Stock Dividends Friday, Y'all. (American Revelation III, Part Eight.)

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.

Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.

And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, This Is The King Of The Jews. ~Luke 23:33-38

It's Good Friday, the day that Christians observe to commemorate the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus Christ. In Christian tradition, it's a day that calls to mind repentance and sacrifice, where, especially in Catholic tradition, the concept of Memento Morii...literally "Awareness that you will die" is not far from people's hearts.

So, what's one of the first things I see when I log onto my social media feeds? Some conservative twit consigning the aged and the ill to death yet again, for the sake of the economy and their stock dividends!

Get in the fucking sepulcher, Grandma, there's money to be made.

Fuck! What the hell is wrong with these fucking people?

Of all the days to start our with some rich racist Republican's "Fuck you, I've got mine" rant, this one?! It's Good Friday, for fuck's sake, one of the maybe three days out the year where it absolutely should not be about money, or about you. I mean, seriously, I'd almost believe these fucking people's cant about this virus being divine retribution...if anybody was saying it was because of these fucking people.

W're burying people in pits now, in New York City, and all these motherfuckers can think about is how they're not making as much money because the virus threw the economy into recession and they're not making as much money.

First of all, for those of us who aren't famous or wealthy, damned little has changed since about 2007.

Our economic numbers were a mirage created by endless play money pumped into Wall Street by the Federal Reserve, all it did was create a bubble, which has now popped because hey, viruses don't care about profits, or about who you are or how much money you have.

And if we hadn't shut so much down and started practicing social distancing, a lot more people would in fact have died, as gruesome as the numbers around the world and here in America are, imagine what they might be if we'd followed the right-wing authoritarian plan of...doing nothing and ignoring the crisis. By now, we'd be in the same boat if not worse, because of all the dead people...and we'd need a lot more pits to bury people in.

I'm not sure how or why these fucking people arrived at the idea that ignoring this crisis would make it go away...or that causing an apocalypse would somehow preserve their political power and wealth.
But I do know one thing; If letting people die so you can make money is what you'll preach on this day, of all the fucking days, don't bother insulting my intelligence by calling yourself a Christian.

In mainstream Christian tradition, Christ died for the sins of the entire world.

In American Calvinistic tradition, which underpins the Trumpist Prosperity Gospel of modern Mega-church Evangelicalism, they want other people to die for their sins, and they want to see it, so they can gloat, and rub people's faces in it and show us large rolls of flash money before we die.

Because unlike Christ, their kingdom is entirely of this world. All Jesus ever was was a rationalization.

You know, like I've said, if these people were really serious about the church thing or about their religion or whatever they'd take all this technical stuff we've been given in the modern world and rig up a virtual church service or something, they'd use the brains God supposedly gave them to adapt and carry on throughout the crisis, without demanding to have the right to find somebody to throw into the volcano to placate their own primitive demons.

You know, like the rest of us have to.

But you know, the second thing I saw on Twitter this morning was exactly that, Catholics basically setting up everything from a drive-up Stations Of The Cross to priests doing the prayers over social media so that people could follow along, all the way up to Pope Francis himself live-streaming praying the Stations of the Cross from St. Peter's Square...and all of those who did make the effort to gather in groups also being considerate of social distancing so that others don't get sick.

Good.

Now why can't American conservatives and Evangelicals show the same degree of intelligence instead of, at best, showboating for the rubes and risking getting people killed?

I also read this morning, that the virus is disproving one of the central conceits of American conservatism. In Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged, society comes crashing down when all the CEO's and wealthy people go off and hide somewhere.

If anything, the opposite is being proved true, the President diminishes himself further every day, CEO's and conservative politicians and rich people are often the people who are most getting in the way of effective measures to fight this thing, even the military, like our wider society, has been shown to be nothing more than people in this thing's line of fire. The premises of modern Republicanism are collapsing before our eyes, in a way that you don't have to be an expert or know stuff to see, and everybody who isn't  a total Trump Cultist can see this.

We don't need CEO's or right-wing politicians, we need politicians who give a fuck, we need cooks to make your takeout meals, delivery drivers, first responders and doctors and grocery store workers and medical staff and mortuary technicians and nurses. We need networking techs so that educators and lawyers and preachers and a host of other people can do their jobs. We need more conscientious wealthy people like Bill Gates or Tyler Perry who'll kick their own money in to fight this thing or even just pay for old people's groceries...and we even need perpetually stoned dreamers like Elon Musk and the innovative 3D printing nerds who keep finding newer, cheaper ways to crank out PPE and ventilators. We need altruistic politicians like the governors of California and Oregon, and people who will be proactive like my own governor. The virus has made people aware of a need for a basic income, for better or even universal health care, and for better conditions in jails and prisons...and the list could go on.

The people who are right now, being shown to be least needed by society are the conservative politicians, the ideological extremists, the miserly wealthy, and all the pundits and talk-radio fools who do little more than spread lies and get in the way and try their damnedest to profiteer off this fucking mess.

And if you wonder why those are the exact people right now who would gladly shove us all in a burial pit and let us die for their own sins...that's why.

It's not death they fear, it's irrelevance, it's being required to be treated just like everybody else, it's  being required to pay their fair share to keep our society functioning.

And you know, Jesus had quite a few bad things to say about people like that Himself.

If we want a better society, WE have to be better citizens. WE have to give a shit, WE have to show up when it's time to vote. Justice is not an apple that falls when it's ripe, you have to take it.

The Kingdom of God is not something that arrives in the clouds in power and great glory and then imposes itself on the world by force, not really. By the time it gets to that point, even the Bible says it's too late. No, the Kingdom of God is something that in one way or another exists in every person of decent character and good heart. Every religion that has ever existed lays out its vision for a better and more just society and a better world in this life or the next.

If you want it, YOU have to give a damn.

And if you try to see Christianity as the religion of Jesus, rather than a religion about Jesus, then that is it's message. Jesus felt fear. Jesus felt so much fear that he sweated blood. In Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" the first subtitled words we hear Jesus speak are "I don't want the guys to see me like this."

He overcame that fear and did what had to be done anyway.

And so must we.

The point of Christianity is not that Jesus died, but that he rose again on the third day. The point of Christianity is not how much power and wealth your sect or this or that holy Jim Bob has.

The whole point is resurrection and renewal, spiritual rebirth and transcendence in part by being the kind of person whose soul is not invested in Earthly powers and goods in the first place! American right-wing Christianity prattles on endlessly about right belief, but if it's not coupled with right action than what the hell good is it? Faith without works is DEAD!

And if you can't understand that, or if you think the money is more important, then I cannot help you, and I don't have the energy left to try, and you deserve what you're going to get.

If you believe more in your stock dividends than you do in love for your fellow humans and sacrifice that others may live, then this time, the tomb filled and the stone rolled in front, this is all you get.

Your story ends here, and I don't know what else to tell you and when your soul is cast into the Abyss, I won't be sorry.

Eternal life flows from compassion, not selfishness. Those who would gain life must first lose it. To get respect, you have to give respect. The pinnacles of power in America are positions of power that are dependent upon the power of the people.

To transcend beyond this moment of death, we all have to give a shit about other people.

Peace be with you.

Part Seven.

Unscheduled Addendum.