Saturday, June 8, 2013

Crusades vs. Compassion

Why do we expect secular institutions to provide the resources for administering Judeo-Christian charity?
Is it because we people of the Judeo-Christian God fail miserably at caring for our own, we have set up governmental institutions to take up our slack. If Judeo-Christians were people who believed in practicing what we preach, we would accept no more tax breaks for religious contributions. We would, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars." We would take care of even those who slow down our progress, accepting this as part of the anointed progression of our people.

We would commit personally to obeying the laws in our own lives and homes, rather than simply posting them on our walls to guide others. If we practiced what we preach, we would have less need for juries or judges because we would follow the prescriptions for making peace with others, as outlined in the scriptural stories of Solomon and Jewish Jesus's saying in Matthew 18. We would respectfully confront each other, rather rushing to the courts.

Women would stop hiding their strengths behind fathers, husbands, and children. Men would stop hiding their fears behind aggressive action. Men and women would think before they speak, and speak clearly of their personal beliefs and desires. We would also accept women as equal partners to men, honored in their abilities to be homemakers, prophets, preachers, and agents of change, as were the mothers of the Old Testament and Jesus' apostles. We would accept men as emotionally equal to women, and encourage their gentle strengths, as are evidenced in the Psalms, as well as their more animal strengths.

Crusades don't happen where their is responsible compassion. Until we accept women as equal interpreters of the laws laid out by all the men of human history, we will forever be plagued by competition in the supremacy of the genders and classes of society. When will we stop the human stupidity? Will we wait until we, and our progeny, and their progeny, are all dead?