Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 18
I have been in spiritual turmoil for days now and I know the root of it and I don’t want to not be in this spiritual turmoil until there is a solution to cruelty, the hatred, the racism that is THE SOUTH, that is THE REPUBLICAN PARTY! Oh how far we have fallen-from the days of Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation to Trump calling Black women nasty, demeaning names, to the Southern States doing everything they can, legally and illegally, to prevent any Black Congresspeople to win a district! WHAT THE FUCK?!
Watching Jamie Harrison speak to the pain in his soul, watching and listening to Eddie Glaude cry on National TV, knowing the fight I participated in as a youth-even while being a criminal and a drunk-hurts my soul so terribly and, at my age, what I can do is protest, is to write about it, to remind my fellow Jewish Clergy of Martin Niemoller’s Poem of his realizing that not standing for another(s) means there will be no one to stand with me when ‘they’ come for me. As Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes et al gain more and more influence, as the Progressives in the Democratic Party gain more and more influence- IT AIN’T GOOD FOR THE JEWS!! Yet, somehow, my fellow clergy, my fellow Jews are cheering the cruelty, the racism, the hatred, the power grab by their (supposedly) White Supremacist and White Christian Nationalist friends? REALLY?!
I haven’t slept well since the Supreme Court decision gutting the Voting Rights Act because “it isn’t needed anymore” according to Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, et al. So of course, the Southern States do immediate redistricting so there is no way Black people can vote in a block, however, these “fine upstanding christian men and women’ ensure that White People can continue to vote in blocks. I am sure this is what Christ had in mind when he said: “The meek shall inherit the Earth” because these ‘poor white christians’ are being so mistreated!?!! What many of my fellow Clergy people, both Jewish and Black, have forgotten that We the People have a common enemy-the same enemy that brought Jews together with Dr. King, the same enemy that brought Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to Selma to participate in the 2nd march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge: CRUELTY, ASSAULT ON TRUTH, BASTARDIZATION OF the BIBLE! The idea that Jews are going to stand on the sidelines while Black people are being treated with such cruelty, such indignity is anathema to the principles of the Bible, it is very similar to the reason for the destruction of the Temples-senseless hatred and allowing/participating in the cruelty towards the stranger, the poor, the needy, the women, the children. Yet, so many ‘fine orthodox, amazing liberal’ Jews say that Blacks did not support them after October 7th-and while there are many instances where this is true-just as there is no monolith called “the Jewish stance” so too is there no monolith called “the Black stance”. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if Blacks ‘stood’ with Palestinians, if they stood against the destruction of Gaza and deaths of innocent civilians, what is going on now is ANTITHETICAL to the principles laid out in the Bible, in the Holiness Code. These machinations by Trump, by the Republican Party, by the Supreme Court to hold power are not so different from the machinations being done in the time of the prophets. To quote Pete Seeger, again: “When will we ever learn”?
I am calling for the impeachment (casting doubt upon) of any and all Clergy who are promoting these indignities, who are advocating for the racism that permeates our politics, our business’, today. I am calling for my fellow Rabbis and Cantors to Preach like the Prophets from their bully pulpit against the racism and the cruelty being perpetrated in our name- THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR THE JEWS! Thinking about the Bible, Abraham prostitutes Sarah twice, he does this out of fear for his survival, not thinking about what it means to his wife to be asked to demean her Self in such ways-btw, God never tells him to do this. Hagar is called “the Egyptian”, Abimelech is referred to by his country, Gerar, these are descriptors that have been used by ‘those fine orthodox scholars’ as epithets, as ways to demean a people, the same tactics used against Jews for the millennia! WHAT THE FUCK? “WHEN WILL WE EVER LEARN?
ACTION STEPS:
1) Call or go see your Rabbi, Cantor, Priest, Minister, Imam and deman d they speak out against injustice, against cruelty, against racism in all its forms including anti-semitism, islamophobia, etc
2) Examine your Self and root out the racism, the cruelty you support wittingly and unwittingly
3) Find and visit an AME or any Black Church in your area, seeking out the Pastor and offer to join in their battle against racism, cruelty, senseless hatred that is, once again, running rampant.
4) Write, talk to, knock on the doors of people to help them go above “party lines” and do the next right thing.
GOD BLESS and STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark