🌀

it’s been stunning to see Christian Nationalists in our government rebuff Pope Leo XIV for calling out the harms of war, the existential dangers of imperialist, colonial mindset & powers threatening to wipe out entire civilizations, while he also promotes an alternative message of love, peace, dialogue, & the sanctity of all life. however, it isn’t surprising. history is replete with leaders & empires abandoning the suffering servant Jesus of the Gospels for a warrior king Jesus of their own making, who calls for violence, death, & destruction. a Jesus unrecognizable from the Gospels where he proclaimed “blessed are peacemakers”, that we may “have life, and have it more abundantly”, where he stated “whatever you have done unto the least of these, you have done unto me”, where he healed the high priest’s servant’s ear while also admonishing Peter for cutting it off saying “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword”, where hanging from the cross, brutalized & close to death he pleaded “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” yet we know right here in the US from our own history that White Christian enslavers used the Bible to justify their horrific enslavement of Africans stolen from their homelands, while those enslaved & abolitionists alike were inspired – strengthened by that same Bible to claim their right to freedom & be free. all of that is to say, how we read – the lens we view religious texts through – has an immense influence on how we relate to our world. is it a lens of love where we promote our interconnectedness, generosity, selflessness, compassion, freedom & life? or is it a lens of delusion, fear, division, greed, aggression & violence, coercion & colonialism?whatever our religious belief or spiritual practice, whether we have one or not, may we all collectively reject fundamentalist zealotry wherever it manifests – including the anti-Gospel Christian Nationalist view & agenda, aligned with violence, death & destruction, & instead lift up a view aligned with love of our neighbor (who is everyone), open-heartedness & selflessness, generosity & service, compassion & peace.

~j

⭕️♥️🙏🏼

#PopeLeo #JesusChrist #love #peace #JinpaLhaga