Ghosting God, Ghosting Self
Day 59
For the next week, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I am going to look at the words, discern meanings and intentions and look to see how they are in sync with the Bible, the prophets, and when and how they are not.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (people) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” WOW, what a truly revolutionary document, what a spiritual document written by deeply faithful men and men who knew their misogyny was suspect, their treatment of Black people even more suspect, and rose to meet their higher angels in this document. What has happened to “these truths” that, to the men who wrote and signed this document, are believed to “be self-evident”? What happened to the idea that each one of us, as a religious group, as an individual have different experiences with “their creator”? According to the stories of the Rabbis, which were supposedly passed down through the generations, each person who crossed the Red Sea, each person who stood at Mount Sinai, had their own personal experience with “their Creator”. Each of the prophets had their own experience with “their Creator”, each of the Biblical Heroes had the same, yet, in these 250 years, we the people have lived down into ego, narcissism, being pharaohs to black people, to immigrants of all stripes when they first come over, and now to the refugees from different lands-“how have the mighty fallen” is both King David’s lament at the death of King Saul and his dear, dear friend, Jonathan AND the lament many of We the People are saying now.
Caring for, loving the stranger has become so passe, for so long, that it seems as if the people following our “founding fathers”, lived in a narcissistic bubble and rather than learning from the stories in Exodus about how not to be a Pharaoh, they seem to have believed Pharaoh is good, Slavery is fine and only “certain” “men are created equal”! This is as true if not more true today than it was 200 years ago. The question for me, for we, is how does a Donald Trump, a Stephen Miller, a Steve Bannon develop into the Pharaohs they have become? All of their ancestors came here from lands that were not treating them so well, Drumpf running away from military service in Germany (sound familiar), Bannon from Ireland during great poverty, the Potato Famine, and Miller’s from Nazi Germany, yet these three have made it their life’s passion to deny the same rights, the same opportunities to the people in need right now, to the refugees from Haiti, from Syria and, soon from everywhere else! Thanks to the Supreme Court, one of who’s members adopted 2 Haitian children-will they have to go back also, declared the ‘right’ of Trump to deny entry, to deport the hundreds of thousands of refugees who are adding to our society, who work, who pay taxes, etc-all because of the color of their skin!
“Proclaim Freedom throughout the Land and to ALL its inhabitants therein” is the writing in Leviticus, the writing on the Liberty Bell, and the LAST CONCEPT that a portion of we the people want to see happen. The taskmasters in charge right now, listening to the directives of their Pharaoh, Trump, are enjoying a renaissance of hatred towards anyone who is not a “white Christian nationalist male”, being a believer in Jesus Christ as a Catholic is not good enough forthe Evangelical far right who believe they are more equal than the rest of us Jews, Blacks, Hispanics, etc is the name of the game right now. Miller, Trump, Bannon are repeating the insidious, horrific, hateful actions of Cordell Hull when he turned the St.Louis away after pressuring Cuba to not take them in either. His ancestors were seeking a better way when they immigrated to America yet, he and his descendants like Bannon, Trump, Miller don’t want anyone else to have the same opportunity! WTF?
“Give me your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free”, these words on the Statue of Liberty gave hope to people like my Grandparents when they were on the boat-in steerage of course-coming into New York Harbor, running away from the hardships of their homelands, Poland, Ukraine, etc and this hope developed into determination to be decent to all, neither of my grandfathers would allow disparaging talk in front of them, they welcomed everyone in need to their homes and businesses, they adopted two children and in my father’s home, took in 5 of their nieces and nephews when their mothers died. My amends to them, at their graves in 1990 was for shitting on their courage, on not making their hope into a reality, my living amends is they way I conduct my affairs, the help I have given to many and the humility to serve God, repay the debt and love my neighbor.
ACTION STEP
“How the mighty have fallen”, is the question we have to ask about our self and our country
GOD BLESS, STOP GHOSTING GOD, GHOSTING SELF, Rabbi Mark