Rotten Fruit

no-amazon_fotor“If you give money to people profiting from human misery, you’re complicit.”

Luke 9:51-62 and Galatians 5:1, 13-25

The song is getting old now, but “What if she’s an angel” still speaks to me. Tommy Shane Steiner sang this on county music radio stations about 20 years ago no. And the chorus is — join in if you know it! —

What if she’s an angel, sent here from heaven,
And she’s making certain that you’re doing your best,
To take the time to help one another?
Brother are you going to pass that test?
You can go on with your day to day
Trying to forget what you saw in her face
Knowing deep down it could have been her saving grace.
What if she’s an angel?

What if she’s an angel? She was for Abraham, who entertained angels without knowing it. And Sodom was burned to the ground for treating their visiting angels so poorly.

Jesus – God incarnate – comes to a Samaritan village. And they don’t welcome him in. He isn’t an angel. He’s God in the flesh.

The disciples say, “Let’s burn the place to the ground! Let’s pray Heaven levels it!” Seems like a very small thing to do considering God did this for angels who were turned away. And now they have turned away The Messiah.

But Jesus says… no.

This confuses me. I mean, I’m glad, but… what does scripture mean to teach by this?

Usually I read sermons approaching this from the perspective of the disciples. If someone doesn’t welcome Jesus, or you, then don’t rage and fume. Just move on peacefully.

But really… I think I might be the Samaritan village. And I’m turning away not just angels, but God in the flesh. And it is only because of God’s mercy that I don’t get leveled with fire from heaven. I deserve it for forgetting that all of God’s Holy Words can be summarized as “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”

Maybe I’m turning away angels from my village.

Maybe I’m turning away God.

I AM turning away Jesus… for Jesus says what we do to the least of one another, we do to Jesus. And that the body of Jesus is us. All people.

My spiritual good fruit is gathering maggots and flies.

How did this happen?

Money.

Scripture tells us that the love of money is the root of all evil.

And the love of money is spreading human misery rapidly.

We are paying hand over fist private companies to separate families, lock up people, and line the pockets of shareholders with our taxes. This money is profited from human misery.

We elect men and women to represent us. We pay taxes to keep our government going and pay for these representatives. But the love of money has caused the government to subcontract most things. This means the government hires private companies and pays them with our taxes.

Private companies are exempt from representing us.

Private companies are for-profit industries. They are about making as much money as possible for their share holders.

Private companies are making literally billions of dollars off of the immigrant camps in our nation. 72% of those in custody are in private facilities.

GEO Group and Core Civic are two of the largest private companies making money. $985 million from ICE contracts in 2017 – and on par to have 1 billion dollars this year. They further subcontract to companies like Comprehensive Health Services (a subsidiary of Caliburn International). Each layer of contractor gets a finger in the pot and gets some of the government cash. Each layer is another step removed from being accountable to us – the people who foot these bills.

And that is how the US government is billed $775 A NIGHT for a single person in a immigration camp. That is more than most hotels. That is more than my mortgage payment for an entire month of living.

And that is now these companies make their CEOs and shareholders — the people who have stock — very, very rich.

And why it is profitable to put more, and more and more people into these camps… concentrating them. Giving them as little amenities as possible.

When a company no longer has to pay for toothpaste, that company can directly turn over the toothpaste money to their investors and owners.

When a company can put 500 children in a private prison meant to hold 100, that is a 400% profit rate.

Money. The love of money – that rotten, awful fruit that makes all the other fruits risk infection and maggots and flies – the love of money has replaced the love of neighbor. The love of God.

How do we throw these rotten fruits away? How do we repent? How do we get back to being Christians instead of slaves of companies like GEO Group and Core Civic?

Most people in this life don’t care about where you or I see Jesus. Most people are already convinced she or he is correct in their views – whatever they are. But… most people care about money and attention. Use that power.

We take our money back.

We stop giving money to the companies who support these rackets.

And we give bad press to those who refuse to change.

– Companies such as Microsoft – handles Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s data processing for 19.4 million USD.
– Amazon – sold its face recognition software to ICE.
– Comcast and TimeWarner – both sell internet access to ICE.
– Reuters – CEO is on the board of an ICE foundation and sold “risk mitigation services” and other services for 8 million dollars.
– Motorola – provides all communications programs at a cost to the government of 18.3 million USD.
– Xerox – selling printers and services for $5,000.
– Dell – software for $500,000.
– Politicians! Republican and Democratic politicians are taking money, both.  Our local politicians get money from lobbyist from Core Civic and GEO Group. These are about $1,000 to $16,000 amounts meant to influence our local politicians. Core Civic runs the Youngstown Prison. They’ve given much to politicians in the area. And because of people knowing this, and knowing Core Civic gets this money for imprisoning children… democratic politicians in Youngstown are returning the donations. We need all of our politicians to do this. Including the The Donald Trump Super PAC – which has received a half million dollars so far. Our politics — red and blue — should not profit from these camps.

“Owning and operating detention centers, according to CoreCivic estimates, earns six times more profit per prisoner than just managing operations. Immigrant detention accounted for about a quarter of each company’s revenue in 2017… Many migrants work in the facilities for just $1 a day under virtual slave conditions. Members of Congress have complained that detention phone operators charge parents separated from children up to $8 a minute to speak to them.” ((inthesetimes.com))

Companies listen when we give them bad press.
– Google has cancelled its AI work after all the bad press, loss of money, and people leaving it.
– Bank of America listened. It stopped giving loans and profiting literally billions of dollars off of the sobs of children.
– New York stopped their pension funds from buying into the stock of these companies.
– Democratic parties of California and Florida refuse donations from these companies.
– JPMorgan Chase had increased its stockholdings in GEOGroup and CoreCivic 15,600 percent. This year, enough people protested and were leaving that Chase has begun to sell off this stick and stop funding private prisons. This is because of people like you and me.
– U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo don’t like the public bad image either, and are changing.

Keep the pressure up!

For some companies have bunkered down. Amazon promised “unwavering” commitment to working with ICE, and gaining profit from human misery.

So… we need to divest. Move our money elsewhere.

And this is the one that hurts me. Most of these other companies? Well, I don’t have internet with Comcast. So it was easy to dis-invest in them. I can pat myself on the back for most of the companies I just mentioned.

But Amazon…

I own a lot of Amazon subscriptions.

I think Jesus is speaking to me and people like me today.

I say: “Jesus, I will follow you everywhere!”

And Jesus says, “Birds of the air have nests and foxes have holes, but the son of man has no where. Will you sleep with me in dentition centers?”

“Anywhere, Jesus! Just let me go back and get my own life in order first.”

“When will your life be in order? When is your housework ever done? When is the last relative buried? When is the last thing on your to-do list ever really completed? Let the to-dos handle themselves.”

“Anywhere, Jesus! Just let me… have my Amazon.”

“Anyone who puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. Anyone who says I am Christian, and I commit to divesting from profits from children’s sorrow, but only those companies and politicians I’m already not invested in, is not fit for the kin-dom of God.”

Jesus does not tolerate hypocrisy. Jesus does not tolerate luke-warm faith.

But Amazon is where I get practically all my online shopping from. Amazon is where I get TV. I’ve been proud to have Amazon here at Etna. I looked with excitement to it moving HQ2 to Columbus.

When their employees asked the company to stop profiting off of immigrate camps… the Amazon’s CEO’s answer was no. No. My company has unwavering commitment to them.

I don’t want to cut my 10 year tie with Amazon. It will hurt my pocket book. It will be an inconvenience.

But is my mild discomfort at having to get up to change DVDs versus using the Amazon Fire Stick; or having to pay $2 more for my printer ink worth the life of my daughter?

Absolutely not! And yet, daughters like my own are being separated from their mothers with the promise, “We’re just taking her for a shower.” Or processing. And then, I’d never see her again. She’s off to sleep on a concrete floor, with a foil blanket. No one to hold her. No toys. No adults but those who are literally dangerous – slapping and hitting and raping – adults in uniforms hired by US. A reported 178 adults in USA uniforms doing sexual harm to children, so far. The companies we pay. The companies our government – our elected representatives – hire and pay.

Take my Amazon Prime membership. Give me my child. Give every mother their child. Give every father his child.

Leaving quietly won’t work either. These companies must know WHY we are leaving them. When I call into Amazon on Monday, I’ve got to say “I’m cancelling my credit card with you because of your support of immigration camps.”

Be loud.

Be bold.

Tell your friends and family. Tell everyone.

Talk with your feet. Talk with your money.

Money is what all of this “border crises” is about. Loads and loads of profit. $775 a night per person in camp. It makes the most money to put the most people into the camps. So more and more are put there. A few years ago, before this was called a “crisis,” the US government paid only $36 a night. Children stayed with relatives in the USA while waiting for their time before an asylum or immigration judge. This program had a 99% self-reporting rate. Meaning, very, very few skipped the system. Most went through the process to become citizens.

But this system was not profitable to the private sector.

The new system is.

Make it no longer profitable.

Take yourself elsewhere.

Knock the dust off your feet.

If you take money from people profiting off human misery, you’re complicit. If you give money to people profiting from human misery, you’re complicit.

You do not have to call Heaven down to rain fire on injustices. You don’t have to preach others are going to hell. You don’t have to tell anyone who is or isn’t saved, or Christian.

Just speak with your feet. Your money. Your life.

Remember… Most people in this life don’t care about where you or I see Jesus. Most people are already convinced he or she is correct in their views – whatever they are. But… most people care about money and attention. Use that power.

Jesus first tried dialogue. First tried connection. When it failed – then he took his power back and went away.

This is because the Spirit of God is a spirit of freedom; not slavery. In slavery, a person feels she has no power. She can only do as she is told. Many of us are in a spirit of slavery right now. We say, “What’s going on is terrible, but what can I do?” “What difference can I make? It’s not like anyone with power over these things lives near me.” And even those who are employed in the situation say, “What can I do? I’m just doing my job.”

This spirit of slavery keeps us producing bad fruit. Works of the flesh. Paul lists an exhaustive list of things he sees inside of churches when we start living as slaves instead of as freed people. And the result is disorder. Chaos. Harm. FEAR. Fearing one another. Harming one another. Forgetting that the Bible, all of the laws, all of the prophets, all of the gospels and letters, all the revelations and dreams can be summarized as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Slavery tells us we are powerless. We powerlessly stand by as more people are physically put into concentration camps. Abused. Neglected. Starved to death.

Two years ago I wouldn’t have though we would separate children from their parents. Last year I wouldn’t have believed we would lose those children. Over 1000 children are lost and have never been seen again. And we would let other children die. This year, I would have thought at least they’re being cared for … but now I see toddlers packed in cages in situations worse than I keep any animal. I won’t even let pigs bed without straw! And these human babies sleep on the floor with no chance to prevent infection or worse…

What will happen next year? Or the next? If we do not say “No more!”?

We are not given that spirit of powerlessness. Jesus redeemed us from is. Jesus bought it from it. Jesus sets us free. The spirit of freedom, the spirit of God says no! No! Where I am, with all that I have, who I am – I matter. I can and I will make a difference. This spirit is the horse pulling our plow – May God forbid we let go and fall away! All we have to do is hold on and look forward. And go! Go!

Microsoft, Amazon, Comcast and TimeWarner, Reuters, Motorola, Xerox, and Dell, GEO Group and Core Civic. Shame on them.

And politicians. ((All data from https://www.opensecrets.org/))
– The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
– The Donald Trump Super PAC,
– The National Republican Congressional Committee,
– The National Republican Senatorial Committee

Local politicians!
– US Rep. David Joyce,
– US Rep. Tim Ryan,
– US Rep. Pat Tiberi,
– Ohio Senator Rob Portman,
– Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown
– US Rep. Steve Chabot,
– and recent Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel.

Tell these people to stop accepting funds from Core Civic and GEO Group. Tell them to return the funds they have because they do not represent you and your morals by profiting off these camps.

Take your money elsewhere and let them know why. Tell them you’ll fund their businesses or Political Action Committees again when they stop profiting from misery.

For you will not be complicit in locking Jesus Christ in a prison camp.

What we do to one another, we have done to our Lord.

And we are called to be the sweet fruit of the earth.

Amen.
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