After yet another of DT’s ignorant, racist comments, in which he questions why the U.S. has to accept people from “shithole” countries like Haiti and the continent of Africa, I saw a response from a supporter that encapsulates the dangerous racism, nationalism and arrogance that mars this country: “Like always he is telling the truth, Americans that have never wonder outside the US have no idea, when they start complaining about this Country they should be sent to one of these places for a week or two. No electricity, no water, no food, crimes with no punishment, no decent places to live, shitholes is a compliment. Face Reality and apriciate this Country. GOD BLESS AMERICA”
It is sickening, and I have to wonder how anyone could use the words “God Bless” when supporting a statement which implies some people are devoid of basic human dignity. This supporter’s use of this phrase God Bless America is blasphemous, and certainly no prayer.
It is a nationalistic cry which touts some perceived U.S. superiority, as a country and a people, over other countries and people. Be assured, as a country and a people we will suffer for such arrogance. We are suffering for such arrogance.
Yes, we are fortunate to have a decent standard of living in the U.S. Most of us have homes with utilities, food and water, access to health care, safe places to live and work, but perhaps, surprisingly to some, not all of us.
Poverty should never be the measuring stick of human dignity. The fact that so many other people in other countries are deprived of the basic necessities should not be a cause for our flag waving but our compassion, and our acknowledgement that in our basic humanity we are no different and no better than anyone else.
A sense of superiority is what breeds white nationalism, an anathema to faith in God, whose face is not white; whose loves extends to all of God’s children of every race.
Things did not go wrong in this country when we took prayer, and God, out of the classroom. If God is missing anywhere it is in the hearts and minds of too many people who resort to the rally cry of God Bless America. We can love our country, without promoting racism, bigotry and a nationalism which breeds hatred.
For those Christians, specifically Catholics, who insist on supporting this kind of ignorant rhetoric, be reminded, through the words of Evangelii Gaudium, of the teachings of Jesus who came for the poor and disadvantaged in body and spirit, not the arrogant or self-promoting, and certainly not for the good of any particular nation or any particular race.
“This divine preference (for the poor) has consequences for the faith life of all Christians, since we are called to have 'this mind… which was in Jesus Christ' (Phil 2:5). Inspired by this, the Church has made an option for the poor which is understood as a 'special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity, to which the whole tradition of the Church bears witness'.
“This option – as Benedict XVI has taught – ‘is implicit in our Christian faith in a God who became poor for us, so as to enrich us with his poverty’. This is why I want a Church which is poor and for the poor. They have much to teach us. Not only do they share in the sensus fidei, but in their difficulties they know the suffering Christ. We need to let ourselves be evangelized by them.
“… We are called to find Christ in them, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to speak for them and to embrace the mysterious wisdom which God wishes to share with us through them.
“Our commitment does not consist exclusively in activities or programmes of promotion and assistance; what the Holy Spirit mobilizes is not an unruly activism, but above all an attentiveness which considers the other ‘in a certain sense as one with ourselves’.
“This loving attentiveness is the beginning of a true concern for their person which inspires me effectively to seek their good. This entails appreciating the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, and in their ways of living the faith.
“True love is always contemplative, and permits us to serve the other not out of necessity or vanity, but rather because he or she is beautiful above and beyond mere appearances: 'The love by which we find the other pleasing leads us to offer him something freely’.
“The poor person, when loved, ‘is esteemed as of great value’, and this is what makes the authentic option for the poor differ from any other ideology, from any attempt to exploit the poor for one’s own personal or political interest. Only on the basis of this real and sincere closeness can we properly accompany the poor on their path of liberation.
“Only this will ensure that ‘in every Christian community the poor feel at home. Would not this approach be the greatest and most effective presentation of the good news of the kingdom?’ Without the preferential option for the poor, ‘the proclamation of the Gospel, which is itself the prime form of charity, risks being misunderstood or submerged by the ocean of words which daily engulfs us in today’s society of mass communications’.” Evangelii Guadium
Photo by Ursula Spaulding on Unsplash
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