Hard to watch, harder to understand. . .

What follows in the video is hard to watch, even harder to comprehend or imagine. Here's the lead from the Atlanta Constitution's report:

SARASOTA COUNTY, Florida — A police officer was caught on video tossing peanuts into a homeless inmate’s mouth as he was being booked into the Sarasota County, Florida, jail, the Herald Tribune reports. Randy Miller, 44, can be seen trying to pick up the peanuts from the ground after he missed them with his mouth. Sarasota Police Officer Andrew Halpin then kicked some of the nuts toward the man with his boot. A source told the Herald-Tribune that Halpin also gave Miller “dog commands” and laughed at him.

Read more here.

Christmas truth

An Incarnation Into Littleness

The incarnation is the irruption of God into human history: an incarnation into littleness and service in the midst of overbearing power exercised by the mighty of this world; an irruption that smells of the stable. The Son of God was born into a little people, a nation of little importance by comparison with the powers of the time. He took flesh among the poor in a marginal area—namely, Galilee; he lived with the poor and emerged from among them to inaugurate a kingdom of love and justice. That is why many have trouble recognizing him.

Gustavo Gutierrez
Source: The God of Life

Subversive Scripture?

POWER AND POWERLESSNESS

RIGHT AND LEFT

The point that must be remembered is that most of political and church history has been controlled and written by people on the Right because they are normally the people in control. One of the few subversive texts in history, believe it or not, is the Bible. The Bible is a most extraordinary text because again and again it legitimates not the people on the top, but invariably the people on the bottom—from Abraham to Moses to Jeremiah to Job to John the Baptist to Jesus.

After a while you might get tired of the rejected son, the younger son, the barren woman, the sinner, the outsider always being the chosen one of God! It is the biblical pattern—which we prefer not to see. It takes away our power to exclude “the least of the brothers and sisters” because that is precisely where Jesus says he is to be found (Matthew 25:40)! If indeed women, blacks, other religions, gays, and other “outsiders” Lare “least” in our definition, it seems that gives them in fact a privileged and revelatory position! They are not to be excluded, but honored. Jesus takes away from us any possibility of creating any class system or any punitive notion of religion. Unfortunately, thus far, it has not worked very well.

from Richard Rohr

A Lever and a Place to Stand: The Contemplative Stance, the Active Prayer

pp. 98-99