In Melbourne, Florida
(1,357)
Truth is tricky business–because whenever you summon a statement as fact, and even provide historical evidence of its validity, that particular precept spreads across every nook and cranny, even into the corners that you may wish to hide.
Such is the case with a politician posing as a historian who shared this week that the Palestinian people are “invented.” He cited historical evidence, conjuring up images of the Ottoman Empire and other irrefutable pieces of data to affirm his assertion. Okay, let’s go with it. Let’s say that the Palestinians ARE an invented people–because during the time when their inception would have been possible, they did not exist.
But let’s also consider who else were invented people. How about a bunch of Puritans, Catholics, renegades, former prison dwellers, plantation owners, rogue explorers and frontiersmen who decided one day that they were Americans? There wasn’t really anything to justify such a claim. They were the largest mish-mash of nothing ever thrown together to form anything that resembled a central style of government. You can imagine how King George and all the Englishmen must have chuckled at the notion that these colonies who had just fought a war against the French and Indians in the name of the Crown twenty years earlier were now presuming that they were free of the English and were now Americans. And not even Native Americans. None of them were Iroquois, Cherokee or Sioux. Most of them were rejects from all over Europe who were forced to find a new angle for existence because they found disfavor with the Saxons.
I wonder how this politician posing as a historian would fare if he went to South Carolina and told them that the Confederacy was an invented people? For after all, weren’t they just Americans who were rebelling against the government and therefore possessed no separate identity whatsoever? There was no such thing as the Confederate States. It was invented in the minds of those who wanted a different life from the trends of the day.
I wonder if this political historian would also be willing to go into black America and tell them they are an invented people when they refer to themselves as “African-American.” For after all, there are no African-Americans. It’s a made-up name. There are people from Africa who were brought over here to be slaves, were intermingled in a society which for nearly four hundred years rejected them as being real people, and now, even today, often reluctantly include them into the great “melting pot.”
There are many invented people. I wonder if this astute student of history would be willing to walk up to the four billion Christians and tell them they’re an invented people. Because it’s exactly what happened in Judea so many centuries ago, when a handful of ragtag Jewish men and women decided to separate themselves off from the mainstream of the law of Moses and instead follow the teachings of an itinerant Galilean named Jesus. Certainly every Pharisee and chief priest would have told you that these Christians were an “invented people.”
But you see, here’s the thing–the Mother of all Invention is freedom. And if people are willing to endure the inconvenience of discovery and the prejudice against their uniqueness and persevere to claim their rights as human beings, they can earn the privilege of being included. Until then, those who possess great pomposity will claim these interlopers are out of the loop–and invented.
I think a nation of people who began their lives by running from persecution and had to rebel against authority to gain autonomy should certainly be careful judging the attempts of others to be equally as free. I may not agree with everything individuals or organizations do to establish their independence, but far be it from me–a Christian (invented people), who was formerly in Germany, persecuted as a Lutheran (an invented religion), made the journey across the pond to America (an invented land of people) to settle into Central Ohio (an invented place), and is part of a nation of United States (an invented concept) to follow the dictates of a Constitution (an invented document) to live out my dreams (certainly all invented).
Yes–far be it from me to close the door on others who just might need to find their own place. I would agree, the best way to guarantee your own place is to grant one to others. But the Mother of Invention is freedom. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Yes. Liberty to be inventive.
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Here comes Christmas! For your listening pleasure, below is Manger Medley, Jonathan’s arrangement of Away in the Manger, which closes with him singing his gorgeous song, Messiah. Looking forward to the holidays with you!
Jonathots Daily Blog 