The fact that, in a “SNAP,” on November 1, 2013, 47 million low-income Americans have experienced a food stamp cut of approximately $36.00 per month is both repugnant and unconscionable to me.
The hypocrisy of such a cut is glaring and gross! Hundreds of billion of dollars are expended yearly in federal taxes for crop supports and corporate subsidies. When these are contrasted with food cuts for the working poor, the poorest of the poor, and for their 23 million children, even the rocks cry out!
“Luke 19:40
King James Version (KJV)
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I am one such “stone.” Indeed, a stone-to-the-bone believer in human capacity.
Another remarkable Christian cornerstone, the poor's last true champion, was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That man was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was wrapped up in the throes of a Memphis garbage workers' strike, which had turned violent, compelling his fateful return to Memphis. How, ironic returning to demonstrate the efficacy of “nonviolence,” only to be felled by an assassin's bullet on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel, a triple whammy: fallen leader; besmirching black business; blasting nonviolence's legitimacy.
At the same time, and more to the point of food stamp cuts, Dr. King was enmeshed in a floundering “Poor People's Campaign,” with its garish tent-display of poverty--“Resurrection City”--on the National Mall. King's murder was arguably a respite for him. So great were the pressures—and the forces—under which, and against which, he labored and struggled, as rigorously outlined in David Garrow's award-winning compendium, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, it is a marvel that he lasted that long! These pressures and forces included J. Edgar Hoover's FBI's surveillance, harassment, dirty tricks, and wiretaps; money woes both personal and organizational; including the usual litany of greed, cowardice, desuetude, betrayal, deceit, and all the rest-- common to any movement, including Jesus'--from within and without the civil rights ranks, from clergy and laity, blacks and whites, friend and foe.
It was too much for one man or for one movement; for any man, for any movement.
Hunger and deprivation are well-described in the Bible, a fact upon Dr. King meditated day and night.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 26:11 New International Version (NIV) “11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me.” This statement was true for Christ and true for King; the poor have survived them both!
Yet, the question remains unresolved: Is concern for the poor futile, then, if they are “always” with us? I reply “No!” Never. That inherent, natal, divinity in me, and in Christ, repulses such a preposterous proposition! Indeed, Jesus' teaching about “the least of these” renounces such notions, themselves.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states as follows: “37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Therein lies the answer. Just as we must keep on breathing, breath after breath, and “always,” if we are to remain alive, so must we “always” live up to our natal divinity by doing for “the least of these.” Now, if only someone would tell Congress and state, local and national politicians, the meaning of Jesus' words!
#30
Friday, November 8, 2013
FEED MY SHEEP, FEED MY LAMBS
“FEED MY SHEEP, FEED MY LAMBS”
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
11/08/13
The fact that, in a “SNAP,” on November 1, 2013, 47 million low-income Americans have experienced a food stamp cut of approximately $36.00 per month is both repugnant and unconscionable to me.
The hypocrisy of such a cut is glaring and gross! Hundreds of billion of dollars are expended yearly in federal taxes for crop supports and corporate subsidies. When these are contrasted with food cuts for the working poor, the poorest of the poor, and for their 23 million children, even the rocks cry out!
“Luke 19:40
King James Version (KJV)
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I am one such “stone.” Indeed, a stone-to-the-bone believer in human capacity.
Another remarkable Christian cornerstone, the poor's last true champion, was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That man was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was wrapped up in the throes of a Memphis garbage workers' strike, which had turned violent, compelling his fateful return to Memphis. How, ironic returning to demonstrate the efficacy of “nonviolence,” only to be felled by an assassin's bullet on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel, a triple whammy: fallen leader; besmirching black business; blasting nonviolence's legitimacy.
At the same time, and more to the point of food stamp cuts, Dr. King was enmeshed in a floundering “Poor People's Campaign,” with its garish tent-display of poverty--“Resurrection City”--on the National Mall. King's murder was arguably a respite for him. So great were the pressures—and the forces—under which, and against which, he labored and struggled, as rigorously outlined in David Garrow's award-winning compendium, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, it is a marvel that he lasted that long! These pressures and forces included J. Edgar Hoover's FBI's surveillance, harassment, dirty tricks, and wiretaps; money woes both personal and organizational; including the usual litany of greed, cowardice, desuetude, betrayal, deceit, and all the rest-- common to any movement, including Jesus'--from within and without the civil rights ranks, from clergy and laity, blacks and whites, friend and foe.
It was too much for one man or for one movement; for any man, for any movement.
Hunger and deprivation are well-described in the Bible, a fact upon Dr. King meditated day and night.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 26:11 New International Version (NIV) “11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me.” This statement was true for Christ and true for King; the poor have survived them both!
Yet, the question remains unresolved: Is concern for the poor futile, then, if they are “always” with us? I reply “No!” Never. That inherent, natal, divinity in me, and in Christ, repulses such a preposterous proposition! Indeed, Jesus' teaching about “the least of these” renounces such notions, themselves.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states as follows: “37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Therein lies the answer. Just as we must keep on breathing, breath after breath, and “always,” if we are to remain alive, so must we “always” live up to our natal divinity by doing for “the least of these.” Now, if only someone would tell Congress and state, local and national politicians, the meaning of Jesus' words!
#30
The fact that, in a “SNAP,” on November 1, 2013, 47 million low-income Americans have experienced a food stamp cut of approximately $36.00 per month is both repugnant and unconscionable to me.
The hypocrisy of such a cut is glaring and gross! Hundreds of billion of dollars are expended yearly in federal taxes for crop supports and corporate subsidies. When these are contrasted with food cuts for the working poor, the poorest of the poor, and for their 23 million children, even the rocks cry out!
“Luke 19:40
King James Version (KJV)
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”
I am one such “stone.” Indeed, a stone-to-the-bone believer in human capacity.
Another remarkable Christian cornerstone, the poor's last true champion, was killed on a motel balcony on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. That man was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
He was wrapped up in the throes of a Memphis garbage workers' strike, which had turned violent, compelling his fateful return to Memphis. How, ironic returning to demonstrate the efficacy of “nonviolence,” only to be felled by an assassin's bullet on the balcony of the black-owned Lorraine Motel, a triple whammy: fallen leader; besmirching black business; blasting nonviolence's legitimacy.
At the same time, and more to the point of food stamp cuts, Dr. King was enmeshed in a floundering “Poor People's Campaign,” with its garish tent-display of poverty--“Resurrection City”--on the National Mall. King's murder was arguably a respite for him. So great were the pressures—and the forces—under which, and against which, he labored and struggled, as rigorously outlined in David Garrow's award-winning compendium, BEARING THE CROSS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., AND THE SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE, it is a marvel that he lasted that long! These pressures and forces included J. Edgar Hoover's FBI's surveillance, harassment, dirty tricks, and wiretaps; money woes both personal and organizational; including the usual litany of greed, cowardice, desuetude, betrayal, deceit, and all the rest-- common to any movement, including Jesus'--from within and without the civil rights ranks, from clergy and laity, blacks and whites, friend and foe.
It was too much for one man or for one movement; for any man, for any movement.
Hunger and deprivation are well-described in the Bible, a fact upon Dr. King meditated day and night.
Jesus himself said in Matthew 26:11 New International Version (NIV) “11 The poor you will always have with you,[a] but you will not always have me.” This statement was true for Christ and true for King; the poor have survived them both!
Yet, the question remains unresolved: Is concern for the poor futile, then, if they are “always” with us? I reply “No!” Never. That inherent, natal, divinity in me, and in Christ, repulses such a preposterous proposition! Indeed, Jesus' teaching about “the least of these” renounces such notions, themselves.
In Matthew 25, Jesus states as follows: “37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
Therein lies the answer. Just as we must keep on breathing, breath after breath, and “always,” if we are to remain alive, so must we “always” live up to our natal divinity by doing for “the least of these.” Now, if only someone would tell Congress and state, local and national politicians, the meaning of Jesus' words!
#30