Brian’s Reflection: Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Do people say that I am both your father and your lover?

Let the world, that heap of vermin as ridiculous as they are

feeble-minded, believe the most absurd tales about the mighty!

You must know that for those destined to dominate others,

the ordinary rules of life are turned upside down and duty

acquires an entirely new meaning. Good and evil are carried

off to a higher, different plane.

Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) to his daughter Lucrezia Borgia;

She was born on this date, 1480, at Subiaco

Was this a “normal” way for 15th C autocrats, political and religious, to think and believe? Having read a lot in this area, I would say yes. Has it changed? No. The Pope still thinks and believes this way, as do those who rule with him. Are there other examples in the World today? Many. All patriarchies think this way … and they span the globe, in every country and religion. Islam is most obvious … but American fundamentalist Christians run a close second. You can see it in the politics of Arizona and Wisconsin most clearly, in what is now being called “The War on Women” … but they are only the most vocal and brazen of many Americans … alas. All these people are political and spiritual descendants of the Borgia’s …. autocrats who recall those American colonists in what Colin Woodworth calls the “Deep South” … colonies founded on ruthless Barbados slave-owners who wanted no-one except them to wield power. Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Phyllis Shafley, Paul Ryan … all are kin to those who think that all other people are a “ridiculous heap of vermin”, who deserve to be dominated.

Do you think that Jesus reflects them, as the Image of God? Does His Life and behaviour and teaching reflect them? Or does it reflect their victims?

Clear to me. It’s the victims of the heartless powerful who die on crosses.

There is no political policy today in America espoused by the Republicans that Jesus would support. None.

Christians have to decide today if they support the Gospel as preached and lived by Jesus, or not. On that decision depends the credibility of the Gospel … and of the credibility of both American democracy and its constitution basis. Many today are abandoning both.

Brian+