going home

i made the annual pilgrimage to my parent's house for thanksgiving and you would think by now that i would no longer be shocked by my family's racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-arab and anti-muslim sentiments but you would be wrong. i think what makes the turkey stick in my throat so that i need a quart of wine to wash it down, is the hypocrisy with which they spout these things. we say grace before the meal and everyone there touts their belief in god, some more than others, but the underlying theme is that their belief somehow sets them apart. and out of the same mouths that gave thanks to the lord, the most vile rhetoric is spewed. if you believe in a god as the creator of all things then surely it must dawn upon you that god made arabs and black people. if you belief in heaven and that you are bound for glory, does it not stand to reason that one day as you quietly strum the harp, that black people will move onto your paved in gold road and then what what must you think...damn! there goes the neighborhood? i have heard my whole life that blacks are the cursed children of ham and thus deserve their fate of subjugation. if it is god's will that they be enslaved then so be it. how easy it becomes to justify the abuse. people have also historically used the gospels as an excuse to hate the jews, since they were clamoring for the crucifixion of christ, and so it went from pogroms to the final solution with 6 million dead. and does the bible give a reason to despise the arabs? ah but of course, they are the sons of ishmael, the out cast. god said their would be enmity between ishmael's seed and all the nations of the earth. and wouldn't it stand to reason that the sons of an accursed out cast would attack america, the long supposed zion on the hill? and who cares if they are held in prisons without charges for years on end, suffering from torture that we as a nation have the audacity to debate whether or not it even qualifies as torture. and the bible says thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman and so it must be god's will that we hate homosexuals. if it is god's will then there are those who truely believe they are called by god to hold signs that read god hates faggots at the funerals of fallen soldiers. these are the same people that go to sleep at night, smiling over the stark scene of matthew shepard hanging on a barbed wire fence, left to die in the cold. and does the bible say that women are the weaker vessals and that wives are subject to the authority of their husbands? it does and so what if he hits her, god has given him that right. and here in new orleans, they say we were punished by god for our sins. i say, let him who is without sin, cast the first stone. what about do not judge lest ye be judged? what about love? for god's sake, what about love?