Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 17
I keep thinking about the myriad of ways we the people continue to ghost God and lose our authentic self to lies, mendacities, self-deceptions, running after the majority to do evil. It is infuriatingly disgusting seeing all the ways we the people miss the “angels” that are in our midst, unlike Abraham who recognizes the angels, I believe, and acknowledges their disguise as men-yet calling them “my lords”.
Listening to the political rhetoric, watching the values, principles, morals that are at the foundation of every spiritual discipline/religion be bastardized by the very people meant to safeguard them, grow them is ridiculously idiotic and dismaying. The Dalai Lama, at a conference I was privileged to attend, said every one of our religions and spiritual disciplines have at their core: truth, justice, kindness, compassion, caring, and LOVE. Watching all of these foundational ways of being dissipate and disappear is saddening and infuriating. Yet, here we the people are; what is worse is that there are still the ALWAYS TRUMPERS, the WHITE CHRISTIAN NATIONALISTS, the Inheritors and descendants of the KLU KLUX KLAN who reveal in the cruelty, who promote the distortion of these principles, these calls from God and proclaim their loyalty to Christ! BULLSHIT is abounding and if We the People don’t do something to stop it right here, right now, there will not be a United States of America loyal to its Constitution nor its Declaration Of Independence! WHAT UP, WE THE PEOPLE?
One of the most beautiful aspects of the Hebrew Bible, to me is that there is no hiding when even our heroes, even the authors show their prejudices, show how easy a slide into misogyny is, how simple it is to see the flaws of another(s) and ignore the same ones within ourselves. Abraham laughs when he is told he will have a child with Sarah and nothing is said-Sarah laughs and she is scolded-MISOGYNY at its finest! The people of Sodom are to be extinguished because they don’t follow God’s ways, they are cruel and unwelcoming of the stranger, while there were the people of Nineveh who were just as cruel and nobody is calling them out, because Ishmael lives there? Abraham speaks up for the people of Sodom, not believing there could not be at least 10 decent human beings there and God ‘relents’. Is it a test to see if Abraham can be the leader God needs; the leader who will speak up for the people, the leader who believes in the basic goodness of being that can be found in all of We the People? Maybe and Abraham passed the test!
Which brings us to today-I cannot tell you, with any degree of certainty, that Sodom was destroyed and became the Dead Sea-I can tell you with absolute certainty that when evil is defeated, it leaves deadness in its wake, there is no way for life to immediately come back when the evil like Sodom, the evil like Rome, the evil like Spain, like Germany is defeated, it takes a minute for anything good to grow, it takes a minute for we the people to regain our moral compass and be able to govern with kindness, truth, love, compassion, justice. What is happening in America, in Israel is, in my opinion, the same unjust, unloving, deceitful, and hardheartedness that was present in Sodom! The cruelty towards the stranger, the power grab and land grabs both are engaging in is DISGUSTING, is AGAINST THE PRINCIPLES of the Bible and the New Testament. Yet, clergy of all faiths promote these deceivers, these narcissists, these lovers of cruelty, these assholes who continue to accuse everyone else of the evil they are perpetrating! What is the difference between the leaders of Sodom, Rome, Germany and the leadership in America and Israel? I don’t know how to discern this difference, do you?
What is needed is a SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION, an action like Abraham’s where each and everyone of We the People who still worship God and not the idolatry of power, wealth, fame, deception, mendacity, have to STAND THE FUCK UP and ARGUE FOR THE DECENCY OF AMERICA and ISRAEL! There is no ‘standing on the sidelines’, there is no time to be wishy-washy, there is not excuse for not engaging in this debate, in this fight against CRUELTY, MENDACITY, ANTITHETICAL, HATRED being perpetrated upon all of We the People who believe in decency, who live into the teachings, ways of the Bible, like “love the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”, “love your neighbor”, proclaim freedom throughout the land and to ALL its inhabitants therein”, etc.
ACTION STEPS:
How are you like Abraham-arguing for the basic goodness in everyone
How are you like the people of Sodom-seeing how you can take advantage of the stranger
How are you standing up for the poor and the needy in your midst
How are you trying to build something ‘beautiful’ out of the evil being perpetrated upon us?
GOD BLESS and STOP GHOSTING GOD, SELF, Rabbi Mark