by Fred Richards                                                                  

Reading the Hebrew prophets I imagined what message a contemporary Old Testament prophet would possibly deliver if he or she were called by God to speak to the people of America.

I heard the Lord say unto the people of America:

I have made you a nation of immigrants and refugees,

a sanctuary for seekers of justice fleeing tyranny and oppression.

I established you to be a citadel of hope

but many among you now prefer building walls of fear and hate.

For generations, your Lady of Liberty welcomed suffering souls

to your shore, her flame a beacon of light to the world.

Some of you have forgotten who you are and now shout: 

“Give me your white masses yearning to be rich,

your big-spenders ready to make America great again.”

I lifted you up to pursue liberty and justice for all

and not just for the rich and powerful.

I now mourn the failure of the fortunate to treat,

with respect, the wretched and forlorn.

I deplore those who covet wealth and power

while treating the poor with contempt.

Can freedom survive when the rich grow richer

and the poor fall into hopelessness and despair?

Know that I am served through justice and love.

Of what value are your mega-houses of prayer

if you ignore the cries of the oppressed?

Know you will not find me among

the self-satisfied and spiritually smug.

Seek me, rather, among the homeless and the hungry,

the oppressed and imprisoned. You will find me

healing the sick and wounded, comforting

the lonely and lost, and bringing hope to the hopeless.

Your leaders mislead and bicker among themselves.

Candidates invite foreign adversaries to help them win.

They conspire with despots and tyrants while fighting

with allies and friends, ridicule heroes and gold star families

but praise dictators who murder and dismember their critics.

Politicians hug the flag and mouth patriotic slogans

while homeless veterans die by their own hands.

Many among you shout racist rants at rallies,

fan the flames of division, and break laws with impunity.

For generations, some of you have used my name

to justify slavery, to defend segregation, and

to further sexism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia.

I see white nationalists with Nazi flags marching in your cities.

Racists shout “go back to where you came from”

at my children of color, but refuse to repent and return to me.

How worthy are your beliefs and theologies that cause

people to be lynched, beaten, shunned, and oppressed? 

I am weary of  xenophobia, the disregard of

children who are not white clones of .your own

Do  you think there is no limit to my patience?

Can I defend justice and withhold my wrath forever?

Hear me, America.

I am a God who delights in difference and diversity.

I cherish equally all my children: 

brown and black, yellow, red, and white.

I am deaf to your prayers

when you only fight for the rights of the unborn,

but speak not a word on behalf of caged children

weeping for their fathers and mothers.

Know that the loud singing of your hymns

cannot extinguish the anguished cries of the terrified and oppressed.

You do unto innocent children of color

things you’d never allow your own children and pets to endure.

May you harm children and not be judged?

May you traumatize children and not be held accountable?

I charge you with abuse and neglect, with cruelty to my children.

How can you remain free if you do not let my children go?!

I commissioned you caretakers of the earth but you ravage and exploit her.

She shakes with rage under your feet. Once fertile fields are dry and barren,

temperatures rise and forests burn, rivers and oceans die,

endangered species disappear, glaciers melt, and cities drown.

I gave you a garden and you make it a dump!

Surely your children and their children will despise you

for leaving them with a world uninhabitable.

Hear me, people of America and the world:

You must love the earth to live;

abuse and exploit her and you will die.

Have you forgotten what I told you?

If you turn from your selfish ways, I will hear you.

I will forgive your transgressions and heal your land.

But if you continue your destructive ways,

Your children and grandchildren will perish.

If you fail to heed my warning,

how can I save you from the catastrophe at hand?

I have showed you that loving country is not demonizing others,

not hating foreigners, immigrants, and minorities.

I forbid you to make “el sueño Americano” a nightmare

for my people of color. Why do you not weep with me

when white supremacists make mass killings as American

as apple pie?  Why do so many of you remain silent

when persons of faith are murdered as they pray,

children are gunned down in schools,

and your brothers and sisters are terrorized?

I do not demand perfection, but I call on the people of America

to turn away from destructive ways, to remember

who and what you are, and to remake and renew yourselves

in the image of my justice and love.

                ————–

And I said unto the Lord:

Your words are harsh and hard to hear. You have weighed the evidence

and found us guilty of violating who you have created and called us to be.

Who among us, save the children, can claim to be faultless and innocent?

Who among us is not guilty of doing violence to your kingdom?

Who among us does not tremble with fear

as we contemplate our transgressions and beg for mercy?

Lord, I am weary and discouraged.  I want to withdraw from you and the world,

but you seek me out and summon me  to stand before you and speak on behalf

of the people of America.  Who am I to counsel and dispute with my Creator?

I am often conflicted and confused, like the brothers and sisters I am called

to defend. My actions fall short of my ideals and dreams.

What I want to do, I do not; what I want not to do, I do.

Is it not a mistake that you call upon me to convince America to overcome

despair with hope and hate with love? Who am I, Lord, 

to persuade you to soften your anger and judgment

and acknowledge the multitudes pursuing liberty and justice for all?

Who am I to remind you to recognize the countless persons

of all colors and creeds opposing racism and hate?

Is it brazen of me to ask you to rejoice in the millions,

here and around the world, fighting to save and restore the earth?

I have known you to be a just God, holding us accountable

for undermining the democratic ideals we claim to embody and defend.

I confess that we are guilty of denying to some the freedoms

we demand for ourselves. We are guilty of remaining silent

while others steal people’s lives and traumatize children.

And we are guilty of pillaging and polluting the earth. We are like

mad arsonists burning down the homes in which we live.

I know, Lord, you have loved us with a steadfast love.

You have invited us, again and again,

to do justice, to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with you and one another.

You have not forsaken us when we have forgotten you.

You are our God and we are your children.

Please do not abandon us in this time of crisis.

Please temper your justice with mercy, your righteousness

with love, and your judgment with compassion.

Help us to find the courage to confront our fears

of loving others different from ourselves.

Help us to find the wisdom and will

to repair and restore, and not destroy, the earth.

We, forever in need of your encouragement and grace,

call upon you to forgive us as we forgive, to comfort us

as we comfort, to judge us as we judge, to love us as we love

the children of the world and the least among us.

We call upon you to care for and about us

as we care for and about the earth.

Help us, Lord, to remember and confront who we have been

and who we can yet become, and have mercy on our souls.