Brian’s Reflection: Thursday, Nov 5, 2009

We human beings are tuned such that we crave
great melody and great lyrics. And if somebody
writes a great song, it's timeless that we as humans
are going to feel something for that and there's
going to be a real appreciation.

-Art Garfunkel, musician, born on thus date, 1941


There is the theological problem! We human beings need/crave a “great melody and great lyrics” “God”. And we don’t have it. We rather have a “God” that is a puny, diminished, manipulated, co-opted version of “God”. A tyrannical God. A venial God. A God made in the image of basically grasping, selfish, loathsome levels of the human species. It really is appalling that such a version of “God” has been allowed to dominate Christianity and other faiths in the USA and other cultures. I ask myself every day: why are people who have such a tribal, limited view of “God” given the power to represent the Gospel in America?

Where are the people who sing “the great melodies and great lyrics” about “Divinity”??? Or do we just think that if we ignore the singers of a despotic, vindictive, exclusive, nasty God, they will just fade away?

I wonder every day, as I awake, “Why does America foster a “God” that creates such hate, such division, such social ugliness, such bitterness?” Why do the Majority – and I think there IS a majority who do not think this way – not rise up and counter this View of God?”

I know why. Persons of Compassion and Love have an intrinsic disposition not to believe that other human beings can possibly be so unloving. I only have to watch the TV to see every day the image of this selfish unlovingness: every Republican I see speaks against caring for people, against compassion, against justice, against generosity, against the kind of government which supports the basic needs of Americans as against the appalling graspingness of those who desire only to gather as much loot as possible, everyone else be damned.

Jesus wrote a “great song”. I call upon the Christian Church, the Islamic Ulema, the Jewish Covenant People, and all other people of Compassion, to confront the Perverted with Firm Love. Say NO. I call upon Americans to keep a “long distance” view. Do not vote by what you selfishly feel is promising a “quick fix” today, because you feel threatened at the moment. Keep your eye on the Image of the God of Love, on a community which reflects that Truth.

Brian+