Over the last few years I have watched the religious right invoke Biblical teachings to condemn the other, the different, the differently gendered and the immigrant. The faces of many were ashen, the look on the faces intimidating, judgemental and was tinged with an expression that mixed their own insecurity with that of the constipated Puritan. They invoked God, rationality amd logic to defend their own position but in reality all you saw was a slavish claims to binary models of existence. In this age of post truth and of Trump and Brexit here we experience a shocking cultural ignorance and lack of historical, literary and cultural awareness.
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, That are in the mountain of Samaria, That oppress the poor, that crush the needy, That say unto their lords: 'Bring, that we may feast Amos 4.1
There was no awareness of their own religious tradition, their own cultural inheritance. Not one mentioned that in the book of Genesis there are two names for the Hebrew deity and two creation stories. In one creation story the word used is Yahweh and explains the usual patriarchal Sky father outlook of the three Abrahamic faiths. In the second the word for the creator is Elohim. This word implies the being that is both male and female and perhaps neither. In this creation story male and female are created on the same day and the feel of the creation is cosmological than a creation made ex nihilo. In a section of Genesis the creative principle says let us make humans in our image and implies a multiple, ever-changing developing human being.
They were unaware of the subtlety of the Jewish legend of Lilith and of the implications of St Augustine and the creation story. They were unaware of the healing of the Centurion's boy by Jesus and of the two wives of Yahweh from the book of Kings..They were unaware of the meaning of the disciple Thaddeus and that the definition of an Apostle was someone who had seen the risen Jesus. It is perhaps worth pointing out that the first two people to have me him in the garden was Mary and Martha. I am afraid the ignorance of the sky fathers and their adherents is laced with the chauvinism, regret and guilt of both St Augustine of Hippo and of Paul of Tarsus.
It is indeed interesting that those condemning the most came from a religious perspective, speaking as if they were the mouth piece of God who had little time for refugees and failed to realise that the Holy Family fleeing from Herod were political refugees. They knew nothing of Amos calling for social justice and condemning the mighty for oppressing the poor. They did not call for social justice to rain down like might waters. They did not remember the words of the Manificat
^His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands*Magnificat Gospel of Luke
Instead the code was for exclusion, the use of the “Christian” was short hand for white Caucasian male culture created after the Christ of the very Reverend Farage and of Pope Donald. This is the age of the Christianity of Trump of exclusion and of denial. I see in their faces the face of Dostoyevsky`s Grand Inquisitor . How apt that some two thousand years later from its foundation the fearful, repressed unconscious of two men St Paul and Augustine of Hippo should produce such a group of oeooke. To quote Dylan “its easy to see that not much is really sacred”
To those of us who never are or could be conventional thinkers upon religion or spirituality, it becomes clearer that we need a saviour who frees us from saviours. The Sky Fathers outside of the world are not with us , nor part of the world but are instead far removed from it. Unlike the “Theos” of the ancient world who were contained within it and part of it, the Sky Fathers had little interest in it. If this world is merely a “veil of tears” there is no role for ecologists, socialists or liberals. The Abrahamic Sky Fathers could never be the best guardian of Gaia or of its rootless and oppressed and cast out multitudes. The attitude on the part of the unknowing and ignorant is so disturbingly clear in its brutality . The faith of the Sky Fathers is now in many cases the engine of denial, alienation and exclusion that is so far removed from the Aramaic sayings of the gentle Galilean or indeed from
Deuteronomy 10: 18 - 19
'He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt."
You might remember this from last years blog "There are10 days left to decide. It's not about “facts” or statistics. Yesterday I heard from a friend who had been leafleting in Swansea for the Remain campaign. This leaflet was being handed out by a Christian UKIP group. It's quite clear now what June 23rd is about. It's about the sort of Wales we want to live in.
On one side it's about being tolerant, respecting and celebrating the diverse and the different. It's about learning about different lifestyles, understanding different cultures. It's about knowing about history, literature. It's about knowing our true history, where we came from, the good and the bad things we have done. It's about realising that we are a nation that has welcomed and learnt from different people and the things they have learnt from us.
It's about learning from the Philosophers, the thinkers and the scholars who have brought their thoughts, awareness and speculation to us. It's about realising that we all came out of Africa. It's about understanding that the causes of Migration are the selling of arms. Of propping up tin pot dictators, of the hunger for scarce resources and of climate change. A real debate on migration would involve all these things. It would be about what we can do and not about our fears
It's about realising that the Christian, Muslim and Jewish religions all stem from an Abrahamic root. That Jesus Christ was dark skinned, that the disciples were ordinary people, that many teachers like Jesus Christ roamed Palestine under the Romans. The choice we face is a challenge to our prejudices, knowledge and our perception of others both culturally and psychologically. It's about challenging the assumptions and agenda of the right wing press. I see the Welsh fans thrilled to be there and I think of the contrast with the English fans, chanting, racist, xenophobic things. I see the difference..its so clear.
Then I see the image of the England Football fans chanting FUCK OFF EUROPE WE ARE VOTING for Brexit in France. I read the words on the UKIP “Christian” leaflet. I know what comes next the turning against the poor and the disadvantaged. The different and the diverse, the broken and the abject.
I end today's speculations with the words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
“he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
And of the Prophet Amos much loved by Martin Luther King
Amos 5:24New King James Version (NKJV)
24 But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.
The Christian Kippers misunderstanding of the book of Revelation reveals their ignorance, their lack of understanding of Apocalyptic discourse and of it's role in Jewish history and Culture.
The decision taken on June 23 will decide if we are an outward looking, tolerant country or a narrow, frightened, prejudiced place unaware of our history, our culture and our origins. Beware if you are poor, a single parent. Someone who who is different. I have sensed the anxiety and fear on the faces a sign of fear of the varied peoples of St Helen Road in Swansea. They are surprised if I smile at them or thank them. I know where the root of this fear begins.... from the man who claims that Nigel Farage was sent by God to cause us to leave the EU and to fulfiol Biblical Prophecy..i feel a growing ignorance of the role of metaphor, historical context and allegory amongst believers...........
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