The politics of Jesus --- Where does it hurt?

I'm never too bothered if I miss a Sunday Sermon.  I know I am able to fill that space here.  Father Michael  writes from the USA where politics is hotting up for a presidential election in 2016 - and he gives us a glimpse of the politics of Jesus...

Picture above from here 

It is an illustration from the Warsan Shire poem,

What They Did Yesterday Afternoon,

by Warsan Shire.

...At the heart of Jesus’ politics is an unspoken and yet ever present question: Where does it hurt?

That’s the question that drives and directs Jesus’ life and ministry. As Jesus will later say, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick” (Luke 5:31). Where does it hurt?

Look at the world, read the news, reflect on your life and it’s not hard to see how much we need a new politics, a Jesus kind of politics. Think back on those examples I gave at the beginning. Each of those is a story in which someone or some people is poor, captive, blind, oppressed, in need of divine favor. They are stories of pain and hurt, and sometimes they are our personal stories.

Jesus’ politics is large and all encompassing. No one gets left out. Jesus does not put conditions or qualifiers on his politics. The divine favor knows no boundaries and has no favorites. That’s what will upset and anger the hometown crowd in next week’s gospel (Luke 4:21-30).

Jesus’ political agenda is not determined or influenced by who is good or bad, or an insider or outsider. It doesn’t seem to matter to Jesus who you are, what you have done or left undone, or what you life is like. It’s really pretty simple. Are you poor? Good news to you. Are you a captive? Release for you. Are you blind? Sight to you. Are you oppressed? Go in freedom. Divine favor is not given to the poor, the captive, the blind, or the oppressed because they are good or righteous but because God is good and righteous.

So let me ask you this. How does the politics of Jesus compare with your own? ...

To read this post in its entirety, please go here.

Is fairness and equity alive and well across the WHOLE Australian polity?

I heard lots of people say “give Malcolm Turnbull a chance”. This is what he did with that chance. #auspol pic.twitter.com/Hr68KlaegI

— Van Badham (@vanbadham) December 16, 2015

Henry Giroux, Paulo Freire, free-market fundamentalism and Hannah Arendt's "dark times"

The forces of free-market fundamentalism are on the march ushering in a terrifying horizon of what Hannah Arendt once called “dark times.” 

Across the globe, the tension between democratic values and market fundamentalism has reached a breaking point. The social contract is under assault, neo-Nazism is on the rise, right wing populism is propelling extremist political candidates and social movements into the forefront of political life, anti-immigrant sentiment is now wrapped in the poisonous logic of nationalism and exceptionalism, racism has become a mark of celebrated audacity, and a politics of disposability comes dangerously close to its endgame of extermination for those considered excess. 

Under such circumstances, it becomes frightfully clear that the conditions for totalitarianism and state violence are still with us smothering critical thought, social responsibility, the ethical imagination, and politics itself.

This if frightening stuff.  It follows in the footsteps of Paolo Freire.  Freire came to notability with the publication of his most famous work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. To read more of this Henry Giroux article, please go to CounterPunch.