RELEASING THE HOSTAGES

Let there be freedom

for the hostages,

those taken in that terrible Hamas raid,

may they be returned, safely,

to their homes and families.

And may the people of Palestine

be released as hostages

from the deadly, dehumanizing apartheid

that has been their existence for decades,

and free the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners,

including the women, children,

and the hundreds imprisoned without charge or trial.

There will never be Peace

until Justice is rendered to all.

Al Staggs

EVIL’S LEGACY

Why Israel’s children,

God’s children,

Suffered an earthly hell,

a death of eternal proportions

at the hands of

followers of Christ

in the Land of Luther.

And why Israel’s children

betray their legacy of Torment,

now persecute their brothers and sisters

who are most assuredly

God’s preferential option

in this hellish display

of military might

against these,

God’s landless

and wandering people

of the Nakba.

ASSAULT OF POVERTY

Poverty assails and allows no provisions

For body, mind, and soul-

a condition that feels like

a judgment from God.

To be bereft of money for necessities

is to be victimized by a system

that is no respecter of persons,

or only of those who have played their cards

right to acquire their disproportionate gain.

CRITICAL RACE TRAINING

Drafted into the Army,

September of ’65,

from my all-white world

in the tiny community of McAlmont,

originally an enslaved community.

Blacks, Latinos, and poor whites

were taken from our very separate worlds

and challenged to create a unified fighting force.

BE CAREFUL LITTLE CHILDREN OF GOD, HOW YOU VOTE!

What’s ailing our spiritual lives are not only drugs, alcohol, and tobacco

nor the smut we see in movies, tv, and social media

or what we do in the privacy of our homes.

The insidious violence committed by self-proclaimed spiritual folk

is what they do in the privacy of that voting booth

placing bets on people of power who offer the moon,

people of power, people who lie

to further enrich themselves …

Baptists and Methodists are in abundance

as well as believers

by other names

in the Lone Star state of Christians.

Yet, like slavery

that thrived in the Bible Belt

for generations,

justice, mercy, and compassion

appear to be in short supply.

The Affordable Care Act

was not expanded in the great state of faith

by the powers that were,

the same powers that be.

LENT OBSERVED

Jesus was tested and tempted

prior to the cross.

and followers of Jesus

have endured testing and tempting

throughout the church’s history

often succumbing to the temptation

of cruelty, of murder, of genocide

to those deemed outside faith’s community.

LISTEN TO THE VOICES

Of

THE ASHES

(Upon seeing the concentration camp at Majdanek)

Listen, Listen,

listen to the voices of the ashes

for they speak of redemption,

they speak of salvation.

Listen, Listen

listen to the voices of the ashes

for they speak of the conversion of

the meaning of conversion.

IN SEARCH OF A PEOPLE

Much of life,

at least as an adult,

entails a search for one’s people,

these kindred souls,

those who share common convictions

regarding matters of faith,

both private and public.

With power there is license,

freedom from indictment,

from incarceration.

The Power of POTUS

brings absolute impunity

that mere street criminals do not know

HEALTH INSURANCE, POLITICAL OR MORAL?

“Texas opted not to create an in-person assistance program and passed laws that effectively limited the ability of community organizations to help consumers enroll,” writes Dr. Benjamin D. Sommers, assistant professor of health policy and economics at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Massachusetts. Furthermore, Texas was one of the states that did not take advantage of the federal government’s subsidy for the ACA Medicaid expansion which would have provided health insurance to the poor; thus, Texas still has the highest uninsured rate in the nation. Eighteen percent of Texans, that is 1.2 million people in Texas have no health insurance.

Baptist churches have, historically, avoided addressing certain moral issues, that is, those which could also be labeled, “political” in nature, such as war and the Civil Rights of African Americans. In 1957, Dr. Dale Cowling, pastor of Second Baptist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas, worked and preached in support of the segregation of Little Rock’s Central High School. As a result, his church lost hundreds of families, practically overnight, with the resulting loss of financial support for the congregation.

If Clarence Jordan could speak today

For the past thirty years, it has been my privilege to portray the person of Clarence Jordan, the farmer, minister, theologian, activist for justice and founder of Koinonia Farm. Clarence possessed a penchant for speaking the truth regarding his understanding of identifying oneself as a Christian. Being a person of faith was not only about getting one’s soul saved, faith was also about practicing justice in the world.

CONFESSION OF GUILT

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer

From Ethics

The Church confesses her timidity, her evasiveness, her dangerous concessions. She has often been untrue to her office of guardianship and to her office of comfort. And through this she has often denied to the outcast and to the despised the compassion which she owes them. She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven.

DECEPTION OF TRUTH

(originally published in In Mammon We Trust)

By Al Staggs

Truth lies hidden

beneath mountains of words,

doctrines, beliefs and lifestyles

that obliquely prevent the practice

of compassion and justice

in this “land of opportunity.”

Our nation’s politicians and political policies

are bought and sold on the market.

An Enduring Prophet

If anyone holds that religion is essentially ritual and sacramental; or that it is purely personal; or that God is on the side of the rich; or that social interest is likely to lead preachers astray; he must prove his case with his eye on the Hebrew prophets, and the burden of proof is with him.

Walter Rauschenbusch

BLINDED BY SIGHT

By Al Staggs

And God came to us

in our own time,

but we could not behold his image

for our eyes were blinded

by the culture that had taught

and convinced us

that we are the chosen people.

The Root of It All

by Al Staggs

And we all participate,

by necessity,

in this pursuit of money

to earn our keep,

pay the bills,

to pay taxes

which are gathered

disproportionately from those

who can least afford to pay.

In Mammon We Trust

Most of the god-talk only serves as a mask

since it is money that drives every one of us.

The dollar is always the bottom line

and it is the tally sheet of who we are

as individuals and as a society.

The dollar is the great motivator,

the Great Spirit that causes us

to rise early and go to bed late…

YELLING FOR JUSTICE

Those who claim

to speak for Christ these days

espouse views that are offensive,

immoral, unjust, just plain insane.

Those of us who disagree

with these voices of distortion

are forced to the sidelines,

advised to pretend that we agree

since we also call ourselves “Christian.”

Not so. Our very souls are defiled by these

greedy mouthpieces of conservative causes,

these nationalists,

these fascists disguised as fighters for freedom.

Christ is not part of this.

Cannot be.