Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Everyone's a patriot - to something

     While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brother are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."
     He replied to them, "Who is my mother and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples he said, "Here are my mother and brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother."
     -Matthew 12:46-50
What wasn't reported was the reply of Jesus' mother: "Well, he's the one that ordered the damn pizza." So maybe Jesus could have lightened up a bit for the Herod's Pizza delivery boy, but I guess he wasn't much of a family loyalist. I've seen that be praised: being a loyalist. Loyal to fucking what, though??

People say they are loyal to their country, their masters, their toothpaste brand, whatever. But is that loyalty just a substitute for thinking? Well, people always seem to say their loyalty is a good thing. Sometimes even a moral thing. But there's only one thing in the known universe you can be loyal to and not have it destroy you: the truth.

That was Jesus' point. If your not loyal to the truth, then you are a destroyer of the fabric that holds us together. We all know this. That's why we try so hard to spin the truth our way. Yet, there's nothing so empty as the successful liar. He knows he's not the brother of Jesus - or a patriot.

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