Author: eejoseph

Forgiveness, then what?

eejoseph, ,

Forgiveness is the highway where apologies, explanations expectations, regrets, rationalizations and remorse lose their crutches and acquire wheels.

Forgiveness is not a religious phenomenon.  People of all stripes are capable of letting go of injuries they have suffered.  People who are not religious or spiritual are equipped emotionally and rationally to make a firm break with animosity and hostility that may arise from injustices they have experienced.

It is curious how many religious people have a set of talking points about forgiveness which are wholly unattractive and inconsistent with a God of infinite mercy and compassion.

Take the sacred tent of the Levitical order.  It’s purpose was for divine residence and for divine communication with the priesthood, but at its innermost recesses there were operations for the expiation of sins. 

Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them.

Exodus 25:8

To see that this atonement process did not work one only needs to read the rest of the priest-temple narratives.

There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

Exodus 25:22

It is beyond question that the people pursuing that ancient concept and its supporting regulations are outrageously bewitched, and the leaders wilfully forgetful, that “there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God;” (2 Peter 3:5). All things from the beginning are not automatic contributors to the kingdom of God.

We say that after forgiveness comes the gift of the Holy Spirit not testing and failure. We say that after forgiveness comes the guarantee of the final redemption- of the body – not bondage to human and bodily discipline.

We are recipients of certainty, finality, rest, and peace. When Christ liberates people they are free for real, from death, bondage, and condemnation. When Christ saves people they are safe. What else could they be?

Staircase

eejoseph

My son and I wrote this piece of music on Canada Day 2021. The lyrics came slowly all day right up to July 01’s 23rd hour, making for perfect timing since I had no intention of saying “Happy Canada Day” on Canada Day. Solidarity with Canada’s First Nations in their existential struggle is an ongoing priority for a caring Canada.

STAIRCASE by Kyu and Ganjy

It’s not hard to believe, it  happened right here
Many graves are telling us how little we’ve cared
Happy and innocent lives crushed with colonial fear
Happening in plain sight right beside houses of prayer

The children’s voices are loud and clear
Peace for the survivors and a readiness to hear
The children’s stories some did not believe
Stories that are the truth we must now receive

Sure you took the staircase down
Robbed us of home and school
Canada you  played the clown
Now let’s take the staircase up
From border to border to border let’s pursue
Until justice be the rule

Happier national days come after the political game
Stops treating First Nations like objects of shame
When inhumanity and police brutality
disappear like wonen and children with no accountability


Comes a time to move on, is that today?
Apologize and not correct what we do or say
Let every human heart feel our neighbour’s pain
Genocide’s on our record, let it never happen again

Missed the memo, skipped the beef

eejoseph

For a few years I have watched a tree put out faded leaves at the end of spring that makes it look like autumn has begun.  I do not know if every grove has a tree that looks like it missed or skipped over  the summer memo and launched into its autumn  repertoire.  Societies all over the globe are pretending to have moved on from their nasty past.  Some dare to say they accept every person, all faiths, and yet there are no international moves to curb the outdated reliefs from perennial tensions. I find it conclusive that in the age of widespread access to media and lifestyle information that any entity can use the excuse that it has a higher duty to defend its juvenile state at all costs, and will not be convinced that it missed the memo and skipped the beef.

Every nation does have something unique to offer but not one is a model for the rest. All the mighty and great have crumbled into heaps of apathy. How could all the nation-builders have missed God’s memo for the nations?

Our dependence on prophet profiles

eejoseph

It is next to impossible for us to avoid the influence of prophets. Their work and works comprose the main warning to the latter day generations. The best of them do not try to tell us that our lives depend on their message. Many of today’s prophets are agents of an international venture that has counterfeited God’s dealings with his chosen people and agents.

Profiteers installed as spokespeople for God miss the point of the kingdom of God. They see gain and advancement in the current age as paramount. One is tempted to conclude that Christ did not really die and God’s interest is focused on our carnal comforts. Apart from the use of the name Jesus there is little in their doctrine and practice that follows the pattern of life and growth revealed in the New Testament.

forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; 16. but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet.

2 Peter 2:15-16

The prophet’s fate

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.”

Mark 6:4

Instead of looking for prophets and profits believers can invest their time in the words of the reliable Speaker, the One Moses said would have the final word on all of God’s business.

Not the worst country

eejoseph, , ,

Canada is not competing to be the bad boy, the sheriff, the virgin, or the Zion of the modern era. It seems that the democracies of our times have been trying desperately, with the help of cowardly religious groups and movements, to imitate the adventures of ancient nations, conquering, exploiting and oppressing peoples both near and far. I personally wish my head were a fountain to weep with the First Nations on Turtle Island. I do have a pair of feet, a pair of hands and one mouth. The depth of shame and disgrace that Christians have brought to this nation defies description. Standing with Canada’s First Nations is a long overdue measure this nation needs if can ever have an approach to healing. Make no mistake, everybody needs healing: the brave and the cowards, and the political parties need to consider packing up their rhetoric and get ready for a makeover. We are counting the unmarked graves of children who went to school and did not return home. Canada needs a vaccination with a strong dose humanity and it does not matter whether anyone evaluates us as the worst country on the planet. Justice calls for a strong rebuke of the responsible agencies: the churches, the licensing and governing authorities to do more than apologize and compensate our First Nations families. As far as I am concerned the Vatican, the police. and the political parties must pay. Then the rest of us must search our hearts for that evil streak that has allowed thousands of First Nations people to be missing and unaccounted for. We must demand the records of brutality against Canadians in police custody; a phenomenon that speaks of Canada being a very naughty country. There is no comfort in not being the worst country.

Justice is not a game for clever lawyers or political operatives. It is not the use of majorities in the legislatures to mount damaging campaigns in favour of big or small business. Justice is missing in action as long as we still have police officers who still think that their animus against young people, non-White persons is allowed. They and the rest of the administrative branches of government have not tasted the long arm of the law. This remains a stain on the record of governments we thought were humane and accountable. Apparently, most Canadians do not know what equity and service mean. We need the videos and records of police interactions with Black and Brown people. We also need a forensic analysis of what religious groups are teaching. If you think that is scary think about the fact that the disappearance of school children went unreported and unaddressed by church and government (of both political parties). Neither freedom of religion nor state religion prevent a country from being bad, worse or the worst.

Giggly Canadian justice

We have been saying that justice has a long arm and that the RCMP always gets its man (the violater of our laws), but justice in Canada makes some people happy, others laiugh out loud, and others giggle at how stupid we are. If we could defy gravity at will we could also evade the exposure of our despicable secrets. Time always tells, and hidden things will come to light, even the nasty plots in the highest councils of both the godly and the ungodly. We need to get ready for a huge dose of reality if the nation is going to deal with our genocidal history. Clergy and their allies will be expected to vomit all over themselves in their pride and zeal to defend their treasures. We are neither laughing nor giggling. Our tears are just too much. Not even the golden rule seemed to be in play!

I dare to say that church leaders (Protestant and Catholic) have been delusional in their view that justice is ultimately served by imprisonment, fines, and inhumane and merciless treatment of offenders and even of innocent people they do not like or deem as outsiders.

Let their treasures be our trash so we can move on. Let their zeal be a sick comedy. Let the Vatican and the cardinals show what they are really made of. Canadians will be interested in seeing whether they human or machines of blind loyalty and covetousness?

Schools that do no keep records?

It is abundantly clear that people posing as teachers of children had so little regard for our First Nations that they had nothing to say – NOTHING AT ALL – to the parents of the children whose corpses we are now discovering. A child murder atrocity must be punished. We are sure that apologies are insufficient. Maximum penalties must be applied impartially. When the whole nation – every province – commits itself to the remedies for this national tragedy we will have a reason to say something meaningful, graceful, and right about not being the worst country. Get ready for more revelations of evil, but that, to me, is an unprecedented opportunity to freshen up Canada. Freshen up, Canada.

A world without servants

eejoseph, ,

Mr. Lincoln, president of the United States, emancipator of slaves, was not a denier of basic truths. We need to stop stumbling over the dreams of wicked European colonists. People are allowed to have servants. A family that can afford to have “help” is able to carve out productive and creative time for all. God made Eve as helper for Adam. God has myriads of angels. America, like Egypt, has transformed a civilized practice into a policy of abject inhumanity and oppression.

A world with no servants is an abyss of stagnation

The conviction that led to the emancipation of slaves is hard to find today, hundreds of years after Lincoln’s bold vision came to him. The people who use Bible narratives to justify what the United States did and wants to keep doing to Africans are generally considered to be corrupt, ignorant and evil. They are wrong, just like Lincoln said their masterplan was.

An infinitely huge book, I’d say

eejoseph

Every page we think we’ve “turned” opens on another. We humans are desperately trying to prove how much we have grown up. The result has been massive embarrassment. Juvenile greed and understanding is widespread. Life is for learning amidst a lot of hugging and bugging, aging and eventually disengaging. We live, love and die. The minute we stop learning the truth about our destiny and show ourselves victorious we lose our way.

The tendency to quickly say “I got it” or “I get it” is fatally dangerous.

Hewn by design

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. (4) Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. (5)

Hosea 6:4-5

Prophetic work is not only building up. It also exposes folly and pulls down silly fantasies. Beware the gold medal followers of God who did not even lace up!