The prophet Habakkuk is upset with “THE LORD” for his governance of the ancient nation of Israel. Habakkuk laments to THE LORD but really to his earthly governing Lords, “I cry out to you, “Violence!” “Wicked” people abound. But THE LORD/the Lords, “do not intervene…there is strife, and clamorous discord” because of the violent criminals.
The U.S. Empire is a nation governed by Lords – who are violent criminals. Still praised in history books are the criminal violators of native people living on the land and the enslaved people the violent criminals brought to the land. Criminally violated as well were children, specifically in industrial revolution labor settings. Some of these violated children, boys specifically, started emulating their nation’s violent criminals. Male youth, individually but more harmfully as gangs, began to govern as thieves and killers in their part of the world as they saw the nation’s rulers and soldiers operate as a gang of thieves and killers across the nation and the world. Proliferating across the world are gangs, especially weapons gangs. The weapons are used by national ruling gangs, local gangs, and various lone mass shooters – not lone at all really but members of their own gang of white supremacist men. It is a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Its plunderers include Smith-Wesson, Remington, Sturm Ruger, and Savage Arms as well as the retailers who sell them like Bass Pro, the government officials who do not govern them, and the banks that offer them lines of credit like Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. This entire criminal industry fuels gang warfare across the world; between soldiers of any countries, police and citizens in any city, and young men in any neighborhood. Operators of the plundering gang system deter us from the peaceful revolution we most need. It frees us from the Habakkuk types who cry for “Violence!” from their criminal ruling Lords unawares it is the Lord class who causes the “strife, and clamorous discord.” But our freedom would limit the gangs’ plunder. So, the criminal violators enslave through fear. Thus, fearful 2nd Amendment proponents repeat the ruler’s criminal propaganda, saying, for example, “If guns are criminalized only criminals will have guns” – and they are right. Criminals will always have guns – the criminal ruling class of Lords who are the producing, retailing, governing, and banking industry of gun manufacturing. They are the Lords who Lord their guns over us, Lord the 2nd Amendment that sanctifies guns over us, and Lord their killing of men, women, and children over us. Thus, “Violence!,” “strife, and clamorous discord” abound.
Peacemakers minister to boys who emulate gangs. The ministers obviously do not join the gangs nor do they merely advocate for liberal reform of the boys. Instead, peacemakers uproot the boys from their former lives. They do so by strengthening conscience, nurturing character, and bolstering new skills. The transformation is for each of the young men personally and for their gang socially to shift from criminality to contribution. Ministers include David Washington of the Evangelical Church in Chicago and Amy L. Williams through her ministry, The Hope Dealer. Who has been doing the equally necessary peacemaking ministry of taking on the national gangs of politicians and soldiers? As with local gangs, it is obvious that peacemakers are not called to join these gangs nor advocate for liberal reforms of them. Again, we are called to uproot these gang members from their violence by strengthening conscience, nurturing character, and bolstering new skills; personally and socially. We uproot the governing national gangs and we uproot their emulating gangs of 2nd Amendment proponents. It is as Jesus says in today’s Gospel, ‘If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we would say to this empire, ‘Be uprooted.’ and it would obey us.”
Prayer: Spirit, free us from gangs and free us for faith in their transformation.
Question: Recognizing that ‘boys will be boys’ is a gang mentality, what are we doing to transform how we raise boys, especially gangs of them?
October 06, 2019 Gospel Luke 17:5-10 Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time