non-violence and the responsibilities of the cross

So strange on this Indigenous People’s Day that the rotten fruits of colonialism are so obvious across much of the globe. As the minister Malcolm X once said with a veracity only terror understands, “The chickens are coming home to roost.”

Whether it be the genocide committed by the English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and so many others against the people of this ancient land that was said to be discovered by Scandinavians and Columbo; whether it be Africans who were sold, stolen, traded, and dehumanized as cattle and breeding stock for forced work and procreation in this land stumbled across by Columbo Chris; whether it be a Palestine that has nearly always been colonized by Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Rome… and the Israelite Diaspora who have been subjected to genocide and white supremacist stalkers for thousands of years. Some facts stand out.

The refugees that overwhelm resources we intentionally limit in the States are here because of colonization, and social, political, and economic humiliation in the hands of protecting capitalism under the guise of spreading democracy and Christian goodwill. The fear we have of skin tone is related directly to a fear of justice that can occur only in a nation that has mistreated not only Africans, but its own – Irish, Scottish, constant wars across Europe – we are afraid of retribution because we are in fear of our judicial terrorism and belief system about punishments.

That the people of Ukraine are considered either worthy or unworthy of aid depending on political and social understanding by those who seek power and control in the States is telling. We and the Russians have gotten them into this mess. Toying with countries that have been overrun by the financial realities of getting loans from world banks, humiliating enemies, mocking them with military and economic expansion, and then supporting governments on how they work with Western policies produces disasters that have costs we don’t want to pay. The United States has been fighting wars of attrition via the young people of other nations, so our losses are deemed acceptable after 20 years of continuing warfare.

Israel and Palestine are collectively brutalized and marginalized peoples who were coercively voted into coexistence under unacceptable circumstances by the rest of a world that hates them. The world wants control of the region for oil – Israel as a concept and Jews have a right to exist wherever they want, as do Palestinians, but a two-state solution is never a healthy response to ongoing brutality, terror, and weaponized economic models. Ask India and Pakistan.

The United States and much of Europe, in the face of instability and the reality of colonization run amok yet again, continue to talk of blood, land, and language. Those chickens are coming home to roost. The United States has a century of excusing our political and economic policies in securing the benefits of being an Empire while insisting we are not. Americans are in cahoots with Europe and or Russia, Middle Eastern oil wealth, and several different Middle Eastern governments used not only to check Iranian power and promises of eliminating Israel but keep Iranian resources tied up.

Energy resources and consumer standards of living only empires enjoy contribute to the manner in which the US makes policies that reflect the obligations of maintaining an empire on the wane, but there more than dominating world markets. Aside from consumer riches, at the heart of all empires, Eastern or Western have been various kinds of racism. In the United States, it is commonplace white nationalism – not a return to some latent condition or bygone era – but simply an unfettered-by-politeness racist devaluing of democracy being manifest more publicly in response to the fear that the democracy they used as an excuse for maintaining an empire does not work when white folks are not in control. It worked very well during slavery, Jim Crow, and when only certain Europeans could immigrate for workforce and continental expansion needs.

They suddenly don’t trust democracy in North America and Europe because people of color are either demanding to be part of it or fighting against the lie of how it has been used to support endless war against them. There can be no winning in radical democracy if we want it to work, and, for all of you who share a belief that the cross of Christ is a living God's response to military occupation, economic exploitation, and class–conditioned patriotism that is really just nationalism, a more radical anti-statist democratic community must be formulated to provide a vision of what alternatives to capitalist and communistic tyrants allow for. To follow this messianic revelation of the Creator one must take up their own cross. The cross has never been less than the total exclusion of one’s privileges or wealth on behalf of those who have no privilege or wealth. This is the genesis of radical democracy.

I ask each reader to consider an economic cross as the first we must bear to make a change in a violently border-enforced culture that values skin tone, language, and land claims as the priority over that of basic fucking human-Being and welfare. Spend our money not just locally, but stop purchasing new fashions and the right kind of shoes. Stop purchasing vacations and new second homes and stop shopping at Whole Foods and fast-food outlets. We must stop benefiting while others suffer so profusely that many of us cannot stop to mourn the unrighteous deaths, of either our friends or our enemies. Love of enemies and truth-telling to authority is part of the cross. Voluntarily giving up the rights of economic power and stability is part of taking up one’s cross. Think of the European-American Freedom Riders.

The war of the lamb, if any war language can be deemed acceptable and defending such language is not my priority – if the war of the lamb demands that we sacrifice basic comforts so that there is no more economic motive for exploiting the lives of others, yet allowing for every person to make choices freely about who they work or labor for. If someone wants to enslave others again, well, one can choose to die rather than to be enslaved. But there are only slaves where a market exists for slavery.

Rich folks enslave others for profitable manufacturing of goods, service work, sex, and other things, and we fail to work toward a marketplace that makes it unprofitable for slavery to thrive. But if one denies the brutality of taking economic, spiritual, and social choices away from the other, they will never have to choose liberty of all over power and control mechanisms that provide for cheaper underwear and towels. It is more stability-producing to follow the marketplace benefits of an empire without question or resisting not just their orders but their marketplace bribes. How many kinds of chocolate products and coffee do you need? Freedom may be worrying about tomorrow, and then knowing your choices are not simply controlled by economic necessity, but rather by human Being.

If one does not claim Christ as a spiritual informant of radical change, they of course are not asked to consider a non-violent activist ethic as a response to imperial violence and terror of any origin. People should be free to defend themselves against exploiter classes, colonials, racists, homophobic threats, and xenophobic terror. But Christ and the cross exhibit a non-violent willingness to voluntarily suffer on behalf of the justice of others who cannot access it.

A follower of Christ cannot be non-violent and reject the potential to voluntarily sacrifice themselves agape-style on behalf of others. A follower of Christ cannot demand non-violent responses to murder and terror when they themselves refuse to sacrifice or are simply afraid of violence. Those who cannot for some reason engage others physically and also cannot voluntarily experience instability or pain must still witness to voluntary sacrifice on behalf of justice, or be quiet about their moral inclination towards cowardice or fear of death.

We all fear death. The Christ feared death. Ukrainians, Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, African Americans, women, and Friends who identify as LGBTQ, are not only fearful of death at some point, but they still sacrifice stability to speak out for justice. We all fear pain but goad over athletes who play through it when we cannot sacrifice comfort for justice.

It is time to shut down the economics of exploitation through non-participation. It is time to feed 5000 with a half-a-fucking loaf of bread and some nasty-assed fish. It is time to set our faces toward justice and the cross and support each other as we strive for a justice we do not yet know, for we have lived with an illusion of control. Do not store up riches, folks – don’t store ‘em up, ‘cause somebody’ll sure as shit gonna take 'em. Rather, distribute to all as necessary, and we will still eat tomorrow. If not, we will be uncomfortable, but we will be facing justice in our pain and be vindicated for our choices toward liberty.