So much of "spirituality", religion, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, etc. ignores both the poor and the devastation of our home: the earth. Yet, Judaism is to be founded on social justice principles as the prophet Jeremiah [ch. 5-6] demanded. Caring for Creation, of course, is protecting the poor. For the poor are the ones with the toxic landfill dumps, factories, carcinogenic air, land, water under, around, and over them.
Yet 'business as usual' is the trance.
Gotta work hard
Gotta buy that car
Have a kid
Governments, military and biz happily
Skip along.
Hand-in-hand.
Hidden hands.Hidden hand-shakes.
More money for bombs
Less for schools, hospitals, regulations, ...
And don't forget to cut funding for women's health-care
And control over THEIR OWN bodies. See last post and also here
Yet the Jewish scriptures reveal a contrary view of the world and God's demands on us:
"Their evil deeds have no limit;
they do not plead the cause of the poor to win it,
they do not defend the rights of the poor.
Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the Lord.
God is 'pissed'. Israel, then, as now, ignore the demands for social justice.
[Breaking International Law to build 'settlements', oppress the Palestinians]
Likewise biz and governments, especially conservative right-wing ones follow suit.
Church, synagogue, mosque, temple, ... goers....pass by such demands.
How can they?
The prophets prophecy lies,
the priests rule by their own authority,
and my people love it this way.
Then, and now, people want liars - from the pulpits
The biz head-quarters/pulpit
The military head-quarters/pulpit
Don't think/question/rebel!
Hiding behind cliches of God's chosen people
Most nations chant such empty and deceiving blurbs
Uniting the nation, the team, the ...
Against the enemy "the evil one".
But God/justice will not listen, instead:
I will destroy the Daughter of Zion,
so beautiful and delicate
Shepherds and their flocks will come against her...
The city must be punished;
it is filled with oppression.
Note the values
No talk of balanced budgets
Military contracts
Jobs
But justice: care for the poor
Freedom for the oppressed
Bad news for the oppressors
Bad news for exploitative economic/political/social/environmental 'systems'
But Good News: hope for the oppressed.
Let our lives be dedicated to fight oppress-i-on
To struggle with all life forms that the Creator entrusts to us
But this requires that the oppressor must be brought down.
