One Drop Of Blood (One Of Us... Three.)

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

He said, “Go and tell this people:

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”

And he answered:

“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

~Isaiah 6 (NIV)

...

Vern Schillinger: One of these Muslim m**keys was trying to tell me that Jesus was a n****r. He even quoted from the Bible trying to back his shit up.

Tobias Beecher: Well, Jesus was from Judea so he was probably of an olive-colored skin.

Vern Schillinger: Look at that picture there. Does that look like a n****r to you?

Tobias Beecher: No.

Vern Schillinger: You're getting awful mouthy, aren't you, prag?

Tobias Beecher: No, sir. I am not, sir.

Vern Schillinger: Yeah, I think I'm gonna have to teach you a lesson. Polish my boots.

Tobias Beecher: Yes, sir.

Vern Schillinger: With your tongue.

~From the HBO series Oz, S1.E3 "God's Chillin'"

...

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept in the same bed (or on the same rug) -- while praying to the same God -- with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the actions and in the deeds of the "white" Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan, and Ghana. We were truly all the same (brothers) -- because their belief in one God had removed the "white" from their minds, the 'white' from their behavior, and the 'white' from their attitude. I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man -- and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.

With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster -- the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.

They asked me what about the Hajj had impressed me the most. . . . I said, "The brotherhood! The people of all races, color, from all over the world coming together as one! It has proved to me the power of the One God. . . . All ate as one, and slept as one. Everything about the pilgrimage atmosphere accented the Oneness of Man under One God. 

~Malcolm X, Letter following the Hajj.

I keep seeing shit like this.

Massively wrong, AI-generated Slop.

Exhortations to (alleged) Fundamentalist Christian religious extremism, also AI-generated.

Here am I, Send me?

For what? The Machine God??

For Donald Trump's racialized, fake-Christian-Nationalist Prosperity Gospel vision of America?

For Pete Keg-breath's alcohol-soaked, sexually-harassing Calvinism??

For "Whiteness?"

(And worse, their AI bullshit ain't even going to send them to the right place!)

Whiteness is, historically, something that very few people have actually given that much of a shit about when push came to shove. Fight for it? Sure. Do war crimes? Yeah. Move? Naturally. 

But very few people ultimately want to die, themselves, for some notion of Whiteness. It's hard to lord your petty chunk of Power over somebody else when you're dead. Historically they'd rather lose the war, surrender, and then play political games and commit racially-based terrorism from an ethnically-stacked deck later. AKA that's the backstory of the modern American "Conservative" movement.

The funny part is that the whole basis of the thing rests on absolutely bullshit mythology, some idea that God or Jesus was "White."

Except that the Bible doesn't say that.

I did happen to see confirmation of something I'd heard before when I was looking up African Christianity in response to some idiot post by Joel Webbon though, and that's that a lot of African Christians (starting with the Ethiopian Orthodox) believe that Zipporah, the wife of Moses, was Ethiopian (and thus, Black.)

By the way, according to the statistics per the Wikipedia article on Christianity in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Namibia and Zambia and Zimbabwe, among others, are more Christian than the USA by percentage of population.

And this fool thinks we're gonna "Christianize" the place.

Every African Christian that I've ever met is a more serious Believer than most of the Americans I've ever met.

I'm serious.

But Joel doesn't care about that, he just wants to kill people.

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram;
And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;
And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;
And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;
And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;
And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:
And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel;
And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;
And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;
And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;
And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife:
And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus.
~Matthew chapter 1 (KJV)

So, according to the viewpoint of all too many White American Evangelical Republican "Conservatives" (who aren't actually trying to conserve anything about America, Christianity or Jesus) If it's true (and we already know for certain from study of the cultures and history of the time, that if Jesus was actually real, He would not have been White, anyway) that the wife of Moses was Black and per the generations of Jesus as laid out in the King James Bible itself, wouldn't that, by itself, by These Fucking People's own logic of "One Drop" rules... 

Wouldn't that make Jesus Black??

Go ahead and think on that, I'll wait.

Funny how in a spiritual sense, One Drop of blood is enough to Save all of Humanity, should they want it, but in another, all it takes is one drop of blood to damn a man to a life of misery inflicted by these same fucking people. I bet if you simply combine the two...and make it stick in enough people's minds, it destroys the entire concept.

You'd think somebody would notice how fucked up that is.

What if God was Black?

Everything, including the eternal soul, is racialized to at least some of these motherfuckers.

I suspect these idiots would de-convert en masse.

Not that I think any of these people Believe in any conventional or meaningful sense of what that word means. But, I think it needs to be said. I also think, if this could be proven...that a lot of "Christians" would rush out and convert to some other religion.

We've got to take the neighborhood back. We've got to go in there. Just forget telling your child to go to the Peace Corps. It's right around the corner. It's standing on the corner. It can't speak English. It doesn't want to speak English. I can't even talk the way these people talk. "Why you ain't where you is go." I don't know who these people are. And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. Then I heard the father talk. This is all in the house. You used to talk a certain way on the corner and you got into the house and switched to English. Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. You can't land a plane with "why you ain't…". You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth. There is no Bible that has that kind of language. Where did these people get the idea that they're moving ahead on this? Well, they know they're not, they're just hanging out in the same place, five or six generations sitting in the projects when you're just supposed to stay there long enough to get a job and move out. ~Bill Cosby, the "Pound Cake" speech.

Unfortunately, Trump keeps trying to offer himself as a substitute-Christ anyway.

And don't think These Fucking People wouldn't go for it, all day.

Because the truth is they're opposed to any religion that says everybody should have a bit of dignity and human worth, let alone God-given rights that they or any State they control cannot take away.

Which is pretty much all religion, unless you want to count Atheistic Randian Objectivism as a religion.

These fucking people hate America, they hate God, they hate anything that doesn't boost their narcissism and selfishness and the implicit claim that they are "god." Even the Christians who keep ending up on the Republican side of things are basically just all weird narcissists who think they're holy prophets and little gods and have weird meltdowns on YouTube and shit, like that Whitney chick who got kicked off the Alaska Airlines flight.

There's no religion that exists that could actually suit these people enough.

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. ~Ezekiel 16:49-50 (NIV)

That's why I think Evangelicalism in general is no longer a Christian religion, if it ever was. It's about selling Jesus, not obeying Him. It's about Self and Selfishness and Anything but "Love Thy Neighbor." Some of this Pentecostal garbage is right behind that in being so heretical I think that the time to "Bear with it for a season" is long past.

"Ever hearing, but never understanding, ever seeing but never perceiving, their hearts calloused, their ears dull, their eyes closed" very much describes a large plurality of Americans, and not just Republican voters, either.

And they don't see or hear or understand because they don't want to.

And they are too damn comfortable being that way.

This crap is gonna call God's judgment down on this nation.

What do you want to bet these fucking people will deny that, too, just like they did COVID-19?

At the end of the day, you either believe in freedom or you don't.

And you're either willing to fight for it or you're not.

And I'll add, it ain't freedom if everybody doesn't have it.

Слава Україна!

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~George Orwell, 1984.

Two

I don't preach a social Gospel I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn't say, "Now is that political or social?" He said, "I feed you." Because the good news to a hungry person is bread. ~Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

...

 [Cassian plays Nemik's audio diary]

Karis Nemik: There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. Remember this. Try. 

~From the Star Wars series Andor, S1.E12 "Rix Road."

If God had a name, what would it be?

And would you call it to His face

If you were faced with Him in all His glory?

What would you ask if you had just one question?

And yeah, yeah, God is great

Yeah, yeah, God is good

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryna make His way home?

~Joan Osborne "What If God Was One Of Us?"