“We Are Still Here, and We Will Never Quit”

This past Thursday, Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson, two Black Democratic lawmakers, were expelled by a Republican supermajority in the Tennessee state House of Representatives for peacefully protesting gun violence in the chamber last week as thousands rallied at the Capitol to demand gun control after the Covenant elementary school shooting in Nashville.

A vote to expel Rep. Gloria Jones, their white colleague who joined them in solidarity, failed.

“They thought by expelling us they would silence us, they would silence our movements that we’re part of, but in fact they’ve amplified it, because the nation can see how racist they are. The nation can see how retaliatory and absurd and authoritarian they are,” said Jones on Thursday.

Yesterday, Justin Jones was interviewed by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman.

The interview, of 24-minute duration, is a must-see. Not only does it allow Jones to eloquently share his thoughts on his expulsion and its deeper significance, but it also features some of the inspiring testimonies and dramatic exchanges that unfolded on the House floor. Overall, Jones calls the incident “a public lynching” targeting the two youngest Black lawmakers in the Legislature.

The video of Democracy Now!’s interview with Justin Jones is followed by a number of progressive perspectives on the ousting of both him and Rep. Justin Pearson.

Decorum means that one’s speech must be appropriate to the speaker, the subject matter, the audience, and the occasion. That means that if you witness a bloody murder, decorum dictates that you scream bloody murder.

For years in this country we have witnessed the bloody murder of children in our schools. Kids decapitated by blasts from AR-15s. Silence is not decorum. Silence is complicity.

The young legislators who were expelled in Tennessee were not engaging in insurrection. Reports I have read suggest an interruption on the House floor of a few minutes, not an attempt to subvert the democratic process or to overturn a valid election.

Those who engage in civil disobedience know and accept that their actions will have consequences. But Republicans in the Tennessee House went way beyond enforcing House rules. They were using the protest as a pretext for a grossly disproportionate penalty, driving members of the opposing party out of the legislature, in effect overturning their valid election by their constituents.

– McAuley Hentges
via Facebook
April 7, 2023

Above: Justin Jones carries his name tag after the vote to remove him from the Tennessee House of Representatives. (Photo: Reuters/Cheney Orr)

Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives are furious and out for revenge. Two Black Democratic members and a [white female] Democratic [member] had confronted them – and embarrassed them – over their unwillingness to do anything about the slaughter of Tennessee’s children in that state’s schools.

To punish them and teach women and other young Black men – who might think of being too troublesome in the legislature – a lesson, the GOP ran a pathetic Kangaroo Court for the world to see. And got their revenge.

. . . Revenge as a political philosophy is rooted in violence: the domination of the many by a few, whether the main instrument of that domination is personal physical violence, the violence of great wealth and political power being used to destroy one’s enemies, or unjustified violence inflicted by the state under color of law.

But at its core, revenge is rooted in physical violence, intimidation, and murder. It’s war brought into politics and governance. Vengeance like this has its own power and its own attraction. The media is drawn to it, making it attractive to Republicans as a way of bringing together their followers.

Insecure, frightened men (and the occasional woman) participating in revenge-fueled violence find a sense of agency, of individual power and meaning, a sort of orgasmic release from a life of ordinariness and political impotence.

And make no mistake: the GOP has become the party of revenge and political violence.

Revenge is the cardinal characteristic, the logo, the brand identity of fascism. Every fascist movement in history has lifted itself to power on the scaffold of revenge against an “other” they claim have stolen from them or persecuted them.

Rightwing media revel in the language of revenge. They dehumanize the victims of their violence with words like “invaders” and “vermin” and “illegals” and demand revenge for the lost jobs, integrated schools and neighborhoods, and other insults they imagine.

To justify the violence at the heart of their movement, they also squeal a phony claim to victimhood: wealthy Republicans claim Democrats are trying to take their tax dollars. They fear gays are trying to groom their children. They pretend teachers are indoctrinating their youth in socialism. Revenge, they say, is their only option.

Over the past four decades, as this revenge-fueled movement has arisen in America and taken over the GOP, more than three-quarters of all politically motivated murders have been committed by rightwing often-Republican-aligned terrorists who invariably claim they’re rightfully seeking revenge.

Republicans justify their violence as necessary to get revenge against those they say have assaulted their faith, their families, and the “identity” of their homeland. They will tell you it’s the unfortunate last-ditch “necessity” provoked by the Democrats and dark-skinned or queer “others” who “threaten our way of life.”

In reality, revenge is not the fascist’s final, last-gasp option: it’s their first.

– Thom Hartmann
Excerpted from “Tennessee GOP
Show That Revenge Is Fascism’s First Instinct”
Common Dreams
April 7, 2023

There is no justification for ousting two legislators who were protesting with and for their constituents. That two Black men were expelled for standing up against the murder of children – but not their white counterpart – says it all. People are dying because Republicans want to put politics over the lives of the people they represent. They ask for safety for themselves, but not for school children, and they’ll sacrifice the lives of our loved ones for their lobbyists.

Now is not the time to be on the sidelines. We better fight back before it’s too late.

– Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.)
Quoted in Jake Johnson’s article,
“‘Fascism, Full Stop’: Progressives in Congress
Condemn Expulsion of Tennessee Democrats”
Common Dreams
April 7, 2023

Thank you, Tennessee, for introducing us to these two young men, the two Justins. My goodness, I would have never known about these leaders without your desire to ELEVATE them. Yes, elevate them. You thought you were expelling them, but you have raised them up. It is no coincidence that their names are so close to the word – justice.

On this Good Friday, this is scripture in action. Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

What the enemy meant for evil, God turns to good!

– Victoria Christopher Murray
via Facebook
April 7, 2023

Related Off-site Links:
Justin Jones Has Gotten Himself Into “Good Trouble” Again – William Spivey (Medium, April 7, 2023).
Tennessee GOP Goes Through With Absurd Purge of Anti-Gun House Dems – Eileen Grench (The Daily Beast, April 7, 2023).
Tennessee Republicans Tried to Silence Three Democrats Over Guns. They Turned Them Into National Figures – Josh Marcus (The Independent via Yahoo! News, April 7, 2023).
Ousted Tennessee Lawmaker Justin Jones Vows to Keep Fighting for Gun Control – Brett Wilkins (Common Dreams, April 6, 2023).
Jones Says He Will Fight “Unconstitutional” Expulsion as Reinstatement Votes Loom – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, April 7, 2023).

UPDATES: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Returns to Capitol After Nashville Council Reinstates Him – Cynthia Abrams (NPR News, April 10, 2023).
Countering “Miscarriage of Justice,” Metro Nashville Council Reappoints Justin Jones – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 10, 2023).
Tennessee GOP Tried to Stem Tide of Progress – Instead, They Unleashed a Tsunami – London Lamar and Svante Myrick (The Progressive, April 11, 2023).
County Board Reinstates Expelled Democratic Lawmaker Justin Pearson to Tennessee House – Adrian Sainz (AP News via PBS Newshour, April 12, 2023).
Reappointed Justin Pearson Vows to Fight on Against Tennessee GOP That Expelled Him – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 12, 2023).
Both Black Tennessee Lawmakers Have Been Reinstated After Being Expelled by GOP – Bill Chappell and Katie Riordan (NPR News, April 12, 2023).
“Rising Tide of Fascism”: Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones Warns of GOP’s Growing Embrace of Authoritarianism – Democracy Now! (April 28, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Jelani Cobb: Quote of the Day – September 4, 2022
• “Come for the Racism, Stay for the Autocracy”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking Democracy
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• “We Must Challenge the Entire System”

Opening image: Rep. Justin Jones (front) and Rep. Justin Pearson raise their fists as Republicans prepared to vote to expel them on Thursday, April 7, 2023. (Photo: Reuters/Cheney Orr)

Tomb Time

– P.K. Benbow

The Wild Reed’s 2023 Holy Week series continues with a third excerpt from Marianne Williamson’s 2004 book The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life (To start at the beginning of this series, click here.)

There is metaphysical meaning to the three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection. It symbolizes the time it takes for the physical world to catch up with a change in consciousness, for light to ascend again after darkness has overwhelmed us. Resurrection occurs when we hold to love despite appearances and thus invoke a miracle.

Sometimes when we have been deeply wounded, there’s time during which we have to let our souls bleed, take the pain, and wait till the cycle completes itself. You can’t rush a river or a heartbreak. Just know that “this too shall pass.”

The three days is referred to by a friend of mine as “tomb time.” during which it might seem that all hope is lost, when in fact the miracle is just around the corner. Every night is followed by a new day. The ego has its way with us in cruel and vicious ways, to be sure, yet we are delivered by God each day to a new morning – the “promised land” of inner peace.

We have all known crucifixion and then lived through a tomb time when it seemed as though the light in our lives might never return. Yet the movement of the universe is always in the direction of ultimate love; in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The ego roars, but God will always have the final say.

Our crucifixions deal us a material blow, but in the hands of God the blow can become a spiritual gift. No matter what occurs in our lives, we can become better people because of it. . . . Crucifixion can take us into the darkness of the soul, where we wrestle with the demons of shame and loathing, anger and hatred. We are asked to die to so many parts of ourselves – to lay down both sword and shield, to give up judgment and willfullness and hate. Yet when we stand naked, having forgiven so much, we can feel a sense of lightness return to our hearts, and we know we have made it to another place. Crucifixion is never the end, it is just the beginning.

With every scar, we become carriers of the universal wound as well as transmitters of a universal healing. When we have suffered and transcended our suffering, we emerge with sacred knowledge embedded in our cells. In our life at least, some darkness has been overcome. And we will be led to others who have similarly overcome, as well as to those who have not yet but will be inspired to in our presence. Together, we will form a unified field of resurrective possibility, an opening that does not just bless our own lives but the entire world. And that is what is occuring on the planet today. People are feeling the pain of the world, almost like an inoculation. We are hurrying to rise up so we can create a higher field for everyone.

The women around Jesus waited and prayed at his feet while he was crucified. These women symbolize the friends who bear witness to our crucifixions and care about our suffering. When they go to the tomb to claim the body – that is, when they have empathized with our pain and now accompany us on our psychic journey back to wholeness – they often find that the person we were before no longer exists, that’s true, but who we will be now is a spirit reborn and refreshed. The fever has broken, the tears have dried, and we emerge again into the light of our true being. Such is the resurrection, the light of God upon our souls.

– Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from The Gift of Change:
Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life
HarperCollins, 2004
pp. 189-192

NEXT: He Is Risen, and So Are You


See also the previous The Wild Reedposts:
• Within the Mystery, a Strange and Empty State of Suspension
• When Love Entered Hell
• The Passion of Christ – Jesus Among the Dead
• Chadwick Boseman and That “Heavenly Light”

Jeff Sharlet on the Fascist Ideology of Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene

Jeff Sharlet is an award-winning journalist and author who has spent the last decade reporting on the growing threat of fascism across the United States. In his new book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, Sharlet says the language of “civil war” has become central to right-wing rhetoric and mainstreamed former President Donald Trump, Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other Republicans.

Sharlet was interviewed this past Wednesday by Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh. At one point he shared his insights on the ideology of Donald Trump. Following is what he said.

There’s a short word for [Donald Trump’s ideology], which is “fascism,” and really in the classical sense, not in the way that we might want to describe various right-wing figures, but [in] the true [sense], [it’s] the cult of personality and the pleasure in violence, along with the sort of description of the rest of the world around him as decadent.

I think, though, that the way we understand the undertow that pulls people like Ashli Babbitt or so many of the other figures I encountered in my travels into that sort of black hole of fascism, is to recognize that it’s not so much about any particular issue, but rather it is an aesthetic, as fascism is. [It’s] also a theology, and that’s why I [highlight] the prosperity gospel [which] comes from evangelicals, from the idea that God wants you to be rich. And the way that you know that is because he’s made your pastor so rich. Trump’s golden plane is evidence of God’s intention.

The next stage of that, which I refer to as a kind of Americanized Gnostic gospel, a gospel of conspiracies, of . . . secret initiates and of what Gnosticism calls waterless canals, but what Trump calls the deep state. This is sort of appealing, the idea that you have this inside track of knowledge.

And then we come to martyrdom, which, of course, we know has always had this kind of pull; the victimization of white grievance, which is the current that pulls white supremacy along.

At another point in the interview, Sharlet was asked about Leslie Stahl’s recent 60 Minutes interview with far-right Georgia Republican Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene. Following is his response.

I think of [my book] The Undertow as sort of my inquiry into how to tell stories about fascism, with the understanding that a lot of the ways that we’ve used in the past, they don’t work anymore. . . . Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes gave us a master class on how not to tell stories about fascism.

. . . I think in Lesley Stahl’s imagination [Greene] still occupies a center. [Stahl thinks] she can dispatch that which she finds distasteful with an arched eyebrow. She has failed to recognize that Marjorie Taylor Greene is not a rising star in the old vernacular of politics, because she’s not trying to enter the same cosmos. [Greene and others are] trying to redesign the worldview to create a kind of – I think of fascism as a kind of lucid dreaming in which you can make these seemingly absurd claims [that Greene and Trump routinely make]. Lesley Stahl can’t really contend with that [as she’s] using the frame that [says] “we’re going to have a polite conversation.”

. . . I think, too, [that] just simply [countering Taylor Greene’s claim that all Democrats are pedophiles] by saying, “But they are not pedophiles,” [fails to recognize] this sexual mythology of the right. It is a mythology, and you can’t fact-check a myth. The myth is not based on a claim to reality. Marjorie Taylor Greene knows that. She knows that her power is in spectacle, as fascism is always understood. It’s an aesthetic politics.

So, what [Stahl] did . . . really, in some ways, amounted to a defense of Marjorie Taylor Greene. When you show Lesley Stahl strolling along with Marjorie Taylor Greene and marveling at her beautifully kept lawn, it’s saying, “Oh, see, you thought this person was dangerous, but here I am walking safely along with them.” Marjorie Taylor Greene is dangerous. We need to understand the danger. It’s not that she’s going to go feral and attack Lesley Stahl. It’s that she’s going to remake this country in a fascist image.

For Democracy Now!’s complete interview with Jeff Sharlet, click here.


Related Off-site Links:
“I See This as a Global Fascist Moment”: Author Jeff Sharlet on Interviewing Far-right Americans – Ann Neumann (The Guardian, March 30, 2023).
We’re Reaching Fascism’s “Inflection Point” – Again – James Roosevelt, Jr, et al (The Hill, February 8, 2023).
Sociologist Says the U.S. Is Still on the Path to Becoming a “Fascist Country” – Cheryl Teh (Business Insider, November 25, 2022).
Who Is Fighting the Rise of Fascism in the U.S.? – Brynn Tannehill (Dame, March 9, 2023).
“Fascism, Full Stop”: Progressives in Congress Condemn Expulsion of Tennessee Democrats – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, April 7, 2023).
For Richer or Poorer – Prosperity Gospel Misleads On Needs – Eric L. McDaniel (Newsweek, September 7, 2022).
Understanding the Threat of White Christian Nationalism – William D. Lindsey (Bilgrimage, September 7, 2022).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Historian Nancy MacLean: The Threat to American Democracy Is at “Red-Alert”
• Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the Return of Fascism in Italy
• Judith Butler on the Reactionary Movement and Fascist Trend Opposed to Diverse Ideas About Gender
• Jelani Cobb: Quote of the Day – September 4, 2022
• “Come for the Racism, Stay for the Autocracy”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• Heather Cox Richardson: It’s Up to Us to Prove That Democracy Is Still a Viable Form of Government
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking Democracy
• “The Coup Attempt on Jan. 6th Was a Warning for What’s to Come If We Don’t Act”
• “My Biggest Worry Is for My Country”
• Republicans Pose an “Existential Threat” to American Democracy
• The Big Switch
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Republicans Don’t Care About American Democracy
• “The Republican Party Has Now Made It Official: They Are a Cult”
• Heather Cox Richardson on Combating the Republican Party’s “Rigging of the System”
• David Remnick: Quote of the Day – February 13, 2021
• Dan Rather on America’s “Moment of Reckoning”
• Michael Harriot: Quote of the Day – January 6, 2021
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
• “We Have an Emergency On Our Hands”: Marianne Williamson On the “Freefall” of American Democracy
• Fascism Is Upon Us
• On International Human Rights Day, Saying “No” to Donald Trump and His Fascist Agenda
• Trump’s Playbook

A Vortex of the Miraculous

– “Universal Lord, I Hold the Key” (detail)
by Thomas Blackshear II

The Wild Reed’s 2023 Holy Week series continues with a second excerpt from Marianne Williamson’s 2004 book The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life. (To start at the beginning of this series, click here.)

Crucifixion takes many forms: material, mental, emotional, and spiritual. . . . All forms of ego* have ultimate destruction as their goal.

. . . The resurrection is God’s answer to the crucifixion; it is His uplifting of our consciousness to the point where the effects of fear are canceled. Our holiness – God’s love within us – is the only way humankind has ever transcended darkness, and it is the only way we ever will.

“Jesus wept,” as we all do, challenged in our various ways by the lies and projections of the ego. Jesus’s crucifixion – the torture and murder of an innocent man – is a radical teaching example, a demonstration of the strength of fear and then the power of love to overcome it. Jesus died, then lay in his tomb for three days. And for that period of time, of course, it seemed to those who loved him as if all hope were lost. Yet hope is of God, and what is of God is never lost.

Jesus transcended the crucifixion by taking it on, as it were. Confronted with the murderous projections of others, he continued to love with an open heart. And by allowing his heart to be as big as the universe, he became a vortex of the miraculous. . . . [I]n the presence of Jesus, the laws of death were suspended.

What did Jesus have that we don’t have? Nothing. The issue is not that he had something we don’t have, but that he didn’t have anything else. His love of God had cast out all else, leaving only the eternally true.

– Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from The Gift of Change:
Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life
HarperCollins, 2004
pp. 187-188

NEXT: Tomb Time


* In The Gift of Change, Marianne Williamson writes the following about the ego.

The word ego here means what it meant to the ancient Greeks: a small and separated self. When we identify with the ego it’s like looking at a hangnail and thinking, “That’s who I am.” The ego is an imposter self, masquerading as who we really are yet in reality the embodiment of our self-hatred. It is the power of our own minds turned against us, pretending to be our champion yet in reality undermning all our hopes and dreams. The ego is a delusional splinter that has cut itself off from our larger spiritual reality. It sets up a parallel mental kingdom in which it sees itself as different and special, always justified in keeping the rest of the world at bay. Seeing ourselves as separate, we subconsciously attract and interpret circumstances that seem to bear out that belief. That delusional kingdom is hell on earth.

When we remember who we are, when we stand firm in the light of our own true being as children of God, then the ego begins, however gradually, to recede. Darkness cannot stand when we truly embrace the light [i.e., right/divine understanding] – when we consciously foster it and devote ourselves to it. That is why recognizing who we are – that we are love, that we are as God created us – is the most important thing we can do in any instant. Love is our spiritual reality, untarnished by anything that has happened in the material world. . . . [O]nly when we reject the ego’s account of who we are, can we begin to discover who we really are.

And who we really are, is holy.

Our holiness is both the opposite of and the antidote to the ego. It is a state of being in which we have reconnected with our Source, remembering that in fact we never left. We were created by God in a state of holiness, we were born onto the earth in a state of holiness, and we will return to this state upon our death. All of us, however, in between our infancy and death, fell asleep to our true nature and experience the hell of our self-imposed separation from God. Remembering our connection to our Source awakens us and frees us from the nightmares we create. In any Holy Instant, the ego is made null and void.(Pp. 17-19)

See also the previous The Wild Reedposts:
• Good Friday Reflections
• The Final Say
• “To Die and So to Grow”
• Jesus and the Art of Letting Go
• The Passion: “A Sacred Path of Liberation”
• No Deeper Darkness
• An Expression of Human Solidarity
• Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
• One Overwhelming Fire of Love
• The Passion of Christ – Jesus Goes to His Execution
• The Passion of Christ – Jesus is Nailed the Cross
• The Passion of Christ – Jesus Dies

Photo of the Day

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Morning Light
• Photo of the Day – June 27, 2022
• Photo of the Day – May 23, 2021
• Photo of the Day – May 14, 2020
• Photo of the Day – May 27, 2010
• Aligning With the Living Light
• I Need Do Nothing . . . I Am Open to the Living Light
• “Window, Mind, Thought, Air and Love”
• Being the Light
• A Wondrous Sight
• Adnan in Morning Light

Image: Michael J. Bayly.

From Spiritual Death to Rebirth

– “Love and Sacrifice” (detail)
by Salem Beiruti

This year for Holy Week I’ll be sharing a series of excerpts from Marianne Williamson’s 2004 book The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life. These excerpts are from chapter 9, “From Spiritual Death to Rebirth.”

The you that has been invalidated, put down, suppressed, violated, hurt, endangered, smeared, humiliated, mocked, brutalized, abandoned, lied about, stolen from – on and on goes the list of ego delight – such is your crucified self.

The crucifixion is not specifically a Christian concept; metaphysically, it is a pattern of energy, demonstrated physically in the life of Jesus but experienced psychically in the life of everyone. Energetically, it symbolizes a pattern of thought. Death is its mission and life its enemy, for it is the mind at work against God.

Thus the drama of every human life, as love is born into the world and then crucified by fear. But the story does not stop there. Resurrection, like crucifixion, is a metaphysical truth: it is God’s response to the ego, or the ultimate triumph of love. All that is ever going on, in any situation, is that love appears, it is crucified, and ultimately love holds sway.

. . . There is a dark force, not outside us but within us, always at work to destroy the love that God creates. That force, or ego, is held in place by our belief that we are separate from God and from each other; it expresses itself constantly through judgment and blame. It is every unkind word, attack thought, or violent action. Sometimes it whispers, as in a mere glance; sometimes it shouts, as in the genocide of a people. But it is always active, as long as it has fear to fuel it. And today it has its eye on the biggest prize of all – the prospect of global annihilation.

Sometimes it’s other people who string us up on the cross, and at other times we do it all by ourselves. Frequently, it seems to be a combination of both. The ego does not discriminate so much as it seeks to harm whoever it can reach. But the part of us that can be crucified is not the part of us that is who we actually are. The ego can destroy the body, but it cannot destroy the spirit.

– Marianne Williamson
Excerpted from The Gift of Change:
Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life
HarperCollins, 2004
pp. 185-187

NEXT: A Vortex of the Miraculous


The Wild Reed’s 2022 Holy Week posts:
• “The Most Authentic Statement of Created Life”
• Good Friday Reflections
• “This Spring, May We Renew the World”
• Easter for Mystics


The Wild Reed’s 2021 Holy Week post:
• The Final Say


The Wild Reed’s 2020 Holy Week posts:
• Holy Week, 2020
• God’s Good Gift


The Wild Reed’s 2019 Holy Week post:
• In This In-Between Time . . . of Both Loss and Promise

For The Wild Reed’s 2018 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Druid author and speaker John Michael Greer’s essay “The God from the House of Bread” in the 2012 anthology, Jesus Through Pagan Eyes: Bridging Neopagan Perspectives with a Progressive Vision of Christ), see:
• The God from the House of Bread: A Bridge Between Christianity and Paganism (Part 1)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 2)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 3)
• The God from the House of Bread (Part 4)




For The Wild Reed’s 2017 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from a 1999 interview with scholar and teacher Andrew Harvey, accompanied by images that depict Jesus as the embodiment of the Cosmic Christ), see:
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 1)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 2)
• Jesus Our Guide to Mystical Love (Part 3)




For The Wild Reed’s 2016 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Richard Horsley’s 1993 book Jesus and the Spiral of Violence, accompanied by images of Juan Pablo Di Pace as Jesus in the 2015 NBC mini-series A.D.: The Bible Continues), see:
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 1)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 2)
• Jesus and Social Revolution (Part 3)

For The Wild Reed’s 2015 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Cletus Wessels’ book Jesus in the New Universe Story), see:
• The Two Entwined Events of the Easter Experience
• Resurrection in an Emerging Universe
• Resurrection: A New Depth of Consciousness



For The Wild Reed’s 2014 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from John Neafsey’s book A Sacred Voice is Calling: Personal Vocation and Social Conscience), see:
• “To Die and So to Grow”
• The Way of the Wounded Warrior
• Suffering and Redemption
• A God With Whom It is Possible to Connect
• A Discerning Balance Between Holiness and Wholeness: A Hallmark of the Resurrected Life

For The Wild Reed’s 2013 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Albert Nolan’s book Jesus Before Christianity, accompanied by images of Jesus that some might call "unconventional"), see:
• Jesus: The Upside-down Messiah
• Jesus: Mystic and Prophet
• Jesus and the Art of Letting Go
• Within the Mystery, a Strange and Empty State of Suspension
• Jesus: The Revelation of Oneness




For The Wild Reed’s 2012 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind – A New Perspective on Christ and His Message), see:
• The Passion: “A Sacred Path of Liberation”
• Beyond Anger and Guilt
• Judas and Peter
• No Deeper Darkness
• When Love Entered Hell
• The Resurrected Jesus . . .



For The Wild Reed’s 2011 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Albert Nolan’s book Jesus Before Christianity, accompanied by images of various cinematic depictions of Jesus), see:
• “Who Is This Man?”
• A Uniquely Liberated Man
• An Expression of Human Solidarity
• No Other Way
• Two Betrayals
• And What of Resurrection?
• Jesus: The Breakthrough in the History of Humanity
• To Believe in Jesus

For The Wild Reed’s 2010 Holy Week series (featuring excerpts from Andrew Harvey’s book Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ), see:
• Jesus: Path-Blazer of Radical Transformation
• The Essential Christ
• One Symbolic Iconoclastic Act
• One Overwhelming Fire of Love
• The Most Dangerous Kind of Rebel
• Resurrection: Beyond Words, Dogmas and All Possible Theological Formulations
• The Cosmic Christ: Brother, Lover, Friend, Divine and Tender Guide

For The Wild Reed’s 2009 Holy Week series (featuring the artwork of Doug Blanchard and the writings of Marcus Borg, James and Evelyn Whitehead, John Dominic Crossan, Andrew Harvey, Francis Webb, Dianna Ortiz, Uta Ranke-Heinemann and Paula Fredriksen), see:
• The Passion of Christ (Part 1) – Jesus Enters the City
• The Passion of Christ (Part 2) – Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers
• The Passion of Christ (Part 3) – Last Supper
• The Passion of Christ (Part 4) – Jesus Prays Alone
• The Passion of Christ (Part 5) – Jesus Before the People
• The Passion of Christ (Part 6) – Jesus Before the Soldiers
• The Passion of Christ (Part 7) – Jesus Goes to His Execution
• The Passion of Christ (Part 8) – Jesus is Nailed the Cross
• The Passion of Christ (Part 9) – Jesus Dies
• The Passion of Christ (Part 10) – Jesus Among the Dead
• The Passion of Christ (Part 11) – Jesus Appears to Mary
• The Passion of Christ (Part 12) – Jesus Appears to His Friends

Last Days in Australia

Australian Sojourn – March 2023 • Part 8

Although I returned to Minnesota two days ago from my month-long visit to Australia, I still have a few photos to share both from my time with family and friends and of the beauty of the Great South Land.

And so today I share the last installment of my series documenting my March 2023 Australian sojourn. (To start at the beginning of this series, click here.)

After the trip that Mum and I made to our hometown of Gunnedah, I spent the last week of my Australian sojourn with Mum in Port Macquarie, her home since 2002. During this time we lunched with her friends, watched movies at night (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Callas Forever), spent a lovely afternoon at Rainbow Beach in nearby Bonny Hills, and visited my brother Tim and sister-in-law in Forster-Tuncurry, a little over an hour south of Port Macquarie. It was, in short, a very special time.

Above: Mum and I enjoying lunch at Port Macquarie’s West Port Club with my cousin Sharon and her husband Ross.


Left: With Mum’s niece and my cousin Sharon.

Above: Mum with friends (from left) Ken, Yvonne, Mary, and Daphne – Friday, March 31, 2023.



Right: With Daphne.

Above: On the rock platform at the south end of Port Macquarie’s Town Beach – Thursday, March 30, 2023.

I experience this rock platform as sacred ground, as I write about here, here and here.

Above: With my brother Tim – Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

Above: More Guruk beauty.



Right: During my last days in Australia I made good use of the rashie that the McGowan family gifted me with when I recently spent time with them in Yamba. I wore it when I went swimming at both Port Macquarie’s Town Beach and Flynns Beach.

Above and below: With Mum at Rainbow Beach in Bonny Hills, a quiet little town just south of Port Macquarie – Saturday, April 1, 2023.

I mentioned that one of the movies Mum and I watched together was Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

The photos I took of Mum on Rainbow Beach remind me of the scene in Wakanda Forever when Queen Ramonda (played by Angela Basset) stands on the beach waiting to meet Namor. Mum embodies that same beauty, dignity and fortitude as the Queen of Wakanda!

Above: With Mum and Tim – Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Above: Tim and I in Forster – April 2, 2023.

Above: Tuncurry, which is immediately adjacent to its twin town of Forster. The Coolongolook River separates the two towns.

Above: My sister-in-law Ros snapped this pic of me in Forster on Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Above: When visiting Tim and Ros in Forster I found out that I’m a direct descendant of King Edward III of England! This came to light thanks to the research of Ros, who is very much into genealogy, the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages.

Above: Catching up with my good friend Garth in Sydney, the night before returning to the U.S. – Monday, April 3, 2023.

Above: Sydney Airport on the morning of my departure from Australia – Tuesday, April 4, 2023.


NEXT: Out and About – Spring 2023


For previous installments in the “Australian Sojourn – March 2023” series, see:
• Central Station
• Goulburn
• Melbourne
• Guruk
• Mooloolaba
• Yamba
• Gunnedah

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

It’s Not Just Trump: Ralph Nader on the “Lawlessness” of Other U.S. Presidents

Ralph Nader’s observations on the recent arrest and arraignment of former president Donald Trump are both timely and insightful.

Nader shared his thoughts earlier today during an interview with Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman.

Following is part of what he said.

_________________

It’s important to say that all presidents violate laws. [Trump has] just taken it to a new and diverse height. But he’s doing it so brazenly that if he gets away with it, he will continue to contribute to the institutionalization of lawlessness by presidents of the United States.

Let’s face it: Bush, Obama and Trump have violated all kinds of laws in extending the [American] empire. Obama, for example, decreed, informally, that he could pick out anybody in the world and, as prosecutor, judge, jury, executioner, and in secret, wipe that person out. And he did it. Of course, Bush was the big war criminal, with Cheney, invading Iraq. But then Obama took out the regime in Libya without a congressional debate, without a congressional authorization, appropriation of funds or declaration of war. And that’s, to this day, producing chaos and violence, goaded by Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton, who pushed Obama to do this, and he later admitted it was the biggest mistake of his administration.

. . . [With Trump] we have all kinds of other tax violations, obstruction of voting, campaign finance violations, never mind his assault and battery of women, which he seemed to be proud of. So [his arraignment] yesterday represents the first turnaround. Why did the Democrats wait so long? They had twelve impeachable offenses in 2019. We’ve got them in the Congressional Record, December 19th; Congressman John Larson put them in. Nancy Pelosi just went with the Ukraine matter. . . . So you had one party letting the other party get away with it, in part because the Democrats also violated laws at the presidential level.

So I think the American people have got to see this as an opportunity, a gateway, to reverse the process where presidents are above the law. They have been above the law. People around the world have suffered and died because these presidents have been above the law. So, we have to broaden it out, because what the GOP is going to try to do is focus on yesterday and [Attorney] Alvin Bragg’s prosecution [of Trump], when the criminal lawlessness of Trump is massive.

For Democracy Now!’s complete interview with Ralph Nader, click here.


Related Off-site Links:
“Now Do Bush”: Trump Arraignment Contrasts Typical Impunity for U.S. Leaders – Jessica Corbett (Common Dreams, April 4, 2023).
Donald Trump Charged with 34 Felonies; He Intensifies Attacks on Judge, DA and Their Families – Democracy Now! (April 5, 2023).

UPDATE: Trump Finally Facing Accountability for Some of His Most Brazen Violations of the Law – Ralph Nader (Common Dreams, April 9, 2023).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Ellen Yaroshefsky: Quote of the Day – April 4, 2023
• Chauncey Devega on the Ongoing Danger of the Trump Cult
• Historian Nancy MacLean: The Threat to American Democracy Is at “Red-Alert”
• William D. Lindsey: Quote of the Day – August 12, 2022
• “How Can One Overreact to a Mortal Threat to American Democracy?”
• Insurrection at the United States Capitol
• Donald Trump’s Open and Shameless Criminality
• Progressive Perspectives on Corruption in U.S. Politics

For more of Ralph Nader at The Wild Reed, see:
• Hope Over Fear
• Ralph Nader: Quote of the Day – January 20, 2022
• Ralph Nader: Quote of the Day – December 5, 2016
• Across America, “the Giant Is Awake”

Image: Ralph Nader, pictured in 2014. (Photograph: Getty Images)

More Love and Union

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Richard Rohr (Part I)
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Richard Rohr (Part II)
• Meeting (and Embodying) the Lover God
• Celebrating the “Color of Spring” . . . and a Cosmic Notion of the Christ
• Richard Rohr: Quote of the Day – July 22. 2010
• Trust and Surrender