Dear —
As someone who keeps a close eye on the injustices wrought by Empire, and who takes to heart the apostle James' declaration that "The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective" (5:16), the actions of U.S. government, especially in the arena of foreign policy, are keeping me busy.
But can I attest I am a righteous man? Can I, who recall so often the foolish, destructive, or just plain embarrassing things I have said or done in my life, claim this?
Yes, because quite simply, the righteousness of Christ Himself is conferred on me! This is a theme that runs throughout my Gourmet Gospel series. There, I quote John Bunyan's transformative words in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (c. 1666)...
"But one day, as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes of conscience, fearing lest all was not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my soul, 'Thy righteousness is in Heaven'; and methought withal, I saw, with the eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, is my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was a-doing, God could not say of me, he lacks my righteousness, for that was just before him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame of heart that made my righteousness worse; for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."
Powerful and effective, therefore, are my prayers, or as the KJV translation of the Bible puts it, "availeth much."
And, when it comes to interceding about the world, I have been further empowered by reading Dave Mason's transformative work of fiction, The Lamp of Darkness. Set in the time of my eponymous hero Elijah, it sets forth the idea of wielding "keys" in prayer and prophecy, keys that we have demanded in Heaven.
Thus, we are empowered with our prayers to shut down the valves of fossil-fuel pipelines and the flow of financing to polluters, drillers, loggers, and miners. And — this just occurs to me — to turn the Key of Solvency against destructive corporations. Imagine the transformative power of bankrupting Amazon or Facebook or decreeing the downfall of banks whose funding destroys planet and peoples and species. Or of the U.S. Supreme Court that typically sides with the privileged and powerful. Surely, Covid has a role to play in all of this too, as I set out in The Covid Prophecies, published earlier this year.
But, as I said, the litany of injustices we are called to overthrow, is long. Therefore, I share below my most recent list (by no means exhaustive) and invite you to intercede on these matters too. This too may "avail much."
"Your loves as mine to you." (To quote Shakespeare, as I often do.)
Abdiel
Website: PoetProphet.com
Protect, Prosper, Liberate Individuals
Julian Assange, Daniel Hale (whistleblower), Mumia Abu Jamal
Protect, Prosper, Liberate Groups
The Homeless; Journalists of Mexico; Land Defenders; Peoples of Ethiopia (now afflicted by war and famine) and Puerto Rico (oppressed by U.S. imperialism); Prisoners applying for compassionate release, and prisoners remaining at Guantanamo Bay; Protestors in Nigeria, Palestine, Tunisia, and the U.S.; Refugees; Rent and mortgage payers anywhere who are in arrears; Trans people; the Rohingya people in or from Burma; the Uighur population of Xinjiang, Workers at Amazon trying to unionize.
Protect, Prosper, Liberate Organizations
Apple Daily (a Hong-Kong news outlet), Avaaz, Brennan Center for Justice, Committee to Protect Journalists, Deadline for Democracy, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, People for the American Way, Red Nation, SumOfUs, WeMove, Witness Against Torture
Overturn
Biofuels; Blockade against Cuba; Drought, including Madagascar; Extreme Heat, including western Canada; Live Animal Export Trade; Monocultures; Nuclear Energy; Nuclear Weapons; U.K. Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act; U.S. Espionage Act; U.S. Senate Filibuster; Whaling
Advance
For the People Act; Populations of Bees, Birds, and Butterflies; Syria aid corridor
Downfall of Wicked Politicians
Bolsonaro (Brazil); Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua); Keiko Fujimori (Peru), Rodrigo Roa Duterte (Philippines); Vladimir Putin (Russia); Erdoğan (Turkey); Joe Manchin and Mitch McConnell (U.S. senators)
Downfall of Wicked Corporations
Amazon, BNP Paribas, Boeing, Facebook, Monsanto, Nestle (practising slave labor), Tier One Group (owned by Cerberus Capital Management and training Saudi assassins)
Downfall of Wicked Organizations
Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Heritage Foundation, Heritage Action Network, Koch Brothers, National Rifle Association, U.S. Republican Party, white-nationalist organizations everywhere, U.S. Supreme Court
Downfall of Wicked Governments and Government Agencies
Chinese government, Egypt, G7, India's Hindu-nationalist government, Israel, NATO, Saudi Arabia (executing protestors), U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. overseas military bases
Downfall of Wicked Police Forces
Arkansas, Guatemala, Israel, Tunisia
Downfall of Wicked Classes
Heartless Judges, Loggers, Poachers
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