Day 24

Reflecting this past week on the first two chapters of Amos has been challenging–not just because of the brutal violence that is recounted, but because it has been too close for comfort.  Our own nation’s domestic and foreign policies have been violent and destructive to people of color, the poor, the native, women, the vulnerable.  In the name of “National Security” we have assassinated democratically elected world leaders, created internment camps for US citizens and broken treaties when it suited our interest.  In the name of “Economic Development”, we have enslaved Africans, forcibly removed Native Americans from their homelands and supported foreign coups.  In the name of “Patriotism” we have silenced the prophets–either through murder or through defamation.  Our hands are full of blood.

And here’s what I really struggle with: I have been the direct beneficiary of all this violence.  My great-great-grandparents were homesteaders in central Illinois–farming land that the government practically gave them in it’s westward expansion and Indian resettlement initiatives.  My college education was paid for in large part through the sale of that same farm land.

I’ve also participated in my nation’s violence–not just through paying my taxes (which I have struggled with especially this year since April 15 is smack in the middle of Lent!) but through my 401K investments (yes, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Rayethon are listed in the prospectus).

What am I to do?  (Sounds like a question that people asked of John the Baptist!)  I am embedded in an unjust system.  I cannot change my heritage or the past.  However, I can acknowledge the sin of the the past (confession) and then change my present and my future (repentance).  I can begin to make informed choices about things like investments and use my social and financial capital to advocate for just foreign and domestic policies.  I can join my voice to the choir of the prophets–and not the ones that are chanting the “God bless America” mantra.

National sin is complicated and disengaging from it completely is almost impossible.  But the greater sin is blindly accepting and supporting the actions of our government and wrapping our faith in the ‘red, white and blue.’