An awesome lesson to learn and absorb

This is a post about togetherness and creation. My friend Sarah Rohrs in Salem, Oregon provided the first part of this post by passing on a post from Peter Brouwer about dogs on Facebook. I greatly appreciate the line that says "As I trace the imprints of their paws on the pathways of my heart, I recognise that these canine companions were not just pets; they were cherished co-pilots on the journey of self-discovery" because this has been so true in my own life.

How lonely we would be without the dogs and cats and birds and the rest of God's creation, and how desolate our lives would be without people to remind us of them. 

The second part of the post---the section with the bird photo---comes from my friend Alan Felts in McDowell County, West Virginia. The photo is his and he has full rights to it and it is one of many that he posted on Facebook with the note that I have attached here. Alan excels at many things, and photography and getting the meaning out of things are just two of the the many things he does extremely well. Indeed, birds do go birding and brawling in McDowell County, West Virginia. Could we expect anything else from them there?

Sarah and Alan and Peter Brouwer (who I don't know) are connecting with something essential here. Creation is not something apart from us and so, if we're open to it, creation will teach us, comfort us and help us grow into full human beings and then, perhaps, into something beyond the human that touches the divine.

Our traditional prayers for the dead include lines that say "O Lord, how lovely it is to be your guest. Breeze full of scent; mountains reaching to the skies;/Waters like a boundless mirror,/Reflecting the sun's golden rays and the scudding clouds. All nature murmurs mysteriously, breathing depths of tenderness,/Birds and beasts bear the imprint of your love,/Blessed are you, mother earth, in your fleeting loveliness/Which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last for ever/In the land where, among beauty that grows not old,/Rings out the cry: Alleluia!" Another traditional prayer seems to say that creation is in some sense greater than us, or more prayerful and obedient to God, because "I see the rising sun rejoice in You, and I hear the chorus of birds raise a hymn of glory. I hear the forest mysteriously rustling in Your honor, the winds sing of You, the waters murmur and the stars proclaim You as they move in harmony for ever in Your infinite space. What is my poor worship? All nature obeys You, I do not..." 

These are awesome lessons to learn and absorb. 
 

In the rich mosaic of my own journey, I find myself pausing to cherish the distinct colours and textures that each dog brought to the canvas of my life. From the lively chaos of my first furry friend's puppyhood to the serene companionship of the wise elder who shared the twilight of our days, each one left an indelible mark, a unique brushstroke on the portrait of my life.

Their joyous barks and affectionate nudges spoke a language of love that transcended the barriers of words, creating a silent dialogue between us. In the quiet moments of shared glances and the gentle touch of a paw, I uncovered lessons that went beyond the ordinary, revealing the depth of patience, empathy, and the profound connection forged in the simplicity of coexistence.

As I trace the imprints of their paws on the pathways of my heart, I recognise that these canine companions were not just pets; they were cherished co-pilots on the journey of self-discovery. Their unwavering loyalty and the unspoken bond we shared unveiled the beauty of devotion, reminding me that life's most meaningful lessons often come wrapped in fur, accompanied by wagging tails and an abundance of love.

— Labrador Forums

The birds were birding today.... actually they were brawling County style for a minute too! Check out these little fellas today! Hope you all have a good evening and Be Blessed!! Friday is almost here!

What does Scripture say?

 

A response to a cartoon

Let's consider the cartoon below. It is apparently being circulated by Christian pastors and others who may be trying to make a point about declines in church membership and active participation and engagement. But from my universalist perspective there may be a counter-argument to be made here and a reasonable explanation as to why someone might find this cartoon offensive. 

Let me say right now that I believe in joining and engaging with whatever religious or spiritual organization that you feel comfortable with after you have gone through time for discernment with God, taken some time with it, and your membership and participation have been determined to bless and benefit everyone in the circle. This is about faith, belief, and doctrine, to be sure, but it is also about how we view long-term commitment.

With commitment in mind, then, I want to lay out a few controversial points that I think the pastors and others passing this cartoon along will disagree with. Uniting oneself with a congregation or community will not work if you or that community come to the point of considering membership in a transactional way. If either side in this is thinking about some kind of exchange taking place, or in terms of a sale being made or a client-therapist-buyer-seller-sinner-preacher relationship being established, in order for things to progress then at some point someone will become dissatisfied and the relationship will suffer or end. We live in a world governed largely by competition, transactions, sales, profits and losses. Those in power often maintain their positions by encouraging dependency. People seeking the solace and strengthening that faith and faith communities can provide are often seeking an alternative to the harsh and cold world and the means of coping with and overcoming the violence that has been done to them in that world. We, all of us, need solidarity, not capitalist ethics and relationship dependencies in the pews.

Tithing has its roots in our communal religious and spiritual traditions and has come down to us as a form of fasting and as a form of generosity or charity ("solidarity lite"). But there are legitimate questions here about a proper Biblical approach to fasting in the first place. Is it Biblical to require the poor and the oppressed---the Lazaruses of our present day---to fast and to give? Is their life not already a story of fasting, faith and generosity? Yes, there are the accounts of the poor widow's offering and Christ's observations in the moment (Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4), but here I think the accent is on Christ condemning the wealthy and the powerful and not arguing that the poor must be squeezed.

We know that "people with means...are substantial givers. Middle-class Americans donate a little less. But the lower-income population surprises by giving more than the middle—and in some measures even more than the top. (As a percentage of available income, that is. In absolute dollars, those in higher income groups give much, much more money.)" The lower-income folks have an expansive definition of tithing, and one that I think is essentially correct, at least in terms of social practices. Someone may cover the mom in line at the supermarket who comes up short, or put up money for a son-in-law's tires so that he can look for work, or help someone make their rent. In my experience the people who are so generous do not often think of wat they are doing as charity, though they may not know the word "solidarity" or what it fully means or implies. Still, they model the concepts of solidarity by giving without the expectation of getting back and by giving in order to strengthen the social fabric that wraps around them as well. Instead of being transactional and talking about tithing, then, we should think about how we teach and model solidarity and where we find it in Scripture. The Bible is full of lessons on solidarity. The three that come readily to my mind are Hebrews 11, Acts 4: 32-5:11, and Christ's resurrection. Once solidarity is institutionalized and is communicated as an expectation and lived out daily, and once transactionalism is overcome,  the tithing and sacrifices will likely come.     

Well, it may be said, the folks in that cartoon are white and middle-class and seem to be squared away. I want to ask fellow Christians to seriously engage with the work of Marcus Borg and take up the project of doing economic analysis from a Christian perspective. The people in the pews may not be doing as well as fellow parishioners think they are. We live in a society that makes talk about things that matter and the struggles that we're going through uncomfortable and humiliating. Either people never talk about these hard truths of theirs or they abandon boundaries and go on as if theirs are the only and the most important problems and as if what they are suffering through is not the outcome of systemic inequities. So, in addition to not being transactional, engaging in solidarity, and doing economic analysis we also need to develop and teach healthy boundaries before we get deep into pushing church membership and tithing on folks. 

I'm coming from a place here of thinking about joining and fully engaging with a religious or spiritual community in terms of relationships---a marriage, say. You know that if you get married thinking "Well, we can always get divorced if things don't work out" then your marriage will likely not work out. The same holds true when you consider joining a religious community. You had better go into your marriage knowing your partner's faults and shortcomings, and both of you need to bend and be vulnerable to the other. Something similar happens in religious communities. Your heart will break and be broken and both you and your community will need to be flexible and take the long view. You know that if you get married but still keep up with old partners or go around looking at others as potential partners then you're not being fully faithful to the person you promised faithfulness to. Something like this applies to you joining a religious community as well; it's either a monogamous relationship or it won't last. It's okay if you can't do that now, "dating" is fine. You know that if you get married and you're not sharing the household tasks and paying the bills together and budgeting together then your marriage won't last. Most divorces start with fights over money. Again, there is a corollary with joining a religious community: plan, work, struggle and share the burdens to make it work, even if it means smaller communities made up of the blessed poor that God so loves. You don't want to marry someone who talks only about themselves, who is struggling with alcoholism or drug abuse, who is always deep in drama, who can't manage basic living skills without trouble, who can't handle their own power or work with someone else's in rational ways or who abuses their power and your trust. You also don't want to join a religious community where people with such issues proliferate and hold the keys to heaven and hell. And if you have been through a bad marriage or two you're probably not in a hurry to jump into another marriage. The same is true of joining religious communities; let God speak to you and study on how to bring that into focus, be rational about it, take your time.

Patrick Weaver Ministries grasps much of this in ways that I don't yet. See what they have to say about some of this.

For most of us, I think, the good traits and the most difficult problems that we bring to marriages and other relationships will be much the same as what we bring to any organization or effort we engage in, religious and spiritual communities included. Most of us have to work very hard to deconstruct what is negative in us and this is a lifetime project for many more of us than want to admit it. The capitalist society that we live in makes us unnaturally competitive and unable to find balance and cooperative paths to power. Churches may look at these conditions as sinful, or they may honor this with a gospel of prosperity, but neither approach finds the needed understanding. Our practical challenge is to make deconstructing ourselves and rebuilding ourselves a radical and social act of partaking with one another in the divine nature, or theosis (See Psalm 81/82, 2nd Peter 1:4. See 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Matthew 25: 37-40 as aids). Is your religious community a place for rebuilding and healing?  

By this point I have probably lost the preachers and many readers. I'm going on too long and this is abstract. I do want to close with an additional point.

Many of the preachers who are circulating this cartoon and others like it claim in their sermons that they are swimming against the tide and say that they are risking their livelihoods and freedom by their strong teaching. I think that they are swimming very much with the tide by not taking on those in power who bring us a bit of hell (employers, banks, the prison-industrial complex, healthcare run for profit are examples), exaggerating their counter-cultural stance, and preaching an eternal hell because it is one way of preserving order in a society that jumps from crisis to crisis. Where is their attack on the systemic evils that oppress the people in the pews? 

On the other hand, there are some pretty brave Christians out there who really are challenging the oppressive powers and are paying a price for doing that and aren't posing as being counter-cultural. A committee of Mennonites led a peaceful demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Palestine/Israel last week and about 150 people were arrested at that demonstration. Where is the church in talking accurately and with love and solidarity about Palestine and supporting those who were arrested? Fellow believers cry out for justice but we're not listening. Where is the church in supporting  the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II and Repairers of the Breach when Bishop Barber says, "On March 2, our moral movement will be in Washington D.C. and at 30 statehouses across the country, launching a period of mass mobilization to the polls of the nation’s 85 million poor and low wealth voters leading up to the election in November. If mobilized around an agenda to address and end poverty and low wages, there is not a state where–if just 10 to 20 percent of poor and low-wage voters who did not vote in the last national election come to the polls this time around–they would not be able to swing the election and elect leaders who would vote for living wages, health care and voting rights."?

"The river needs to take the risk of entering the ocean..."

 Please click on the image to make it larger if needed.

Tonight we pray for the momma who is worried...

I think that the following prayer comes from the Midnight Mom Devotional that I used to draw from often on this blog.

Tonight we pray for the momma who is worried. Her heart is heavy. She's having trouble sleeping. She may even be crying inside but putting on a smile for others. Lord, there are so many things that we as mommas worry about daily and even nightly. You asked us to give it to You. Tonight, we give You our worries. We ask for Your peace. We thank You for taking care of all our needs. Please help this momma to find community and any help that she needs. Please grant her sleep tonight. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

This photo comes from Ward Weems on Facebook. The accompanying caption says, "A tenant family who lived in the Camp Croft area and was removed, The man was employed working for a neighboring farm and loses employment when moved. Near Pacolet, South Carolina, March 1941 in photograph by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress."

This photo also comes by way of Ward Weems. The caption reads, "Decosta famile mother and children, Portuguese immigrants, and Farm Security Administration client borrowers, Little Compton, Rhode Island, December 1940 in a photograph by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration, Library of Congress."

Millions of people the world over are leaving their homes in search of safety and work. Many are fleeing the effects of global warming and climate change and must take their children with them as they go. Some never find what they are looking for and perish along the way and only God and their families know their names. 

These photos remind us that it was not so long ago that many families in the United States were forced to move, traveling north or west in order to escape bad conditions. Political and economic refugees from fascist governments came as well, and are still coming. We should remember their struggles and trials when we consider the mommas and families seeking sanctuary in the United States today and include them in our prayers.

Some helpful suggestions...

 

Healers

 

The photo above came from the History and People of the Appalachian Mountains Facebook page. The accompanying caption says "Post said Granny Healing Women Of Appalachia."

I think more about the grannies and healing women and men as I get older and as the doctors try to convince me to take more medications. I wish that I had someone to turn to who I could trust and who knew how to use the old-fashioned remedies.

Central Appalachia was known for its healing women and men. Sidney Saylor Farr's great book More Than Moonshine has a chapter given over to healing, remedies, superstitions, and calendars.  Anndrena Belcher, one of our great storytellers, used to tell a tale about an old granny lady who lived back in the hills and how she helped a girl discover her path in life. I have lately been looking at a reprint of  Ossman and Steel's Classic Household Guide To Appalachian Folk Healing that takes in many of the old healing remedies and practices used among the Pennsylvania Dutch and German "powwowers." These people were present in rural Pennsylvania and in the state's anthracite mining districts and had quite an impact on coalfield cultures. Karol Weaver's book Medical Caregiving and Identity in Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Region, 1880-2000 tells us quite a bit about them. I believe that Ms. Weaver has also done some work on the historic role of healers in Saint Domingue and the role they had in the Haitian revolution and helping to free Haiti from French colonialism. The "powwowers" and "passers" of Pennsylvania used, and perhaps still do use, prayers and incantations, amulets, objects, medical techniques, and healing rituals, and it has been said that some of these means of healing were given to them by friendly indigenous people centuries ago or through visionary encounters with indigenous people. Certain "powwowers" and "passers" have cured people far away from them. They perform their works of healing at no cost to those being aided. Their practical connections to certain religious-cultural communities is fascinating.

Image taken from the Mennonite Heritage Center website.

I'm certain that different racial, ethnic and national groups all have their unique means of protecting people from misfortunes, healing practices and types of healers. A recent article in The New York Times covered the new generation of curanderas who are anchors in their communities. Working roots has never gone away, but it seems to be having a resurgence. "Bone crunching" as a practical form of preventing and healing all kinds of ailments was widely practiced in Northern Italian immigrant communities where people worked in the mines or factories and construction. I have not read it yet, but Jake Richards' book Backwoods Witchcraft  seems to bring some of the traditional ways of healing and protection in Central Appalachia back into focus. The list goes on, and its a very long list.

I have had at least three experiences with the old healers, wise women, and healings. A strega nona---an old wise Italian woman who was a friend of my grandmother's in Hazleton, Pennsylvania---predicted my life's path for my grandmother in the back room of her candy store when I was a child. The old woman listened as I talked, walked around me, and felt my head. Her prediction was quite accurate. She, or another strega nona, gave my mother a tragic prediction for her life just a short time before my mother died.

When I lived in West Virginia I had a neighbor who practiced some of the old forms of prevention and healing. I had a job interview over in Baltimore for a job that I needed, but I felt a bad head cold coming on the day before the interview. It was a bad cold coming on. My neighbor came over and did a kind of interview with me and determined that I had a "bear cold" coming on, and she mixed up a powder that I took and I was fine and clearheaded forty-five minutes later (and I got the job).

I once ended up in the emergency room in West Virginia with a bad case of poison ivy. A young intern scoffed at me and argued when I said that if I could make it home I had frozen cubes of jewelweed in my freezer that I could use as a cure. An old doctor overheard our conversation and interrupted to tell the intern that I knew what I was talking about, he didn't, and the old remedies worked as well or better than the meds the intern wanted me to take would. I knew of jewelweed through some who practiced home healing and I kept jewelweed cubes in the freezer. It did cure me as I lightly applied the cubes to the poison ivy rash. The use of jewelweed comes to use from Native Americans.

One problem here is that the old ways of preventing and curing maladies have been undermined not so much by medical science, which may or may not validate the old ways, but by the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance companies and by medical professionals who seem to be men with vested material interests in determining who controls access to health and well-being. These nay-sayers have grown in number and in power as healthcare has become more of a business and has developed into an industry run for profit by a relatively small number of wealthy people who seem to be among the ethically challenged.

We pay for health insurance, not care, and some of that money goes into blocking national health care, convincing us that we need this system and the men running it, and into developing drugs and kinds of care that don't really cure us so much as they do build dependency on medications and on a system that doesn't center care for us.

I get aggravated when I hear researchers, doctors and spokespeople from the pharmaceutical companies on the radio exclaiming about how they're discovering that certain medications sometimes have unpredictable effects when given to women and men or Blacks and whites because the standard subjects for research for so long have been white males. People are different for many reasons and everyone is entitled to care. The too-slow-in-coming acknowledgement that doctors and insurance companies have dealt with pain experienced by Black patients differently than they have with white patients tells us what many of us have always suspected or known and justifies the bitterness about how healthcare is managed. The fact that Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States should bring people out in the streets in protest. Only recently have sweat lodge ceremonies begun to get some (grudging) respect by nonnative medical providers, addiction treatment providers, law enforcement and some in the prison system. It's clear that some folks would be better off getting needed care from healing practitioners who share their contexts and cultures. Dr. Mutulu Shakur came to an understanding of this well before many others did, and I'm grateful for his compassionate healing work. He was kind enough to send me a CD at one point and I made sure that it made it into a youth prison.

Dr. Mutulu Shakur, November 1987. (Jim Hughes/NY Daily News

 via Getty Images and Pitchfork.)

Another problem is that not every malady can be prevented or cured by the old means. We suffer from diseases and conditions that have been brought to us by stress-filled working and living conditions, by deliberate neglect, or by the deliberate encouragement of people in power, and by the introduction of toxins into our food and into our environment. The old rural and country means of surviving and thriving are often swamped by these factors. The old healers represented pre-industrial or early-industrial worlds, but that isn't what we have today. Could they heal an Appalachia where overdose-related mortality rates for people ages 25–54 was 72 percent higher in the region than the rest of the country two years back, an Appalachia that lives under semi-colonial conditions?

We can't find many of the plants and substances that were used in the past. We lack the spiritual or religious faith that helped us believe in the cures and follow the advice of the healers. Many of the incantations, amulets and ingredients used in the old healing practices alarmed the clergy and some people of faith. In the transition from pre-industrial to industrial societies these people often asserted their control over religion and spiritualities, and over healing as well. Most, but not all, connections to the past have either been lost or are in need of repair.

Virginia Goldenseal. Image from Virginia Wildflowers.

It does not help that some people with modern New Age and "earth-based" spiritualities try to graft themselves on to healing paths that were the mainstays of pre-industrial Jewish, Muslim and Christian societies or to paths that had their origins in societies that became Jewish, Muslim and Christian. There were almost always people present in those societies who had enlarged or broader definitions of their spiritualities than the clerics and their dogmatic followers were comfortable with. Surely we can honor their legacies within the bounds that they would have found acceptable and humbly follow their paths. We cannot recreate pre-industrial or immigrant-ethnic or long-past rural contexts and subcultures, but something of their paths is still available to us.

If the old cures and healers are not always available to us, I am sure that many means of prevention are. A fundamental practice---one that I fail at---is knowing the traditional agricultural and astrological calendars and organizing basic life tasks around them. Discreetly wearing a cross or a religious medallion, carrying a rosary, having a prayer card with you, having certain icons in your house and car, certain tattoos, using holy water, and daily anointing are popular forms of seeking protection that many people take for granted. There are other means available as well. I'm sure I knew people who had Himmelsbriefs, the "Letters from Heaven," when I was child. These letters had a common text and some kinds of "hex signs" and were carried by people or posted in homes to ward off evil and disasters. Carrying the names Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (or Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah) with you is said to be a worthy safeguard. The Ossman and Steel's book mentioned above gives these names as "AWNANIA, AZARIA, and MISAEL." There are particularly helpful Bible verses that can be used and daily rites that can be practiced. Chalking your door at Epiphany is a good practice. Jews, Muslims and Christians have means of warding off the evil eye, but most clergy frown on this and priests and imams will tell you that the evil eye is a superstition that comes from the devil. Still, many believers seek protection from the evil eye.

What we want to avoid in all situations is the use of cultic images, false idols, idolatry and commercializing our faith, spirituality and religion. The theologians Pablo Richard, Frei Betto, and Hugo Assmann have written quite well about this in the book The Idols of Death and the God of Life. Idolatry is destructive to human beings and nature, and it clouds or acts against "the transcendent and liberating presence of God" (Richard). We live in a "profoundly idolatrous world," and so, following Richard, "(i)dolatry is a question of politics and faith." Idolatry leads to death, God leads to life. It is God acting through human beings and saints and angels, faith, need, and creation who protects, sustains, and heals.  

Reading certain poems and singing certain hymns can also help. I read Danita Dodson and Alberto Moreno and I encourage you to read them also. The Thomas Hymnal and the Sweet Songster can be read as poetry or sung if you know the melodies. I found this helpful poetic fragment by Yehoshua November in my papers recently:

Before the Silent Prayer

some slip the hood of their prayer shawls

over their heads,

so that even among many worshipers

they are alone with God.

Primo Levi wrote about the sadness of

"a cart horse, shut between two shafts

and unable even to look sideways..."

Let me be like those pious ones

or that horse,

so that, even amidst a crowd,

no other crosses the threshold

of my dreaming.

From Wikimedia Commons

         

On a good day this blog reflects my religious-spiritual and political universalism and encourages someone in their faith and in their struggles. As I think about this post I'm challenged to think about whether we can put together the many different ways of doing traditional prevention, protection and care or not, or if we should even try. There is so much here that might bring people together who have justifiable grievances against the healthcare systems and whose traditions have sometimes intersected and gained from crossing paths. So many people are suffering and need care. But are we too far off from the shores of solidarity to provide help to one another?

I think of being in the presence of a poor woman who was grasping to hold on to her sanity and shouted her testimony and wept in an Abyssinian Baptist Church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She had recently moved back to the Eastern Shore from a northern city that had seemed foreign to her, another way of keeping time and another way of organizing daily life. She wanted to rebuild her life, recover and find her roots once more. The AIDS crisis was slowly being acknowledged for what it was and the semi-rural Eastern Shore was encountering that, experiencing forms of gentrification, and had a painful absence of living-wage jobs all at one time. Ever-present racism and despair wore hard on people. That woman's church---and particularly the women in her church---tried healing her when no one else could or would. Didn't she and women trying to help her deserve more in the way of resources and support? Can we be open to crossing racial-ethic and sectional lines in order to heal and be healed? And doesn't this path lead through politics because we are contesting with systemic oppression in this world and with "the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens..."

Can any of these ways of protection, care and healing help you in your life and in your struggles? 

 

"There's a Higher Power"---Buddy Miller version

  

Encouragement

 I want this blog to be thought of as a means to encourage others. I hope to be regularly posting an "Encouragement" message here of one kind or another. If that's what you're looking for, go down to the tag at the bottom of this post and hit the one that says "Encouragement."

Matthew 25: 31-40 made real

I don't know that this story making the rounds is true or not, but it does have truth to it...

A pastor transformed himself into a homeless person and went to the church that he was to be introduced as the head pastor at that morning. He walked around his soon to be church for 30 minutes while it was filling with people for service. Only 3 people said hello to him, most looked the other way. He asked people for change to buy food because he was hungry. Not one gave him anything.

He went into the sanctuary to sit down in the front of the church and was told by the ushers that he would need to get up and go sit n the back of the church. He said hello to people as they walked in but was greeted with cold stares and dirty looks from people looking down on him and judging him.

He sat in the back of the church and listened to the church announcements for the week. He listened as new visitors were welcomed into the church that morning but no one acknowledged that he was new. He watched people around him continue to look his way with stares that said you are not welcome here.

Then the elders of the church went to the podium to make the announcement. They said they were excited to introduce the new pastor of the church to the congregation. "We would like to introduce you to our new Pastor." The congregation stood up and looked around clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking down the aisle.

That's when all the clapping stopped and the church was silent. With all eyes on him....he walked up the altar and reached for the microphone. He stood there for a moment and then recited so elegantly, a verse from the bible.....

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters, you did for me.’

After he recited this, he introduced himself as their new pastor and told the congregation what he had experienced that morning. Many began to cry and bow their heads in shame. "Today I see a gathering of people here but I do not see a church of Jesus. The world has enough people that look the other way. What the world needs is disciples of Jesus that can follow this teachings and live as he did. When will YOU decide to become disciples?

He then dismissed service until the following Sunday as his sermon had been given. Amen.

On getting clean...

 

Encouragement

 

L.A. Hotel Workers Rework ‘Las Posadas’ amid Strike Threats

The following article by Mark Pattison for the Catholic Labor Network shows how some workers used the traditions they are familiar with in their fight for social justice. Such struggles have so much to say to us: workers have real material needs, they can be creative and united in fights to win justice and equity, God has a preference and a special relationship with the poor and the oppressed, and thisis salvific work that gives us a taste of God's Kingdom.

 

Thousands of workers at two dozen hotels in the Los Angeles area won contracts by the end of 2023 as UNITE HERE Local 11 has waged a campaign since April to win improved pay and benefits for union members – but thousands more are still waiting for an agreement.

Eréndira Salcedo, a housekeeper at the Hilton Pasadena and a UNITE HERE shop steward, is one of those workers. She’s one of 15,000 hotel workers represented by the local.

“The salary has been a main issue because we are not paid enough to live,” Salcedo, a native of Michoacan state in Mexico, said through an interpreter. “What we’ve also been fighting for is health insurance, a pension fund when we retire, and opportunities for growth.”

To prepare for a strike, UNITE HERE members at the Hilton Pasadena walked out four different times, for shorter durations. They also brought attention to their situation to the larger community by giving a new twist to “las posadas,” a nine-day devotion popular for centuries among Latin Americans that re-enacts Joseph and Mary’s quest to find an inn where the Christ Child could be born.

The hotel workers didn’t need nine evenings to make their point. Instead of selecting houses to play the role of inns, “we made different stations. The Hilton Pasadena was the first place, the Hyatt Place Pasadena and then at City Hall,” Salcedo said. She served as a reader at the Hilton.

“We were working on Colorado Avenue. It’s the main thoroughfare in Pasadena where we were doing the procession,” she added.

“It was an experience like no other. We thought it was relevant. We were looking for peace in our homes, and it was an experience that brought us and our coworkers together.”

Community support is tangible. “People come out, sometimes they bring us water, they bring us burritos. We appreciate people from outside the union who have shown their support,” Salcedo said.

While UNITE HERE urges would-be hotel guests to cancel their reservations if they find that their hotel has been struck – some hotels are using an app to recruit scabs – hotel chains are actually operating fewer of the hotels that bear their name, and make their money licensing their brand name. The Hilton Pasadena, for instance, is operated by a company called Aimbridge Hospitality.

Salcedo believes the workers’ actions will ultimately convince Aimbridge to come to terms. “Yes, of course. Claro que si. I have total faith that they’re getting close,” she said. “I hope this will push the company to finally sign a contract.

Workers at the Hilton Pasadena went on strike for the fifth time on New Year’s Eve, just in time to throw the hotel into chaos on the eve of the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day, one of college football’s premier events. Like the previous four walkouts, it’s a short-term strike, but nobody was saying how long they intended to stay out.

“A lot of the guests, once they go back in,” Salcedo said, “have been very supportive. I believe that we’re fighting for our rights, and that we’re entitled to those rights.”

Quilting and sprituality

I saw this photograph on Travis Chumley's Facebook page yesterday. The caption accompanying the photo indicates that it was taken in Powell Valley, Claiborne County, Tennessee, in the 1940s and also says "Photograph of six women standing around a table saying grace. They are outside and the table is full of food. The women have gathered together to spend the afternoon working on a quilt. Photo: Joe Clark HBSS - Clark Family Photo Collection - Special Collections Library - University of North Texas." The photo at the bottom of this post comes from the same sources.

Coincidentally, National Public Radio (NPR) ran an interesting story on quilting that touched on matters of faith yesterday. The story summary says "For some Black Americans, family histories can be hard to find. Slavery and the discriminatory laws that lingered years later prevented the documentation and record keeping of Black Americans. Today, a group of Black quilters from across the Northeast honor their ancestors through bold and colorful quilts, illustrating their experiences and telling their stories."

Photo from NPR/Connecticut Public Radio

One of the women featured in the NPR story said, "Quilting is also a way to connect with the past, while wrestling with ongoing injustice today. When things happen, like George Floyd, you know we make quilts about that...When loved ones pass away, we make quilts. We honor them with fabric that they wore.” Her name is Love, which seems so appropriate.

You can learn more about the women featured in the NPR story by going to this 2022 Where We Live interview with the group co-founder Susi Ryan. According to a Connecticut Public Radio note, that show also features textile artist and author Jen Hewett, who talked about her recent book featuring hundreds of creators of color who were interviewed about their relationship to making.

There is much to say here or be silent with. I know some women quilters who either do their work mostly alone or who go to quilting stores for companionship and inspiration. Quilting still seems like what we used to respectfully call "women's space." I'm glad that quilting still goes on, and most cold nights I sleep under a quilt made by a woman in McDowell County, West Virginia who used old bluejeans and simple fabric combinations to come up with something that well represents her region. It has handy pockets in it for stuffing things. Her name and address are on the quilt but I have not contacted her. I also have a quilt made out of my old union tee-shirts many years ago and that quilt holds more than a decade of union struggles in it.

I hope that women continue to gather in groups away from businesses and do their quilting with some praying or spiritual work and eating and getting along with one another. 

My heart just prays for a time when we can tear down some of the barriers that separate us and pray together or share our spiritual paths and share our creative work. 

Claiborne County, Tennessee, 1940s...
Caption: Four women are shown working together on quilts. Several completed quilts are shown hanging on a building behind them.
Photo: Joe Clark HBSS - Clark Family Photo Collection - Special Collections Library - University of North Texas

Yeah, but...

I don't think that most of my friends would argue with the statement above, but I have a "Yeah, but..." reaction to it that I want to share. 

God has many qualities and attributes, or we give God many qualities and attributes, but kindness and love are two among many. In another post I borrowed from Gregory MacDonald's book The Evangelical Universalist in reminding that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent and then went beyond MacDonald to remind that Muslims have 99 names for God that describe God's qualities and that this is something for Christians to take into ourselves.

Perhaps it is true for many of us that in reacting to upbringings in which we were told only of an angry God who dwelt in retributive justice, or in trying to make a living in a hierarchical and competitive society as adults, that we overreact by taking an opposite position if we go on as believers at all. Many of us over-emphasize or particularize a God of love. This has started to feel to me as presumptuous and as imposing my will and definition on God.

Let's consider that kindness and love are excellent qualities to have and that they come from God and are parts of our experience in heaven on earth right now and today, but let's also look at a wider picture and recall that God has other qualities as well and that these also show up in our lives.

And what if you're not kind and loving and can't manage grace or giving grace? Are you really outside of "the theology of Jesus"? Is that a bad and dooming thing?

Well, please try to be kind and loving and about giving grace, and please pray for me because I'm terrible at doing those things. Remember through your struggles (and your prayers for me) that God will come looking for you when you inevitably miss the mark. You're going to be okay. You're going to have some hell for yourself and others, but the Holy Spirit is "everywhere and fillest all things; Treasury of Blessings, and Giver of Life" and She will come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every impurity, and save our souls" with our fervent prayer.

Those who have strayed were sought by the master
He who once gave his life for the sheep.
Out on a mountain still He is searching
Bringing them in forever to keep.

Here is something that I do to get myself on the road going to being kind and loving and giving grace. If I can remember to do it, in that moment before I'm angry at someone or being unkind to them I say silently to myself "You are blessed and you are beautiful!" and direct that thought at them and then, sometimes, at me as well. Sometimes I just look around me and direct that to the people going about their business. 

Maybe much of the time I don't feel this or mean this when I whisper it to myself. Someone may cut me off in traffic or in a line or cause me offense. My first thought is not to be kind. Maybe my second thought isn't, either. I may not mean "You are blessed and you are beautiful!" if I even get it out in those moments. So what? It's still a good habit to develop and your heart will mean it if your mind doesn't. Sooner or later, if kindness and love are given to you as gifts to pass on with grace, you will likely mean it. All of you will mean it.

Doing this is a little like doing the Jesus Prayer and Hesychasm. Don't force it, do it in the contexts of your relationship to the world and with God, let your heart learn it and do it. The "theology of Jesus" will come as a gift or you will get other gifts or you will realize that you have had gifts all along and be happy with those.  

 

What's the problem?

 

Eight haiku from Sarah Rohrs

My friend Sarah Rohrs is on an interesting spiritual journey and doing the good work that comes with being on that path. I don't want to intrude on that by describing what she is up to, but I do want to share with you that she is writing haiku daily as part of her spiritual practices and that this flows from her recent engagement with the rosary. Sarah has many gifts----writing, photography, curiosity, the ways in which she touches others and serves good causes. She graciously consented to me posting eight of her haiku here. I like these and I hope that she will share more with us. I appreciate the knowing/ unknowing and the lessons carried in her lines.

In dark morning doubt
Word sounds flow in shallow stream
Steady bird listens

Dark candle flickers
Who hears these prayers sounding here
Stone to stone. Silent tree

Whisper drift rose song
Same words pressing air, blue beads
Feeling and presence

Mind wandering sound
Open slowly these petals
Light flickers onward

Silliness of time
Chase white clouds in mind chatter
Mercy in slow eyes

Quiet morning words
Laying down bricks of judgment
Oh world. Oh life. Take me with

Come to love darkness
In winter rest leaf, sun, soil
Children of green dream

Joy comes to follow
In moss grace of worms singing
Your hem in my hands

Photo by Sarah Rohrs

Some cautious notes about my universalism

This post is inspired in large part by Susan Neiman's book Left Is Not Woke (Hoboken, Polity Press, 2023) and Gregory MacDonald's book The Evangelical Universalist (second edition, Eugene, Cascade Books, 2012), by my engagement with Jonathan Buttry and Reece Maggard and others who are associated with the Primitive Baptist Universalists in Central Appalachia, the poetry of Danita Dodson, the writing done by Winslow Parker, a conversation with Stewart McLaughlin, and by contact with many others over the past three years. Among these others are several pastors. I am a poor reader and thinker, but I have been greatly moved by some of my readings of Scripture and by my involvement in movements for social change and justice, most prominently the labor movement.

Neiman is firmly on the Left, McDonald is an unapologetic conservative, and the Primitive Baptist Universalists who I have had contact with identify with libertarianism for the most part. Dodson writes from a place of love for the environment and creation and has an all-embracing respect for spiritualities. Parker breaks universalist concepts down in ways that I wish I could through short stories that remind me of the conversion efforts made by some fundamentalists when I was young and living in a rural region. I think that he is a strong writer and I very much appreciate his using "the victorious gospel" in place of "universalism" when that works. One of his short stories is posted on this blog. McLaughlin is one of those dear rural American theologians who really go to work on interpreting Scripture and working from certain keys and questions that emerge from the text. In this he has much in common with my Primitive Baptist Universalist friends. Yes, I believe that this hard work and Dodson's poetry all come from divine inspiration even when---or especially when---they contradict one another. I have not been given these gifts. Pastor Sena Norton may or may not be a universalist, but she has greatly influenced my thinking and direction over the past year and her sermons and prayers warm me and encourage me. All of that said, the errors below belong to me and to me only.

Starting over?

I stopped doing this blog in January of 2023 because I hit a dead-end. Readership fluctuated from day to day, doing the blog began to feel like work, the blog succeeded when I was advertising what others were doing and it lacked originality. More seriously for me, the world situation seemed to be vindicating a hard-hearted and cynical or pessimistic view of things and this went very much against the grain of my hopeful universalism. I restarted the blog last week because there is little in my politics and theology that will allow me to give in to the evil and the despair that it brings. And in the past year I was with three people in their final days and saw or felt something of their passing on. Those experiences filled me with questions, the partial answers that I am finding to those questions give me both hope and fear, and that hope and fear cause me to want to explore what I'm thinking with others.

Something else matters much to me here. The experience of being isolated during the worst of COVID, ageing, and reflecting on my past added much to my longing to once more share the joys and sorrows of the parts of Central and Northern Appalachia that I love so dearly. I was not born there, but I lived in and near the eastern coalfields and did much work there for many years and learned many of life's hard lessons there. Much of my extended family is buried in what were the anthracite coalfields. I "got religion" there. I felt and feel Appalachia as I feel no other place. There are people there who are closer to me than family. It is the only place this side of heaven that feels like home to me. My first work on this blog was to explain some of the features of living and working and resisting power there. The experiences of living, working and resisting in Appalachia and returning whenever I can for visits are experiences of faith, repentance and salvation for me. 

Dr. Ralph Stanley is one of my favorite Primitive Baptist Universalists.

 I listen to his music most nights as I do the dishes. I don't

know who to credit the photograph to. Listen to this.

     

Where to begin?

MacDonald provides at least five starting points for this post. One is that God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. Another is that reason is a friend of interpreting and reinterpreting Scripture, and is not Scripture's enemy. A third point is that God doesn't do retributive justice or punishment. The fourth point is that universalists do not have to argue, or should not argue, that there is no hell, but should be about the ideas that there is no eternal and everlasting hell and that persons in hell can be saved from that condition. The final point that I want to bring forward is that we need not, or should not, argue that Scripture makes our case or does not support what others claim, but that Scripture and reason, taken together, allow for a diversity of valid opinions and inspirations.

Reason gives us the ability and drive to apprehend that there is something beyond us, and I will say that reason and divine inspiration work together within us by driving forward practice-thought-reflection in ways that can compel us to go deeper and that enrich our understanding. The "can compel" is important because we have free will to stop, turn or return at any point in our journey. The practice-thought-reflection process births contradictions in our thinking and in our relationships, and resolving these contradictions requires new practice-thought-reflection. We can't go through this alone with any hope of success, but growth won't come by following others without clear and independent action and thought by us.

God is so great that omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence are just the beginnings. MacDonald, conservative that he is, may contradict himself by leaving these qualities of God where they are as basics of Christian theology while also giving God the glory for going beyond these. MacDonald believes that we are depraved in our natures, I think, and that we deserve or merit some kind of non-retributive hell, meaning cleansing of relatively short duration and being overwhelmed and saved by God's love and grace. On the other hand, a test for my universalism is in believing that other religions---most notably Islam in this case---have something good to say about the attributes or qualities of God. I think that both MacDonald and many Muslim scholars will agree that God's punishments or justice are fundamentally acts of kindness, although they will disagree over God's ends and means. The main difficulties that we have here are that grafting religions or divergent expressions of faith on to one another rarely works well, many cultural and religious appropriations can and should be offensive, and that we can enter into disputes with others from different faith communities over the reality or non-reality of an eternal and everlasting hell when our starting point was to do something quite different. 

Whatever the difficulties, and if we only struggle with and begin to internalize God's omniscience and omnipotence and omnibenevolence, we will come to a very different form of Christianity than the forms we are now most familiar with. Universalism can be simpler in form by being decentralized, more hopeful and more rewarding, more joyful and less driven by guilt, and more the projects of liberation and healing and less the projects of protecting and reproducing the status quo and privilege. Such a Christianity might also be more complicated by holding on to the legacy of Calvinism and the idea that human beings exist in a state of depravity, the tendencies toward Preterism and supersessionism, a partial universalism that puts Christianity in competition with other faiths, and feeling less need for clergy and higher education.

In concluding this section I want to assure doubtful readers that I do hold to a form of Christianity and that I believe that universalism was present in the early Church and that it has developed and come down to us in theory and practice through Orthodox and mainstream Christianity as well as through sects and tendencies that have not been thought of as mainstream. I accept that Jesus is the way and the truth and the life and that no one comes to God except through Him. But accepting that is a very different proposition than coming to Christ out of fear of punishment and hell, and our traditional ways of "coming to Christ" do not account for a variety of diverse experiences and often reflect our very limited ways of knowing Christ.

I hold to the historic Christian idea that original sin as we commonly think of it is in error, or that Scripture at least allows different approaches here. It seems more reasonable to accept that sin is something inherited or communicated as if it were a disease or condition than as something in our natures, malleable as we are.  

I also want to put forward a counter-opinion on human depravity. I don't want to blame "human nature" for our sins and transgressions because I am not sure that it exists except as a way of assigning blame or as a way of saying that we don't understand one another. I do want to suggest that every human being carries within themselves a very tarnished icon or image of God and that bettering the human condition and assuring our salvation is largely a matter of reordering social priorities, healing and of cleansing and polishing off that icon and letting it be seen by others.    

What about Susan Neiman?

Photo from susan-neiman.com/

Nieman is receiving lots of criticism for Left Is Not Woke, some of it justified. But what I want to commend here is her political universalism and how she defines it and works with it. These are points that her critics have largely ignored. In the opening to the second chapter of Left Is Not Woke Nieman says

Let's begin with the idea of universalism, which once defined the left; international solidarity was its watchword. This was just what distinguished it from the right, which recognized no deep connections, and few real obligations, to anyone outside its own circle. The left demanded that the circle encompass the globe. That was what standing left meant: to care about striking coal miners in Wales, or Republican volunteers in Spain, or freedom fighters in South Africa, whether you came from their tribes or not. What united us was not blood but conviction---first and foremost the conviction that behind all the differences of time and space that separate us, human beings are deeply connected in a wealth of ways. To say that histories and geographies affect us is trivial. To say that they determine us is false.  

Nieman goes on to make a passionate critique of what unites and divides human beings. She makes an unfortunate detour in discussing the pro-fascist Carl Schmitt at too-great length, but her real strength is in criticizing the nihilist Paul-Michel Foucault and his legacies, upholding the positive concepts that came with the Enlightenment, locating the new humanism and universalism present in the writings of many African intellectuals and others from the peripheries, and taking apart what is generally called "being woke." She is good at dissecting language and in discussing how rhetoric can be appropriated and redirected in order to exercise power without falling into deconstructionism and postmodernism.  Along the way there are critiques of original sin and human nature and a statement that "Without universalism there is no argument against racism, merely a bunch of tribes jockeying for power." That statement goes near to the heart of Nieman's argument that political universalism and the left have historically been more concerned with "a robust idea of justice" and progress than they have been with power.

It can be argued that the matter of who holds political power is also a matter of justice and progress, and that the present-day attack by the far-right on the positive legacies coming to us from the Enlightenment proves this. Nieman holds on to her argument by saying in her concluding pages that there are "three principles essential to the left: commitments to universalism, a hard distinction between justice and power, and the possibility of progress." Well and good, I think, but there are still dangers in sidelining the matter of political power as not ever being linked to justice and progress.

We should not overlook the possibilities of creating a progressive Christian universalism that is both faith-based and social justice-based and that anticipates Marx's argument that "Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusion about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusion.” This could potentially be worked with in positive ways. Some of us will come to faith precisely because religion is all that Marx claimed it is, and we will stay there and thrive as activists and believers precisely because of a seemingly heartless world and soulless conditions.

Whew! That was a lot!

I hope and believe, or believe and hope, that we are all headed to salvation, glory and heaven. All of us. I believe that we all live on a spectrum of possibilities and that, for one reason or another, we are going through some hell and some heaven now and that whatever "hell" we experience at some future point will be for our greater eventual good. Hell is real and in the p[resent-tense, but so is heaven. Salvation is real. You're not experiencing heaven or going to heaven or resurrection because you get or got saved; you're saved because you're experiencing heaven and resurrection now and in the future. When were you saved? Two-thousand years ago. What should be touching us now is how our bibles and reason and the Holy Spirit are guiding us to making the right choices on how we live alongside others as we stand on Jordan's stormy banks and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where our possessions lie. Heaven or hell, now and later? The choices that we make matter. Are you doing justice or are you siding with the oppressors? Is that icon inside of you getting polished or worn? Are you seeing Jesus in others and are you serving Jesus and others or something else? 

This is a brief explanation of where I'm coming from these days and what drives this blog. I am trying to be a universalist in religion and in politics. I hope that you will hang on for the ride.          

Pharaoh’s Hell by Winslow Parker with an afterword by the author

I began to suspect, when walls of water collapsed on me, that I was no god. I and the army of upper and lower Egypt were crushed and drowned.

“My son, my beloved son, in whom I am well please.”

Still muzzy from dying, I supposed, the words made no sense to me. If I was son, then who was father? The voice didn’t resemble my own father’s. His was cool, aloof, royal. This voice was warm and tender, a voice which drew me in, cradled me, loved me. Not since leaving my mother’s rooms in the palace at six, had I any such sense of love. I opened my eyes.

All was light. Though we rarely saw rainbows in Egypt, my magicians could produce them in certain circumstances. I was unprepared for the light which was rainbow itself. Rather than arching, it twisted around and within itself, colors mingling, blending, producing infinite variations from the basic seven colors. It was a glorious sight, infinitely absorbing, worthy of long contemplation.

“Welcome, my beloved son,” the voice said again. “I’ve looked forward from all eternity to this moment, when we meet face-to-face.”

“Who are you?”

“I AM all that I AM. You knew me as Yahweh, the God of Israel.”

“You destroyed my Egypt!” I cried out, enraged. “There is nothing left, not a single green tree, not a stalk of wheat, not a cow or sheep. Worst of all, you took my son, my heir, my dynasty.”

If a voice can smile, his voice did. “Actually, it was the other way round. It was you, your resistance that broke Egypt. Let’s not quibble. It was in my plan and was necessary both for Egypt and Israel that your power be crushed.”

“But I am the Pharaoh of Upper and Lower Egypt, the lord of the Nile, the son of Ra. The life of my people is in my hands. I am,” less certain now, “or was, the god of Egypt. Our gods were all-powerful; the Nile, Ra, the sun…”

“Well, a tiny bit of that was once true, though I think I made a few pretty good points against your gods.”

I trembled deep in my spirit. The solid ground of all my beliefs shook and shifted, threatening to collapse. I stood straighter, tensed my muscles ready to do battle. As if reading my mind, the voice said, “What battle can flesh wage against spirit? Even your religion came to that conclusion.”

“But Egypt has lasted for a thousand years and will last another. How can you argue against such success?”

“Yes, that I well know. It was I who brought power to Egypt’s first monarch. It was always I who chose her rulers, raised them up, brought them low. It was not the might of armies, the cunning strategies of generals and kings or even luck. It always was and always will be, I who work these things by my own will and for my purposes. Let’s take you, for example.”

“I came to power by my own cunning! It was I who assassinated my brother and seized the throne. It was I who coerced the generals of the armies of the Upper and Lower Nile to support my kingdom. I did it.” I pounded my chest with a clenched fist. “It was all my doing.”

A melodic chuckle came from within the light. “Weren’t you surprised when your brother so readily agreed to attend your banquet?”

“Well, yes, a little. He was wary of me from the time I came to manhood. He knew I was ambitious and desired to reign even though I was the younger.”

“I changed his mind. He didn’t plan to attend, suspecting that he was in danger from you. He came and you poisoned him. Right?”

“Yes, that’s exactly how it happened. But it was I who convinced the generals to support me against my other siblings and a couple of pretenders. That wasn’t easy.”

“No, it was difficult and dangerous for you, but did you notice that they all changed their minds at once and that the pretenders fled into Canaan?”

“Well, yes. Your doing, I suppose?”

“Here’s something even better. You remember the plagues?”

I shuddered. “How can I ever forget? No nation on earth has suffered such devastation in so many forms. Your doing, too, I assume?”

“Of course. Did you notice the pattern?”

“No.”

“Each plague was against one of your gods. Snakes swallowed by Moses’s snake. The River Nile, one of your chief gods, turned to blood, abhorrent to you Egyptians. The frogs…”

“I get it, I get it. You attacked my gods to show how impotent they are against you.”

“Exactly. Now, think about it. Each time a plague fell on you and your kingdom, you almost decided to give in and let those pesky Israelites go. Right?”

“Well, yes, I suppose.”

“Yet you changed your mind. Even, toward the end, when your counselors begged you to send them out, you ‘hardened your heart,’ as Moses later wrote. Didn’t that trouble you a bit at the time--the logic of giving in and yet making the illogical choice?”

“I remember the feeling of conflict, of wanting to get them out so the plagues would stop, yet finding a deep well of resistance in the depths of my being.”

“That was me.”

“You?”

“Yes. You see, you were working out my will. Think of it this way. If Egypt’s gods, the gods of the most powerful nation on earth, could not resist me, how then could any other nation hope to do so?

“I guess I see what you mean. I was the example.”

“You and your nation and your gods, yes.”

“But you say you, how did you put it, you hardened my heart? How is that fair?”

“If you had followed your own inclinations and let them go, let’s say at the third plague. Egypt would have recovered quickly. You could attribute the misfortunes to some error in an incantation, a fault in a priest. But if I led you through to the bitter end, then there would be no doubt.”

“But why that scurvy little ragtag band of slaves? Why were they so important to you that you would destroy my beautiful Egypt for them? They were slaves, after all, expendable!”

“True, they were slaves, but not expendable. I’m not going to go into all their history just now. Suffice it to say that I chose them for a very specific purpose. May I reveal something to you which very few know, even here?”

“Will it hurt?”

“No.”

“Ok.”

“This world is not as it will someday be. There was a time when all was perfection. Then, in my own plans, it became what it now is--violent, troubled, terrified. You know, for you yourself participated in it.”

“Yes, I see that now.”

“Someday, a man will appear, born into the people you call ragtag. He will change everything. He will absorb all this pain and sorrow into himself. He is the real Son of the Real God. You, my friend, are an imposter, claiming to be the son of the sun. This One, this true Son, will rescue the whole system from itself. He will draw all humanity to Himself and all will turn to worship me, the creator and Sustainer of all things. I am He who raises up and brings low, who sets up kings and humbles them in the dust. But not for no purpose. All is in my grand plan to bring all of you back to myself, elevated above all that you could have been without this troubled time. Do you see how you and your nation entered into my plan? You were the launching pad for the nation that is, at this moment, being formed in the wilderness of sin. They are a troublesome lot; always will be. Yet, through all their tribulations, their rebellions and backslidings, will come prophets who will point the way to Him who is the savior of the world, the true Son of God. You were a pivot in this grand plan. You were essential. I set you up for just this moment. You died in a deluge of water, but your death is far from insignificant. Though you will have no monument, no tomb, no extravagant pyramid to mark your resting place, though you will not be embalmed, you will be remembered and honored through all eternity for the role you played in my purposes and plans. Can you accept this?”

“I, the Pharaoh of Upper and lower Egypt, the proud ruler, Son of Ra, brother to Osiris, ruler of a vast and rich empire, fell on my face before this God of all Gods, the creator and sustainer of all humanity, the true River of Life which overflows with life-giving water. It is to Him that I give all honor and glory. I am humbled in the dust. I cannot lift my eyes to Him. I am content to lie prostrate before Him as long as He gives me life.”

Hands lifted me, pulled me into the Light. I am a Son of the Great and Only God, Yahweh of Israel. I am adopted into His family, now His loyal servant. I resisted, I perished in my resistance, but He has revealed His purposes in me—an honor I do not deserve, but which thrills my heart all the same.

“My soldiers no longer obey me, for we are equals before the Majesty of Yahweh. I no longer crave their obedience. We worship together, a band of brothers, recreated in His image, dwelling within Him, rejoicing in His goodness and love.”

We are sons of the only true God. There is no higher honor.

This is an excerpt from a version of Hitler's Hell by Winslow Parker and published by Blind Tortoise Publishing. It is placed in the public domain under the creative commons copyright initiative. This means that the book or significant portions thereof may be used for non-profit purposes. It may be sold for fund-raising for charitable endeavors. In any case, author attribution and contact information must be included. 

Author Winslow Parker notes the following:

These Ten short stories are an attempt to portray Father in the light of His true character and to point the way toward a more humane earthly justice system. Most Christians believe in the division of humanity into two groups—the saved and the lost. The saved go to an existence of peace. The “lost” are either burned up or tortured forever in fiery torment. In these stories, rather than being retributive, vengeful and vindictive, I portray God as an infinitely loving Father who desires, and will have, the best for all of His children. He will not kill or, worse, torture eternally, those whom He brought into existence. In harmony with this, I attempt to portray a hell that is restorative, healing, mending Rather than destructive or eternally painful. The product is a friend, a loving comrade, a fit eternal companion for Father and all humanity. These stories are fiction. Yet, I believe they are true in the deepest sense of that word. I am not attempting to portray in any literal sense, His actual methods, His process of hell. Rather, these are allegories of His eternally-planned outcomes for all humanity. There are two outcomes. First, all will go through a hell, a cleansing, purifying, restoring hell. Death is not the end of choice or of change. Second, all humanity, without exception, will experience this cleansing and restoration. A subtext to all of the stories is that evil, sin, tribulation, trial, pain, suffering are not random or chance events. All that we consider “bad” has purpose including “The Fall.” He is leading everyone on a predestined path back to Himself. He knows how to bring each of us into fellowship with Himself. He will succeed, for “All things are of, through and return to, Him” (Romans 11:36) “My Word will not return to Me Void.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Though the contemporary Christian culture does not accept these beliefs, both scripture and in the extra-canonical writings of the early church attest to their validity. Could we but see the beauty of God’s unfailing love and accept that His hell is restorative, not retributive; a dramatic change could sweep our justice system, our nation and our religion. There are already glimmerings in the “Restorative Justice” movement, which partakes largely of the spirit of these stories. If even one item in this book touches your heart, I am content.

Mr. Parker can be contacted at winslow617@comcast.net. Please use this address to find out more about the book. Mr. Parker has mentioned to me that he lives with his wife in Portland, Oregon where he is retired from his work teaching other blind people how to use computers. Together they have two children and three grandchildren. He enjoys writing and woodturning.