{"id":305,"date":"2019-02-26T21:58:13","date_gmt":"2019-02-27T02:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/donnadufresne.com\/~donnadu1\/?p=305"},"modified":"2019-02-26T21:58:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T02:58:21","slug":"that-rebel-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/donnadufresne.com\/~donnadu1\/that-rebel-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"THAT REBEL JESUS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

My Jesus is the image taken from the Shroud of Turin. He is a\ndark-skinned, bearded Jew with a magnificent schnoz. He is not that northern\nEuropean guy we all grew up with. The haloed, angelic, light-skinned,\ngoldilocks with his blue eyes rolled toward heaven. In fact, I imagine him to\nbe more like Chez Guevara, that other rebel of my youth. Dark skinned, bearded,\nand touting the beret of a revolutionary. Only he was both a man of the people\nand a man of God. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus was most likely considered a revolutionary amongst the people of\nhis time. They were, after all, busy scratching each other\u2019s eyes out, stoning\neach other, and abusing the poor and the wretched, and he was the guy who\nturned the world upside down. You can see through his teachings that he was not\na fan of the 1%. He spoke up for the poor and believed that religion could be\nthe great equalizer. He turned the tables on behalf of the over-taxed and\nberated the swindling tax collectors. No wonder they crucified him. He was a\ndarned socialist! There\u2019s nothing that a nationalistic oligarchy hates more\nthan someone who points out that perhaps the wealthy ought to pay their fair\nshare and that they do indeed owe a debt to society.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pay close attention here, because the spin has geared up already, with\nTrump vilifying the word \u201csocialist\u201d to rile up his ignorant base who most\nlikely have confused the word socialism <\/em>with\ncommunism, fascism and, well why not throw Nazi Germany in there to counteract\nall the bad press Trump himself has gotten in that department.  There will be grand attempts to manipulate\nthe narrative in the Democratic party, pushing it to the far left in the minds\nof those who have no<\/em> memory for\nhistory. In fact, the so-called leftist policies recently brought to the table\nare pretty moderate and loaded with common sense, not much different from the\npolicies of most civilized countries, or various well-supported bills proposed in\nthe United States for the last seventy-five years. Health care for all, child\ncare subsidies for working families, care for the elderly, veterans, the planet.\nOh horrors! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be much talk about money and national debt. I guess it\u2019s\nO.K. to push us into trillions of dollars of debt while wasting billions on a\nwall for a Trumped up and fabricated emergency, not to mention tax cuts for the\nwealthiest 1% of the corporate industrial complex. I guess it\u2019s O.K to pander\nto a class of greedy individuals, who not unlike the tax collectors in the time\nof Jesus, think it\u2019s fine to tax the poor and what\u2019s left of the middle class. Meanwhile,\nthey faun over their Emperor, Trump and continue to take away your jobs. And\ntalk about \u201cThe Emperor who had no clothes\u201d, I don\u2019t understand how anyone can\u2019t\nsee through that thin veneer of pseudo Christianity and patriotism. He looks\nstark naked to me and it\u2019s not a pretty sight. What I see is an entitled,\ndraft-dodging, narcissistic, and fragile ego-maniac who cares little for God or\ncountry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to the topic of how socialism\n<\/em>will be demonized by Trump and his ultra-right conservative ilk, consider\nthis – remember when he made that horrible comment about \u201cShit hole countries\u201d?\nTalk about showing his true colors.  Another veil from his seven deadly sins was\nremoved, and it was pretty transparent to begin with.  In Trump world, the United States should only be\nletting in immigrants from countries such as Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland,\nrather than the \u201cshit hole\u201d countries from Africa, Central America and the Middle\nEast.  So, let\u2019s get this straight. The \u201cgood\nguys\u201d are all northern European and white. But wait a minute\u2026they are also from\nsocial democratic<\/em> countries which\nhave agreed to higher taxes in order to ensure that all citizens get a complete\neducation, healthcare, care for their elderly and poor. Hmm. And what kind of\ngovernments do those \u201cshit hole\u201d countries have?  Well not much different than the kind of government\nTrump is pushing us toward. Authoritarian, totalitarian, nationalistic\ndictatorships where the people have few if any rights to a free press,\nprotesting, kneeling and standing up for justice.  As a matter of fact, the United States,\naccording to The Telegraph<\/em> article, Mapped: The World\u2019s most and least free countries<\/em>,\ndemocracy has taken a nose-dive throughout the world since 2017, and “The United States retreated from its traditional\nrole as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy amid an accelerating\ndecline in American political rights and civil liberties.”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ask you here, to ponder over what\u2019s really at stake if the current\nfar-right leaning trends continue. The United States has already tumbled over\nthe edge in the eyes of the rest of the world. We are no longer the exemplar\nfor democracy and freedom, because we have a president who despises its basic\ntenets.  Like Putin and other despots, Trump\nwould rather do away with the press, and the checks and balances we once\nbelieved would protect us from autocratic, authoritarian, thugs like him. But\nhere\u2019s where the Christian principles of forgiveness and turning the other\ncheek get a little muddy. I don\u2019t think rebel Jesus would be a bystander in\nthese times any more than he ignored the tax collectors. Although he might\npoint out the truth in a kinder, less vitriolic fashion than my acid-filled\nepistles, I believe he would have stood up and said something. Perhaps he is\nspeaking through all the female politicians who have stepped up to the plate to\nput an end to this madness which has taken over our government, and much of the\nworld. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know you are on the right track when you piss off all those people\nwho revel in darkness. Once again, women who dare to speak out, such as Alexandrea\nOcasio Cortez or Senator Warren, are the brunt of racist and sexist jokes and\ncriticism. My rebel Jesus was vilified by the same kind of people who make misogynist\ncomments about female politicians, and let\u2019s not forget the overt and covert\nracism the Obama\u2019s had to cope with. My rebel Jesus reminded people that it was\nnot wealth that got you through the gates of heaven, but your comportment and\ncompassion (Not that I support the theology of poverty which has been used to\nkeep poor, black and brown people down since Christ was a Cowboy). My rebel\nJesus would have led the revolution of the people, only without the guns,\nviolence and war. And yet, he would still turn that dark-skinned cheek, knowing\nhe would be doomed in the end by the betrayal of those who loved him. When push\ncomes to shove, we all run for the hills, tails between the legs when it comes\ndown to saving our own skin.  Just look\nat the NFL players who knelt for justice. How many white players stood by them\nand stuck with it? I\u2019m just saying.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes down to the divided tribal issues of our time, I always\ngo back to that old bumper sticker you used to see on cars: What would Jesus do?  <\/em>I grew up thinking that his teachings and\nprinciples were pretty much the norm and set the moral compass of our\nindividual lives. Feed the poor, welcome the stranger, turn the other cheek, do\nunto others as thou wouldst have done unto you, etc. Who would have thought\nthat the ideas we learned and accepted as our magnetic north pointing us toward\ngoodness, kindness, and a piece of the American Pie, would be turned upside\ndown by the spin of right-wing politicians who can only be described as\nsomething evil. Now I\u2019m not one to believe in the devil and all that crap, but\nI certainly get the allegory of the antichrist, when he\u2019s sitting in the\nWhitehouse, conjuring up mischief tweet by tweet.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there was always a Bible-thumping underground of hooded\nnight-riders, government officials and hypocrites who talked the talk on Sunday\nmorning but didn\u2019t walk the walk the rest of the week. And God knows there was\na lot of hank-panky among clergy who couldn\u2019t walk a straight line if their\nlife depended on it. But for the most part, growing up in the fifties and\nsixties, we children had a strong sense of what was right and wrong in the\nworld and our parents held us to it whether they went to church or not.  The Ten Commandments loomed heavy above us,\nespecially if you had the b\u2019Jesus scared out of you by the nuns. And some of us\ndeveloped a moral compass despite our parents and ourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s get back to my rebel Jesus, whom I fell in love with during\nthe heady social and spiritual awakening of the 60\u2019s and 70\u2019s. It was then that\nGodspell and Jesus Christ Superstar ushered us into the Age of Aquarius. Every\nstreet corner had its own barefoot Jesus Freak preacher barking out the Beatitudes,\nand the Sermon on the mount had wended its way into popular folk songs. It\nseemed like my rebel Jesus was alive and thriving in the popular culture and it\ndidn\u2019t seem to matter if you were Christian or Jewish or had joined up with\nsome religious commune cult. We all agreed that Jesus was the Man. Even the Hindu\nGurus, the Dali Lama, and the Sufis agreed that the teachings of Jesus were on\npar with if not a step above all the prophets known to man.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did we become so disillusioned with our Godspell God?  Was it the fatigue of race riots, the assassinations\nof our Camelot heroes, and Viet Nam? Or was it simply a paradigm that shifted\nall too quickly and sifted the wheat from the shaft. Some of us fell through the\ncracks of the 80\u2019s and had to fight our way back to the main stream. By the\ntime I got there, my rebel Jesus had disappeared. A different kind of\n\u201cChristian\u201d had emerged and he<\/em> was a\nguy in a blue suit with a blue tie and a little American flag pinned to his\nlapel. And he was mad as hell. So were his Tammy Baker minions who marched on\nthe Capitol, mascara running into the gutters, egging on the bombing of\nabortion clinics. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t mean to be so harsh and judgmental toward the white evangelic\ncrowd. What would my rebel Jesus do? He would turn the other cheek and forgive.\nHe would eat, love and pray. But I am a road weary warrior who has spent much\nof my life reveling in the marginal sin of righteous indignation, and it\u2019s really\nhard to give it up to love. There\u2019s the rational knife edge that is\noh-so-difficult to straddle when it comes to the dire circumstance of our\ndystopian polity. Although my rebel Jesus reminds me that it all comes down\nlove and compassion, even for those we perceive as our enemies, my own inner\ndaemons want me to stand up and fight those darned prevailing inequities, just\nas my heroes of the past had done. Is it possible that the rebel Jesus in us\nall can stand up to the hate, bigotry, and, I might add, the environmental\ninjustice which has eluded so many of our brothers and sisters, and still\nremember to be loving and compassionate toward those who don\u2019t see it? One\nthing that saves my sorry ass from going over to the dark side is my sense of\nhumor and the fact that I sincerely love all kinds of people \u2013 even if I think\nthey are wrong.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what would<\/em> Jesus do in\nthese divided times? By now, you can probably guess what I think. I\u2019m pretty\nsure my rebel Jesus would Stand up, sit\nin, march, protest and KNEEL for justice. <\/em>And, as he reminds me, he would\nremember to love the enemy. Even Trump needs a little love and compassion. He\nis, after all, a very sad and lonely man.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My Jesus is the image taken from the Shroud of Turin. He is a dark-skinned, bearded Jew with a magnificent schnoz. He is not that northern European guy we all grew up with. The haloed, angelic, light-skinned, goldilocks with his blue eyes rolled toward heaven. In fact, I imagine him to be more like Chez … <\/p>\n

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