- By all accounts Ukraine's government is one of the most corrupt in the world and prominently includes Nazis and Nazi sympathizers.
- The war in Ukraine did not begin on February 24th, 2022, but with a U.S. sponsored Ukrainian coup in 2014 that ended up with Kyiv killing more than 13,000 civilians in the country's Russia-friendly Donbass region.
- The stated objectives of U.S. policy in Ukraine have long been regime change in Moscow and the weakening and even balkanization of Russia.
- In pursuit of those aims (according to the current German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Analena Baerbock) the war is NATO's. In other words, NATO is using Ukrainians as proxies for the alliance's war against Russia.
- According to former German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, NATO had no intention of observing the Minsk Peace Agreements that would have prevented the conflict.
- The U.S. ignored Russia's diplomatic overtures in the runup to its special military operation.
- Similarly, (according to Israel's former prime minister Naftali Bennett) a month into the war, Moscow and Kyiv had achieved progress towards a negotiated settlement to the conflict only to be overruled by NATO.
- U.S. history, its Monroe Doctrine, and constant violent interventions in its hemisphere show that America would act no differently from Russia in the case of similar circumstances in its "backyard."
How disappointing is all of that coming from an advocate of miraculous, non-conventional, re-conceptualizations?
Today's Readings
Moreover, Williamson's reasoning (or its lack) amounts to a contradiction of Yeshua's own example in today's featured selection from the Gospel of Matthew. There, the Master rejects empire and its endemic wars out of hand as the invention of the world's Evil Spirit.
Recall the scene. It's the famous story of Yeshua's temptations in the desert. With variations, it is contained in all four of the canonical gospels.
Jesus has just been baptized by John. In Luke's version, a voice has told him that he is somehow the "Son of God." He goes out to the desert to discover what that might mean. Yeshua is on a vision quest. He prays and fasts for 40 days.
Afterwards come the visions of devils, angels, and of his own life's possibilities. Satan tests him. In Matthew's account, the culminating enticement is unmistakably imperial. It occurs on a high mountain. Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth - an empire much vaster than Rome's. The tempter says, "All of this can be yours, if only you bow down and worship me." Jesus refuses. He says, "Be gone, Satan! It is written, the Lord God only shall you adore; him only shall you serve."
In other words, Matthew endorses a tradition that has Yeshua rejecting empire in no uncertain terms. The story at the beginning of the accounts of Jesus words and deeds establishes him as fiercely anti-imperial. Empire belongs to Satan and has nothing to do with Life's Source.
No hint of such thinking is found in Williamson's piece about Ukraine. Instead, she supports "the west's" right to determine the trajectory of world history even in the face of its rejection of diplomacy and the reluctance and/or refusal of 80% of the world to condemn what it evidently sees as none of its business.
And why does she abandon "miraculous thinking" when it's needed more than ever? I must confess that I can't answer that question for sure.
My guess is that it comes from realization on her part that miraculously contradicting conventional thinking would not serve her presidential ambitions. Empire on the one hand versus Christianity and miracles on the other prove simply incompatible.
Put otherwise, it seems that for Williamson, in the choice between presidential aspirations and A Course in Miracles, practicality wins out. ACIM loses.
Conclusion
I still like Marianne Williamson. She is a nice lady and an effective spiritual teacher. Her explanations of A Course in Miracles have helped millions (including me) to improve our lives.
However, her essay shows that the world's wisdom is a difficult beast to tame. Attempting to do so will likely get one cancelled. It will certainly eliminate you as a viable presidential candidate.
That means to get along in our culture and certainly to run for president, one must:
- Lie.
- Stop thinking contextually.
- Or historically.
- Or unconventionally.
- Critically
- Or miraculously
I regret to say that I expected more from Marianne Williamson. Lent expects more from all of us.
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