What you can feel

Happy Easter!

I just shared a really discouraging link, so I have a certain sense of irony about saying "Happy Easter", but I say it anyway. 

After all, I do have faith, and this is a time when we remember that.

I believe that Jesus Christ was the literal son of God, sent to redeem us from sin and death.

My ability to hope comes from that.

I believe that no matter how easy it is to be skeptical, it is possible to obtain witnesses and spiritual knowledge. If that previous statement seems a little bold, that's okay. If you are interested in knowing, it is possible.

I want to affirm that for anyone weighed down with dread or grief, but my primary reason for writing it has more to do with people who are theoretically believers but with inconsistencies in their conduct.

I just want to point out a few things.

Alma 7:12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels will be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

That sounds like empathy. It certainly shows intention to help and willingness to sacrifice to do so.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

That's pretty straightforward.

We see terrible abuses happening. The constant thread I see is dehumanization. People keep insisting that the people being sent to El Salvador are gang members who would slice you open. They are repeating a lie, but even if it were true, that would still not justify the lack of due process nor sending to another country that they have never been to nor the existence of prisons that are such hell holes.

RFK Jr made increasing autism diagnoses a threat by giving a very narrow definition of autism which is inaccurate; if we only defined autism that way, the number of diagnoses would not have changed. 

Besides which, the people with the most severe cases have value, and some cases might not look so severe with adequate resources. Because of the dehumanization it becomes easier to remove the resources and to get people to embrace the spread of easily preventable diseases.

For a long time it seemed like the cruelty was mostly in pursuit of profit. I suppose there is an argument that creating chaos will allow more consolidation of profit and power, but it sure looks like cruelty has become an end goal.

If you are going to profess Christ in any way at all, you do not get to cheer the cruelty. You need to be actively fighting it.

Our care for each other is going to be how we survive.