Riffing and modification of meme

[kiya]

orangemike has a sort of meme thing going in protest of those people who are using "Christianity" to blame the gays, the Vodounistas, the abortion clinics, or whatever else they disapprove of for the strike of Hurricane Katrina.

He's asked people to repost Matthew 25:34-45 in their journals to show where they stand. (That being the one that concludes, "Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.")

I'm not having one of my semi-Christian phases right now, so I'm not going to quote the big chunk of the Book of Matthew; it's not mine to quote. orangemike has it. Other people have been posting it too. Google has thousands of copies. It's worth reading what he has to say about it, and I've linked him.

I'm going to recite the New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus, instead.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Mark your calendars, you won't be getting this sort of patriotic display from me for another couple of years. But I want to say that these so-called moral leaders are not merely casting aside their scripture, they are forgetting their national symbology, this social myth. Myth it may be, but lift that goddamn lamp, "Repent America", "American Family Association". You claim my nation in your titles, and repudiate it by your contemptible rhetoric. Lift your lamp and stop casting your stones.

Gods, these people make me angry.

Comments

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Thankee kindly. I'd count Emma's poem as representing the strong Jewish tradition of prophetic justice, which Christians consider Jesus to have followed and fulfilled. (YMMV.)

[kiya]

When I was reading the passage you quoted I was getting the last few lines of the New Colossus in my head, so I figured it was worth saying.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Amen! It's all Godly.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

A-fucking-men. I hate the way the self-righteous, intolerant "religious right" has appropriated the title "American." Because I love my country at least as much as they do, and I'm everything they hate.

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

Wow. What an amazing icon! It has all sorts of Biblical resonances for me.

[annwyd.livejournal.com]

I'm glad it's appreciated. :) For all that my other icons change, I'm pretty sure this one will remain my political icon for a very long time.

Because most discussions of politics could use a little more allegorical girl-on-girl love.