Let's face it

“Not everything that is faced can be changed.

But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

 James Baldwin

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There are more than a few things in this world that need changing

There are more than a few things about our country that need changing

There are more than a few things about me, and you

That need changing

It is not that hard to understand the changes others need to make

Those hateful ones

Greedy ones

Lustful ones

Cruel ones

It is not hard that “they” need to change

Those whose culture

Or color

Or creed

Is different from my own

After all

My country, my religion

Are exceptional

Right?

Wrong!

We must face it!

the greatest impediment to positive change

the greatest roadblock to the emergence of what many call

“the kingdom of God” (whatever that looks like)

is our unwillingness to look at ourselves

and say

“I have met the enemy, and the enemy is us”

(Walt Kennedy, Pogo, 1970 – a commentary on the way humans trash the planet

  in a cartoon published on Earth Day)

Real change

The kind of change that bends history toward love and justice

Will not happen when we focus on the ills of others

It will only happen when we are willing to look in the mirror, and see what is wrong with us

When we face the things within ourselves, that need to be changed.

When we refuse to look in the mirror

When we refuse to see ourselves the way we really are?

We aid and abet evil

Take immigration

It is easy to point the finger at them

Those brown people

Those poor people

Those speakers of Spanish and indigent languages

It is easy to look at them a see them as

Criminals and drug runners

As people who seek only to take and not give

As burdens and threats

So we seek change

“A wall” some say, “that is the change we need”

But we will not find a solution to this problem

If we look at those immigrants

We will only find it if we look at ourselves

At our essential selfishness, that says America First, me first

That selfishness that defines others as less

We will only create the change needed

If we face that selfishness

And our racism, both subtle and overt

And our fear

and change that to generosity, and acceptance

compassion, and welcome

If we want to make America great

We must face up to the ways in which we are not great

If we want to make our churches part of The Church

We have to face up with the ways we have lost our way

And chased after the God’s of power, affluence, and expedience

If we want to become better people

We have to face up to our own flaws

There is much that needs changing

Not everything can be changed

But nothing can be changed until it is faced

Sorry Sarah Huckabee Sanders

You may say

 "Every life - that's what sets America apart from every other country; we value life.

That is what makes us unique."

But let’s face it

We don’t value life

We have those who oppose abortion, sure

But we don’t have economic equity

We don’t have justice for all

We don’t have universal health care

We are eroding services for the poor (so we don’t have to pay taxes)

We are destroying the plant on which we live

We are not exceptional

We are not better than “every other country”

We have our flaws

Lets face it

And we will never become great again

Until we do