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Tuesday, March 7, 2023

People are not disposable

 

I have tried very hard, actually for a long time, making it a priority, to keep my politics away from my message. For the longest time, whenever someone would ask me my opinion on the subject, I would simply turn my face and be silent. This is not because I am ashamed. On the contrary, I simply feel that God is bigger than politics. I feel that at the end of the day, the only thing that is going to create change in the world, is God. Positive change. Still, because God works through politics, politics is very important. Really, God should be the end and aim for everything we do in this world. God should be the reason we investigate atoms and search the depths of the seas and the expanses of the cosmos. Really, is this not what science was created for? To discover the truth of things? Truth is interlinked with God. Politics should seek to serve Him.

I’ve tried a lot to censor my politics from my message. I guess I cannot blame people for being curious for trying to find out all of what happens in my privacy. I will simply say this. I never intended for my politics to become known. I am not ashamed. How can I possibly be ashamed? I simply knew that God was greater than politics. Thankful for the fact that politics is not going to be what brings ultimate change to the world. I am thankful for the revival that is surely coming. While the Kingdom of Heaven is not here. Heaven is not here. Let what happens here, be the way Heaven intended it to be. Believe it or not, I am still not making a political statement. All I am doing is advocating for God. Again, how could anyone who is perfectly lawful (now) apologize for what people see in their privacy? I have not consented to this. God is greater than politics. People sure are getting touchy with me for telling my story. Remember, the integrity of truth or an idea is not dependent upon the reputation of one person. Even its leaders. Don’t get so mesmerized with my politics that you forget my actual message. Children need love, that trauma accumulates and we need to process that pain, fill the void with positivity of Gospel Truth, that we need to build for ourselves a firm foundation upon the love of Christ. For those who remember, my ministry was not always a consistent apology for my past or a defence of my beliefs. Before people found out about my politics, I traveled the streets of Toronto, preaching positivity, gratitude, healing and peace for those who were hurting. I preached the impact of trauma on people. And Christ’s ability to heal that.

We are called to love and to minister to the poorest of our brothers and sisters, for blessed are the poor in spirit. And who among us is poorest of all? Money will come and go. The Book of Leviticus tells us not to favor the rich nor to show partiality to the poor. What makes a man poor in spirit? Why are we to help the widow and the orphan? Throughout the pages of the Hebrew Tannakh and culminating in the revelation of the Father's Son to the world, it is clear that God's compassion and mercy is strong, particularly with they who suffer. With they who grieve. With they who mourn. In a sense, it is precisely due to this that His mercy and love extends to us all. In life, wounds, traumas will certainly come. It's true for all of us. A foundation of love is essential in life. For God, God Himself teaches us how to love. Children need, crave and merit the most absolute of love with which we are able to offer them. Love is not completely lucid or permissive. Love without boundaries, without stern but kind discipline is not love at all, but rather submission. And submission is not true love. This love, these foundational building blocks, built upon the wisdom that without love for the self, we will struggle always loving the other, give us the tools with which to navigate and thrive in this world. Trauma and unprocessed suffering accumulate in our hearts when we do not have the capacity to experience our pain in the midst of these traumas. Have you ever experienced being a child, enduring some pain, feeling the need to cry? So, because you are a child, uninhibited by the weights and judgement of the world, you allow yourself to cry and almost by the finger of God, you are released from that pain. For this reason, God extends His love and mercy to every single person in this world, to those who have died and to those who will come. We need to heal our beautiful inner children. This is where the wound and the healing lies. We need to allow ourselves to experience the deep and rooting love that only our God and Father can teach us. And this through the tender and powerful blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.

I have continued living in this house is in a large way because of how I was raised. Part of me feels I don’t deserve better. Because of what people did to me. In a way, it is a blessing of a thorn. In that it keeps me humble. But this is not humility. True humility prides in the truth of who we are. I experience toxic shame because of the things that happened to me. This toxic shame was built from lies other people have told me in the ways they have treated me and hurt me. In spite, I am thankful for this house and for these guys. They are warm hearted people. These are the people for whom I have come to call to repentance. Who am I to judge people like this? People who struggle because of fear and bad foundations. Yes, they sin. Their sins are in the open. They have never been shown a better way. Greater to me is the one who when their sin is revealed to them, they fall on their knees in repentance and weeping than the one who says I have no sin. This is to say, if you think you are righteous, if you think you are sinless and perfect, you are really deaf and blind to the message of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wait for the secret sins. We all have them. Every one of our words, our actions and deeds affects people. Do you think you are aware of how every action and word you have ever made has affected people? Not what I am talking about. I am speaking of what happens when we are most at ease. When our guard is down. This is the space darkness fills. With the people we are most comfortable with. Sometimes we are not even conscious of our sins. If we read the Lenten texts about anybody, we would find room to condemn them. Name of God! All sinners. Stop judging people for being harder than you. We don’t know their stories. Sure, we can judge people for living sinful lives. But if they don’t know any better, who can blame them? Actually, who is to blame for this? Sorry if I seem sharp in my words. Maybe it’s truly not your fault. All I am saying is people are people. Why would we seek to love only our friends? No reward in that. Let’s love our enemies too. Yes. As I am learning to. I was not baptized until 2007 and confirmed until 2016. I did not know. I was one of these hardened hearts. I pray that God has changed me and if not, to change me quickly. I am and always have been traumatized. Not evil. I’m not even talking about loving our enemies, am I? What I am talking about is loving the wounded, the orphan, the widow? Is this not found in the alcoholic? Is this not found in the teenager who gets involved in drugs and gangs? Is this not found, even in the hardened criminal who repents and turns to God with all of his heart? All looking for love, reacting to their own pains and re-enacting what they were taught. A love nowhere to be found. Nowhere to be found. What would happen if the faithful were to help these, the true orphan, the true widow by sharing with them the love they so desperately need? This is where the key to your revival is going to be. It’s where the final piece of the puzzle is located. For your world to have peace. It’s contained in love. We cannot love while we are eager to condemn. I have said before prisons are not the answer. They only satiate a desire and a thirst for vengeance. You may call it justice. It’s not. For who can truly say, ‘I don’t deserve to be in the exact same place’. Love. Love is the source of regeneration that you seek. Love, like everything else, begins with ourselves. If we don’t or cannot love ourselves, we cannot know how to love others. This is the future of medicine. This is the future of schooling. This is the future of politics. But we have to relearn to love. I address also the Church. Let us recapture the essence of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Do you know who said this? These are the poor in spirit the Gospel speaks of. What is money? The poorest materially among us can be the richest spiritually. Contrarily, the richest among us materially can be the poorest spiritually. It is a very dangerous thing to make the Gospel a material thing. For after all, money is not evil. It’s the love of money that is evil. God does not want us to be poor. He desires our prosperity so that we can glorify Him. Or rather so that He can be glorified through our blessings, which are evidence to the world of His goodness. Suffering, while useful to God (also useful for His glory) is not the natural state of the world. Don’t believe when people tell you that God wants you to suffer. God’s intentions for the world and for people are always for their good and well-being. The Gospel is ultimately about hearts. Yes, as my friend MLK Jr. said, ‘What is the purpose of the gospel speaking to a man’s heart if it neglects his physical needs?’ But a gospel that is oriented entirely toward a man’s physical needs, which has become evident in many places, or places these needs over the spiritual, becomes void. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Yes, the reason the poor materially are blessed is because they do not have the distraction of wealth. Just because one is poor, does not make one holy. The fact that one is wealthy does not make them evil. I have heard of many wealthy people who do enormous acts of charity almost consistently.

My past does not have anything to do with my present politics. I am not racist. I was angry at what my abusers were doing to me. Besides, politics are not race. If politics are not open to criticism, what is? What is your motivation for not believing that I have changed in my heart? Maybe it’s a matter of politics. Where is your worship? There is so little faith in God’s ability to change the world. I’m not telling anyone who to vote for. I’m certainly not telling people what to think. We have to do that for ourselves.

Thankful for the fact that I am permitted to have an opinion. As is everyone else. Let us not forget Remembrance Day. Our fathers and grandfathers fought, war over war for freedom. Freedom reign. Be on guard. We do not want to hand it away like it were disposable. Yes, I am a terrible sinner. I will be the first to admit this. That I feel I am inculpable is inconsequential. The fact is that my sin has had an effect upon others. I am no worse a sinner than anyone else. But I acknowledge my sin. Still, as Paul says in his epistles of himself, my conscience is clear. I am no longer dead in my sin. This is because of who I am now. Who I am now is my testimony. Please remember, my dear friends, whoever is listening, God loves you. God respects our freedom. God respects our freedom. God has created us free. Freedom is a good thing. Yes, with freedom comes the negative grace to be able to say no to God. But to deprive people of that grace would make God a dictator. God has given us the choice, and in this respect it is not a matter of saying no to Him. It is a matter through which and by which, the only remedy for healing can possibly come about. God values our freedom just as much as He values us as creatures. Because God wants us to come to Him and only Him through our personal and intimate choosing of Him, for Him. To deny people the ability to think a certain way because a majority considers that way of thinking to be false or even hostile, is to take away that freedom instilled in man by God. Freedom is not the freedom to sin. But here, we have to define sin. Is an idea a sin? No. Even if it offends others. It is not a sin. Is murder a sin? Of course. Because we have freedom to murder is not a reason to do it. Maybe I am sheltered. I do not feel many people in our world would use their freedom to do such a thing. Again, maybe I am sheltered. When I think of freedom, I think of the freedom to do positive things. But remember, just because we feel something offends us or we feel something is a sin, does not mean that it is a sin. The concepts of morality are being dreadfully twisted. The Commandments are a good place to begin. But, in terms of stuff like oppression, we never quite know the full story. We never quite receive the full story. We have to be incredibly careful in making judgements about societal oppression. Just because you have a loud voice, does not mean your oppression is graver than someone who does not complain. More than this, please, remember that people are so much more than simply their politics. To write someone off because of their politics is like poisoning the well. It’s like saying, ‘what he says means nothing because he is racist.’ Or ‘don’t listen to anything he says, he is crazy’. Sounds familiar. To write off someone’s argument by drawing attention to their personhood is the epitome of fallacy. It’s like saying, he is smelly so he should not have an opinion on politics. Name of God. The fact that I have a different opinion from you is not a sin. My politics are not sin. Half the population holds these beliefs. I am only a very, very disabled and traumatized blogger, sharing his opinion. I am not causing division by having a differing opinion from you. What does my conversion look like to you?

Thankful for the fact that if you are upset with me for criticising communism, you are actually upset with Dr. King and every single Pope in the history of the Church. We must be allowed to criticize our political systems. Let me be clear: I love the Chinese people. I think their culture is rather incredible. Everything about it is amazing. From the exquisite martial art, the tea and cuisine, to the incredible written language. It’s an ancient and beautiful culture. It is not racist to criticize a political ideology. The politics of a country have little to do with its inherent identity. China has existed millennia prior to communism. We must differentiate between the culture of a country and its politics. The only reason people want you to believe I am a sinner is because of my politics. Jesus, guys. Every single pope since Marx. I am just a simple gent, writing in what he believes to be his private computer. If you don’t like what you are reading, you know what to do. Politics is different from culture. We must be allowed to criticize our governments. This was the basis for the American Revolution. Say what you will about America. The revolution was a stand against government overreach and abuse of power. We must be permitted to have opinions about those who rule us otherwise it is bound to repeat what has happened in the past. Power corrupts. “Absolute power, corrupts, absolutely - Tennyson.” I cannot say whether or not this is the case today. All I know is that it has happened every single culture in history. Thankful that God is bigger. Communism without Christ at its center will always push away the concept of anything greater than the state and the achievable needs of society operating through the state. That’s just the thing: there is no communism with Christ at its center. At the center of Communism will always and only be the State.

The way we treat our children, our vulnerable is really the most important thing in a civilized society. No, my friends, people are not dispensable. Economy does not matter before this. Politics does not measure up. Science and the arts matters not. If we cannot get that fundamental building block down that how we as society treat the small, the weak, the wounded in our world is paramount, everything loses its meaning. What I am advocating is a change of heart. A change in the heart of society and the world. It is more than possible. I have seen it. This is where our utopia is born. When this happens, the need and desire for a political utopia will be irrelevant. When the heart of the world is healed, there will be little need for all of that. Remember this: people are not dispensable.

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