prose, poetry, and politics
In the margins of chapter 7, I learn Achan's death is proof God was cleansing sin not ethnicity.
If that's true then there are Israelis who will burn in hell for purging God's children in Gaza.
Some Americans will burn in hell for signing those bills and sending those bombs.
Maybe I'll burn too, for not doing enough, saying enough.
For buying cappuccinos and complaining about taxes while innocent people are starved and slaughtered in God's name with my dollar.
As I write this I can feel the eye rolls from people who grew up like me. With a story of Israel that unfolded in Sunday school worksheets and vacation bible schools. Who in 9th grade watched horrific footage of bulldozers stacking dead naked bodies in German & Austrian camps in 2nd period. Who all stopped to watch the TV in silence the very next week as planes flew into New York towers. It was never explained when or why the Europeans who murdered 6 million Jews stopped being the ones who hated them and the Arab farmers living over 2,000 miles away started. And I never asked. But as we watched the Brady Bunch squares of the Arab faces responsible for the changing skyline on TV for months, any lingering questions about who the bad guys were faded away.
They hate our way of life, they hate our freedom. When they pray to God it is blasphemy, idolatry. When you believe God sent you to commit unspeakable violence there should be a pause. This always puzzled me about those wearing explosive vests. To think God will reward you for ripping apart innocent women and children just trying to live a life. They must be monsters...or victims of some deep brainwashing. That's the only way they could possibly see the world that way.
In Sunday school they told me God gave the land to the Jewish people, and that the Arab Muslims surrounding the holy land were lost, broken, and full of hate. Just like those Arabs from those planes. Just like the Canaanites from those worksheets.
In college I learned about the Deir Yassin Massacre where a Jewish militia slaughtered 107 Arab men, women, and children as a part of their triumphant return to the Holy land. “Praise God”, “Allahu Akbar”. And that after conquering everything from the river to the sea, the new nation of Israel issued ID cards, checkpoints, and ghettos to deny half their population the right to vote or move freely. The only liberal democracy in the middle east.
This morning I watched a baby die of starvation live streaming from Gaza, mouth gaping open and head falling backward. Her mother and the doctors were horrified. Perhaps if they knew God wanted them dead for their sin of being born a threat to the Jewish majority it would hurt less. If they knew their murders were preordained, they would hope less for their liberation. Dying is the least they can do to fulfill the prophecy. And as Jesus said “What you do for the least of these you do for me”. “Praise God”, “Allahu Akbar”
As I write this I can feel the eye rolls from the people who grew up like me.
It was colder on the boulevard than they tell you in the subtitles. There was energy there. It reverberated from the bars, to the stage, to the corner store. There was also a sadness. To this day I’m not sure if I found it there or brought it with me.
what shape does hope take? a sharp succulent soaking up the sun a soft song dancing on a breeze a laugh maybe quieter... a dream