EASTER - IT'S A GOOD IDEA

I guess were you to ask me what my oppinion of the Easter Story is, I'd say "I think it's a very good idea". Of course what I intend to do is in this post is to try and find out first what is conveyed in the "Easter Message' that's actually in the Bible, and then to comment on how we have fallen short of that.  If you want to read my take on NT Biblical Values it's in "Cosmic Tides" that now is headed up with "Not Thy will but Mine - God said Laughing".  It's a number of postings way down on February 22nd or something in green Italics.  You should go back and read that.  We are told in the Bible that it's a wonderful, uplifting time of great joy and victory.  We are told it's about a man who who overcame every kind of human and supernatural threat to him and yet he Overcame, just as Martin Luther King talks about.  We are told he was betrayed by one of his closest, most trusted friends.  But we are also taught that when you "leave vengeance to God" he will repay more than you dreamed imagine.  The perpetrator of this dastardly deed did everybody a favor by comitting suicide, so there was no being troubled by any debating as to whether we should ever Forgive such a man, even if he were to say that he had repented of it.  (It's funny how everybody wants to jump aboard the gravy train of a winner)  Not only that but his whole race was punished for the deed in the worst possible way by having both their land and culture all but wiped out in ways in which they still haven't recovered.  There is another theme that the Story as presented is son Wonderful it's "something you have to keep for yourself and not broadcast or share with others".  We are told that Jesus deliberately veiled his messages so that the "wrong people" would not be attracted to it.  Jesus seemed concerned about inadvertantly attracting the wrong people to his ministry.  So there is this underlying theme of screcy.  He told others not to tell anyone that he was the Son of God.  He even told demons not to repeat that he was the Son of God.  And finally there is the message that this is only a first step in an overall even more Wonderful plan that will be soon unfolded.

Let's now look at the right wing and see whether or not they uphold Christian values.  We are not to delight in vengeance or evil or gloat over tragedy.  How is it then that the Right last October voiced the charge that 'What would really make the Left's day is if someone got killed by a Cop".  I was shocked and sickened at this remark knowing that were that to happen, as I said at the time, it would be counted as "Blood Sport" Roman gladiator style, by the Right wing.  They are not entirely sure whether or not they are for or against the Wall Street bail out.  From what I've been able to glean, they are not so hot on 'billing the tax payers for it" but they are not at all averse to the Corporations and Brokerage Firms TAKING the money, and even Less concerned about what they did with it after they got it.  Not to stimulate the economy as they were entrusted by the government to do, but instead increase the Salaries of their C E O's and other rich fat cats.  They say they are against Obama Care even though this President, much against the advise of most liberals, picked a play right out of the Heritage Foundation by mandating private medical health insurance giving them free compulsary paying customers.  So they insurance companies CAN"T be against Obama Care.  I'm a little confused myself why the Republicans are so wrought up over it.  They keep saying "We have an alternate plan" but won't tell us what it is.  Franklin Roosevelt mocked the Republicans of his day by saying "Oh they say - - - we are for all these wonderful programs the President is for-  - - but elect us and we'll do them more efficiently in the Private sector - - -and it won't cost any tax payer a Dine!"   

But of course the Right and people like Rush Limbaugh love to set up straw men, an Imaginary President Obama who doesn't exist.  They call him a Socialist, and yet Wall Street never had a better friend in the White House than this President, as per his pro business cabinet appointments.  Indeed one charge by Thom Hartman is that "Obama is drinking the right wing Kool Aid and reinflating the wall street bubble setting up a double dip recession".  Rush Limbaugh claims that this whole George Zimmerman shooting thing is 'Just a political stunt without any basis in fact except things they make up and repeat and evidence they doctor and brainwash the American People that we still live in a racist society".  Rush went off on an extended rant about how the Media is trying to "keep alive this charge of racism because they know it's the only hope they've got of winning the fall election".  They miss the whole point.  This guy Zimmerman is basically a felon who should already be in jail.  And he has not even been Arrested yet.  Key witnesses like Trevon's girlfriend have not even been interviewed by law enforcement.  Yet Rush of course already has the answers.  You have friends who haven't seen Zimmerman in years now coming out of the closet to go on TV to "state the facts of the case".  But once the camera comes on they freeze up and say "This is not a court case.  I'm not here to answer these kinds of questions".  One thing Jesus hated more than any other segment of the population were Hypocrites.  These are people who say things like 'I'm a good Christian" that they do NOT believe one bit in their hearts, but they love to be posers.  Jesus reserves the hottest places in Hell for them.  Don't even get me started on the subject of paying taxes.  Jesus of course "palled around with tax collectors and sinners".  Jesus told Peter to out and find a fish with a coin in its mouth to pay their taxes.  At NO time did Jesus even vaguely hint that "Government is too big and it's costing the people too much money".

Finally we come to the conclusion.  Of course normally - - you know it's really nice for a story to HAVE a conclusion.  They talk about the Mount of Olives experiance, and the Good Friday experiance, but these are followed by the Easter experiance.  Someone forgot to tell the Author of Our Times, the final chapter.  We indeed seem to live in a world where it's always Gethsemine and never Easter.  We too have to say to the right "Not my will but yours.  Anything you say.  What bills do you want me to gut and compromise on today.  What bad bills would you like me to sign in the name of bartisanship?"  And that's where we are.  We can't really argue our side with any authority because these economic times have yanked the platform out from under us.  There we are under a pile of lumber picking out the splinters and the speaker from the other platform just keeps laughing and pointing.  And the future is not looking one bit better.  In fact, I think we've just SEEN the best economic quarter of the year and it's only to get more adverse from here.  Last night I was sitting around with Joe and Steve and Gloria and we were all saying how we feel economically trapped and that hone of our future plans for a better life may ever be realized.  For us, time stands still.  It would seem that mataphorically - - not to contradict Chancee Gardener or anything but "Out economic spring never got here".  That ice has been there so long it's beginning to grow mold.  I think someone must have altered the melting point of water or something.  It can't really still be this cold.  But it is.  Rush Limbaugh described next year as Tax Armageddon as an unimaginable host of new taxes go into effect nest year.  The Bush Tax cut eliminations are only 35% of the entire new tax bill.  But even that has a whole host of perks Bush put in for the typical American family that will be going away next year.  I guess it's nice that there is this nice pipe dream of promised government health care in 2014 but right now people who are unemployed have LOST the health care they had because they don't have a Job!  This economy is like a diabetic whose wounds and sores never heal.  Instead there is only the looming national debt out there which - - by the way hasn't gone away just because we aren't talking about it.  And there are no meracle cures just around the corner.  And that is where we are at today.