October 10, 2022 01:49 PM UTC

What if God was One of "Them"?

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• by: PKolbenschlag

“All those pathetically eager acid freaks who thought they could buy Peace and Understanding for three bucks a hit. But their loss and failure is ours, too. What Leary took down with him was the central illusion of a whole life-style that he helped to create… a generation of permanent cripples, failed seekers, who never understood the essential old-mystic fallacy of the Acid Culture: the desperate assumption that somebody – or at least some force – is tending that Light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Hunter S. Thompson was not too far off. But that I am not Kantian is something I recall from my more mundane studies in school. Teleology suffers from what should be an obvious flaw: Finding purpose now that is derived from some future ending already supposed – either by God or in human reason – requires a significant leap of imagination.

But despite being non-Kantian, I have lately come back to one of the late 18th Century philosopher’s ideas. I am reminded of Immanuel Kant and his Categorical Imperative, unfortunately, by the deliberate cruelty being waged by certain Republican governors. If less notable people were doing these things, the media and other polite commentariat probably would not be so frightened to call it out for the sociopathic behavior it truly represents. 

But in any case, the treatment of vulnerable and desperate humans as political pawns is not only reprehensible on its face, but it also violates what Kant laid out as a moral imperative: “one should always respect the humanity of others, and that one should only act in accordance with rules that could hold for everyone…” 

Which is why Kant has been on my mind. With all the talk of hanging onto Western Civilization against an onslaught of fact, nonstandard narrative, and “wokeism” this classical Dutch philosopher seems an appropriate figure to bring some moral clarity to this increasingly overt frightening of ill-informed White voters. It also gets me to Hell.  Or to the subject of it, which is something else that I do not believe in. 

Of course Kant’s imperative is recognizable to many people in several of its other forms – including the so-called: Golden Rule: to treat others as we would be treated. This is what Jesus taught. In addition to loving God, the entirety of all the commandments, Jesus said, is summed up in the call to love your neighbor. Another way to say it, is to never treat others as only a means to your end, but to first recognize each other person as someone with their own purpose and end. Just as we would want, ourselves, to be treated.

Now I am neither a philosopher nor a theologian. But I did read the Gospels that I was raised on. Jesus didn’t talk about Hell that much, but when He did it is notable who He consigned to it. And they look an awful lot like many in today’s Republican Party. 

In the parable of the Sheeps and Goats, Jesus is pretty clear on where He will send those who break the Kantian imperative and Golden Rule.

Jesus is explicit about where exactly those who mistreat the vulnerable and needy with neglect (or in the case of Governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott, with intentional abuse for selfish ends) are bound. And they won’t be spending Eternity in Martha’s Vineyard.

As the Gospel of Matthew tells it, in red letters: They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.

The parable of the Sheep and Goats is all about decisions. And about the sorting that happens based on how we chose, when we are asked to actually bring the Golden Rule, the Kantian Imperative, one half the sum total of all the Holy Commandments, to bear in our lives at these moments when we face a decision that involves another. How we treat the migrants among us is exactly how we treat God. Or at least that’s what He said.