E pluribus unum

I am taking a new approach to things since Sunday. I was beginning to feel that being a thinking, analytical person is somehow equated to a “radical” or an “elite” and that I should rein it in, be quiet in my thoughts, silence that urge to share a profound article or provoking video. But then, I heard the leader at the spiritual centre say we shouldn’t focus our energies on one person, one leader, or one group, but instead, we should focus our individual and collective energies on our movement forward, being vigilant in our thinking. We are the people. The collective ‘we’. Not just one group or another. I realised I should, and can, rise above that low bar where the musings and beliefs of some with myopic views of the world we live in seem to drown out common sense, intelligence and logic. It is through our surge up that we keep democracy alive. Not in the trickle down. Why do we celebrate mediocrity?!
 
It is amazing, at times unbelievably appalling, how this mirror held up to America these past months and days has shown us and the world that this nation professing democracy, can and will resort to division and name calling. That this nation, founded on groups fleeing England to gain religious freedom can and will alienate the ‘other’ as un-American. If past is prologue, aren’t the new (legal) immigrants the continuation of the American story? It is sad that the reflection on that mirror has been one of a very flawed people, tearing at each other in the name of patriotism.

I also continue to feel that somehow my concept and belief of Christianity is vastly different than the one that’s “out there”. The one that gets air time on tv, in print and in the blogosphere. The faith of Sarah Palin and the Jesus she seems to believe in is not the one I grew up believing or find in the scriptures today as an adult. How is it that being divisive and judgmental is being the voice of faith? It was reported by the Associated Press yesterday that Palin claimed she felt God was mocked in the campaign process. In an interview to be shown on the Christian Broadcast Network, Palin says:

“I think the saddest part of that is that faith, not just my faith, faith and God in general has been mocked through this campaign, and that breaks my heart and that is unfair for others who share a faith in God and chose to worship our Lord in whatever private manner that they deem fit and my faith has always been pretty personal. I haven’t really worn it on my sleeve. I haven’t been out there preaching it. I’ve always been of the mind that you walk the walk. You just don’t have to be talking the talk about your beliefs, so just wanting maybe my life to be able to reflect my faith.”

I suppose you can almost guess where I’m going with this. I’ll leave the “God is mocked” part till later, hurrrmph! First, she claims it’s “unfair” to others who share a faith in God: how so? Is she claiming that as long as you are an Evangelical christian, you have the right to worship your Lord in ‘whatever private manner’ you ‘deem fit’? What about the millions of others who do worship God in manners different from yours? What is fair to them? Does she even understand religious history where Christians, just as Jews, share many common scriptural beliefs as the Muslims? That all three regard Abraham as the father of their faiths? That we all are the children of Abraham.

Here’s something Mrs. Palin needs to realise. The very God she claimed to be mocked, is indeed mocked and smeared every time she points her finger and accuses another of evil. Every time she judges another as a pal of terrorists, she hammers that nail to the cross one more time. Every time she proclaims one area of this nation as more American than another, she makes that cross heavier. Each one of us is created in the image of the divine and thus, any act of violence, in thought, word or deed against another is an act against the Divine.

Walk the walk?! Puh-leaze. The day when you fully realise, Mrs. Palin, that the Christ whose name you claim to bear, walked through Judea and Palestine as He began His ministry, only after he announced the Scripture of Isaiah 61 was fulfilled in the presence of the members of the synagogue. What exactly was fulfilled?

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (KJV)

So, Mrs. Palin, when I see you and the party whose nominee you are, regardless of how much you want not to talk about it (say it ain’t so, Sarah!), step up and free those held captive by your policies; when I see you and your party mend the brokenhearts of the victims of Katrina; when you set the captives held illegally in Guantanamo free; when you comfort the families who mourn their lost loved ones in the war you wage in Iraq and Afghanistan; when you and your presidential candidate walk the talk of restoring dignity to the hundreds of veterans of these two wars living under bridges and in cardboard boxes, then, only then, Mrs. Palin, will you honour Him whose name you call upon. Remember, He did not say calling Him Lord will get you into heaven. He said when you do feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty and come to the need of those in prison will you see the kingdom of God. When you do to the least of these, you do unto Him (Matt 25:34-46).

He is the One who challenged the crowd ready to stone the adultress to death, to cast the first stone he who had no sin. He then exhorted the woman to go and sin no more. The Jesus of the scriptures did not choose to judge her or condemn her. He did not vilify Matthew a tax collector but instead invited him to join him as one of his own disciples. He reached out to Zacharias, another tax-collector (and thus, much hated by his community!) and accepted the man’s invitation to dinner at his house, much to the self-righteous indignation of his followers. That, Mrs. Palin, is our example of inclusion. Jesus did not alienate, He embraced people of all walks and beliefs. How will ‘they’ know we are His disciples, Mrs. Palin? “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34) 

Imago Dei. You and I, he and she, we and them. All in HIS image. All colours, all creeds. When you divide and alienate us, you weaken the strength of this great nation and dim the beacon that is America. When you draw us together, we stand strong and able to face whatever peril may come our way. In our diversity is our strength. We are many, but we are one American nation.  

E Pluribus unum.