as I think about it… who among you has tried to lead an ethical life,
who among you has tried to lead an aesthetic life and who among you
has tried to lead an religious life?
now some foolish ones might jump up right now and say, yes, yes
I am trying to lead an religious life……….
and you are lying to me and if you actually believe it, you are lying to
yourself…….
saying one is a Christian doesn’t make one a Christian……
have you actually acted as Jesus called for?
have you understood what the parable of the Good Samaritan actually means?
if you had understood it, truly understood it, then you wouldn’t be
defending IQ45 and his assault upon Christian values……
it doesn’t matter if we are children of Mexico or children of
Spain or children of Syria… according to Jesus, we are all children
of god… and if you are Christian, then you see all human beings as
children of god… regardless of where they came from…
it doesn’t matter if they broke the law entering this country and
and it doesn’t matter if they love people you don’t approve of
and it doesn’t matter if they worship different gods then you do
and it doesn’t matter if their skin color is different then yours……
if you attack immigrants as law breakers, then you have missed the
entire point of what jesus said……. you are not Christian…
simple as that… lie to yourself as much as you want, but
the truth is plain to see… if you hold being an American higher
then being a child of god, then you are not a Christian
and if you want to “SEND HER BACK”, you are not a Christian,
you aren’t even a good American………
we must ask ourselves, what is our priority?
Do we stand with those who proclaim that “America is white”
and deny our humanity and our Christianity…
do you call those from Mexico as “subhuman” then you are not
a Christian and you deny the higher calling………
you must ask yourself, in what order do I live in?
for example, do you think of yourself as American first?
or do you think of yourself as white first?
or do you think of yourself as Jewish or Christian or Islamic first?
when I try to prioritize my own understanding of who I am, what do
I list first, American, white, Californian, male, heterosexual,
atheist, worker, consumer, honest, just, loving, SF giant fan,
baseball fan, a thinker, a reader, owner of 5000 books,
father, son, brother, husband, checker,
I can list hundreds if not thousands of ways to identify myself to others
and to myself… but which identity do I list first?
which of my many identities do I consider to my first, primary
identity?
for at various times, I am one or all of these roles. I can be
a husband and a checker at the same time, so what role, do
I prioritize as being my primary role, my primary role in life?
do I at any point think about myself as leading an aesthetic life?
or do I see myself leading an ethical life or perhaps a religious life?
no, for those aren’t roles, they are a way of life, not just a role…
and that is missing, I am not supposed to be my roles, I am supposed
to be involved in a way of life… for I won’t always be a store checker,
but I can lead an ethical life no matter what else happens…
to lead an ethical life means it doesn’t matter if I am an American
or white or heterosexual or a father or a son… leading an ethical
life means leading an ethical life regardless of what roles I may
be playing at the time……
if I am leading the religious life, then it doesn’t matter that I am
American or white or heterosexual or a father or a son, I am devoting
my time to being the best Christian I can be, and that means not
treating people as an means, but treating people as a ends…
as god’s children… all people regardless of who they love and
where they come from and the color of their skin… for if any of that
bothers you, the color of their skin or where they come from or if
they are immigrants, then you are not a true Christian, you are not
a follower of jesus…….
for jesus it doesn’t matter what the color of our skin and it doesn’t matter
where we come from and it doesn’t matter if we are immigrants,
we are still children of god… and so if you deny a person due
to such matters, you are not a Christian and you need to stop lying
to yourself that you are a follower of jesus……
for jesus didn’t care about the color of one’s skin and he didn’t care
about where you came from and it didn’t matter if you are an immigrants…
they say, god’s love is universal… so why isn’t your love universal?
and so I say unto you, you are not a Christian unless your love is
universal……….
so If you want to live the religious life, then do so, and if
you want to live the ethical life, please by all means do so,
and if you want to live the aesthetic life, do so…
now comes the $64,000 question, are there other options
do live beside the aesthetic, the ethical and the religious?
are we missing some other ways of life, we could be living,
that isn’t just about playing the roles of our lives?
as we search into our lives, the lower level, the shallow level is
the roles we play, our being a checker or a husband or a father or a consumer,
but we can find on the next level, our living life ethically,
aesthetically, or religiously? the next step to take is to attempt
to live life by these ways of life……
and then we reach the next level, which is what is the highest step of life?
we have our roles, then we have our way of life, be it ethical or aesthetic,
or religious, but is there a next possibility?
once we begin to understand our life as a way of life, is there a next step?
I have no proof of it, but I believe that yes, there is something beyond
living life as a way of life, just as I believe that living our life as a way of life,
is the next step beyond the role playing we do……
living life as a possibility, not as a certainty…
I do not have precognition into the next step of humanness…
but that is what we must begin to look for, the next step of
possibilities for human beings…beyond our roles and beyond our life
as a way of life, what is the next step?
Kropotkin