Not only are we OK with immoral, inhumane treatment of humans, whose only “crime” may be seeking a better life for themselves and their families, but we are making fun of it and celebrating it. Humans in literal cages, in the heat of the swamp, unprotected from the elements, treated worse than we treat animals in this country. This makes us no better than the people who jeered and laughed at Jesus on the cross.
I feel the tears and pain of Jesus as he looks upon us, wondering how we could even claim him. I keep saying there are no words for what is happening, for what our country is becoming, but I am working hard to find a way to let the world know this is not me, this is not who I am, not who my friends are, not what America is supposed to be. If my heart is broken, I can’t even contemplate how Jesus is feeling about His people right now.
A passage I go back to many times is Matthew 25:32, the parable of the sheep & goats. While I’m not a fan of the end of the passage (the “eternal fire” hell part), the rest of the passage notes the sort of questions asked when one is judged:
- Did you feed me when I was hungry?
- Did you give me clothes
- Did you take care of me as a stranger in a foreign land?
- Did you visit me in prison?
I’m pretty sure the last two suggest that this prison (and our “industry prison complex” or for-profit prisons) run counter to Christian morals & Jesus’ teachings. Yet, here we are. 😕
It’s been an eye-opening disappointment to read the New Testament on my own and see how little the Right upholds or even cares about Jesus’ teachings. They seem to care a lot about JESUS, but they neglect James 2:15-18 or even John 13:34-35. It’s not enough to say you love Jesus to get to heaven; you’re supposed to do good works for others & act as though you love everyone. People on the right keep judging people as “illegals”, and if I’m supposed to ask, “What would Jesus do?” I think he wouldn’t care about the legal status & instead help others.
I’m not as “religious” as the people enabling Alligator Alcatraz claim to be, and I don’t consider myself a “warrior for Christ.” But the world they say they are trying to create for the entire country, a Christian nation, is the world I grew up in. Christianity was the default from the earliest I can remember. I never knew there was anything else until I was an adult.
But sometimes (like right now) I literally cry when I remember the things I was taught:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.
I cry because it causes a physically painful reaction to remember the truth and know what is happening right now. I know in my heart the truth of Christianity, and I recognize that these people are trying to twist it into something evil for their own benefit.
I don’t consider myself a “warrior for Christ,” but I have to wonder why so many “warriors” are sitting back and allowing this to happen? Lately, more than ever before in my adult life, I’ve started to think if they’re not willing to be the ones who speak out, why shouldn’t I?
I’ve never felt the need to grab a bullhorn and tell people they’re going to hell for the way they’re living their lives, because I feel like who am I to judge anyone else? But I feel pretty confident saying to anyone who is enabling, cheering, and profiting from the separation of families, the forced removal of children from their mothers, captivity in private prisons with horrific conditions, and most recently the protection of pedophile networks and child trafficking rings:
📢 YOU’RE GOING TO BURN IN HELL AND YOU DESERVE IT
Thanks for the thoughtful response from your POV. I grew up Catholic in the 90s, and yeah, same deal. We got told to care, as Christians & Americans, and it feels like so many people are vindictive in a way that Christ would vehemently disavow. Countless times, Christ says not to judge people. There’s also Luke 9:54, where no one takes Christ & the disciples in for a night. The disciples ask Christ to smite them (like the Old Testament “God”), and Christ reprimands the disciples.
I have the same heartbreak. When I’m seeing Palestinian people & children gunned down as a headline daily, it really feels like the gnostics were right. A demiurge would allow & revel in all this.
Not good.