Jesse is dead, long live Jesse

Jesse is dead, long live Jesse

So finally he is dead, and soon history will judge him. Many praise him now for the good works he has done, although I am hard pressed to name them.

He spread a gospel of hatred throughout his career, a litany of distrust, and a dogma of division. His words echo through our shared history, a legacy that will condemn him to any just and loving God.

He spoke of the others as if they were not of this one human family. Others who looked different, spoke different, worshipped different, lived different, or loved different were to him and his constituency the common enemy. As if the difference were enough to shun the different, he sowed division and reaped greatness from the smallness of a million hearts.

I can not and will not accept his interpretation of a vengeful and mighty God. I would not recognize as holy any such God. If we are made in his image, he is as less than perfect as we all are; how could he smite us for being as we were created? What God could condemn us for being as we are: speaking, looking, living, and loving as we must in our own true way?

I remember the battle cry of the new Republicans, his life’s work – “Give ‘em Helms, Jesse!” It shone from a million bumpers back in the day. It rings still in the hearts of many of his mourners.

As you sow, so shall you reap. Now Jesse, perhaps you get Helms.