There is a radical difference between those who follow Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount, and those who seek certainty and power through imposing Imperial Christianity upon the world.
Those who seek to follow the simple teachings of the Sermon on the Mount can find kindred spirits across every religion, philosophy and walk of life. They find no problem in yielding to the new scientific discoveries of their day, nor in including every loving expression of our human family.
Those who lift up Christ as a kind of cosmic dictator are at war with any who do not submit to their understanding. They do not realize their “common sense” is simply privilege made into a sacrament. Sectarian Christians begin by scapegoating Pagans, Muslims, and Jews; but the circle inevitable gets smaller and smaller. Soon they even turn on members of their own group who disagree on some small matter of morals or theology. These wretched souls do not realize the “Christ” they are worshipping is actually their own disguised egos projected and divinized.
The Sermon on the Mount is one culture’s expression of the perennial wisdom, but so is the Dhammapada of Buddhism, the Bhagavad Gita of Hinduism and the Tao Te Ching of Taoism. No one holds the copyright on love. Versions of the same perennial wisdom can be found wherever people seek truth, kindness and the common good.
True patriotism would mean caring for the people and land of one’s nation. Pride about the power and glory of one’s nation without love of its people is nothing more than national narcissistic personality disorder.
Only a narcissistic people could invade Iraq and call the inhabitants who resisted “insurgents.”
Only national narcissism explains how descendants of the invaders who stole this continent could then persecute the descendants of its original inhabitants as “illegal aliens.”
The Founders said “We the People” thinking they were being inclusive. Their ‘we,”however, did not include women, nor those without property, nor the native population, nor the human beings they themselves were enslaving. It was like they were sleepwalking through their own revolution.
Sexism, Racism and elitism are like lenses we inherit from our inherited culture. We cannot see our own prejudices because they are the lenses that we are looking through. The term “woke” refers to ending our sleepwalking and becoming aware of systems of oppression hidden in the status quo.
The term “woke” is not a recent liberal concoction. According to a Jon Grinspan article in the Journal of American History, the term was used as early as Lincoln’s “Wide Awake” supporters encouraging Americans to see through the propaganda of the enslavers.
In my opinion, the MAGA movement represents a return to sleepwalking instead of being “woke” to the evils of oligarchy, sexism, racism and American imperialism. The movement may seem like an invincible juggernaut, but they cannot win in the long run because they are sleepwalking through a universal human rights revolution. America may be rich and powerful under Donald Trump, but we will never be truly great until “We the People” includes us all.
If I had to choose between religious fundamentalism and humanistic atheism, I would choose the latter in a heartbeat.
I follow the Sermon on the Mount, not because I believe it will save my soul, but because it is for me a reliable path to love.
Jesus taught love, not Christian theology. As far as I’m concerned everyone who travels the path of compassion is a member of the same church, temple, mosque or humanist community.
If I found, even at heaven’s gate, that. God is as petty and hateful as some religious fundamentalists say, I would gladly choose an eternity of punishment for being kind, over an eternity of reward for selling out my human family.
After the MAGA insanity is over, we will need to rebuild this nation by restoring the pillars of democracy such as due process and separations of powers, but we must not try to get back to business as usual.
We need to rebuild our entire political process in a way that includes those who have been traditionally left out of the equation by Republicans AND Democrats alike. Liberals and conservatives both need to stop pretending that fascism in American began with Donald Trump. Rather, fascism for women and People of Color in America arrived on the Mayflower.
And we need to be perfectly clear about this, “speaking the truth to power” is a liberal mirage. The powerful already know the truth about our world, they just don’t want to share it.
As hard as it is to say it, our democracy will have to be TAKEN from the monied interests who have no intention of ever letting Americans vote on anything that really matters. Activists need to learn the difference between protest and resistance. Protest is expressing our objection to unfair hierarchies of power, resistance is building alternative systems of power now.
We should and must love hoarders and oligarchs as individual human beings, but we must take power from them for the same reason we take the keys from a drunken friend at a party.
The answers to America’s problems are not to be found in capitalism nor in the dualistic system of American politics. Politicians and capitalists may take credit for human rights, but almost every stride in human rights was actually taken from the powerful by ordinary people in factories or on the streets
“Democracy” is just a thin veneer pasted on tyranny if poor people cannot vote on what rich people do to them. The two party system can never lead us to the nuanced responses we need. So, if you want, vote as a Democrat or Republican for whoever you think will help establish a fairer nation, but then call your favorite grassroots organization and promise to do your duty as an activist the other 364 days a year.
Such activism does not promise us victory in our own time, but it does assure us of a life well worth living.
Is it really such a surprise that, when religion teaches belief in a literal hell, the end result would be cowardly congregants afraid of immigrants, Muslims and of the shadows themselves?
Why is there bewilderment at the fact that, when clergy teach ethics as obedience to their own hierarchy of power, so many in religion would offer their allegiance to the biggest bully in the room?
Why should anyone be amazed that, when faith is taught as holding onto belief in spite of contrary evidence, the consequence would be foolish masses fleeing from science and critical thought like vampires from sunlight?
Lying is not simply a personal flaw of Donald Trump and his followers. Lying is an essential element in ANY worldview seeking to dominate others.
There is a reason why power hungry “patriots” consider honest history to be treason. There is a reason why cruel moralists seeking to rule over others consider honest science and critical thinking to be heresies before God.
Almost by definition, power seeking people assume anyone smarter or more creative than they is a threat to their designs. And, tragically, in their narcissism power seeking people often confuse their own wants with the will of God.
Truth and beauty are the ultimate fears of tyrants because they awaken the human mind and heart. Even in our most fearful hours humanity has been illumined by brave scientists and artists armed only with a love of truth and beauty.
Truth and beauty can illumine our lives even in this bleak hour. As one Jewish rabble rouser once reminded his followers, “You are the light of the world. Do not put your light under a bowl, but on a stand for all to see.” Translation: “When surrounded by lies, seek truth. When drowning in ugliness, create beauty. And, when surrounded by cruelty, embody compassion.”
I am hoping to post more consistently now but I slid back into AFib awhile back and didn’t feel creative enough to be worth reading. I had an interesting experience yesterday though that might be something to think about.
I wasn’t looking forward to the procedure where they stop and restart the heart. The doctor insisted that the procedure is safe but I didn’t like the idea of “rebooting” my heart.
The interesting thing was, when I woke from anesthesia, I felt better than I had in a long time. Just getting my heart back to its normal rhythm felt great. I had no idea of how badly I was feeling until I had something better to compare it to.
Now here’s my point in telling the story. I believe our nation faces the choice between “rebooting” and dying slowly from denial.
Our nation, for all its noble aspects, was founded on enslaving some of our human family and stealing the land out from underneath others. The passion some of our leaders are showing toward Confederate names and statues is very suspicious when you consider our nation’s undeniable history of racism.
Until we are willing to “reboot” and share our resources more fairly we must numb ourselves to the shame of telling American history by leaving out the grievances of the people who weren’t white.
In his original travel ban, Donald Trump stopped travel from something like 13 nations. ALL of the banned nations consisted of populations where the people were nonwhite. In 2025, Trump added 19 more countries to the travel ban. Unsurprisingly, ALL of those banned nations consist of People of Color.
I don’t think it is necessarily helpful to figure out who is to blame for the increasing weather disasters breaking our hearts, but I DO think it could be very helpful to stop listening to the lies of people who represent nonrenewable energy sources and listen to those who have actually studied the science of climate change. To pollute the earth and then to pray that God will rescue us from the consequences of our own actions is a strange prayer indeed.
It will be painful for some to “reboot” our our economy, our historical narrative and to return to the scientific method in making public polices, but that pain is small compared to the slow death taking place as we live in denial.
Someone just sent me a very kind private message asking that I not use the word “bewitched” as a pejorative term. The friend just wanted to make sure our Wiccan and Pagan friends know I respect them.
I am always so grateful when people take the time to help me be kinder and more inclusive. Thanks to my friend for the message and apologies to any Wiccan, Pagan or nature mystic who felt disrespected by my use of an insensitive term.
Capitalism requires a lack of human solidarity that renders humanity’s greatest problems unsolvable.
Humanity will never arrive at the beloved community through property rights alone. When ethics are crafted from rights of possession, the working poor become like sawdust in a carpenter’s shop. They are seen as the tragic but inevitable victims of economic necessity, instead of as members of our one human family.
For many bewitched by capitalism, the word “freedom” no longer refers to personal human rights. For many, the word “freedom” now means “freedom to hoard, pollute and mistreat workers.
Many Americans now evaluate our national economy by how many billionaires it can produce, instead of how well it improves the lives of the masses.
Think of the cost of incarcerating immigrants and criminalizing homelessness. There is need to protect society from violent predators, but the land of the free now imprisons more of its people than almost any other country.
The answers to environmental challenges and to homelessness in America will never be found within capitalism’s cold blooded analysis. For example, the problem of homelessness in the richest nation on earth would not seem so intractable if we put people ahead of profits.
The answer to homelessness in America might be to take the same amounts we now waste on prisons and detention camps. We would actually save money by not employing walls, weapons and prison guards, and we would save our own hearts by refusing to build cages for the indigent members of our human family.