Giving Water to a Traveler

During the last few years, I was appalled to see pictures of Christian “leaders” fawning over Donald Trump. If they were lecturing him about his ungodly policy of child separation would be one thing, but they were not, they supported him. They and their followers evidently supported the inhumane policy of separating parents attempting to immigrate legally into this country from their children. Over 5000 families were torn apart at the southern border of the United States. The children were sent to large indoor facilities, and what I saw on television was young children, some as young as four or five, held in animal cages where they slept on hard floors with weird silver blankets. Some young children, I think mostly young girls, were moved around the country in the middle of the night to hide their whereabouts. Much was secret about this program; investigators were not allowed to see much in the facilities. I can only imagine how many individuals were involved in carrying out these despicable deeds, and it horrifies me to know that people can do such things to others. I am horrified, because the same kind of person worked in the Nazi Death Camps during the 1930’s and 40’s, responsible for the death of many millions of innocent people.

The Trump administration did not keep records of the children they separated, nor did they make any effort to correct their wrong. So here we are, a few years later with a new administration that has made it a priority to reunite the remaining separated children. President Joe Biden introduced a task force to reunite the 700 or so children still separated, and already, a little over 100 families have been reunited. Yesterday, the new Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called the separation of children from their families “the most powerful example of cruelty” by the Trump administration and said reuniting the families is one of the Biden administration’s top priorities, something Mayorkas described as a “moral imperative.”

The separation policy was carried out by the Trump administration to be cruel. That is the reason they gave for it, and it was a cruel, evil policy, where innocent children were tortured, traumatized for life and such was not enough to shake the faith of the misguided Christians. Trump received strong support from white evangelicals in the last two presidential elections, some estimates at 80 percent. A recent survey found that about half of America’s white Protestants believed Trump was chosen by God to be president. For the charismatic Christians and Pentecostals the percentage is higher and scarily, about 65 million Americans align in that group.

Back in 2015, (the prophet) Jeremiah Johnson along with other Pentecostals and charismatics embraced the idea that God had chosen Trump to restore America’s Christian moorings, and his unlikely victory gave credibility to their guess. This time the prophet Johnson was wrong and he apologized for it and a couple of days later wrote, “Over the last 72 hours, I have received multiple death threats and thousands upon thousands of emails from Christians saying the nastiest and most vulgar things I have ever heard toward my family and ministry. I have been labeled a coward, sellout, a traitor to the Holy Spirit, and cussed out at least 500 times.”

What, dear friends, has happened to the most cherished religion on the earth today? It has completely lost its moorings, what was once a religion of love now embraces hate and cruelty. The moral teaching of heaven is not difficult to understand. I present it often enough, but here it is again. Compassion for all breathing creatures that cry is the Holy Way. Be a peaceful and caring person. Consume a vegetarian diet, and enjoy watching and listening to the creatures of the land, water, and air, and if one is suffering, care for them. Do not harm any creature. It does not matter is they have two feet, four feet, or no feet and speak in a language you do not understand, treat them kindly, so all can enjoy life upon the earth.

Here is a mantra from the Veda to grow friendly.

Everyone has committed a disturbing number of thoughts and actions offensive to heaven, but to grow friendly and compassionate to all breathing creatures that cry is a means of compensation.