We all see it
Or rather, we should all see it.
That if you enable evil
Even if that enabling is passive, you create a monster.
And that monster,
Call it hate, prejudice, greed, racism
A beast,
Often personified in a person, or a movement
Becomes uncontrollable
Rending the fabric of morality and decency
Gnawing on the flesh of the vulnerable
Eradicating justice
Gorging itself on precious resources
Until the world becomes enmeshed in violence
A place where people are marginalized and minimized
Where cultures are destroyed
Where children lie crushed under the rubble of their
school
And Palestinian villages are flattened
And strangers are brutalized, not welcomed
And people with empty heads and inflated egos
And no moral compass at all
Plan ballrooms, and dream of arches
And fortified bunkers
We reach a point where the cancer
That is killing a culture, a nation
Even a planet
Is beyond cure
It will destroy
And it will be because
Too many people did not stand up and speak out.
This is not new
We have seen many cultures die
Many empires stumble and fall
Crashing to the earth
We have seen the world slowly
Practice resurrection
Rebuilding
Restoring
(only to see it happen again)
There is a reason Jesus said
Be Yeast. Be
salt. Be light.
You
Not someone else.
You
Be the change you wish to see
Be compassion, welcome, and generosity
Be people who fight for justice
Be love
Because if you don’t, who will?
Wise people throughout history have warned us.
Albert Einstein famously noted, "The world is not a
dangerous place because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on
and do nothing."
Dante Alighieri expressed a similar sentiment in Inferno:
"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great
moral crisis maintain their neutrality."
Edmund Burke concisely warned, "The only thing
necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "In the end, we will
remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer highlighted the enabler's dilemma:
"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God
will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to
act."
The monster is awake.
The rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem
Seeking incarnation
We dare not be silent.
We cannot stand by and do nothing
(even if it seems as if nothing can be done)
We cannot watch as a person who does not care
For anyone but himself, slouches along
Playing King Midas and seeking to turn everything gold
While Elon dances like a dervish
And greedy souls destroy the planet for profit.
May it never be said that
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity” (Yeats)
We cannot let MAGA win.
We cannot let Putin, Trump, and the oligarchs
Shape the world
The stock market is not a measure of wellness
Nor is the wealth of the oligarchs a sign of success
For underneath such shallow victories
Racism, hate, and greed grow
Fear too
We must be salt and yeast
We must be light
Jesus told us that even small acts are important
Yes, it may look as if it is all for nothing
As if we are powerless
The cross looked like a defeat, a failure
But it was magnificent
So we must do what small things that we can
We must protect our LGBTQI+ friends
We must stand side by side with those beautiful trans
people
In our midst
We must feed the hungry,
Welcome the stranger
We must vote
Because even if we do not win
This time
Even if evil is not impeached or deposed
Now
We will have planted a seed,
Sprinkled a little yeast
We will have followed
Jesus
