Anyone read this excellent Tim Wise piece?

[ObaMania]

Sorry it is so long, but it is worth a read. It's powerful stuff. I wanted to see if it was previously posted but couldn't because the search function is down.
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A God With Whom I am Not Familiar
By Tim Wise

This is an open letter to the man sitting behind me at La Paz today, in Nashville, at lunchtime, with the Brooks Brothers shirt:

You don't know me. But I know you.

I watched you as you held hands with your tablemates at the restaurant where we both ate this afternoon. I listened as you prayed, and thanked God for the food you were about to eat, and for your own safety, several hundred miles away from the unfolding catastrophe in New Orleans.

You blessed your chimichanga in the name of Jesus Christ, and then
proceeded to spend the better part of your meal--and mine, since I was too near your table to avoid hearing every word--morally scolding the people of that devastated city, heaping scorn on them for not heeding the warnings to leave before disaster struck. Then you attacked them--all of them, without distinction it seemed--for the behavior of a relative handful: those who have looted items like guns, or big screen TVs.

I heard you ask, amid the din of your colleagues "Amens," why it was that instead of pitching in to help their fellow Americans, the people of New Orleans instead--again, all of them in your mind--chose to steal and shoot at relief helicopters.

I watched you wipe salsa from the corners of your mouth, as you nodded agreement to the statement of one of your friends, sitting to your right, her hair neatly coiffed, her makeup flawless, her jewelry sparkling. When you asked, rhetorically, why it was that people were so much more decent amid the tragedy of 9-11, as compared to the aftermath of Katrina, she had offered her response, but only after apologizing for what she admitted was going to sound harsh.

"Well," Buffy explained. "It's probably because in New Orleans, it
seems to be mostly poor people, and you know, they just don't have the same regard."

She then added that police should shoot the looters, and should have done so from the beginning, so as to send a message to the rest that theft would not be tolerated. You, who had just thanked Jesus for your chips and guacamole, said you agreed. They should be shot. Praise the Lord.

Your God is one with whom I am not familiar.

Two thoughts.

First, it is a very fortunate thing for you, and likely for me, that my two young children were with me as I sat there, choking back fish tacos and my own seething rage, listening to you pontificate about shit you know nothing about.

Have you ever even been to New Orleans?

And no, by that I don't mean the New Orleans of your company's sales conference. I don't mean Emeril's New Orleans, or the New Orleans of Uptown Mardi Gras parties.

I mean the New Orleans that is buried as if it were Atlantis, in
places like the lower 9th ward: 98 percent black, 40 percent poor, where bodies are floating down the street, flowing with the water as it seeks its own level.

Have you met the people from that New Orleans? The New Orleans that is dying as I write this, and as you order another sweet tea?

I didn't think so.

Your God--the one to whom you prayed today, and likely do before every meal, because this gesture proves what a good Christian you are--is one with whom I am not familiar.

Your God is one who you sincerely believe gives a flying fuck about your lunch. Your God is one who you seem to believe watches over you and blesses you, and brings good tidings your way, while simultaneously letting thousands of people watch their homes be destroyed, and perhaps ten thousand or more die, many of them in the streets for lack of water or food.

Did you ever stop to think just what a rancid asshole such a God would have to be, such that he would take care of the likes of you, while letting babies die in their mother's arms, and old people in wheelchairs, at the foot of Canal Street?

Your God is one with whom I am not familiar.

But no, it isn't God who's the asshole here, Skip (or Brad, or
Braxton, or whatever your name is).

God doesn't feed you, and it isn't God that kept me from turning
around and beating your lily white privileged ass today either.

God has nothing to do with it.

God doesn't care who wins the Super Bowl.

God doesn't help anyone win an Academy Award.

God didn't get you your last raise, or your SUV.

And if God is even half as tired as I am of having to listen to
self-righteous bastards like you blame the victims of this nightmare
for their fate, then you had best eat slowly from this point forward.

Why didn't they evacuate like they were told?

Are you serious?

There are 100,000 people in that city without cars. Folks who are too poor to own their own vehicle, and who rely on public transportation every day. I know this might shock you. They don't have a Hummer2, or whatever gas-guzzling piece of crap you either already own or probably are saving up for.

And no, they didn't just choose not to own a car because the buses are so gosh-darned efficient and great, as Rush Limbaugh implied yesterday, and as you likely heard, since you're the kind of person who hangs on the every word of such bloviating hacks as these.

Why did they loot?

Are you serious?

People are dying, in the streets, on live television. Fathers and
mothers are watching their baby's eyes bulge in their skulls from dehydration, and you are begrudging them some Goddamned candy bars, diapers and water?

If anything the poor of New Orleans have exercised restraint.

Maybe you didn't know it, but the people of that city with whom you likely identify--the wealthy white folks of Uptown--were barely touched by this storm. Yeah, I guess God was watching over them: protecting them, and rewarding them for their faith and superior morality. If the folks downtown who are waiting desperately for their government to send help--a government whose resources have been stretched thin by a war that I'm sure you support, because you love freedom and democracy--were half as crazed as you think, they'd march down St. Charles Avenue right now and burn every mansion in
sight. That they aren't doing so suggests a decency and compassion for their fellow man and woman that sadly people like you lack.

Can you even imagine what you would do in their place?

Can you imagine what would happen if it were well-off white folks
stranded like this without buses to get them out, without nourishment, without hope?

Putting aside the absurdity of the imagery--after all, such folks
always have the means to seek safety, or the money to rebuild, or the political significance to ensure a much speedier response for their concerns--can you just imagine?

Can you imagine what would happen if the pampered, overfed corporate class, which complains about taxes taking a third of their bloated incomes, had to sit in the hot sun for four, going on five days? Without a Margarita or hotel swimming pool to comfort them I mean?

Oh, and please, I know. I'm stereotyping you. Imagine that. I've
assumed, based only on your words, what kind of person you are, even though I suppose I could be wrong. How does that feel Biff? Hurt your feelings? So sorry. But hey, at least my stereotypes of you aren't deadly. They won't effect your life one bit, unlike the ones you carry around with you and display within earshot of people like me, supposing that no one could possibly disagree.

But I'm not wrong am I Chip? I know you. I see people like you all the time, in airports, in business suits, on their lunch breaks. People who will take advantage of any opportunity to ratify and reify their pre-existing prejudices towards the poor, towards black folks. You see the same three video loops of the same dozen or so looters on Fox News and you conclude that poor black people are crazy, immoral, criminal.

You, or others quite a bit like you, are the ones posting messages on chat room boards, calling looters sub-human "vermin," "scum," or
"cockroaches." I heard you use the word "animals" three times today: you and that woman across from you--what was her name? Skyler?

What was it you said as you scooped the last bite of black beans and rice into your eager mouth? Like zoo animals? Yes, I think that was it.

Well Chuck, it's a free country, and so you certainly have the right I suppose to continue lecturing the poor, in between checking your Blackberry and dropping the kids off at soccer practice. If you want to believe that the poor of New Orleans are immoral and greedy, and unworthy of support at a time like this--or somehow more in need of your scolding than whatever donation you might make to a relief fund--so be it.

But let's leave God out of it, shall we? All of it.

Your God is one with whom I am not familiar, and I'd prefer to keep it that way.

[niyad]

1. this was excellent, and I am sending it on

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. I gotta link to this on

http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/liberalchristians.htm

[jhain]

10. link?

maybe I need more coffee- I can't find it here.

and I REALLY need to send this to a few (hundred) people

[Jokinomx]

3. Amen......

Thanks for posting this piece. It is to bad that those that need to read this won't.

[Booster]

4. An extremely good read. Kick and nominated. Tim Wise sounds

like somebody we all would like to know.

[political_invader]

5. I just Blasted this to my Local newspaper and radio !!!!

I think everyone should do the same.

Thanks for the post.

[deep_thwart]

6. Tim is Definitely Wise

Read your article, Tim. Excellent! I hope more of these people will eventually wake up. God mentions in the Scriptures that our priority is to have mercy and to help the poor. If you haven't been there, you can't identify the problems that hold people back from making better decisions.

The worst decision is to sit on a huge nest egg, and not "sacrifice" a portion of it to those in need.

After we solve the problems in New Orleans, many of us will need to see it through, and help people out of their psychological poverty. That is the only remedy that will have long-term benefits.

We all need to wake up, put our money where our mouth is, have a compassionate heart, put "feet to our prayers" to help those in need > and you'd be surprised to find how many of those in poverty actually DO have character, and live by morals and ethics.

Not to help will be a heavy sentence unless we get up out of our "materialistic chairs" > get in gear and be willing to help, both physically, psychologically and spiritually. It's called SUPPORT. We are a DEAD nation without it. After all, "we the people" keep this nation together.

[Karenina]

7. Do check out more of his writings.

He's one of the few white people who actually "get it."

[POAS]

9. I read this Saturday and immediately ordered

one of his books.

I also made sure I passed the article along to my email list.

Thanks Mr. Wise, your doin good.

[newyawker99]

13. Hi deep_thwart!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Solly Mack]

8. Giving it the 5th nod...cause Wise should always be on the greatest page

[greekspeak]

11. Recommended and Nominated for Stripping Away Hypocrisy n/t

[fiddlestix]

12. This is perfect!

I posted it at 2 message boards where Republican Tawking Points Rule...

Let's see if it helps...

[eallen]

14. Alas, Tim Wise shows the same core hypocrisy as the fellow he criticizes.

Tim Wise claims to be familiar with a god? Great! Let Tim act as mediator, so that the rest of us can ask that god some questions, and get back that god's own words in answer. There are all sorts of questions begging for a god's answer, from the theological -- Why haven't you heretofore made your views more available? -- to the practical -- What, if anything, did you have to do with Katrina's course?

I suspect, when push comes to actually getting literal answers back, Tim Wise really isn't all that familiar with a god. Like everyone else who claims this, he is merely reifying his own religious views, trying to claim superiority for them, by attributing them to his god, rather than to himself. That is the core hypocrisy, of the believer he criticizes. And that Wise also practices.

This article doesn't deserve applause. Save that for those who are honest enough not to pretend they know a god.

[xchrom]

15. you get an f in comprehension.

wise didn't claim to know a god in his article -- and the end of the article stated quite plainly that god -- any god -- should be left out of all of it.

we all Know the god the troop was praying to -- unless you've been hiding under a rock for 2000 years -- and wise quite rightly points out they have it wrong.

even non-believers know scripture -- it's a book available for anyone to read and many aetheists do indeed know the book -- even folk of other faiths have read the book.

[cilla4progress]

16. I beg to differ.

I too know these people. From the "thankyouLordohLordyouareso vastandwonderful" regular pre-meal prayers, to the "tsk tsk those looters/insurgents/fill in the blanks - aren't' they shameful & guilty" sanctimonious judgers (isn't there an admonishment in the good book - about not throwing stones, is it?).

I think Wise does hit it on the head. My family (thankfully) does not participate in any tv viewing: we cut it out of our lives some 8-10 years ago. So I am spared the continuous loops and the graphic news of universal tragedy hyped by the idiots & corporate vultures. I choose my news online, on public radio, and through various magazine subscriptions, like National Geographic. This helps me keep it at bay and sift through the obvious scurf to the "real news" (or so I like to think...).

There are more Biffs and Buffs than we like to imagine. They are sharing pleasantries as they hold the door open for you; they are waving you through into traffic; they are sitting next to you in the restaurant. They are very nice. And I'm afraid to tell you, in all my self-righteousness & superiority, they are misinterpreting the holy message of all religions & gods & goddesses: that we are all connected. That what happens to the least of us, happens to all of us. It's as simple as that. The rest is all culture and ritual. And when and if we ever get it, that will be our salvation.

[eallen]

17. "Misinterpreting"? On what basis do you claim your interpretation correct?

By correct, I do not mean ethically superior. Speaking as a secular liberal, I find the liberal versions of Christianity far preferable to the fundamentalist ones. What I'm asking is on what possible basis can you claim that your interpretation is factually correct?

The problem is that Judaism, and Christianity after it, and Islam after that, all have been constructed and reconstructured and reconstructed. Go back far enough, and there is a tribal religion whose god orders genocides. That's recorded several places in the Pentateuch. Your version, after much more reconstruction, some of which became recognized as scripture, is no doubt more civilized. But it's still just interpretation on top of interpretation on top of interpretation. One group's vision of god against another group's. Whatever gods there are themselves seem shy to take sides in these theological debates.

Fundamentalists -- and this is what characterizes them -- pretend to have a factual basis to their faith, that they have the very Word of God, and the key to its correct interpretation. When pushed on that, their epistemological explanations fall apart, and it quickly turns out that theirs is no more than just another human interpretation. When liberal believers, though, try to fault the fundamentalists for misinterpretating, they are falling into the very error of fundamentalism.

[cilla4progress]

18. The "factual" basis...

your word - mine would be - the common denominator - of all religions is this, the golden rule. It permeates all religion I know of (including Wicca - the 3-fold rule & Wiccan rede: "an it harm none, do as ye will....") Even biology respects the rule of connectedness. So there's your scientific basis.

I won't buy into the factual correctness argument beyond that, however. I find the question intriguing but unnecessary. I completely agree about reconstructionism - the cultural and traditional layers. These are mere superficialities, which however, regrettably, lead to most of the destruction.

The truth, the reality, on any number of levels, is plain as day: whether out of self-interest or moral calling, unless humanity comes to truly believe and behave with this principle of connectedness in mind, it will be our end.