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Comfort is no better guide to religion than to medical treatment. Just because a treatment lessens pain does not mean it has addressed the underlying problem.  If the purpose of religion is to deepen our connections to life, to reality and to each other- then we must be ready for it to dis-comfort us from time to time. Inner peace can mean spiritual death if it comes from detaching ourselves from relationships. In the biblical story, the prophet heard the small still voice in the middle of earthquakes and storms. The peace of religion is not like morphine for a dying patient. It is finding and living out of the eye in the center of life’s hurricane.

“No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver—no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.” -Malcolm X

Later today I will be on KOOP radio discussing the contribution of Malcolm X to American politics along with Bishop Sterling Lands. The show is Pedro Gatos’ “Bringing Light from the Darkness,” and it will be my first time to have such a discussion with Bishop Lands.

When I was younger, Martin Luther King, Albert Schweitzer and Gandhi were my political role models. Having been raised in a comfortable white world, such gentle methods seemed enough. Malcolm X seemed too caustic for my tastes. When he called white people “blue eyed devils,” it was easy for a white teenager from Dallas, like myself, to dismiss what he was saying as hateful. As I have gotten older, like so many others, I have realized that Malcolm X was as important to civil rights as was Dr. King. Without the prophetic uncloaking of white America’s hypocrisy on the issue of race, and without the threat of black Americans actually defending themselves from the violence that is racism, the peaceful methods of Dr. King might have meant a reduction of hate, without an addition of actual power for black Americans over their own lives.

Malcolm X taught us that, if two parties are unequal in power, dialogue often only serves to reinforce the discrepancy in power. Liberals often say, “speak the truth to power.” But Malcolm X was not a liberal. He was a radical. And he said, in so many words, “power already knows the truth, it just doesn’t want to share.” Malcolm X also taught us that we cannot win self-respect by gaining the approval of our oppressors and that, when power is given to us by another, it can always be taken back.

Later in life, Malcolm X renounced what some had seen as hateful depictions of white people, but it made his criticism of white power even clearer. His central focus had never really been about hating white people. He was expressing the anguish of the  victims of white supremacy in America. By stirring the anger of black Americans, he was bringing their power to the surface. By describing the ugly face of white racism from a black perspective, he was also speaking honestly to the frightened human beings who were hiding under the mask of white supremacy. For many of us, it was the first time anyone had spoken honestly to us about the ugliness of our participation in racist structures.

There was once a land of very foolish donkeys. Although the donkeys thought themselves free, in fact, they spent their lives carrying the loads of others. They did get to vote for their leaders, but only after a process of selection that was acceptable to their owners. One day, the donkeys elected a leader with a golden mane who said, “Freedom means not allowing government to limit the burdens that businesses place on you. Furthermore, because there are donkeys hidden among you that hate your freedom and would rob you of it if they could, we must spy on you to protect our democracy.”

“If you must take away our civil liberties to protect our freedom, then so be it,” brayed the foolish donkeys.

One day a burro named “Bradley” discovered that the leaders were selling some of the donkeys to the nearby glue factory. He decided to let the donkeys know what was going on by releasing documents that showed that the Republic of Donkey Land was being lied to on a regular basis. To a one, the donkeys refused to read the released documents and they all approved when the leader cut out Bradley’s tongue.

“If you must lie to us to protect our sacred truths, so be it,” brayed the foolish donkeys.

One day the donkeys gathered before their beautiful leader with a golden mane who said, “There is not time to go through proper channels to declare war, but we must send our young donkeys to kill and to die. Furthermore, because of the grave nature of this threat, I will need to claim the power to assassinate any of you on the spot. I assure you that there is a valid process for making this decision but, unfortunately, for reasons of national security, I cannot tell you what that process is.

“If you must kill us to keep us safe, so be it,” brayed the foolish donkeys.

“The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive.’ The honest (people) who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honour, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.”    -Sophie Scholl, in discussion how Germany let Hitler take over

Isn’t it interesting that when some people talk about tax cuts, being rich means $500,000 and above, but when they talk about cutting social services, they say wealth begins at $25,000?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/02/23-3

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was om.” -Rg Veda

What does the sun sound like if its radio waves are made audible? If we could hear Jupiter or the Big Bang what would it sound like? What follows is a short TED talk on the sounds of the universe.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/honor-harger/tuning-into-the-universe_b_2737168.html

“Do the United States and its people really want to tell those of us who live in the rest of the world that our lives are not of the same value as yours? That President Obama can sign off on a decision to kill us with less worry about judicial scrutiny than if the target is an American? Would your Supreme Court really want to tell humankind that we, like the slave Dred Scott in the 19th century, are not as human as you are? I cannot believe it.

“I used to say of apartheid that it dehumanized its perpetrators as much as, if not more than, its victims. Your response as a society to Osama bin Laden and his followers threatens to undermine your moral standards and your humanity.” -Desmond Tutu

Many peoples’ attitudes on immigration in this nation seems very strange to me. We tell the story leaving out some very important details. First, when we leave out the history of the holocaust of the indigenous people, we can ignore the fact that most of the people we are calling “immigrants” are the survivors of that tragedy. They were here first. When we call them “illegal aliens” we are accomplices to our ancestors’ crimes against humanity.

Second, when we leave out the history of the Monroe Doctrine, we forget that our own nation adopted intrusive policies that allowed us to undermine governments and open local economies for exploitation. It was our own policies, in large part, that made the economies and politics of some southern nations unlivable.

America has a problem with immigration, but it isn’t the immigrant people. We cannot understand the problem of immigration by only looking on one side of a boundary, nor solve it by listening to only one side of the story.

Dear God,

As .you know, I spend a lot of my time thinking about how you should punish all the liberal people when you send them to hell. I know you are loving and all that, but how are they going to learn their lesson unless you torture them for all eternity?
For example, if someone questioned one of America’s wars you can make them wear Saddam Hussein’s stretched out underpants for all eternity. You know the ones from the picture that accidentally leaked out when he was in captivity? You can look it up on Google. Anyway, the picture was taken just before his fair trial and execution. These liberals have completely distorted your message of peace to make it about ending actual wars. I personally believe that, after Jesus knocked over the money changers’ tables, he drug them by the hair down to the Jordan River and water boarded them, but that’s just my interpretation. I understand you wanted peace on earth, but may I respectfully point out that 9-11 changed everything. This is no time to get soft on crime.

If someone believed in global warming, you could make them listen to tapes of Al Gore losing the debate to George Bush. Anyone who could lose a debate to George Bush can’t be right about science. (Some of my suggestions assume hell has audio visual equipment.)

Pro-choice men and women could be forced to wear giant IUD’s for eternity. And you could make them play basketball with the rubber fetuses used in Right to Life speeches.

So, anyway, those are my thoughts.  If you’re interested, I have many other ideas. In fact, I spend a lot more time thinking about torturing people in hell, than loving them in heaven. Are there any mid-level management positions in open in hell where I could call myself a Christian, but still focus on eternal vengeance? I know you are into that forgiveness stuff, I’m just saying sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. None-the-less, Thy will be done and not mine… But think about it.

Respectfully Yours,

Rev. Hugo Grunt,

CEO, Rod of God Ministries, Inc.