Our cultural divide...just a side of it...it hurts...

The first lines I read this morning dealt with a push back to a condemnation of immigrants in this country: "They don't pay taxes". "We have to pay their medical expenses". "The little money I have for myself has to go to pay for them".

These claims from whom I assume is still a 'Christian'. A nice person. "Nice", that is, If you get my gist.

I rejoiced upon reading a response, one which I was not expecting:"...You may not feel u have much but you have a beautiful house, a golf cart, social life, family, pets, clothes... they have a lot less and left even more dire situations and are just trying to survive. You think playing mariachi music and having to dress and sing and be a living stereotype of a Mexican to earn a few dollars an hour at best for a bunch of rich retired white people pays them well enough to live stress free?"

Boom!

These were lines I read first thing in the morning, as the alarm clock was incessantly going on and notifications brought this dialogue up. Tough.

It reminded me of the insecure feeling I am living with...a feeling of a 'cloud hanging over me'... thunderous, flashing, sucking up a sense of safety, raising a stupor of approaching disaster. The constant barbarisms by the President, and those of his staunch defenders in Office - in the Media, on the streets and near me - and the workings of a Republican Party using bizarre-ness as distractions to institute their secret rooms', people-adverse policies, contribute to an expenditure of vital energy, one zapped away everywhere we look and go.

There's not much that can be said to these people. They are like a greasy:glassy wall to which anything you throw at, no matter how 'sticky or wet', it just won't stick! Whatever you throw, though, does bounce back at you: You are the problem!

The only positive thought that comes through is that they in a sense, these people and happenings, are a gift - not much of a wanted one, but a gift nevertheless. Gift: in what sense? Well, their expressions - if heard and received - not necessarily 'accepted and agreed with' - allow us to build inner strength. The strength of accepting a dislike, a difference, a "should not be", converting it into a "but it is so", "this is what it is", and through repeated instances of that practice, one builds up of core strength that allows an instant before a possible automatic response, the time sufficient to assess the situation and respond not from the head, but from the 'inner' coffers, the intuitive response that comes from a deeper, thus wiser, place within us. That practice is...a gift. Difficult, not 'sweet', but a "rich" gift.

And then, as it usually it happens, an article comes across. Jack Jenkins from ThinkProgress, writes: "The strange origins of the GOP ideology that rejects caring for the poor". Take a look at it here.
What synchronicity! Just what I needed to sort thru the ruminations my internals were going thru! The author writes: "It’s the result of a decades-long campaign by conservative lawmakers, intellectuals, and theologians to craft a theology that rejects longstanding Christian understandings of society’s needy."

Wham!!!

One side of it is that of poverty being a tell-tale sign of condemnation for "having sinned". .Jesus was confronted with that position. Jenkins: "The tension between these two divergent concepts led to a number of different Christian teachings over the years. While many interpreted scripture to mean that all poor people should be served, others delineated between “deserving” and “undeserving” poor."

There we are. We, as in "our" society. One would think that the economic disaster the US suffered recently of the 'housing-Wall Street' swindles not that long ago, would have brought a changed mindset as regards inequality, poverty, the ease of falling into bankruptcy these days. But no. It does not seem to have instilled any new sympathies around that. In fact, the other way around: it seems to have installed a predilection and adoration for success and of the '$ucce$$-full".  Poverty seen as a moral failing, per Jenkins. Condemn-able.

The merging of these concepts has resulted in what Jenkins calls "biblical capitalism". God is on your side. So, one is 'holy', "God has a plan for one's life"...that!,  the so called "American Christianity". You alone are responsible for your salvation, and also for your economic salvation, that is, and God is all in with you in that: that is the only thing you need.

The prosperity gospel.

Jenkins also brings out the Catholic-Ayn Rand-Speaker Ryan's version. Uggghh! Here is a sample: "...Ryan said at the time. He went on to repeat the axiom that government assistance programs keep people poor by making them dependent: “The preferential option for the poor, which is one of the primary tenants of Catholic social teaching, means don’t keep people poor, don’t make people dependent on government so that they stay stuck at their station in life, help people get out of poverty out onto life of independence.” In other words, something akin to teaching your youngest child to swim my dropping him out of the boat in deeper waters, and propelling away till he can no longer see you...despicable.

So, this framework obviously ends in the present situation. Those in need, are "anathema". They must have sinned, they must be lazy, they did not take responsibility for themselves and theirs, they are responsible. [responsible - able to respond...are they?]

So, why Healthcare, Medicare, TANF (food coupons)...Social Services...Planned Parenthood...and God forbid - Social Security? No!, not that last one! Don't even think of it!

But here comes the tension: a single man, Spanish speaking (gulp!), dressed in white cassocks, living humbly among riches and art, one by the name of "Francis":

"When he ascended to the papacy of the Catholic Church in 2013, it took him less than a year to publish Evangelii gaudium, a landmark apostolic exhortation that lifted up the issues of the needy and attacked any distinction between the “deserving” and “undeserving poor.” This man went further than the attacks of another special leader of our times - Barack Obama, attacks that accused the then President of using the power of the Office to redistribute wealth!, a "socialist-communist ideology of tyranny and abuse"! Yet, the Pope writes along the lines of: "...Francis’ theology, in turn, has inspired him to de facto endorse policies that aid the poor. In May 2014, he called for “the legitimate redistribution of economic benefits,” saying scripture demands an economic system that cares for the “poorest and those most excluded.” This belief also extends to health care: in May of 2016, he referred to employers who don’t offer health insurance to employees as “true leeches.” Boom!

The quotes come from Jenkins' article: take a read of it: it is a guidepost for our present day. Indeed, this IS a culture war. Our culture is in a deep struggle. The principles that took the country out of the economic disaster of the first half of the century are not in place, and as Bernie Sanders echoes, together with economists, educators, other countries, etc., "inequality" is in place. Take a look at a sample of it: follow the President of the US in his weekend golfing vaca's, watch his inner family in their actions and dress...and how millions of $'s are expended in weekend golfing tours, incurring governmental protection expenses, money that ends up in the "family business"...oooppps!, by the way. "Those executives and Protection services have to sleep and eat somewhere!"

Sad. It hurts. But it is so.