I like to say, “40 years. No Cadillacs. No scandals.”
I have seen everything that is right with that religion. I love my parents, they were excellent role models, and I would not be the person I am without them.
I am a product of prayer, belief, and community. I spent years after leaving the church trying to find the kind of support and connection that I grew up with, sometimes putting myself in questionable situations for something that resembled that love.
There are a lot of us with similar stories.
I left the church due to hypocrisy, judgement, corruption, systemic racism, and sexism. The same reasons a lot of people have.
White Jesus is a tool and symbol of colonization and oppression. Pops NEVER preached white Jesus. Wouldn’t make any geographic sense.
I do remember people around me suggesting that Donald Trump should be the President because he was rich when I was a kid though. So … that was a long time coming. As is a lot of what we are seeing now.
There is a long held belief among the Christian conservatives that this country started going to hell when they took prayer out of schools.
I remember wearing t‑shirts and having stickers that said, “As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools.”
It’s a weird kind of conflicted to believe that it would be a good thing for spiritual education to have its place while also realizing exactly what that means in America in 2022, which is the same thing it meant in 1963 and 1845 and 1776. The guy who some king decided to call Jesus when re-writing the story to fit his agenda becomes a star spangled patriot that rose from the dead to back America’s latest war campaign and fight any other spiritual teachers to the death.
Rather than addressing greed and problematic pastors and finding ways to be light in these dark times the “Christian” church is leading a crusade of hate and oppression based in things Jesus never addressed from a book that has been reworded countless times by corrupt leaders (looks at King James).
Abortion is never mentioned in the Bible. Using a 2,000 year old book as a medical guide is wildly irresponsible, dangerous, and neglectful.
Homosexuality wasn’t mentioned in the Bible until the 1940s when the word “pedophile” was switched to “homosexual” – some say by translation error, others propose a darker, more sinister reason – to cover up the pedophilia that has always run rampant in the Catholic church.
The first song we are taught as Christian children goes:
Jesus loves me this I know
For the Bible tells me so
little ones to him belong
they are weak but he is strong
yes, Jesus loves me
yes, Jesus loves me
yes, Jesus loves me
The Bible tells me so.
Note there is no feeling that indicates or validates Jesus’ love, it is solely BECAUSE the Bible informs. This is what the babies are taught. That line could easily have been
For I feel it in my soul
(I want my royalties for the re-write) but this is part of an age old indoctrination that I’m not sure how much of the church is even aware of carrying on.
Religious oppression is like white supremacy in that it is a system that survives by making itself as invisible and accepted as possible in the fabric of every day life, often with those helping perpetuate it unaware of the ways they are doing so.
“In God we Trust” is printed on the money circulating while we are told church and state are separate. Whether it is said silently or out loud, America is a Christian nation – we killed and enslaved a lot of people to become that. The horrific irony being that the first colonizers themselves were seeking freedom from religious oppression.
The word “Christian” translates to “little Christ” but the fact is that my brother Yeshua wouldn’t recognize the Church as it currently stands. A doctrine being used to manipulate and control people and establish power over others.
The Pharisees have always had power though, this is nothing new. I guess this is a letter to the church that raised me to remember that above all else he preached love and that the kingdom of heaven was within. For your neighbor as your self.
It’s also a letter to everyone feeling attacked right now … Christ wasn’t about hate and the real Christians aren’t either. Don’t be fooled by the politichristianity taking over.
Just trying to make sense of how we got here. It’s heartbreaking to think about the people that are in the church for love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness that are being railroaded by fear and bigotry. It’s heartbreaking to think about all the people who are being oppressed and stripped of their freedoms via the manipulation of something created to be holy.
I don’t know the answer. I don’t have a solution. I’m a poet working to find words. But I know that the antichrist isn’t a person it’s an energy and I know it’s already in the church. And I know it has been for a while because I stared it in the face as a child. It’s not that scary. All it takes to beat it is a little bit of love.
But it’s got to be pure. That real Jesus kind. The kind that’s for all the little children of the world because they are precious in his sight. Remember that song?
Jesus loves the little children
ALL the children of the world.
—andru defeye
Flommist Andru Defeye is the Guerrilla Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Copyright © 2022 Andru Defeye.
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