Justice and Outrage

“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected

  are as outraged as those who are.”

                                            Benjamin Franklin

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It is not all about me

It is not all about you

It is not all about America

Some of the most devastating words ever uttered might well be

“me first”

“America first”

Essential selfishness is a lovely short term fix

Where I get what I want

And that is all that matters

But in the sacred design

We are connected, one to the other

We are like a body, with parts so intertwined and connected

That if something is wrong with one part, all parts are affected

The definitive word in the divine thesaurus

Is not “me”, it is “we”

When we seek benefit

We all must benefit

As we struggle to move to a place of safety or affluence

We must all get there

No one can be left behind

So what does it mean when we are willing to shame and abandon the poor?

What does it mean when we are willing to minimize women?

What does it mean when we are willing to silence the voices of people who just happened to be black?

What does it means when we are willing to clutch our power and wealth to ourselves

And leave so many others behind?

It means we have been willing to abandon many important things

Such as justice

Not to mention compassion, and generosity

Kindness an acceptance

Some guy named Jesus once wondered,

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?

Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

What happens when we leave goodness and justice behind?

What happens to our hearts, our souls?

They wither

And we become incapable of speaking out!

We become incapable of making the decisions that lead to justice

Instead of helping to usher in the way, the Kingdom of God

We create a hell of our own making

Responding in love to those around us

Responding with love to the challenges that face us

Sometimes demands the outrage of love

A fire in the belly

That simply says “This cannot be!

This harm that is being done to that person

That one there,

Who may be of a different faith

Who may be a different color

Who may be of a different social class than I

This harm cannot be allowed

This injustice

Cannot stand”