Today’s reading is about Jonah—a most reluctant prophet. Jonah ended up on a three-day all-inclusive cruise in the belly of a whale, because he did not want to go to Nineveh and preach repentance. Jonah finally goes, preaches God’s repentance, and the people, much to his chagrin, repented.

Saad discusses white exceptionalism:

White exceptionalism is the belief that you, as a person holding white privilege, are exempt from the effects, benefits, and conditioning of white supremacy and therefore that the work of antiracism does not really apply to you. I have come to see white exceptionalism as a double-sided weapon that on one side shields people with white privilege from having to do antiracism work under the belief that “I’m not a racist; I’m one of the good ones” and on the other side shoots out arrows at BIPOC by expecting them to carry the burden of dismantling white supremacy under the belief that racism is something that is a Black or Brown problem but not a white problem. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (pp. 67-68). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

It is the same problem Martin Luther King addressed in his Letter from Birmingham City Jail. Whites, especially liberal whites, think they are not prejudiced; therefore, they have nothing to do with racism. It is not their problem because they are the good guys. Like Jonah, they are reluctant to get into the fray. The problem is that racism is a sin, and they are called by God to preach. Preaching racial justice with today’s ugly mood in the country is challenging; however, it is God’s call to each of us

Thomas Merton (pictured above) heard the call:

While many of Thomas Merton’s books have helped a broad lay audience understand and engage in practices of Western mysticism and Buddhism, his prophetic and contemplative stance against white racism has yet to be understood— much less practiced—by a critical mass of white people of faith. Perhaps this is partially because he directly (yet compassionately) calls whites to confront our ongoing complicity in over-privilege and the oppression of people of color. (http://www.loyno.edu/jsri/sites/loyno.edu.jsri/files/Thomas_Mertons_Letters_to_a_White_Liberal_JSQWinter2012.pdf)

White superiority is rearing its ugly head again in state legislatures across the country. Republicans are leading the effort to pass legislation which will suppress voting rights with a disproportionate impact on BIPOC. The Republicans can then recapture legislative leads and preserve white fragility.

Saad reminds us that white superiority can be expressed in violent and ugly ways; however, most white superiority is based on attitudes and values absorbed from social structure and culture.

She writes:

White superiority stems directly from white supremacy’s belief that people with white or white-passing skin are better than and therefore deserve to dominate over people with brown or black skin. The most extreme manifestations of this are the KKK, neo-Nazis, and the ideology behind right-wing nationalism. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (pp. 60-61). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

The idea of whiteness being “of higher rank, quality, or importance” begins before you are even consciously aware of it. And because you are unaware of it, it goes largely unchallenged and becomes an internal truth that is deeply held even though it was not intentionally chosen. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (p. 64). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

Because the idea of your superiority is the very foundation of white supremacy. You continue to perpetuate white supremacy to the extent that you believe in your own and other white people’s superiority over BIPOC. Again, it is important to stress that this belief is not necessarily a consciously chosen one. It is a deeply hidden, unconscious aspect of white supremacy that is hardly ever spoken about but practiced in daily life without even thinking about it. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (p. 65). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

We need to ask ourselves how we have been enculturated into white superiority.

Today is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter in. the Roman Catholic Lectionary. In the Episcopal Lectionary it is Monday in the first week of Lent. The scripture is the Final Judgment from Matthew 25. If Jesus were separating the sheep from the goats today, he certainly would have condemned racism. He would tell the sheep, you treated BIPOC as equal to you because everyone is created in the image and likeness of the Holy One.

This would be a good feast day for the Roman Pontiff to renounce the papal doctrine of discovery by which popes gave nations the ability to suppress indigenous peoples because they were inferior to white European Christians.

Thus says the LORD:

If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; If you bestow your bread on the hungry     and satisfy the afflicted;

Then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; Then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. (Isaiah)

“Remember, white supremacy is not just about individual acts of racism, but rather it is a system of oppression that seeps into and often forms the foundation of many of the regular spaces where you spend your time—school, work, spiritual spaces, health and wellness spaces, and so on. All these spaces are often protected from overt and individual acts of racism while allowing covert and systemic racism to be a part of the accepted culture through white silence.”

The operative word in each citation is “oppression.” Racism is a sin, a sin because we oppress people and treat people as less than they are. Silence in the face of oppression makes us complicit in white supremacy. Further in the chapter Isaiah speaks about becoming “repairers of the breach.” When we speak out about race and racism, we repair the breach which separates whites and BIPOC.

When you insist that BIPOC talk about their painful experiences with racism without expressing any pain, rage, or grief, you are asking them to dehumanize themselves. Tone policing is both a request that BIPOC share our experiences about racism without sharing any of our (real) emotions about it and for us to exist in ways that do not make white people feel uncomfortable. (Saad, Layla F.. Me and White Supremacy (p. 51). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

Today Layla espouses another element of racism—tone policing. Basically, it means that our white fragility makes us uncomfortable with BIPOC when they speak out. Rather than attend to their message and feelings, we criticize the way they are expressing themselves. Tone policing in effect denies or downplays the message.

Isaiah teaches us about the fast the Holy One expects:

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:
releasing those bound unjustly,
untying the thongs of the yoke;
Setting free the oppressed,
breaking every yoke;
Sharing your bread with the hungry,
sheltering the oppressed and the homeless;
Clothing the naked when you see them,
and not turning your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;

When we tone police BIPOC, we bind them unjustly and tie the thongs of the yolk. Our Lenten fast should be action(s) designed to set people free to be themselves and express themselves

One additional lesson today. The pandemic also should have taught us that we are all one created by the One God but many still have not got the message because they want to keep America white. Once again, we have been reminded that we are all connected and that we are all equal. Massive winter storms have disrupted events in faraway snow-free places. Our second COVID immunization has been delayed a week because the vaccine could not be delivered here on time. The Holy One keeps reminding us that we are all equal and that we are all in this together. We will all be healed when we practice Isaiah’s fast and avoid tone policing (and all other racist thoughts and actions) of BIPOC.

Poor Children in Nicaragua
c. J. P. Mahon, 2006

Today’s opening reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Moses said to the people:
“Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom.” The way of doom is for us to continue to travel the road of doom—white privilege and racism. Racism is tearing this nation apart. Herschel Walker, a former UGA great and staunch Republican spoke strongly against the concept of reparations. He does a disservice to BIPOC Americans.
The way of prosperity is to walk the path of brotherhood and unity.
Trying to make sense of ashes yesterday, I decided to frame it this way when I imposed the ashes on my wife during a wonderful Zoom service from our church. “This is the cosmic dust which unites us with the Holy One, all others and the cosmos.”
We are all one—born of the same cosmic dust that flared forth at creation and brought about the incarnation of Christ—God became cosmic dust so that we could become godlike. My guidebook today tells us to abandon “white fragility.” We have to become comfortable with talking about racism if we are to move ahead.
This post is late today because our replacement refrigerator ordered in May finally came early this morning. COVID caused a shortage of more manufactured things than we can imagine. Then, came an urgent appeal from the local Democrat Party urging us to write legislators in GA who have about 9 bills in the mix in order to suppress voters. I sent 9 emails urging them not to suppress votes because the impact will fall disproportionately on BIPOC. We have to stand up and speak up when racism is at issue. We must choose life and prosperity! We are all one in the Holy One and the cosmos.

Pandemic or not Lent is upon us. The pandemic has given us involuntary practices that may lead to personal growth. Lent comes along and offers us voluntary options which may also lead to conversion.

The traditional Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are still viable tolls for conversion; however, in a pandemic, we are looking for ways to create a new normal. Joel reminds us to rend our garments. He is reminding us to create a new life, a new real.

My previous blog gives some guidance in choosing a Lenten practice that may help bring about a new normal. I believe that the elephant in the living room is racism. I have decided to do an intensive study on white privilege as an element of racism in the hope that I can rend my garment. Racism is a sin and this is a good starting point for me. You ma y well choose another Lenten practice that will create a new and better normal. There is plenty to work on.

I am reading and journaling on Me and White Supremacy—a 2-day program. Today’s lesson is about white privilege. I spent at least two thirds of my life totally oblivious to the cultural and social blight of white privilege. In college I became aware that part of my upbringing in the Deep South had instilled some prejudices against people of color. I made some strides along the way. As a high school principal with a diverse student body, I tried to hire teachers who looked like my students when this was possible. Later in life I became aware of white privilege and all the blessings and benefits it bestowed upon me to the disadvantage of others. Layla F. Saad writes:

White privilege is the reward that white and white-passing people receive in exchange for participating in the system of white supremacy—whether that participation is voluntary or involuntary. In order to dismantle white supremacy, you must understand how much white privilege is a key aspect of your life, how you benefit (whether knowingly or unknowingly) from your whiteness, what that means for people who do not receive that same benefit, and how you can dismantle it. (Saad, Layla F., Me and White Supremacy (p. 38). Sourcebooks. Kindle Edition.)

My mother never needed to sit me down and try to tell me how to act if I were pulled over by the police. I will start examining all the other ways I have been and still am privileged.

Another cloudy winter’s mountain day with a threat of a light snowfall and the high of 33 degrees. I had the opportunity for 15 years to escape to the warmth of central Florida during the winter; however, trying to get reaccustomed to winter in the mountains, I am paying the price of initiation this year.

I am taking an online course from the Abbey of the Arts—”A Midwinter God,” God and goddesses of the dark and cold. God in the light and shadows of my life. An apt course for my initiation. Also, an apt course for Lent and Lenten practice.

For a year now, we have had to endure illness, death, and isolation in the pandemic, civil unrest caused by the racism of privileged white supremacy, and dysfunctional politicians. It has been a dark, cold year. I have tried to find ways to help myself and others.

I have been living (and surviving COVID captivity and winter’s cold, dreary days) on Zoom. I have taught a photography course, a course on Albert Camus’ The Plague, and I am currently leading a church book study on Julian of Norwich by Matthew Fox. Julian lived through recurring iterations of the bubonic plague, the Black Death. Finally, I am photographing wintery mountain scenes. A friend of mine recently posted on Facebook that her photography was an escape from reality. I replied that it could be an escape into deeper reality, an opportunity to find in the rhetoric of the Velveteen Rabbit what is “really real.”

Lent has been traditionally about giving up. As a kid I could not wait for noon on Holy Saturday when the RC, Inc. declared it would be all right for us to dig into the Easter candy. More recently Lent has come to be a time for giving back, trying to be of loving service to others. Lent provides the opportunity for the radical turning toward the Holy One—metanoia. Lent gives us the opportunity to go deeper, to explore the depths of our life with the divine, to be what is “really real.”

The pandemic has added the opportunity to shelter in place and become more than what we are, to become our face before we were born, as Buddhists say.

Julian of Norwich teaches that life is weal and woe, joy and suffering, mirth and mourning. Life is about praise and lamentation. In lamentation we cry out to the Creator and that is A OK. Yes, we can complain to God because when we do so, we are acknowledging that God is faithful, and all will be well.

Woe, suffering and mourning remind me of winter, living on the dark side. This winter, the dark is really dark with illness and death from COVID. We are reminded of the life cycle of death and resurrection. Our history with the Divine teaches us that there will be light at the end of the tunnel (and that it will not be another train!) The advance publicity for the Catholic Theological Union’s Duns Scotus Lecture by Fr. Ray Horan reads (“Spirituality in a Wintry Season: The Wisdom of the Franciscan Tradition in the Quest for Meaning Today”):

Near the end of his life, the renowned Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner frequently spoke of the contemporary context of history as resembling a “wintry season” of faith, which at first glance appears dead and frozen, but beneath the surface of increasing pluralism, religious disaffiliation, and secularity there exists the continued presence and work of God’s grace in the world.

What have I learned from a year of COVID captivity? I have learned that:

• Life is weal and woe, summer and winter.
• We are one with others and all of creation(including viruses). Our lack of care for creation has spawned COVID and will give birth to new pandemics.
• Some folks, like the characters in Camus, will deny that the plague is the plague; therefore, government will usually be slow to respond adequately to the threat. Denial is the order of the day; however, you can only hide so many dead rats.
• God is the god of summer and winter.
• All is well and all will be well.
• Our survival depends upon our caring for one another and for all of creation.
• Life will teach us what is “really real,” if we let it.
• Life strips away at us and nurtures us. Lent is a time to go deeper and let God be God, let life be life.
• Pandemics affect the poor and people of color disproportionately because social and economic structures favor those who have enough or more than enough.
• We are all first responders to others, to ourselves, and to creation.
• Racism and white privilege will destroy all of us.
• The politics of love and cooperation need to replace the politics of greed and partisanship.
• As Thomas Merton reminds us–Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed – but hate these things in yourself, not in another. (New Seeds of Contemplation)

I invite you to join me by taking one or two of these learnings for further thought, prayer and metanoia(conversion of heart) during Lent.

I have found a 28 day journal based book on White Privilege: Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad. If you want to follow me. I will post my journal reflections and send links to them. I would also like to see “what you are giving up for Lent. Giving up white privilege is going to be a lot harder than giving up peanut butter cups!

We just celebrated the a feast of the Trinity. Suffice it to say that the Trinity is about interrelatedness in the flowing power of love. COVID 19 should be teaching us that we are interrelated to all human and nonhuman creation. After all, a very deadly virus jumped from bats to humans and then mutated to jump from human to human with very deadly consequences.

In the midst of the plague, cell phone video exposed the ugly virus of systemic racism. Systemic racism is the product of privileged white male supremacy which tries to control all of human and nonhuman creation for the benefit of the white majority.

This country was built on white male privilege. Originally only white male landowners were considered to be full citizens. This nation was built on the slave trade and the “discovery” of new lands to the total detriment of slaves and indigenous peoples.

We live in confusing times. We have a plaque telling us we are all interrelated and systemic racism telling us that white males, and, in some cases white females, are more privileged than blacks, indigenous people and people of color (BIPOC).

Back to our alleged Christian roots which are not always fully Christian. All creatures—human and nonhuman—are created by the same God. In God’s eyes we are all privileged and blessed and graced with divine life; therefore, we are responsible to and for one another.

But some of us are acting otherwise. The deadly plague is with us until we find vaccines to prevent it and new medicines to cure it. In the rush to restart the economy reckless politicians, who proclaim they are pro-life have put economics above human life. The virus is striking back with deadly force. Dramatic increases are occurring in reopened FL, I live in a beautiful Georgia mountain community with  TVA damned lake—Lake Chatuge. Crowds of newly liberated privileged white folks visited for Memorial Day. In two weeks we have seen reported COVID rise from 10 to 30 cases.

We know that the only ways, until we get vaccines, is for people to maintain physical distance and wear masks. Across the nation “Christians” have risen in protest of these safeguards under the guise of religious liberty.

Yesterday my wife and I visited Gibbs Gardens where extensive protective measures were in place. In our travel we saw that many churches have reopened. The worst scenario was a large Catholic Church. Mass was over and clusters of people numbering about 40 were standing in front of the church. Neither the clusters nor the people in them were practicing physical distancing and there were no masks to be seen.

Such behavior is appalling, especially for religious people. We have a moral responsibility to follow distancing and masks safeguards; otherwise, we infect others who infect others. The spread is exponential rather than mathematical. The coronavirus and the protest against systemic racism are challenging us to be our brothers and sisters keepers. Interrelated love looks incarnate—people maintaining physical distance and wearing masks and dismantling systemic racism.We Are our Brothers and Sisters Keepers

I am 76 years-old and I am just starting to get THE message. God, the Holy One, Being itself to, comes us disguised as our life. It should be easy then to accept what is happening to us and get on with life; however, we want life to go our way notwithstanding the fact that the Holy One’s ways are not always our ways. We do not want to accept life and we are often fearful of what is coming our way.

Enter the Christmas story, not the story of Christmas plays where the symbolic becomes factual. It is about Mary’s encounter with life. Her life has taken a dramatic turn. She is afraid. She is an unmarried teen in a rural hinterland. The Law makes her subject to stoning by death. The Holy One, disguised as the angel Gabriel, comes to Mary. The first message is, “Do not be afraid.” In other words, you can trust the Holy One to bring you into greater union. After some discourse, Mary finally understands, “Let it be done to me according to our word.” The Christ is born. The life she brings forth will enter into full union with the Holy One in his final moments on the cross, “Abba, into your hands I comment my spirit.” Life then is surrender, surrender to the Holy One as we are brought into deeper union with Being itself.

The light bulb has gone off. On my six month visit to the doctor last week, he pointed out that my hemoglobin count was just below the lower limit. He wants me to see a gastroenterologist to see whether I am leaking blood anywhere. Life was coming at me. I was fearful. A colonoscopy is not a fun activity. Then, too there might be a hidden problem. As I read about the visit of Gabriel to Mary, I understood. “Be not afraid.” “Be it done unto me.” “Into Your hands, Holy One, I turn my life over.” I have an appointment with a gastroenterologist next month. I am mindful that all things work for good for those who trust in the Holy One. I can go on enjoying life without fear. I can surrender to life because the Christ is bringing all things into fuller union with the Holy One, with Being itself.

I am a little behind schedule on this blog; however, the underlying thoughts needed time to germinate. The Advent readings for Wednesday of this week are worth a little of our time.

 Al Aqaq Mosque Dome of the Rock

The Israelites often refer to the Holy One as their Rock and Salvation. In this sense, the Holy One is the bedrock of our being, is indeed our very being.  Tillich teaches us that the Holy One is not a being but BEING itself. Salvation is nothing other than life in the Cosmic, resurrected Christ NOW with even more to come. In the Holy One beaming forth in the Cosmic Christ, matter and spirit are one. The Holy One is embedded in every atom, in every particle of the divine cosmic dust. Franciscan Richard Rohr writes:

“If Jesus represents a particular incarnation, Christ is the eternal, ongoing incarnation, the union of matter and spirit, present in all of Creation “from the beginning” and for all time (see Ephesians 1).”

In the Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to build our house on a firm foundation. I understand this metaphor better after talking to my oldest son. He and his fiancé are building their house. He is building it on a firm foundation by using twelve-inch concrete blocks which will be reinforced with concrete and rebar. Twelve-inch blocks provide a firmer foundation than eight-inch blocks. The concrete and rebar strengthen the foundation.

Are we building our lives on a firm foundation with the Cosmic Christ as true north on our compasses? Paul of Tarsus says that in Christ we live and move and have our being. The Cosmic Christ is the pattern for all creation. The pattern is love (as divine energy in the cosmos), justice, peace, joy, beauty, hope and compassion. The pattern is not hatred, division, injustice, war, despair and greed

We become very counter-cultural when the pattern of Being in the Cosmic Christ guides our lives and actions. One example of resisting. Today government decisions are based on economics and profit. Greed is destroying creation so that a few may profit at the expense of the many. Care for creation stands over against greed and destruction.

We are grounded in firm foundation on the Holy One incarnate in the Cosmic Christ. Our love, peace, joy, hope and compassion act as the energy that allows us to be co-creators within the Cosmic Christ. When evangelicals ask whether we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, our response should be, “I accept the Cosmic, Risen Christ as the pattern for my life, as the bedrock of my being.”