A performative mess

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Recently, a flock of religious types and political types

gathered to “rededicate” a nation to “God.”

 

Sounds good, right?

Lofty

Pious

 

Who could possibly be against

One nation under God?

 

One nation! Whose nation?

God, which God?

The Jewish God, the Christian God?

The Muslim God?

 

What about the Buddhists and Hindus

Those who participate in the Baha'i faith

Do they get to be a part of this one nation?

 

Or is it just Christians, ala Franklin Graham, and

God help us

Paula White or Robert Jefress

 

And if Christian, which version?

Because only Nationalistic, Dominion-oriented Christianity

Will be on that stage

The kind that drop bombs in the name of Jesus (Hegseth)

And exclude rather than welcome the stranger.

 

I, as a Presbyterian, would not be welcome

Not that I would welcome the chance.

 

I know our money says, “In God we Trust”

But we don’t

We trust strongmen (yes, men, and they are not really strong) and bombs

And the Stock market

 

And that is not the motto under which our country was born.

Try  E Pluribus Unum: “Out of many, one.”

 

We were not a country built for religious exclusivism

But were a country designed to bring diverse people together

Under some unifying values (not Christian BTW).

The values of freedom and justice

FOR ALL

And all should mean all

 

But just for fun, let say we are a nation under God

That means we should reflect God’s intention for a nation,

Right?

 

What does that mean?

That we are the biggest and meanest?

That we destroy civilizations?

Bomb Kids?

That we are ‘”hot”?

 

In my faith system, God has had a long

And contentious with those nations

That claim to be “God’s People.”

 

In fact, once Jesus showed up the idea that God

had a favored earthly nation

disappeared

 

Sure, God still had a people

But those people who those gathered in love

To praise, worship, pray AND SERVE

 

Jesus was pretty blunt.  My Kingdom is not of this world!!!!!!

Hear that Pete?  Hear that Doug Wilson?

 

But still, even if there WERE a country that belonged to God

What would it look like?

 

Not like the United States of America

Especially not MAGA States of America

 

Its complicated, but if I were to summarize what God wanted

From the people of Judah and Israel

Who were, at one point, supposedly dedicated to God

I would do it this way

 

SEEK JUSTICE AND DEFEND THE VULNERABLE:

God’s country would care for the poor, the vulnerable, the immigrant

It would protect women (not subjugate them)

 

In God’s country, justice would be blind

The Supreme Court would work to create equality and equity

(and not erase Voter Rights and not side with the Oligarchs)

 

SHOW COMPASSION AND KINDNESS

It would not spend most of its money on a Department of War

It would not spend more on guns and missiles than on healthcare

and education, and roads, and food support, and housing

 

It would not be racist

It would not be retributive, a global bully

Fund USAID

(Not funding USAID will mean 14.5- 25 million preventable deaths, many of them children, over the next 10 years.  Those deaths are blood on the hands of our country, because we could easily prevent them.  A side note.  A year of USAID funding was equal to a little over a month of the war in Iran)

 

HAVE HUMILITY

An awareness that life is a gift.  This land we live in is a gift.

That we are servants, not masters

Caretakers not owners

 

Most of all a nation that says it belongs to God ought to actually

LOVE GOD

More than a demented narcissist

More than earthly power

More than wealth

More than anything

 

Loving God means loving creation, not plundering it

Drill baby drill is not consistent with love God

Because this planet is another incarnation of God

 

Loving God means loving all those God created

AS GOD CREATED THEM

 

BIPOC people

LGBTQI+ people

Yes, trans people

People on the spectrum

People with other mental health challenges

People with disabilities

Female people

Male people

White people

Poor people

 

People of all faiths

Even arrogant, domineering, cruel Christians

Get to be loved

 

Maybe if they find love, they will be nicer

Maybe if we all understood we are loved

We would all be nicer

 

I just know that a political rally

Does not make for a country that actually loves God

 

It is merely one particular brand of Christianity (a toxic one at that)

Asserting its domination over the nation

under the guise of “rededication.”

 

On this day, 72 years ago, the SCOTUS (a much better one than we have now it seems)

Declared the segregation of schools unconstitutional.

And 72 years ago, we also changed our motto, out of fear of communism

To “One nation under God.”

 

Now our better angels have been silenced, and we are affirming racism

As a nation (not Godly)

And we are doubling down on a motto that has been weaponized

Against immigrants, LGBTQI+ people and so many others

(also not Godly)

 

On this day, we would do well to ignore the

Performative mess in Washington, DC

And remember the words of Amos

 

I hate, I despise your religious festivals; your assemblies are a stench to me. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" -Amos 5:21-25