only one of us here.”
Such forgiveness leads to atonement – to At-One-Ment, i.e. to specific policies reflecting the unity that exists between human beings and between humans and nature. Policies include reparations to the descendants of African slaves, to Native Americans, and to countries whose economies and cultures have been destroyed by imperialist wars encouraged by capitalism-as-we-know-it. Atonement with Mother Nature includes a Green New Deal.
Conclusion
When Marianne Williamson is asked about her inexperience as a politician, she invariably invokes Franklin Roosevelt who said that the primary role of the presidency is not governmental management, but moral leadership. In fact, once elected, presidents can turn over day-to-day policy management to carefully chosen experts in each relevant field.
Moreover, the policies in question will end up virtually the same under any of the Democratic candidates all of whom claim to be “progressive.” They’ll all hire similar technocrats to implement Medicare for All, the Green New Deal, $15.00 minimum wage, and forgiveness of college loans. Except for Marianne and Tulsi Gabbard, with their emphasis on peace-building and military disengagement, all the candidates promise to support the same tired U.S. foreign policy.
Besides such crucial peace-building emphasis, what really separates
the twenty or so candidates are their character, credibility, and personal
values that will enable them to change the national and international conversation.
In a perverse way, Donald Trump has actually demonstrated the importance of character traits in the oval office. Think about it. In Trump we have a nihilist of questionable intellectual competence, completely without moral principle and with virtually no understanding of policy, how Washington runs, or even of basic history or geography.
And yet, Trump has changed the tenor of the national and international conversation more profoundly than any formally educated nihilist philosopher possibly could. He has literally reshaped the world by giving courage to fascists, racists, homophobes and misogynists of all stripes everywhere in the world.
What our liturgical readings for the day suggest (at least to me) is that Marianne Williamson’s life-long commitment to prayerful change in consciousness equips her better than anyone else not simply to return the world to normality after the Trump disaster. She can do more than that. She can move the entire world to the unprecedentedly deeper level of consciousness that our times and impending disasters require.
Marianne’s mindset represents what’s really required to implement the values of love, forgiveness, generosity and at-one-ment that we’ve read about today. They are precisely the values required by our desperate times. Implementing those values world-wide is the profound miracle a Williamson presidency could bring about.
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