🌈Then They Came For Me

Posted on by under History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

No matter how many times I read this poem, written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller, I never fail to be moved by the words.  Niemöller penned this in 1946, at the end of WWII, the end of the Holocaust that took more than 6 million lives.  It is engraved on a plaque at the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts, and is known worldwide.  The poem speaks volumes and should serve as a warning to people all around the world today.

I have shared this poem before, used it in different contexts, for it seems that “they” are always coming for someone.  But today, the fourth day in Pride Month, I am especially moved to share it for it seems many people, groups, politicians, and religious leaders are coming for the LGBTQ community.  Our friends, our neighbors, our family … are being vilified, even threatened with their very lives if they dare to be publicly proud of who they are.

In addition to coming for the LGBTQ community, “they” are coming for women, for people of colour, for Jewish people.  Apparently in “their” eyes, the only people who have a right to be proud are white, Christian, straight males.  The rest of us are the dirt beneath their feet.  If we hide in our closets, wear camouflage in hopes of not being noticed, if we do not speak out against the atrocities being committed against the LGBTQ community and others, then perhaps we will be overlooked and allowed to exist.  For now.  Until someday …

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

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82 thoughts on “🌈Then They Came For Me”

  1. ‘They’ are striding with much confidence. Blind to the tides which Histories teach us are not ‘Theirs’ to rule much less contain. Their pace and enthusiasm is leading them straight into a mire which is always there, willing to consume another feast of misery. At its most ‘grimdark’ Democracy and Liberals do not even come into the equation.

    Firstly the maths are not in their favour. 250,000,000+ adults. 74,000,000+ voted for Trump. Add to the mix that less than 60% of the USA are non-Hispanic white, and you can dive deeper into the numbers. How many non-Hispanic white are, say of the LGBT community, how many non-Hispanic Whites are women who are against the turn around of Roe vs Wade and its implications? How many Hispanic, Afro-American, Asian, Near Eastern, non-Christian adults feel safe with MAGA around. More to the point of those divisions- how many of them all feel aggressively hostile to MAGA and its affiliates?

    Secondly. The logistics are not in their favour. Five time zones. Cities and regions against them. A burgeoning media which can spring up like guerrilla warfare no matter how many rich sympathisers build TV channels for them. ‘They’ might own ‘A Narrative’, they might have ‘A Supreme Court’, they might have a large number of ‘Their’ people in Washington. But ‘They’ do not by any stretch of the imagination hold the majority’s hearts and minds. 1930s Germany, Italy, Japan this an’t. Think of it more as a Political and Cultural Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan at best a Northern Ireland that is what ‘They’ are facing in the long run. And the long run is the Only Game In Town.

    Thirdly. If ‘They ‘want to hold onto power (like picking up fog out of a bowl) by any means ‘They’ are going to have to do something about those gun laws. Making weapons available to those you are seriously hacking off is not conducive to a stable hold on power. And anyway IEDs seem to be a very easy product to manufacture.

    I make no apologies Jill for this most unsettling analysis. You do, dear friend know from whence and where I come. This is another of my disturbing ‘memos’ to Liberals, to those Currently Apathetic, to those Currently Hiding, those Republicans Who Doubt and The Rest. You can still stop this happening. Yes you might be disappointed with the other choices available. Better to be just Disappointed than Despairing and Fearful.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. The anti 2SLGBTQ+ vitriol is alarming these days, used by political right wingers to divide and earn votes. And people eat it up to the great detriment of the vulnerable. Truly ill indicting and disgusting.

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Freedom isn’t free and you just have to walk down the middle of the street regardless of the danger. Little children are still going to school so persist. Everyone is afraid all the time persist. Your seeing it wrong as well. They are the ones feeling threatened, they think they are being cornered, of course they are lashing out. It is a sign you are winning!

    Liked by 2 people

      • I might be abnormal but in review I don’t ever remember crying, whining or gnashing my teeth when I’ve been winning. I do remember in a dart match years ago with my friend Dean. He was killing me and loss was inevitable. But now is not then and as he swallowed victory I reached in and pulled it out fully masticated tasting the sweetest of triumphs.
        . It may be hard to give him any credit but when the orange traitor allowed his minions to be their worst, he freed the others to be their best. When you open the jailhouse gates, innocents walk free as well as the quilty. I don’t think the LGBQ+ community is winning , they have already won. I don’t believe that black people, Indians or Jews can be re enslaved. Ohioans died to stop it and I will not stop that tradition.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Milton Mayer writes in his book They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945 not overnight, incrementally, like the legendary slow boiling of frogs. Fascism creeps:

    “You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.

    … “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D.

    “And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self-deception has grown too heavy, and some minor incident, in my case my little boy, hardly more than a baby, saying ‘Jewish swine,’ collapses it all at once, and you see that everything, everything, has changed and changed completely under your nose. The world you live in—your nation, your people—is not the world you were born in at all. The forms are all there, all untouched, all reassuring, the houses, the shops, the jobs, the mealtimes, the visits, the concerts, the cinema, the holidays. But the spirit, which you never noticed because you made the lifelong mistake of identifying it with the forms, is changed. Now you live in a world of hate and fear, and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves; when everyone is transformed, no one is transformed. Now you live in a system which rules without responsibility even to God. The system itself could not have intended this in the beginning, but in order to sustain itself it was compelled to go all the way. /”

    This is what has been happening to America – in particular, to the conservative movement and the Republican Party: only the names and the accents have changed – for a very long time. Donald Trump is merely the apotheosis of this, the culmination of a very long-growing trend that began in the late 60s.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I read that book shortly after it came out a few years back and yes, he is exactly right! It creeps up on you rather than jumping up and smacking you in the face. By the time you realize what has happened, it’s too late and your right to say or do anything is long since gone. I fear I see the writing on the wall, but I live in hope that I’m wrong.

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    • Very well said, but … there are writings on the wall. In case of Hitler they were in neon, he wrote all his intentions in his book, which everybody was so proud not to have read. So, nothing that followed should have been a surprise.

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Pingback: Re-blog: 🌈Then They Came For Me

  10. As much as you disagree with my words, I state them again here, because:
    “If he can’t vote (because of his colour), if she can’t vote (because of her sex), then I cannot vote (becsuse they can’t vote)!” Otherwise it is not democracy.

    Liked by 3 people

    • So … nobody with values or healthy ideas for how government should work would be voting … only those who are okay with an autocracy would vote. Sure, rg, that makes all the sense in the world, doesn’t it? Let the nation vote in a dictator to prove that we have a right to protest by withholding our votes. Think about that one, ‘k?

      Liked by 1 person

      • I have thought about it. But I still cannot justify letting others be left out of mainstream society. I have been on the bottom. Being forgotten, ignored, hated, whatever. No. I stand with the weakest. I refuse to play the game that allows others to suffer.

        Liked by 2 people

        • And by so doing, you help ensure that they will continue to suffer as will even more. I stand by what Martin Luther King said, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” Not voting is but one form of silence.

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          • Well, you did not like my original stance: If he cannot vote, and she cannot vote, then YOU cannot vote, meaning every American citizen should stop everyone else from voting. So I made it personal, an injunction of every free thinking voter to defend the rights of every other voter who has had their vote illegally taken away from them. You don’t like that one either. You obviously aren’t reading the poem you posted. When you lose the right to vote, if you do, even though you voted, then come talk to me. Otherwise this subject is closed between you and I.

            Liked by 1 person

    • True. But in the whole pantheon of governances thus far, what we have is the least worst alternative, and ‘They’ would take even this away.
      Democracy is to be constantly disappointed, and be able to say so (you can quote me on that)

      Liked by 1 person

      • Democracy may be the “least worst thing” humans have come up with, but that makes it all the more i perative to find something better! But no one is looking. My idea is to let everyone be responsible for their own actions. It will sort itself out in two generations.
        Humans have never been allowed to be at their best, so they tend to be at their worst. Trust and respect are necessary, but governers do not provide either.

        Liked by 3 people

        • And have we have discussed my good friend. I come from another side of the equation. Whereas I salute your idea and wish it well in the fullness of time, for we do need to evolve. I do not trust Humanity as a whole to achieve that progress in two generations.
          It can be argued my outlook is creating a negativity which allows the current poor state of affairs to continue. I accept that as a valid outlook, while holding to my view the least worst thing is the best we have at present.
          And must accept that my own idea of a benevolent authoritarianism which stamps down on intolerance is a non-starter for it is within the very nature of authoritarianism by its lack of accountability to thus nurture abuse no matter how well things might start out.
          I think I said this before, it is a question of the pragmatists holding the imperfect line to buy time for something better to evolve out of our imperfections.

          Liked by 2 people

          • And I am in favour of speeding up evolution. I just haven’t figured out how yet. But I firmly believe that we have to stop treating adults as children in order for them to learn how to be adults.

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            • Now this is where sour-faced Roger nudges more balanced Roger aside and mutters (I will not shout in your presence good friend) ‘When a lot more of them show some inclination to maturity, then they can get treated like adults’
              (I’m in classic grumpy ol’ geezer mood this morning)

              Liked by 1 person

              • Aw, come on, Grumpy. Go kiss Carole (is that your wife’s name, I always forget!), and she can take away your grumpiness. Evolution almost guarantees life will continue to improve itself — but evolution plays the long game. If it takes extincting the human race it will do just that, an experiment that went wrong.
                But we still have the oppurtunity to stop that extinction! As long as we are alive the opportunity is there. But humanity has one flaw no other epecies has, indivisuals can affect the outcome of a species. The strongest — read best — individuals do not always survive. The weak are great manipulators. So we as a species need to improve the species as a whole despite people who are out to destroy us. The thing is, good people have little to do with our DNA anymore. Strength is not a good indicator of a good producer. Our minds and spirits are what sets people apart from each other. But we do not rate ourselves by mind and spirit, we still try to rate humanity by strength, and money accumulation.
                I better go to sleep. I am getting way ahead of myself here. My mind us racing a million miles an hour.Good night, friend.

                Liked by 2 people

                • Sheila🥰….I took your advice, of course. Jill often gives me the same.
                  Hope you slept well.
                  I agree, this is a theme I’ve been on about for a long time, if we don’t change our ways we will be a smear on the fossil record. NO amount of wealth, guns or ego will stop that either. The evidence is there; for when Nature turns either by earthquakes, volcanos, or extreme weather all we can do is basically run or hope our preparations might limit some of the damage.
                  There are a lot of folk trying to do what is right, but aside from the greedy and the egotists who live for themselves there are a lot of scared folk who try and pretend they know about some sort of ‘Conspiracy’.
                  One diseases we do not officially recognise is one of the mind ‘Terminal Stupidity’

                  Liked by 1 person

                  • Oooh, where to start? At the end of course. While I dislike stupid people, I do not believe anyone is terminally stupid. Stubbornly stupid, I will give you, even obnoxiously stupid, but everyone is capable of change. This is one of our greatest evolutionary traits, we can learn from our mistakes — and we can learn to adapt to almost anything which has not already killed us! As long as we live we have the capability and capacity to change. I like to pride myself on being a role model for positive change. If I had followed in my father’s footsteps I would have been a real no. 1 Asshole. But whenever I found myself exhibiting those traits, I stopped and asked myself, isn’t there a better way? And there was always a better way!
                    As for becoming a “smear on the fossil record,” my friend, once we are smeared there is no more fossil record. No other lifeform on this earth gives a flying fart about what has gone before. We are the only species fool enough to think knowing about the distant past will provide us a path into the future. Has knowing why or how an extinct species failed ever taught us how to avoid extinction ourselves? Every species is unique, and exhibits its own set of problems. Also of important note, every species other than humanity has reached an evolutionary dead end as compared to us. While we can see how the horse changed from a tiny pet-sized animal into the ĺarge workhorse it has become over millions of years, how much has it evolved since we came on the scene. We breed for different features, strength, speed, endurance, etc., but a horse is still a horse. What makes us think we will ever be more than what we are, with our own set of limitations. The fossil record shows us, we are stuck being who we are. And given enough time, we too shall be replaced by a species who is even more capable at survival than we are. Just about every advancement we have made to improve our chances at survival are just as likely to be the final nail in our evolutionary coffin! We are not in control of our technology and never have been. We invent, and we use our inventions to excess before we learn how dangerous those excesses can be. We will most likely be the authors of our final demise, notwithstanding what nature can do to us. Our excesses have changed nature itself. It will only be fitting that nature will reach a breaking point, and destroy the world as we need it to survive.
                    But even knowing that, we are capable of changing how we live in order to ameliorate the changes we are making to nature. We have the capacity to change.
                    But I think Nature sees us as being “Terminally Stupid!”

                    (Sorry, I got a bit carried away with my pontification. However, if you think I am saying anything important here, please let me know. This comment might be worthy of becoming a post. What say you, my friend?)

                    Liked by 2 people

                    • Sorry for the delay good friend, chores and repairing a very complex board game fit for sale have taken up time today.

                      I would grant you that folk can change, but some will not and therein lies the ‘terminal’ aspect cited. We do have a choice. We face the challenge, we work out we’re going wrong and we do something about it, even if we stay imperfect, which is likely we try. Then there are those who do not and they are not just a menace to themselves but others around them.

                      And I agree wholeheartedly concerning species. It is a wonderous thing to consider evolution how Life adapts, evolves and thence thrives. Some aspects do hit that dead end. Again we have an intellect to assist us survive longer, only WE the race are not making the best use of it, and in terms of the Life cycle of many species we are in danger of not being around that long. Hence why I used the term ‘smear’. Strong fossil evidence needs a lot of the species to be around for a very long time, not thousands, not even one million, but longer
                      So again I agree Nature is not viewing us very kindly at present.

                      Yep, I do think you could make a post out of this. Go for it!

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • I was prepared for a lot worse. I generally get a lot of pushback from a lot of people for my “radical” ideas. This time some people seemed to agree with me. It actually felt good.
                      I jyst saw a poll from England predicting a Labour majority next election. Any real chande of that, or wax it jyst political BS?

                      Liked by 2 people

                    • Maybe it’s starting for you good friend, the seeds being planted are settling down. Keep on with your work, it’s worth the effort.

                      Regarding UK politics. It takes a special degree of incompetence to turn around one of the largest gains in British Electoral History in 2019 to potentially one of the greatest losses. But Boris Johnson and his crew only achieved that by another previous display of stunning and sustained incompetence by Labour’s then leader Jeremy Corbyn and his Momentum grouping who were effectively a mirror image of MAGA. The Principal Duty of any Labour Party should be to stop the Conservatives from winning and inflicting more rightest policies by stealth. They failed and in my unforgiving stark very leftist outlook that makes them guilty of Vanity and Culpability in assisting the Conservatives.
                      Anyway. Yes according to the polls Labour could win an election, but that could take place December 2024 and a lot could go wrong. The one big danger being Labour’s ability to snatch Defeat out of the jaws of Sure Victory by another bout of severe in-fighting, which can be most vitriolic. My so-called brothers and sisters who claim to be far-left being quite ready to ruin the whole show as they run about blind to the harsh realities of British Politics. In typical and traditional British Left-Wing politics I am as hostile to them as I am to Conservatives, treating them as dupes of the Conservative propaganda machine.

                      Then there are the minor parties as it were. There are the moderate Liberal-Democrats whose fortunes are on the up, and the two nationalist parties Scots and Welsh, both currently in internal crisis. And there is Northern Ireland where they do things very differently to the rest of the UK.
                      Basically, it’s all up for grabs.
                      For the UK the truly best option after the Brexit mess is a middle of the road fudge in which everyone catches their breaths and throws out the extremes from both sides. (And maybe the Conservative Party splits in two, which would be fun to watch).

                      Watch this space.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Sounds sort of like Alberta, only most of the minor parties are various kinds of conservatives. Last week the United Conservative Party won the election with 49 seats and the opposition New Democratc Party (sort of socialist) won the other 38 seats. At least 3 other conservative parties won some votes, but they and the Liberal Party were shut out. We are polar divided in our politics with all the NDP seats being won in urban areas and most of the UCP seats being won in rural areas.
                      Yes please keep me posted on how things go for the Brits. From what I hear everyone hates the Conservatives but yet they keep getting voted in. Something wrong with that!

                      Liked by 2 people

                    • I advised yesterday to keep watching, and last night at UK BST 8.00 pm the news broke Boris Johnson was (my words now follow) doing a runner from his job as MP before he was pushed out…..
                      The BBC news team at 9.00pm could hardly contain their sobriety when review his 1,000 word excuse…sorry letter of resignation.
                      Currently Johnson is playing the ‘Boo-hoo. It’s not fair’ card and thus displaying no dignity whatsoever (Give Thatcher her due, she played the Dignity Card pretty well).

                      Talking about the continued success of the Conservatives, and carrying on from yesterday:
                      1. The British voter base is essentially conservative (that is in the general use of the word). Which means it does not take much for it to drift to a Conservative Party. Unless the Labour leadership is astute enough to dress up their policies in a conservative manner.
                      2. The labour Party is divided into a Social Democratic and Socialist wing. The former have a link with the public, the latter are all mouth and little understanding of the public mood, which makes them easy pickings for the Right-Wing section of the press and thus portray all the party in that colour, like Boris Johnson is doing now they whine a lot.
                      3. Going back to The Conservatives, leaving aside their policies and individuals they are Supreme Manipulators of The Image. It says much about Blair’s Labour era(before Hubris got hold of him over Iraq) that Labour were able to swat aside The Conservatives despite the best efforts of its deluded alleged Left to split the party.
                      4. We have a first past the post system. So technically if a party got one more vote than its nearest rival in a constituency in every parliamentary seat it could win all the seats against a large popular vote……which does help. In the last election more voters voted against the Conservatives than for them, yet on the first-past the post basis they won a massive majority.
                      It is also a trend, nearly a convention in UK politics that everyone want to overhaul the election system; until they win an election and then they are far more circumspect and talk of all sorts of reasons why ‘we’ cannot rush into this. (The old shell game).

                      This concludes this morning’s despatch from the UK.

                      Liked by 1 person

                    • Ah! Politics! I hate “First past the post!” It always leaves so many unrepresented people. Yet Canada and the USA both use it, and still call themselves democracies! The “winners love to lord it over the whiners.”

                      Liked by 2 people

                    • I don’t mind “first past the post” as much as I mind the Electoral College system that enables parties and states to gerrymander districts in such a way as to manipulate the vote. A candidate can win the most votes in the state, but the states electoral votes go to a different candidate based on district allocation. I’d love to see that abolished and he who has the most peanuts at the end of the day, wins. As it happens, in 2016, Trump had nearly 3 million fewer votes than Clinton, but he won the Electoral College.

                      Like

                    • I might vote if we had proportional representation, might being the key word. I’m actually quite happy living my life the way I chose to live it no matter who is in power.
                      Yeah, that’s anarchy, but I know how to be responsible to my own ideals. Which is why I prefer responsible anarchy — because it works for me.

                      Liked by 1 person

    • It’s not Tic Tac Toe! The only sure way to lose is not to play. Life is a game and death is the prize. Win or lose I expect a well played and an offer to play again.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I thought about your statement, but I still have to disagree. The only sure way to lose is to keep playing the game, becaause no one stays undefeated! And all it takes is one loss to start a losing streak. Democracy is a fixed game from the start, there will always be a winner, and the best-equipped person does not always win! And they who are not best equipped will change the rules to get themselves re-elected time after time after time. All red states are good examples, but Floridastan is a prime example. DeSantis keeps winning by larger margins with larger majorities because votes are manipulated. You know if he wins the presidency he will manipulate votes on a federal level, because that is what he did on a state level. His past performance predicts his future performance. And you can bet, as long as a Republican wins the presidency even once, DeSantis will be a prime mover, whether in front of the cameras or behind them.
        Democracy has been shown to be flawed, and Trump used those flaws to exploit the government AND We the People.
        A return to true democracy is not about to hsppen. The guillotine has already fallen!

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        • The win the loss, incidental. It’s the play itself. Even if a game is rigged it is a chance to play. No downside to playing cheats. B captain Kurt, don’t like the game change it. The owner of the ball calls the tune they do not get to choreography the dance.

          Liked by 1 person

          • “No downside to playing with cheats.”
            I see a million downsides to playing with cheats, but no upsides. The dance analogy fails for me, for it moves from game to artistic performance. A set choreography — designed by whom?
            I do not want to see the USA disappear, I want to see the Republican Pargy disappear. But a USA under Republican rule is Anti-American! They are playing democracy to change it into autocracy. As long as this version of the GOP exists the game will be lost, eventually…

            Liked by 2 people

            • That’s what the rules are for my friend. Can’t cheat without rules. Heinlein gave me my philosophy on rules : I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.
              My vote is a privilege earned for me by those men who waded ashore 79 yrs ago. Those denied the vote through oppression and threat might view such a casual disregardance of such a valuable the same as throwing food in the garbage before the hungry or water on the dusty ground before the thirsty.
              Republican, Christian, Jew, Democrat even George Santos. Name yourself however you like, it doesn’t make you one. I introduce myself with a hearty “Hi, my name is Dick!” It is both a lie and a fair warning. It is hard to believe but there are still “good” Republicans and at least 10 “true” followers of Christ. 🙂

              Liked by 1 person

  11. Pingback: 🌈Then They Came For Me | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  12. Jill, people who use religion to divide us are showing religion at its worst. Church congregations have been on the decline in the US in large part to divisive behavior that pushes people away. Embracing this mindset is a self-fulfilling prophesy of more decline. A church that welcomes all under a big tent is one that should be emulated.

    Politicians who perpetuate this divisive rhetoric are leading folks down a perilous path just like a divisive minister does. Our elected political officials should be leaders and unify us. Playing up our differences is not leadership – it is corrosive.

    So, I encourage folks who do not fit into one of the categories that is being vilified to stand up to folks who are so doing and say “this is not right.”
    It is “not right” to deny liberty to people based on who they love or who they are.

    It matters not if their names are well known or they running for office or leading a congregation, corrosive behavior is not very becoming. Keith

    Liked by 6 people

    • Agreed. Although not a Christian, I always heard from people who were that the Jesus of Christianity taught that everyone had value, that everyone should be equal, that we should love ALL people, but there seems to be no religion, no branch of Christianity, no church that operates under that assumption today. Instead of being all-inclusive, they are all-exclusive of those who are somehow different. I’ve seen too many articles just in the past week about church leaders, including the ignoble Franklin Graham, calling out the LGBTQ community, some even calling for their execution! If hate is what religion is all about, is it any wonder I want no part of it?

      And the politicians play to the beat of the same drum … largely to pander to the religious right and garner votes, for nothing else really seems to matter much to some of them. You’re a good man, Keith … I greatly respect your views and opinions.

      Liked by 3 people

      • Christ taught all that, equality, foregiveness, even towards your enemies, tolerance, but somehow people always corrupt the basic idea of a religion by creating a hierarchy. As soon as a religion develops a hierarchy of church “officials”, it is dead in spirit. We and we alone are responsible towards God and mankind for our actions; nobody can help us with that; following orders does not take the responsibility off our hands, that is an illusion. Fundamentalists, no matter of what religion, are fanatics and cannot be reasoned with, their brains are switched off; they do exactly what Christ taught us not to do, and Christian fundamentalists do it in the name of Christ.

        Liked by 3 people

        • Thanks Jill, Stella. Jill, you have seen me write several times before two key themes about people in positions of religious leadership:
          – just because someone is pious does not mean they cannot be a jerk; and
          – my pet peeve is bigotry from the pulpit, as I see it as a gross dereliction of duty.

          On this latter point, there were too many ministers during the Jim Crow era who used the Bible to defend segregation and treating others differently. For all the good Franklin Graham’s ministry does, it is degraded when he airs his bigotry. Keith

          Liked by 2 people

          • In my eyes there shouldn’t be religious leaders at all, they are redundant. The relationship between a person and God is just that, personal. Instead of talking they should live what they believe, that would be much more impressive.

            Liked by 1 person

            • Oh, and if a person calls him or herself Christian, they should forget about the old testament and use the new testament, that is when the new Christian times began; instead of “an eye for an eye” it became “Love thy enemies” nad “Turn the other cheek” and, very important “nobody is without sin, no one!”

              Liked by 2 people

          • I share your pet peeve, for sure! They’re supposed to be talking peace & love, but instead they’re promoting hatred and violence. It’s unconscionable. I don’t remember a lot about Billy Graham, but always thought he was a decent person, in which case he must be “turning over in his grave” seeing the bigotry and hatred that his son promotes.

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        • You are so right that religion creates a hierarchy, it becomes “exclusive” rather than inclusive. I’ve long felt that religion and its practices are the root cause of most of the controversy in the world. Without it, perhaps people would have learned to live together in peace centuries ago.

          Liked by 1 person

          • I didn’t say that religion creates hierarchy, the people around a religion create that hierarchy. Every religion starts with a great idea, people assemble around it, and then suddenly somebody says that he or she knows better than anybody else what this idea is about. Or an emperor or politician uses the religion/idea for their advantage, but needs to control it, so “officials” are being created to tell people what to believe.

            When I look around the world, the controversies are mostly about resources, land, power etc., but religion is sometimes used as a sham to hide the real reason.
            Even in Northern Ireland it was not about religion alone; even if they had all been protestants or catholics the conflict would have arisen between the local people and the settlers that the English made go over there, promising them special rights and advantages.

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