It is not contrary to reason to prefer the destruction of
the whole world to the scratching of my finger.
David Hume
__________________________________
It is not just the far right who struggle to feel the fear
and pain of others.
It is also, in a profound way, all of us.
Having worked in Mexico and in other countries with the
poor, with refugees and IDPs, it is easier for me to have deep empathy for
those who, desperate, fleeing conflict and oppression, have come to our borders
for safety, for a future.
It is not so easy for me to enter into the fear of that
right-wing Christian who feels his/her faith system is being persecuted.
Because I am a follower of Jesus, and I don't feel my faith system is being
persecuted and oppressed. I don't,
perhaps I can't feel it.
One has to have personal contact with real people dealing
with real oppression, or suppression, real racism, real poverty, to truly feel
WITH them and for them.
Otherwise, empathy, or what I like to call the Jesus
perspective, is lost.
Jim Rigby tells this story in a recent blog.
"Jimmy Kimmel made a tearful plea for affordable health
care by talking about his newborn baby needing heart surgery. Kimmel had been
moved by the poor parents he saw at the hospital and wondered what would happen
to them if they lost health insurance.
At one point, Kimmel basically said that taking care of sick
children is something we can all agree upon, regardless of our political
stance. In response, Republican Joe Walsh, tweeted, “Sorry Jimmy Kimmel: your
sad story doesn't obligate me or anybody else to pay for somebody else's health
care.”
If you have never had
to watch a sick child suffer because you didn't have access to medical care,
you don't "get it"
The other day, I was in a conversation where someone commented, “It is not OK to kill children. We can all agree on that, right!? That it is
not OK to kill children.” That would
seem like a no-brainer.
And yet we are killing children.
In Gaza
In America, as we refuse to deal with our gun problem
All across the world as we kill our USAID program and doom millions
of people to death.
We are killing children as we reject science and vaccines
We are killing the future of children as we destroy the
planet
We harm children as we deny many children of poverty health
care and an equal education.
The list could go on and on
No, we do not all agree that it is not OK to kill children.
When it comes to power and money, children are expendable.
Jesus talked about taking care of the “little ones” and said
that it was the child-like (not childish as in a certain president) who would inherit
the Kingdom of God.
“Do not hinder the children”
But we are.
A culture, a movement, that can turn its back on children
Is spiritually, ethically, and morally deficient
And knows not Jesus
At least not the Jesus I love and follow
