Do you remember how Hitler gained power through his grand nationalistic ideals? Really the Nazi party was simply trying to make Germany great again. So as they gained power through increasing intolerance and even though they were kind of rigid and fascist, people turned a blind eye, they stayed silent as tensions within became darker than they could have ever imagined. They had only wanted their nation to be great again.
Sound familiar? I hope it does because as someone who has studied and taught history, what we are seeing in our own self-proclaimed “Christian” nation today, looks disturbingly similar. I mean we aren’t at the point of total fascism with a side of genocide, but we are well on our way.
I’m sure most Germans also thought it would never get to the point of mass extermination of people groups in their “civilized” society.
This year – 2017 - has been overwhelming to the point that there is no longer a great shock value in really any of the actions of our new administration. Nothing really surprises me in that realm at this point.
What does surprise me is the fact that we apparently have not learned anything from history as we watch the masses either defend the oppressive nature of our current regime or sit silent, trying to find some middle ground, calling themselves peacemakers at the expense of the suffering of others.
Yeah, I am a bit fiery right now, but I think we all need to be. I mean, let’s look at what has become the norm in our “great nation.”
The things we choose to tolerate in light of what we are outraged by in a nation that claims to follow a guy named Jesus while directly contradicting his ways in every manner.
For one, we’ve got an overflow of sexually abusive men in power that objectify women on the regular and get away with it for decades because apparently this type of behavior is simply “locker room behavior.” Like it’s not a biggie, boys will be boys.
You know boys like the countless conservative Christian senators and mega-church pastors that are blatantly pro-life on the streets but pro-choice in the sheets, yet have almost no accountability.
But I mean - hell - the “leader” of our nation is a literal sexual predator.
We have continued to hold the largest sex trafficking event - the Super Bowl – for years. Do you know how many children are being raped thirty times a day while you're eating wings, getting drunk while watching the game at your buddy’s house?
Yeah that’s happening; let that one sink in a bit. Why are we as a society not fighting harder to stop that?
And how many children have we wiped out through drone strikes abroad? But they are foreign children so their murders are collateral damage, right?
Wait but why are we bombing their country in the first place? To protect our freedom? From what actual threat?
While we wipe out civilians abroad, domestically we have an insane level of gun violence as we have this wild obsession with a poorly translated version of the Second Amendment.
Mass shootings are a regular thing here; we are that country that people are scared to go to because they might get shot at a movie theater or a concert or some other public leisure activity. I mean, even after elementary children were slaughtered with bullets at school we did nothing to regulate guns.
Yeah - the logic behind the whole we need more guns to protect ourselves from others with guns has worked out real well.
Do you know the last time our country didn’t have a major “enemy” that we were supposed to be in constant fear of?
Y’all we have been “at war” pretty much since Nazi Germany held power.
I mean in all honestly, it makes some sense; we need some sort of constant threat to be able to justify the billions of dollars spent on our military. I mean without that insanely massive military budget we could do things like end poverty in our nation and we wouldn’t want that, right?
On top of it all, we are the number one arms dealer in the world, so there is that going for us.
Then there are the multiple videos we watch on the regular of police officers murdering unarmed black men without repercussion. It is apparently unofficially legal for cops to murder black people here in the good ole’ USA.
I mean really, if you don’t see the increasing similarities between the Hitler and Trump regimes just look at what goes on outside. We even have our own armed Nazis marching the streets shouting “blood and soil.”
This is only the tip of the iceberg. I haven’t even mentioned the fact we want to strip healthcare from the most vulnerable, ban refugees and kick out immigrants who are simply trying to make a life for their family, take away free birth control while condemning women who find themselves pregnant at Planned Parenthood, discriminate against the LGBTQ community like it actually concerns us who people have consensual sex with, capitalize on a failing education system like we have on privatized prisons, try to discredit and wipe out the media so we can sensor reality, and after insane hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires – killing environmental regulations is priority because we might as well as speed the death of this planet up - it’s global euthanasia.
I think part of what gets me is that like the Nazis, we largely call ourselves a “Christian” nation(at least the majority of white conservative males in power do) and with that we act as if we hold some kind of moral superiority in this world and what horrific moral issue outrages us the most?
We as a people of Jesus – White-Jesus – need to stand firmly against NFL players kneeling during the national anthem in protest of racism. Any interpretation of disrespect to America cannot be tolerated. That’s where we draw the line, oppression and murder isn’t that big of a deal but peacefully expressing the desire to end oppression and murder is.
It makes sense because do you remember how nationalistic Jesus was? Except that he wasn’t, like at all. To his people’s dismay, he didn’t care in the slightest about making Israel great again.
The Jesus of the red letters however did care about how we treat others; how we love the vulnerable, feed the poor, help the sick, offer refuge to those without.
Would that guy be outraged by rich football players kneeling during the anthem in protest of hate? No, I bet not even a little bit. Jesus would however be outraged by the vast hate we see on the daily.
Seriously, if I am missing something in the red letters here, please enlighten me. Like write me an email and show me what I am not getting.
Yeah, this may be a bit of a rant, but we are walking that same road of hate that we saw in Nazi Germany and I don’t think any of us really want that outcome.
So, instead of sitting ideally by in denial and silence, it’s time to do something different. Now is the time for bold and vocal voices that refuse to be drowned out by hate. Now is the time to re-look at the red letters and find what our priorities should truly look like. Now is the time to fight for love like we wish we would have over seventy years ago.
Today is the day to rewrite history. It’s time to take that narrow path, it’s time to let love win.
You can check out more of Sheri Faye’s writing at www.NotYourWhiteJesus.org or follow her on Facebook.