{"id":7381,"date":"2013-12-17T00:01:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=7381"},"modified":"2013-12-18T12:05:27","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T17:05:27","slug":"welfare-reform-prison-reform-or-god-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/?p=7381","title":{"rendered":"Welfare Reform, Prison Reform, or God Reform?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

I was thinking about \u201cwelfare\u201d today.\u00a0 As it exists in the United States, of course.\u00a0 I looked up some statistics.<\/p>\n

Money spent on Welfare in the U.S. was \u201c$1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone,\u201d according to \u00a0Read more:<\/a><\/p>\n

It also seems that if one forsakes the normal systems entirely, and lives on the streets, asking only what each individual person has in their heart or ability to share, it is still not acceptable.\u00a0 To highlight this point Mormon Bishop David Musselman disguised himself as a homeless person and entered a Sunday service.\u00a0 The congregation was less than welcoming.\u00a0 In the U.S. alone, there are 600,000+ homeless\u2026although statistics seem to show that number is dropping. \u00a0Read more:\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Money spent on prisons in the U. S. was about $74 billion a year, and makes the U.S. have the largest incarceration rate in the world, according to \u2014\u2014 and other sources, and \u201cThe US has the highest incarceration rate in the world not because it has higher crime rates, but because it imprisons more types of criminal offenders, including non-violent and drug offenders, and keeps them in prison longer.\u201d \u00a0Read more:<\/a><\/p>\n

While the financial numbers are disparate, to be sure, isn\u2019t a LOT a lot? \u00a0 It occurred to me that Progressives and Conservatives alike are providing \u201cWelfare\u201d but simply calling it something that agrees with the way they believe human society should function.\u00a0 Some consider that we are \u201cour brother\u2019s keeper\u201d, and others believe in \u201can eye for an eye\u201d.\u00a0 And while I am well aware that I am speaking primarily of my knowledge of America, I am not ignorant of caning and stoning and inhumane prison conditions in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

My question is this\u2026Why is the thought of directly helping people so abhorrent that we have to create a world in which we virtually demand that people commit a crime, or beg, in order to be taken care of?\u00a0 Do we continue to create more and more poverty so that the rich can feel superior, and vindicated by giving to people made to beg in some way? \u00a0 Is this the accepted way of giving and receiving among us these days?<\/p>\n

As CWG states, all attack is a cry for help.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we, as a world for the most part, see that \u201ccriminals\u201d are, at their root cause, asking for help?\u00a0 Aaahh, that might be the crux, might it not?\u00a0 Who\/what benefits from the current system?\u00a0 Might it be the private prison system, that is incentivized by states guaranteeing<\/em> a certain number of prisoners?\u00a0 Might it be a current political clime that operates under a fear\u00a0 and power paradigm?\u00a0 Maybe.<\/p>\n

These \u201ccriminals\u201d are part of a much larger picture.\u00a0 How is it that their cries for help, from a very young age, and culturally, have been ignored?\u00a0 Is it possible that our cultures come from our understandings of how God treats us?\u00a0 Is it possible that a God who will punish with eternal damnation will also ask us to \u201cspare the rod, spoil the child\u201d?\u00a0 Operate under the \u201ceye for an eye\u201d model?\u00a0 Obviously, for many.<\/p>\n

What creates the need for a welfare system of any kind?\u00a0 What kinds of government and corporate structures reinforce the paradigm?<\/p>\n

Is it also possible that the conflict within humanity at this time knows that we are all One, and that we should take care of one another, with no condition, but is pulled by all around us to act within the punishment paradigm?\u00a0 What might that marriage of those conflicting thoughts produce?\u00a0 To me, it produces prisons.\u00a0 It produces people who believe they have to be bad, and forgiven, to be given succor, and community. \u00a0 It produces a system of Prison as Welfare.<\/em><\/p>\n

I believe it is time to begin reforming God, not reforming prisons or the welfare system.<\/p>\n

It is time, to look at the duality of our belief system that at once says that we have a punishing God, and a Loving God in the same breath.<\/p>\n

Which is it?<\/p>\n

It is, and of course, as always, up to us to decide.\u00a0 Up to you, and to me, to Be the change we wish to see.\u00a0 It is time to be honest enough with ourselves to notice whether or not this duality feels true to us.\u00a0 It is time to be brave enough to admit it to ourselves if it does not.<\/p>\n

I know how difficult this can be.\u00a0 I used to have what I call \u201chalf completed sentence\u201d dialogs with myself\u2026.\u201dif God really is all loving, how could he\u2026?\u00a0 If I really am created in the image and likeness of God, why am I\u2026?\u201d\u00a0 Stop that thought!\u00a0 If I didn\u2019t compete it, I hadn\u2019t fully sinned!\u00a0 More accurately, if I didn\u2019t complete it, I wouldn\u2019t have to do anything about it, and risk angering and\/or disappointing others.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t lose what I had, even though I knew instinctively it wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n

When the circle of thought brings us back to ourselves, what does that mean in terms of everyday life?\u00a0 I believe it means it is time to notice, within ourselves, if we are angry and sad and reach out for someone to help us understand.\u00a0 I believe it is time to notice those around us who seem to be struggling to find a place in this world, and be there for them.\u00a0 To hear their unvoiced cries for help.\u00a0 I believe it is time to consider that God does not ask us to beg\u2026but does ask us to understand one another, and I most fervently believe that Goddess asks us to know that the greatest joy in life comes from giving, with full and open heart and soul, to others.\u00a0 Indeed, I believe this is all we are here for.\u00a0 Reform God, and we just may not have any need to have people begging, in any form, for what it takes to live in this world, and we just may reform it all.<\/p>\n

How are you “reforming” God?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  I was thinking about \u201cwelfare\u201d today.\u00a0 As it exists in the United States, of course.\u00a0 I looked up some statistics. Money spent on Welfare in the U.S. was \u201c$1.03 trillion on 83 means-tested federal welfare programs in fiscal year 2011 alone,\u201d according to \u00a0Read more: It also seems that if one forsakes the normal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1411],"tags":[1513,1514,62,1512,9,1510,1156,1511],"class_list":["post-7381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anyone_listening","tag-begging","tag-criminal-system","tag-cwg","tag-god-reform","tag-neale-donald-walsch","tag-prison-reform","tag-we-are-all-one","tag-welfare-reform"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7381"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7428,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7381\/revisions\/7428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}