Santa Fe New MexicanOur civil split will only widenRudy Bentz, Ed. D.
Posted: Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 10/18/09We have begun our second civil war. The first volley — a war of words and ideas, of rants and discourse offered by self-proclaimed pundits and posturing politicians, by leaders and lunatics — rattled the air this past summer. It continues and intensifies.
Tea parties more like war parties and sundry town-hall meetings more like barroom brawls offered ample opportunities for the ignorant and the sagacious to mingle and mangle. Men openly carried loaded weapons along with signs declaring that The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
This, according to the rule of law, is their right and a clear notion of the new life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Include here, as well, the new understanding of democracy: all for none, and none for all. In the end, no one owned the tree or the prophesied blood. But the lot of it took direct aim at the Fort Sumter of our day: the White House and the black man who lives there.
So, under the cover of my white skin and laissez-faire education, I will say this: Before the year is out, the volley of words, gestures and banners will become a volley of lead, fire and blood. That forlorn tree to which many boldly and blindly approach, will be nourished, indeed, by squandered innocence, dreams eternally deferred, and birthrights buried forever. That old rugged cross, made from that old glorious blood, is rotting away.
Christ, an early patriot and noteworthy liberator, spilled his life's blood into a chalice of promise. Now, a mandated tyrant — Citizen Christ — offers his blood once again, but in the name of neochristian existentialism. This present tyranny is against the blood of humankind. Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends have become imprisoned in the virtual world of cable-vision civility and enraptured by the pious lies preached by Citizen Christ.
American culture is devoid of spirit. There is a primordial knowing of purpose missing in Western worship — a feral spirit. Where, for example, is the spontaneous expression of daily spiritual practice? Where is the untamed reverence for what simply is? The spirit in the contemporary neochristian home is contrived. That primordial soul we once commonly shared surrounded us like blood flowing through the air.
We breathed the scent of sweet sex rising from our innocent flesh and naked spirit copulating into eternity. When satiated, we willingly prayed. We gratefully ate the dirt that surrounded us, took in its color and life and left behind our human offerings — our dung, our semen, our umbilical cords, our bodies — that call spirit to the place like grinding stones milling the sands and seeds and souls, and setting free the dust that settles upon that divine source of place.
As the battles unfold, we find an ancient and angry god, tormented by his irrelevant and fabricated offspring who, in some form or fashion, is left to rescue all from spiritual confusion, chaos and corruption. He, the son of all and the all of nothing, is paradoxically poised to return some day soon and save certain citizenship from sanctified frauds, fabricated spiritualities and counterfeit copies of hope.
A divine duplicity worshipped by a mortal singularity. Lining up on the other side of the field of confrontation are those who pronounce that his mendacious piety, sanctified sedition, credo of intolerance, and a supranational faith-based practice that rejects spiritual depth and diversity on its face is simply unacceptable. Citizen Christ, this national guard declares, is here by aborted.
We, not god, are dead.
Santa Fean Rudy Bentz, Ed. D., an educator for 35 years, continues to teach and develop academic and therapeutic curricula.©2009, The Santa Fe New Mexican and MediaSpan
