Ben Witherington
Some comments I made on the comments of others:
Friends,I am honored and pleased to see this dialog. My clothes are starting to speak to me, so I took that as a sign to accept refuge from friends to do laudary, bathe, and blog tonight. Back to the Embassy tomorrow morning. I'm down to about 130 lbs as a result of burning about 2000-3000 calories per day by marching with the posters 9-12 hours per day, and now taking in about 600 cal/day - mostly juice. My goal is to be a visual of the Holocaust there in Mass. Ave in DC asap. When I hit about 110lbs (I was 175) I'll take calories sufficient to last until June 30 God willing. Then? Whatever I understand our Father and Master to want.You demonstrate much courage, Truth and Spirit in how you view my story. Commendations.As to committing Suicide, I really think that this issue is one we have to get past. Does a mother that goes into a burning building to get her child commit suicide? Did Jesus going into Jerusalem KNOWING he would be Crucificed commit Suicide? Does a soldier going an a "suicide mission" commit suicide? The 911 fire fighters? Etc. Etc. Etc.Who knows? But what is important is not this fine point in the scheme of things, certaninly. Jesus is our Master and BROTHER. "As you do unto the least of these my family." Jesus has billions of us down here suffering Sprititual (U.S.) and or physical (Darfur and elsewhere) mutilation and horror. Would He be horrified if Start Loving out of some selfish angst or self pitty killed himeself? YES! But Jesus is the one that has me walking willingly into exactly what killed Him - Selfishness / Cowardice / Neglect. King did the same thing. So did Gandhi. I can avoid that evil easily! But so could they. No. The only Christian thing to do is to place our bodies between the evil, Selfishness / Neglect and the victims that it may kill us if it will, and maybe spare them. As Dr. King said, "Unearned suffering is redemptive." If Start Loving dies it will NOT be by his own hand. It will be at the hand of my wealthy, heartless U.S. brothers and sisters - at their neglectful, cowardly, non-brotherly, selfish hand - the hands that currently has the blood of 450,000 Darfuries on them. Why their blood on our hands? Because we have the power to protect, and they do not. I am not talking about Bush. I am talking about you and me as the guilty parties. "I was in prison, and you did not visit me...."Some believe, as I do, that although on our entrance interview for Heaven there is much we COULD be asked, there is really only one thing we will be asked about - DID YOU LOVE YOUR BROTHER AS YOURSELF - DID YOU DO UNTO OTHERS ALL THAT YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. If I perrish, if I am not saved by my U.S. brothers and sisters from the lot I throw mine in with - that of my neglected Darfur family - I am not the one Jesus is going to be upset with.Your always Loving brother, Start
5:43 PM
Start Loving said...
Ben, More than anyone I know or have read of with the exception of the likes of Gandhi, Jesus, King and Teresa I believe in, trust in, and throw my life totally on what I imagine God wishes for me to do. I just don't know exactly what God is. But I feel Him/Her/It as clearly and surely as I feel gravity.My point? I believe that Jesus was the most perfect "child" of that God of Love / Life / Truth / Joy / Brotherhood. I do not believe less nor more than that.One of your wonderful posters expressed deep sadness that I seemed to believe not more. I thank your poster, but I am almost completely certain that I grieve more than can be imagined that others believe "more" than I do. And I am certain that Jesus shares that grief. My God. Jesus didn't want to be worshiped. Jesus wanted to be followed. Jesus saw with perfect clarity that:A. Any and every individual that would go to the cross with her/his life for "the least of these" would immediately, for their life on earth enter Our Father's Kingdom - Heaven. I'm doing it every minute of every day. It is complete Love, Life, Peace, Joy and Agony JUST LIKE HE PROMISED. It dwarfs all of life's other "pleasures" that I've drowned in most of my sinfully "privileged" life.B. "Thy Kingdom come[s as] thy will is done...." As true as E=MCsqd. Jesus saw with perfect clarity that He/we could bring about Heaven on Earth - or it was gunna be complete Hell.Friends, I see no Christians (ok maybe 100 or 1000 on the planet.) I see no Followers of Jesus. Oh what grief. Oh what sorrow. We are missing the entire, the ENTIRE thing. If we followed Jos. Lister like we "follow" Jesus we would all die from dirty, infected scalpels.If we followed Tiger Woods like we "follow" Jesus Tiger would go undefeated every game.And on, and on....Jesus was the Albert Einstein of Humanity / How to Live / Heaven on Earth / Family of Man / Brotherhood / Human Psychology. He told us how to make this place Heaven absolutely: For those who try; and for all when they succeed. My God, isn't this enough? Of course it is, unless we want to have no faith in Him, and hang on to our "Fleshly," Sinful, Error filled, SELFISH Lives (which of course exactly what we "Christians" are doing - nothing more, nothing less; nothing else.")After a lifetime of prayer, study, experimentation and now extreme experience nothing can change my mind on this I expect. And if I am right (and God help me, I am)? Think of the implications for you, and for the world. Gandhi did. Look what happened when he followed Jesus the man. Imagine if we all did. My God, do we really need more than this? What a Miracle. WE DO NOT NEED MORE THAN THIS. AND IF WE START FOLLOWING HIM AN STOP WORSHIPING HIM DO YOU REALLY THINK HE WILL NOT GIVE US THE REST IF THERE IS MORE? Come on now. If Gandhi, a devout follower of Jesus the man, while a devout Hindu is not in some Heaven after this life... I don't know about you, but I don't want to be there either.Your Loving brother, Start
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