"Immigration" Reform

Conservatives are calling for "Immigration Reform."

Beware when the leaders in this administration use that word "reform."

Just like "Social Security Reform" their ideas about "Immigration Reform" need closer scrutiny because the real problem with the current situation runs broader and deeper than just the limited issues upon which they are harping.

From George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson of The Rockridge Institute:

'Consider if we framed the issue not as "Immigration Reform" but as "Foreign Policy Reform," which focuses on two sub-issues:

How has US foreign policy placed, or kept, in power oppressive governments which people are forced to flee?'

What role have international trade agreements had in creating or exacerbating people's urge to flee their homelands?

If capital is going to freely cross borders, should people and labor be able to do so as well, going where globalization takes the jobs?

Such a framing of the problem would lead to a solution involving the Secretary of State, conversations with Mexico and other Central American countries, and a close examination of the promises of NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank to raise standards of living around the globe.

It would inject into the globalization debate a concern for the migration and displacement of people, not simply globalization's promise for profits. Yet this is not addressed when the issue is defined as the “immigration problem.”

In fact, President Bush's “comprehensive solution” does not address any of these concerns. Yet, the "immigration" problem, in this light, is actually a globalization problem.

Perhaps the problem might be better understood as a humanitarian crisis.

After all, can the mass migration and displacement of people from their homelands at a rate of 800,000 people a year be understood as anything else?

Unknown numbers of people have died trekking through the extreme conditions of the Arizona and New Mexico desert.

Towns are being depopulated and ways of life lost in rural Mexico. Fathers feel forced to leave their families in their best attempt to provide for their kids.

Everyday, boatloads of people arrive on our shores after miserable journeys at sea in deplorable conditions.

As a humanitarian crisis, the solution could involve The UN or the Organization of American States. But these bodies do not have roles in the immigration frame, so they have no place in an “immigration debate.”

So the deliberate framing this as just an “immigration problem” prevents us from penetrating deeper into the issue.

The current situation can also be seen as a civil rights problem. The millions of people living here who crossed illegally are for most intents and purposes Americans.

They work here. They pay taxes here. Their kids are in school here. They plan to raise their families here. (Arguments that most don't pay taxes are bogus.)

For the most part, they are assimilated into the American system, but are forced to live underground and in the shadows because of their legal status. They are denied ordinary civil rights.

Therefore, the “immigration problem” framing overlooks their basic human dignity.

Perhaps most pointedly, the “immigration problem” frame blocks an understanding of this issue as a cheap labor issue.

The undocumented immigrants allow employers to pay low wages, which in turn provide the cheap consumer goods we find at WalMart and McDonalds.

They are part of a move towards the cheap lifestyle, where employers and consumers find any way they can to save a dollar, regardless of the human cost.

Most of us partake in this cheap lifestyle, and as a consequence, we are all complicit in the current problematic situation. (And maybe that guilt is what is making so many Americans so angry. But rather than do something about humanizing corporations, we are punishing the underpaid victims who provide us with cheap goods and labor.)

Business, Consumers and Government have turned a blind eye to the problem for so long because our entire economy is structured around subsistence wages.

Americans won't do the work immigrants do not because they don't want to, but because they won't do it for such low pay.

Since Bush was elected, corporate profits have doubled but there has been no increase in wages. This is really a wage problem. The workers who are being more productive are not getting paid for their increased productivity."

(end of excerpt)

Instead of trying to counter all the demeaning arguments that are being hurled against migrants and undocumented workers, it's important for people of compassion to stop discussing this issue within the narrow and inherently biased framework that has been created by the non-compassionate.

In other words, if we as Christians are serious about bringing God and compassion and love into this world, we must begin re-framing this issue in more humane terms.

For instance, to use the language frame that defines anyone as "an alien" is dehumanizing. We should not use that term for Mexicans or migrants or anyone born on this planet.

We are all humans, not aliens.

Continuing to use this insulting term - even in our arguments against the dehumanization of migrant workers - only plays to those who lack compassion by validating their charged term.

Christ told us to love every man as a brother, not to label, shame, exploit or abuse him. Especially when the policies of our nation help to create the poverty in other nations that sends so many to our shores.

Christians need to stand up for an immigration policy that is rooted in justice, fairness and compassion. We cannot continue to tolerate an immigration policy that rewards us for exploiting the poor and vulnerable while shaming and criminalizing those very people on whom we depend to pick our food, clean our homes, build new construction, fight fires and do so much of our manual labor.

I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. Zechariah 3:12

Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of god. Ephesians 2:19

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you. Ephesians 4:31

We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Romans 15:1

An inconvenient Truth

Global Warming is a fact and it's going to take action - as well as prayer - to turn things around and protect us from chaotic climate change.

Yet, until just two days ago, the Bush administration was still creating spin about it. Part of that spin is the hysterical charge that changing our energy priorities will kill our economy. Now, under pressure, he has made an abrupt change, saying:

"Let's quit the debate about whether greenhouse gases are caused by mankind or by natural causes; let's just focus on technologies that deal with the issue."

Too bad he didn't say that six years ago. But, being forced by the facts to change, he suddenly has.

It is to be expected that, every time we need to change, there will be those who resist and yell that the sky is falling. Usually those people have financial interests in stopping the change. But, God gave us brains for a reason. We cannot be praying for a miracle if we are unwilling to help ourselves. And we cannot help ourselves if we are unwilling to look at the facts.

Yet facts often are unpleasant. They mean we have to change. It takes strength of character to face facts, use our brains, make decisions and follow up.

For instance, as Christians we say we want people with "Christian values" in office. Yet, what does that mean?

Does it mean voting for someone who mouths platitudes about being in favor of a "culture of life" even if he has a history of pushing environmental policies that are killing the earth?

Does it mean we will automatically vote for someone who speaks about having a personal relationship with God even after he has lied to involve us in his own, personal war?

Does it mean voting against a person of conscience who bases his arguments on facts and putting a hack in office because the hack says he believes in God?

And does it mean voting for a political party that supported that hack, that groomed him, helped create his policies and provides the money to craft his media spin?

If so, we are abrogating our responsibilities as Christians by allowing ourselves to be duped and manipulated.

And we are revealing our characters for what they are: weak and an affront to Jesus Christ, who never took the easy way out.

Being a Christian is not a one issue stand. It must be a stand for doing right across the board. It is about standing up for justice, about taking the time to understand the truth, about getting involved and about loving your enemies, not launching a "pre-emptive" attack against them.

Our media - run by corporations - painted Al Gore as a boring, unfriendly man. Since he bored us, we switched the station. We didn't listen to his facts. We dismissed him, even though he attends church.

As a result a man was elected who does not operate on facts, but who operates much as Ken Lay - former CEO of Enron and George Bush's close friend - operates.

You may know that Mr. Lay has been found guilty of not just mismanaging Enron, but of outrageous criminal activity in which he defrauded investors and employees. He nearly bankrupted California.

He hurt a lot of people.

He did this because he did not operate on facts. He operated on wishful thinking and greed.

Mr. Bush seems to operate on the same principles. He certainly is bankrupting us with his agendas. And not only financially, but morally.

Yet many Christians voted for him. We are who put him in office. We did so because he claimed to be "a man of God" against abortion.

Yet, it's one thing to ban abortion. It's another thing to vote for the programs and support that encourage poor mothers to have their children and raise them successfully instead of sinking deeper into poverty.

The difference between the woman who has an abortion and the one who doesn't is usually an issue of affordability.

But George Bush is not in favor of uplifting the poor. He is merely interested in punishing them for existing. He is, therefore, not in favor of a culture of life, but a culture of punishment for being poor and having the audacity to have sex.

Yet we elected him. The Christian base elected him. We elected a man who punishes the poor instead of leading them - and us - to new purpose and compassion.

In essence - if you look at his record - supporting torture, cutting veterans' benefits even as the injured come flooding home, lying to begin a war, supporting corporate profits over the American people - we have elected a man who is aborting the entire United States and all it stood for: truth, justice, fairness, opportunity.

What does that say about us and our religion?

What does that say about our overall character, as Christians?

Today Paul Krugman writes about our national character. It's a timely issue since we have elections looming both this year and in 2008.

And how are we going to vote?

Are we going to ignore the issues, then vote on the strength of some soundbite crafted by media experts?

Are we going to run from facts and science and elect someone who doesn't bring those things up - or lies about them - but harps on one or two issues like abortion and gay unions?

If we do, things are not going to get better. We - and this country to which we owe allegiance and responsibility - will reap what we sow.

Here's an excerpt from Paul Krugman's article A Test Of Our Character:

'"An Inconvenient Truth" isn't just about global warming, of course. It's also about Mr. Gore. And it is, implicitly, a cautionary tale about what's been wrong with our politics.

Why, after all, was Mr. Gore's popular-vote margin in the 2000 election narrow enough that he could be denied the White House? Any account that neglects the determination of some journalists to make him a figure of ridicule misses a key part of the story. Why were those journalists so determined to jeer Mr. Gore? Because of the very qualities that allowed him to realize the importance of global warming, many years before any other major political figure: his earnestness, and his genuine interest in facts, numbers and serious analysis.

And so the 2000 campaign ended up being about the candidates' clothing, their mannerisms, anything but the issues, on which Mr. Gore had a clear advantage (and about which his opponent was clearly both ill informed and dishonest).

I won't join the sudden surge of speculation about whether "An Inconvenient Truth" will make Mr. Gore a presidential contender. But the film does make a powerful case that Mr. Gore is the sort of person who ought to be running the country.

Since 2000, we've seen what happens when people who aren't interested in the facts, who believe what they want to believe, sit in the White House. Osama bin Laden is still at large, Iraq is a mess, New Orleans is a wreck. And, of course, we've done nothing about global warming.

But can the sort of person who would act on global warming get elected? Are we - by which I mean both the public and the press - ready for political leaders who don't pander, who are willing to talk about complicated issues and call for responsible policies? That's a test of national character. I wonder whether we'll pass.'

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Matthew 15:14

Death Threats: Always Anti-Christ

From an article in the New York Times:

'THE DIXIE CHICKS call it "the Incident": the anti-Bush remark that Natalie Maines, their lead singer, made onstage in London in 2003. "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," said Ms. Maines, a Texan herself.

It led to a partisan firestorm, a radio boycott, death threats and, now, to an album that's anything but repentant: "Taking the Long Way" (Open Wide/Monument/ Columbia).

Her remark was reported in Britain and quickly picked up. Right-wing blogs and talk shows vilified the Dixie Chicks as unpatriotic and worse, and the Incident reached the nightly news. On March 12 a Web site statement from Ms. Maines said: "I feel the president is ignoring the opinion of many in the U.S. and alienating the rest of the world. My comments were made in frustration, and one of the privileges of being an American is you are free to voice your own point of view."

The article makes it clear that the Dixie Chicks got the shock of their life when they found out that there are a large number of Americans who are not for freedom of speech and wish to kill people who do not parrot their own views:

"We have video footage of this lady at one of the shows protesting, holding her 2-year-old son," Ms. Maines said. The woman commanded her son to shout along with an angry chant. "And I was just like, that's it right there. That's the moment that it's taught. She just taught her 2-year-old how to hate. And that broke my heart."

The band received death threats, including at least one, in Dallas, that the F.B.I. considered credible. A newspaper printed Ms. Maines's home address in Austin, Tex., and she ended up moving first outside the city and then to Los Angeles.'

It is the height of irony that these Americans would support a war that, supposedly, was being fought to bring American freedoms to another country while simultaneously denying those same freedoms (i.e. freedom of speech) to their own fellow citizens.

The Times article then talks about how now, over three years later, the same media pundits who once slandered this musical group for their clear-sighted honesty, are now are praising them:

"At the Time 100 party a few days before this interview, the Dixie Chicks performed "Not Ready to Make Nice." Afterward Ms. Maines recounted, the Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly — who has regularly denounced her, and whom she pointedly calls "despicable" — rushed over to greet them. "It's like, 'Just want to say that was great!' " Ms. Maines said. " 'I really like that new song.' "

"And I go, 'But two million tops, right?' And he goes, 'What?' And I said, 'I saw your show when you said we wouldn't sell more than two million, tops.' And he was like, 'Oh, ah, well, two million's pretty good these days, right?' And I was just like, 'Right, yeah. You were saying it in a positive way.' "

Ms. Robison interrupted, laughing. "That's what you call a no-spin zone."

"So then he was just backtracking," Ms. Maines continued. "He says: 'We really respect what you did. And we really respect that you stand up for yourself and blah blah blah.'

My point of bringing this to your attention:

Some of the people - maybe all of the people - who made those death threats, who taught their children hate and who tried to destroy the Dixie Chicks consider themselves Christians.

They tried to destroy the Chicks because they, themselves, chose to stand on the side of war and killing and against rational discussion, conflict resolution and saving lives.

The fact that a hometown newspaper would print a person's home address in order to encourage such criminal behaviors as harassment, vandalism and possible injury or death is unconscionable.

Yet, as Ms. Maine says, her home of Lubbock, Texas (which she had to leave because of death threats) has "more churches than trees."

But those churches did not help the people to do right. They encouraged them, instead, to do wrong. This is the worst kind of hypocrisy.

Our primary commandment from God is "Do not kill."

What kind of mind is it that twists that gospel so it can justify death threats against those who are against killing?

And what kind of heart can translate "Thou shalt not kill" into support for a hasty, ill-conceived and pre-emptive war?

It is a fearful heart - and a fearful mind - separated from God.

Let's get one thing straight:

Such people are not Christians, even if they disguise themselves in the robes of clergy.

They are the anti-Christ.

Ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists. 1 John 2:18

The battle is not yours, but God's. 2 Chronicles 20:15

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4

Whence come wars and fightings among you? James 4:1

Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Matthew 7:3

If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer. 1 John 3:15

Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder. Matthew 19:18

Is God Or Television Guiding Our Minds?

We were given brains to think for ourselves. Yet there is so much information to sort through. We wind up dependent upon experts to analyze information and give us what we hope are truthful summaries.

Most of us have grown up trusting the government to provide us with accurate information since it has the resources and manpower to do research and analysis. Historically, we have reason to expect governmental agencies to be more reliable than not in giving us truthful information.

Consider how we have depended upon the Library of Congress, PBS, the EPA, ethics panels, investigators, judges and a huge net of government agencies and employees to serve our best interests and give us accurate and unbiased information. We depend upon them to work for the public good and, for the most part, they do not fail us.

And while Administrations certainly have made gross errors in judgment, we tend to think of unlawful power grabs as being the province of individuals such as Richard Nixon and Senator Joe McCarthy.

It is difficult, therefore, for most people to accept that we are in the grips of not just one person, but an entire government that is waging an unprecedented assault not only on truth and transparency, science and fact, but on America and her people.

This war was started 40 years ago as Republicans formed think tanks and sunk billions into figuring out how to control language, frame every issue their way, win elections based upon emotional spin and gain absolute power.

Our schools have been chronically underfunded. Our poor have not been educated so they can raise themselves up.

While Republicans with money think nothing of spending $40,000 to $80,000 per year on private schools for their children so they can compete, they object to public schools spending $10,000 per student while derisively leaping on public schools and underpaid teachers as being responsible for not being able to lift disadvantaged children up.

They care nothing about raising up poor or even middle-class children so they feel empowered and are able to contribute.

In short, we have not been challenged to think positively or to think in terms of uplifting ourselves or our nation. Government could do this, but this would make us less willing to turn to war. It goes without saying we are not taught conflict resolution.

Instead, we are encouraged to be separate and divisive by everything from our technology to the layout of our suburbs.

Science - the base of all our technological and medical revolutions - is discredited and a fight between religion and science has been nurtured to such a point that some people actually argue that dinosaurs are only 6,000-years-old and were transported on the ark. People are encouraged to believe evolution - the root of our medical and scientific advances - is disputable. And fully one fifth of our population - one in five Americans - thinks that the sun revolves around the earth, an idea that was disproved five centuries ago.

In short, nothing in our culture or constant programming - with the exception of PBS - teaches us to think - critically - for ourselves or do real research or rely on facts.

Witness all the absurd urban legends that are continually circulated on the Internet by gullible friends unable, unwilling or uncaring enough to check out if they are true.

Meanwhile PBS keeps being rescued from the budget axe by the slimmest of threads.

Obviously we are better consumers and a more pliant populace when we do not think for ourselves. Corporations subsequently spend billions on advertising campaigns to convince us we are thinking for ourselves even as they program our minds to their ends.

It's ironic that advertising is increasingly geared to make us feel special - to make us feel as though we are unique and making uniquely personal choices - even as it simultaneously herds us toward a powerlessness, herd mentality.

I write all these many words to you so you will consider this:

While it's tempting to blame the American people and tempting to blame people "who don't think for themselves" remember that we do not usually do what we are not taught to do.

And we in the U.S. are not taught to question the government or question anything.

We - this country's ordinary working citizens - are taught to want the latest technological advance, to shop and eat too much.

It is very difficult to see from inside this box.

Who sees himself clearly - or his country - from inside?

So when people are fed lies repeatedly, they tend to make their decisions on those lies and defend them.

Yet so much of what we take in, we do so while under a kind of hypnosis, while watching television.

Watching television puts us in a brain wave state in which we are very receptive to whatever we are watching.

From an article by Wes More:

"Herbert Krugman's research proved that watching television numbs the left brain and leaves the right brain to perform all cognitive duties.

This has some harrowing implications for the effects of television on brain development and health. For one, the left hemisphere is the critical region for organizing, analyzing, and judging incoming data. The right brain treats incoming data uncritically, and it does not decode or divide information into its component parts.

While watching television, the brain appears to slow to a halt, registering low alpha wave readings on the EEG. This is caused by the radiant light produced by cathode ray technology within the television set. Even if you're reading text on a television screen the brain registers low levels of activity. Once again, regardless of the content being presented, television essentially turns off your nervous system."

For the rest of Mr. More's article and to understand how addicted we are and how this addiction has resulted in programmers and advertisers programming and controlling you, see this article from www.familyresource.com.

For more on how the brain acts under hypnosis, read this article from the New York Times This Is Your Brain Under Hypnosis by Sandra Blakeslee.

We all have a need to feel we are in control and know what's really going on. None of us want to think we were duped, so some of us will fight to the death to defend the lies that we have been fed (but do not know are lies) and want to believe are the truth.

If possible, have compassion for those who disagree, who resist the truth, who don't "think for themselves."

Please affirm, in your mind, that each American - including yourself - abandons the need to be right and, instead, thirsts for the truth and finds it.

We must believe in the inherent goodness and intelligence in ourselves and each other. We must believe that the truth must out and that we, as a people, are getting ready to turn this nation around. We must believe there is more good in us than darkness and that the good will triumph.

These intentions are what will, ultimately, empower and save us as individuals, a nation and a world. They will allow us to align with God and do what is loving, compassionate, right and smart - as opposed to what we are programmed to do.

He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isaiah 61:1

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

Gnosis

Recently I saw the following question posed: What is a Gnostic?

This is my understanding:

A Gnostic is a person who believes that matter is evil and that salvation comes through gnosis.

Gnosis is transformation through spiritual practice that infuses one with uplifting, divine energy.

That spiritual practice gives strategies for "salvation" based on the premises that we can transcend our "evil" (suffering, pain, confusion and harm we do to others) through aligning with God (which will change our ways of perceiving, believing and acting.)

As we realize - through physics - that we live in an energy universe and that everything (no matter how solid it appears) is illusion composed of vibrating packets of energy, gnosis is understood as a way of raising our energy (spiritual, mental, emotional and physical) so it vibrates, literally, at a higher (faster) level closer to the vibration of God's love.

As we reach that level, we are happier, healthier and more loving.

We are freed from the "eat or be eaten" philosophy embedded in the body (through its evolution from single cells to what we are today) that inclines us to act in the unloving and destructive ways we do.

If anyone who has studied the topic can add to my understanding of the definition of gnosis, I would appreciate it.

Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. John 16:20

Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. Romans 12:2

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. 1 John 3:14

Da Vinci Cartoon

I cannot resist linking to this droll cartoon about the Da Vinci Code.

Having done that, however, I'm still going to go see the film. I feel myself wedded to God and the Spirit of Christ within me. I don't need to protect my beliefs or fight over doctrine. I hope you feel the same.

Personally, I think those who are angry and fighting to suppress The Da Vinci Code either have subconscious doubts about their own beliefs (and are afraid of being wrong) or they have fears of losing their followers, losing their power over their followers and losing their followers' tithes.

Notice that no one is angrily trying to stamp out traditional views of Jesus. There is no anger behind The Da Vinci Code. But it does illuminate how badly women have been maligned by the Church since the third century.

Fighting over religious doctrine - as opposed to debating or discussing ideas and the research one has uncovered which seems to support them - is counter to the beliefs we say we have: Jesus' teachings of love, turning the other cheek, blessing "the enemy."

Indeed the fact that the worst atrocities have been perpetrated by religious sects fighting over whose doctrine is correct does not deter us from putting up our fists (or suing others) over what they think.

Please let's grow up as Christians, stop acting like bullying children and move on...

Teach me good judgment. Psalms 119:66

Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge. Matthew 5:25

With what judgments ye judge, ye shall be judged. Matthew 7:1

The Partisan Jesus

Today Gary Wills reminds us, in his essay published in the New York Times, that Jesus was a complicated and mercurial figure.

I prefer the uncomplicated image - that so many of us nurture - of Jesus as a kind, tolerant teacher of love.

In fact, I base my ideas about the need for a compassionate and inclusive political agenda on his teachings about lovingkindness.

As our culture has become more greedy and rapacious under Republican leadership, I have longed for Democrats to embrace liberal Christians and call us to new and better purpose. Not a self-martyring purpose, but a loving, sharing purpose.

I would dearly like it if Democrats of faith stopped being afraid of speaking about God, got real and got genuine about any faith they had.

But - let's face it - spirituality in democratic politics is like homosexuality in the army. If they don't ask, you don't tell. In fact, if they do ask, you just sidestep the question and move on because Democrats are committed to maintaining a secular society (as opposed, for instance, to what Iran has.)

It doesn't matter what experiences we've had that have convinced us that we are better persons when we are aligned with God's love.

Neither does it matter that calling upon the power of God and enlisting the power of the greater Universe seems, to many of us, to only make sense. Why go it alone when you can receive unlimited help and wise guidance?

There are also many of us who believe that, unless we each - on our own and not as any kind of imposed mandate - begin to seek meaning for our lives through learning love for everything and everyone (in short, through embracing spiritual values) that humanity will eventually destroy itself (and perhaps the world), becoming not a triumph of God's love but a failed experiment.

In my world view, we are here to evolve and to become more and more like God - more and more loving and joyful - in human (manifested) form.

From my point of view, it's too bad Democrats didn't embrace this view of God ten years ago because the only recent images we have of God in American politics are negative.

Still, Wills is a clear thinker and gives a powerful argument against Democrats embracing a partisan Jesus and flaunting Him in public.

Definitely food for thought.

A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength. Proverbs 24:5

Gird up the loins of your mind. 1 Peter 1:13

May 8 - The Anniversary of V.E. Day

We spend so much time defending our views and making other people wrong instead of honoring them.Yet, when we build up an idea of another person as having wrong ideas, it's easy to start thinking of them as inferior. Pretty soon we can be thinking of them as people we can live without, and then as people we shouldn't have to put up with, and then as people who shouldn't even exist.

This is how the justification for genocide builds.

The list of genocides is long, reaching into the 21st century with Dafur. The only way we can end them is to develop empathy and tolerance for others. It is not too extreme to say that this world would be a safer and better home for us if we each took it upon ourselves to ask God to teach us to honor each person as a sacred creation. And we have a very good reason to do this: each of us contains God. To kill another is to kill a piece of God.

Today is the anniversary of V.E. Day. I can think of no better way to honor my mother - who was born on this day - than to offer a prayer in remembrance of the millions of mothers (and their children and husbands and parents) put to death by the Nazis. May their souls be at peace. May we never forget what resentments, blaming and hating lead to and may we continually strive to love and forgive.

I Honor Those Lost In The Holocaust

Dear God,

May 8, 1945 marked V.E. Day - "Victory In Europe" Day - when:

--Europe was freed from the clutches of Nazism
--World War II in Europe ceased
--The Holocaust came to an end.

V.E. Day was not just an end. It was a beginning of revelations about:

--loved ones heartlessly torn from each other
--concentration camps
--piles of spectacles
--mounds of shoes
--bodies beyond counting
--and starving survivors, nearly insane from what they had endured.

Stripped of everything and everyone held dear
Returned to a lonely world
Holocaust survivors told stories of breathtaking brutality
That made the world weep.

O God, their only sin was belief in You.
They prospered through faith and were hated for it.

The hateful, the jealous and the spiritually disconnected
Wishing to usurp Your power
And refusing to hear Your voice
Vowed to kill those who do.
But death was denied victory
And Your Spirit lives on.

O Lord, in honor of those we lost,
Make me a vehicle of compassion so You rule the earth.

Fill me with profound understanding of what creates such hate
And fill me, instead, with even greater love.

Amen.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged. Luke 6:37

Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. Romans 2:1

He that hateth his brother is in darkness. 1 John 2:11

He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth. Acts 17:26

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Romans 13:9

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear. 1 John 4:18

Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Matthew 5:9

Cinco de Mayo

As corporations move out of the U.S. (in order to make obscene profits paying Chinese laborers 40 cents an hour) and the deficit balloons, Americans are becoming increasingly angry.

That anger, instead of being focused on a party that is dismantling our nation, bankrupting us and killing our soldiers in a careless war, is being focused - as is what usually happens - against the weakest and most vulnerable of our nation. Today that population of people is Mexican-American immigrants.

I am fifty-five years old and I grew up with idea that Mexicans were, inherently, dirty. Whether due to their skin color or the fact that they become muddy from toiling in our fields, that "dirtiness" always implied more than color. "Dirty Mexican" was always said so that I knew they were, inherently, criminal and morally inferior.

However we got that image embedded within us (and I think it was largely through television sterotypes) it is obvious this idea of "inherent" criminality is what many people still harbor as they toss about the term "illegal alien."

It is ironic that at a time when Americans themselves have overtly shown the world their own shadow and their ability to act in criminal and morally reprehensible ways - by rushing into the war in Iraq, arguing in favor of torture, ignoring or even cheering on the killing of Muslims and the suffering in Iraq - there is a call to label those who come here for a better life as criminals and felons.

We always project our sins on others. It is the way of spirit, the way of the world. As Rumi says, ""This world is a mountain. What we do is a shout. The echo comes back to us."

So - we are not willing to turn our judgment against ourselves and apologize for invading Iraq. We are not willing to apologize for being 5% of the world's population yet using 90% of the world's resources. We are not willing to tackle corporate welfare or misdeeds or the fact that we allow exploitation of every kind in third world countries under the holy name of "profit."

No - we can't even see we have done wrong in these instances - preferring to read about Paris Hilton instead of U.S. policy. Yet we know something is wrong - many things are wrong. So what do we do? We will take the easy route: persecute and shame the immigrants who toil in this country doing jobs American-born citizens will not take on.

Instead of persecution, instead of blaming all our ills on people who have come here to contribute and make a solid life, the true Christian would consider making amends for what is going on.

To that end, I give you a prayer to make amends to all Mexican-Americans for all past - and present - hate-mongering and abuse.

God gave the earth, the land, the sky to all of us. We are the ones who build the fences and shut others out.

May 5 - I Make Amends To Mexican-Americans

Dear God,

Today is Cinco de Mayo, a holiday for Mexican-Americans,
A celebration of triumph in the face of overwhelming odds.

It is a touchstone for a people who have, for centuries, been held down through thoughts of prejudice about them, their talents and intentions.

These thoughts still exist today, Lord, and I know what they are,
For, to have heard the slanders, is to have them within me.

By Your Grace, I demand a miracle:

These prejudices have no effect.

In that place of Spirit, in which there is no space and no time,
I stand and apologize.

I apologize for the prejudices that have been harbored.
I apologize for centuries of abuse.
And I take responsibility for the results:
Poor education, poverty and lack of hope.

All problems arise from lack of love, Lord,
And I have not loved as well as I can.

To everyone who has been oppressed I say:

I am sorry, deeply and profoundly sorry for my contribution.

I now make amends.

You guide me in making amends over the course of my life
As You cleanse the world of all effects of prejudice
And guide me in truth, compassion and justice.

And so it is.

Amen.

Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee. Luke 19:22

He that ruleth over men must be just. 2 Samuel 23:3