“The Bright Daybreak of Peace and Brotherhood” (MLK) – Bradley Jersak
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
- MLK in the s/Spirit of Jesus
Reading/listening to Martin Luther King Jr. and his daughter Bernice (who writes and speaks in the same spirit), the relentless, cruciform love they preach is never about the passive acceptance of injustice to keep the pseudo-peace with people who look and live like me. Rather, they teach me to identify love with overcoming evil through active, nonviolent resistance to external oppression, inequity & exclusion and to internal enslavement to fear, deception & hatred. Their interpretation of Jesus is best verified by its proximity to the Cross and its deliberate recollection of the Exodus.
To my white brothers and sisters, whatever we say on MLK Day to honor his memory will no doubt appear to be performative virtue-signaling as if “ally” were some identity we can claim for ourselves. I accept that. We did that to ourselves. But let us at least avoid making our engagement blatant hypocrisy by co-opting the man’s own words to oppose his call to the work of justice—which included public opposition to all death-dealing via racism, war & executions. Better to at least remain silent in the guilt of our complicity. But far better still to hear and heed God’s voice through his Black prophets—and not merely one token day per year.
While we brag or complain about our 'deconstruction,' consider their gospel, forged in the furnace of Egypt, Babylon, Rome, and America over many millennia. While our cultured despisers cheer the end of faith in the West, I would ask, "Since when did Black faith not count? And why would we hope for and serve in its erasure? How “progressive” is that?" Rather, Rev. Thurman and Rev. MLK’s “religion of Jesus” (the gospel of nonviolent justice and anti-othering love) is, for me, a (final?) beacon of the Jesus Way amid the church’s broader meltdown. They have my full attention.
Masters of War
(This song was written by Bob Dylan. He released it in 1963 and Pearl Jam recently covered it on their live acoustic album) Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind...
Seeking Ignorance by Joram
The true knowledge and vision of God consist in this - in seeing that He is invisible, because what we seek lies behind all knowledge, being wholly seperated by the darkness of incomprehensibility. ~Gregory of Nyssa Time passes you are the same. The world collapses...
The Ghost of Tom Joad
(Lyrics by Bruce Springsteen, but best enjoyed when performed by Rage Against the Machine) Man walks along the railroad track He's Goin' some place, there's no turnin' back The Highway Patrol chopper comin' up over the ridge Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge...
Arise O Warrior by Bladerunner
People starving, sleeping on the street, Preachers preaching prosperity to their sheep, Dying, wasting, the soul burns, Falling, crying, the spirit churns. I hate what I see, injustice abounds, Why don’t you rise up and shake the ground? The darkness is coming, can’t...
Purity Rides by Bladerunner
O God, how great thou art, You have made the mountains shake At the sound of your voice. Can you hear His voice? It runs where it wants and nothing can stop it. Your majesty fills the earth, And your glory goes before you. You laugh and scoff at the tethers of...
Destiny’s Grace by Bladerunner
Countries afar, Destiny's grace, One life to live, A lover’s embrace, Gentle desire, Passions attire, Greatness lures, Love endures, Innocence laughs, Beauty plays, Holiness adorns, The light stays.
Marya Fiamengo: Red Tory Poet by Ron Dart
Marya Fiamengo is a nationalist, and a moderate feminist. As a nationalist, she leans towards the Red Tory position. --Patience After Compline (1989) The saint needed by each culture is the one who contradicts it the most. --G.K. Chesterton I The Low Romantic...
Do You Like Britney Spears? by Derek Weiss
Do you like Britney Spears? Don’t you hate her? She’s such a slut! I hear. Britney Jeau Spears, born December 2, 1981, Kentwood, Louisiana, Cradled and known by her mother Lynne and her father Jamie called Bit-Bit by her little sister. mouseketeer half iconic the...
Untitled 2 by Ryan Santschi
i went down the street and saw a man i felt the cold his desperation i touched the unknown his deprevation he asked me for some change “tell me what are our prayers worth when the poor testify against us? what do our tithes mean when the broken have no where to...
Untitled by Ryan Santschi
when i was a child i didn’t believe in accidents i knew there had to be a reason why but i know now that the lack of answers and the pain will only make this a more beautiful goodbye and this sunday i saw heaven in a wheel chair he could not even say, “hi” but i saw...