OpEdNews-- vox clematis in deserto

Prophets at OpEdNews

There are many among us who speak prophetically as Jeremiah or Isaiah.

But the meaning of the words has been lost. Living in our material world, murder is OK, but sex is Taboo. A murderer is sentenced to ten years, a pot smoker gets twenty. Our moral compass is skewed by money's magnet. Arbiters of ethics are molesting children. Humility has no place: from Yeats "The Second Coming":  "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.."

Another poet, Walter Benton, in his book, "This Is My Beloved," writes:

"Because hate is legislated, written into the primer and the testament,

shot into our blood and brains like vaccine or vitamins,

I need love more than ever now. I need your love...

more than hope or money, wisdom or a drink..."

Christians who believe in the literal Word with no interpretation haven't read or thought about it. Gospel means accepted, not derived, truth. Thinking is actually discouraged. Biblical admonishments to "get thee wisdom" or to "seek understanding" are lost on these lost sheep of Jesus. And don't tell them Jesus is a Liberal.

The minority of every religion sqeeks loudest, and gets the grease. Self-proclaimed arbiters of holiness reject the humble, compassionate of every religious group. Self-appointed Christians believe in war. Jews abandon wisdom for requiring bareheaded women to be stoned. Islam, the way of peace, has been co-opted by those who place their rules above other's lives. The meaning of "Religion" itself has been lost. It means: gathering together.

Those who speak as modern Jeremiahs stand alone. Scorned, ignored, often poor but foresighted, they have no crystal cathedrals, silk suits, or limos.

Read Rachel Carson. She was laughed at by Congress.  Read Ursula LeGuin on 'women talk'.

Money is not what these modern-day Isaiahs seek. Neither did Jesus or Buddha or Lao-Tse and so on. And everybody who sees money as their road to security dismisses those who lack it. Nobody's making money posting at OpEdNews. That's not the point.

So, yes, the foresight of humanity is intact. But few ever listen until it's too late and their money won't save them. We can't get people to move out of New Orleans, below a rising sea level. Not even NASA will move to higher ground from Houston and Canaveral.

The same ethics that the biblical prophets endorsed still hold, and our laws enshrine those qualities that ensure the most vulnerable among us are protected to bear children, to grow into tomorrow's mothers. And the ethics that endure are shared by Wiccans, mainstream religions, even secular humanists. But ethical laws are ignored, just like prophets.

The law has become a blueprint for crime. One thing begets it's opposite. Racism begets civil rights. Economic subjugation begets lawlessness. A border fence begets ladders and tunnels.I think it was McGovern who said that once you commit a war of aggression, you've broken pretty near every civilized law, anyway. The Bush administration has broken every law in the Geneva Conventions-- read for yourself.

US Code, War Crimes Act

US Code, Title 18: the Geneva Conventions, common article 147

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Grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a hostile Power, or wilfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular trial prescribed in the present Convention, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.

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Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.

Justice Louis D. Brandeis

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So, there are many secular and spiritual prophets among the people, especially at OpEdNews. The majority of people know why ethics work. The genius of Democracy, itself, is in deriving all power from the consent of the governed. And although many of us will suffer and die on the way, we, the people, are inexorable. We will not be ruled by great fortunes or tyrants. Everyone can see these injustices, this polluting, will not, can not endure. It is not prophecy that is uncommon, but ethical leadership. I am thankful OpEdNews provides a forum for all these prophetic voices.

Martin S. Weiss

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