Fiction, Friends, Faith

In the middle of the last century Americans became increasingly paranoid about the threat of commnuism. Countries such as Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, and China were fully communist or on their way to becoming communist. America erupted with McCarthyism and many people were persecuted falsely and some rightly so. When I think of this crisis I am reminded of some things that Che Guevara, like him or not, said about the Batista regime. Che repeatedly made comments about how American imperialism had crushed Cuba’s economy and its people, between sweatshop like workers, mafia control, and just bad american business the inhabitants of Cuba had lost their voice and the dictactorship that Batista had implemented corrupted the whole of Cuba.
Now, saying all of that, realize that Che and Fidel did not necessarily follow the same mindset when it came to Cuba and its further existence. For today we see Cubans that cannot provide for their families and that are forced into the poverty that Soviet/Cuban communism entails.
My thoughts as I read some of what Che had said were directly correlated to the imperialistic nature of conservatism in the church. Constantly, because of my former self, I am plagued with hearing the words of influential christian leaders and their disdain for liberty. Of course their definition of liberty is much different than my own since they argue that the religious right is undoubtedly in the know for standing up for morality.
So as a Christian I ask myself-What does Christ say? What does Christ do?

This leads me to navigate his footsteps and and the life he lead, a life that wandered through the trenches of society and to the sick and sinful. I dont hate homosexuals, I actually know a few. I dont hate the girl who aborts a child, Ive met her. I dont hate them because they are different than me. I love them because they are different. I love them because they have chosen to live. So what if its different than my choice? It was Christ who let known his disdain for the religious, the hypocrites, the ones with a foot inside and a foot outside.
I think this liberty we have in choosing to follow Christ is one of the greatest opportunities we have in life. The fact that this choice led me to faith and truth is unsurpassed and I want everyone to know the freedom I have in living out truth, justice, peace and love. Yet, my want is never to negate my respect for others choices.
The world we live in is undeniably changing to a faster paced and more diversified culture. If we as Christ followers continue to, in a sense, have an imperialistic approach to society and church then we are only going to harvest more and more bad feelings in our communities. I believe, disagree or not, that our duty is to undoubtedly exemplify Christ. That being said-Maybe the reason Christ spent his ministry among the destitute was because he realized that sin only exists in the minds of the religous(in the minds of ourselves) and to wholly save the world we must not point to there wretched nature but rather to their present condition.
Ciao-

ps: shorty story shall be posted tonite…a must read.