Nazi Is As Nazi Does...

Nazi is as Nazi does.

Klan is as Klan does.

Bigot is as Bigot does.

Peace is as Peace does.

Love is as Love does.

On the Klan and Its Modern Descendants, and Selling Your Soul

Joining the Klan,

or any of its modern descendants:

The Proud Boys
The Moms for Liberty
or anyone else
that promotes Klan teachings

This is no less than selling your soul.

It is turning your back
on the teachings of Jesus Christ

in exchange for the Devil
and all his empty promises.

Which promises, you ask?

- That "Jews will never replace us"
- That we can "whitewash" history
- That we can make transgender people disappear
- That we can create neighborhoods, school districts,
and entire cities, where we don't have to see or deal with
people who are different than ourselves.

God's grace is abundant, available, and sufficient;
Repent now, and be reconciled.

Otherwise, of what use to you is Heaven?
After all,
it will be filled
with all the people you so loudly despise:
Brown and Black people
Asian and Arab people
Muslim and Jewish people
Immigrants from all nations
People with disabilities
and so many more.

Even LGBTQIA+ people,
people who simply loved who they loved
and did no harm to anyone.

After all,
they didn't join a hate group
to twist and mock the teachings of Jesus.

That's all on you.

Can such a sin-sick soul be redeemed?
Of course...with a truly penitent heart.
This is what Jesus taught us, too.

Turn back now
from your evil ways
and Live.

Go and sin no more.

What Is It about Christianity and White Nationalism?

To paraphrase Brian Zahnd, Christian Nationalism is just Nationalism, using Jesus as a mascot.

It is the same White Nationalism that we see at work in the Klan.

It is the same White Nationalism that we saw at work in the Nazis and see at work in the neo-Nazi movements.

And yet, it does seem that Christianity, and especially White Christianity, is particularly susceptible to embracing White Nationalism. It is somehow still too easy for us as White Christians--

not just in the fundamentalist, Evangelical, and nondenominational branches, but also in the mainline Protestant and Catholic branches--

to believe that Black and Brown and Asian and Indigenous people, or foreigners; people who are Muslims and Jews and Buddhists, Sikhs, and Hindus and people of other religious traditions; people with disabilities; people who are poor, hungry, and/ or homeless; people who are left-leaning or liberal university students or teachers, writers, artists, musicians, or community organizers or activists, or people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or any variety of queer--

that these people are somehow less equal and less worthy of existence on our earth; and less worthy of being treated with dignity and respect and love as our neighbors.

This susceptibility to White Nationalism persists even though it flies in the face of the Gospel of Jesus and everything Jesus taught about love of neighbors that were from widely different parts of society even in Biblical times.

There Is No Klan Jesus

 There is no Klan Jesus

waiting to whisk you off

to a Whites-Only Heaven

segregated from all the

Black and Brown Souls

you'd like to avoid

and all the Muslims and Jews

and Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus

and all the Catholics too

and all the foreigners

and all the poor

all the hungry

all the homeless

all the sick

all the people with disabilities

all the outcasts

all the leftists

But I do believe that if there is a Heaven

and there is a God who created

Black and Brown people

and Muslims and Jews

and Buddhists, Sikhs and Hindus

and Catholics too

and all the foreigners

and all the poor

all the hungry

all the homeless

all the sick

all the people with disabilities

all the outcasts

all the leftists

well then, I believe

that a God who created them

loves them too,

just as much

as me or you

and that God's good Heaven

includes them all, too.

But if you insist on a Separate Place

perhaps it is there,

outside those 'Pearly Gates'...

First They Came for the Drag Queens

September 2023

First they came for the drag queens

And I didn’t speak up

Because I didn’t understand their ‘lifestyle.’

Then they came for the transgender kids

And I didn’t speak up

Because I didn’t understand their medical needs.

Then they came for the books

And the librarians and teachers who taught them

And I didn’t speak up

Because I wasn’t really into reading anyway

Then they came for the universities

And the public school boards

And tried to make them exclude anyone

Who wasn’t straight, wasn’t White, 

Or wasn’t their ‘brand’ of Christian.

But I didn’t speak up

Because I never liked school anyway.

Then they came for the journalists

They bought up all the newspapers

And closed them

And replaced them

With their own channels and websites

With their own ‘commentary’

And I didn’t speak up

Because I never paid much attention to news anyway

Then they came for the churches

And any pastor who dared to preach

‘Love your neighbor’

And fired them

And replaced them

With preachers 

Who would say whatever was needed

To keep a comfortable paycheck

And I didn’t speak up

Because these new celebrity preachers

Had higher production values

They came for the Immigrants

And I didn’t speak up

Because they told us welcoming them

Would take something away from us

Instead of adding more to who we are

They came for the Muslims

And I didn’t speak up

Because I believed them 

When they said these were the enemy

They came for the Jews

And I didn’t speak up

Because I believed them

When they said the Holocaust wasn’t real

They came for the Black people

They called them criminals, dangerous

Even the ones in preschool

Hauling them away in police cars

Beating them on the side of the road

Leaving them to die in the alleys

And I believed them

Because police are always here to help, right?

They came for the Native Americans

And I didn’t speak up

Because they told me they had

Plenty of money from the casinos and 

Nobody else to blame for their problems anymore.

They came for the women

Denied us our futures

Denied us protection from our abusers

Denied us accountability for our rapists

Denied us the ability to keep our children safe

While we worked to pursue our own talents and dreams

And so we slowly began to disappear again

Silenced like everyone else

Just like they always wanted.