02/13/2026
Today is the last Friday before Lent. As the holy season for the 3 Abrahamic religions grows nearer I think it's important to reflect on where we all stand in our walks of faith and for the non religious, our walks of humanity and humility. I grew up in a strong Catholic Italian household. Lent was always a special time of meditation and self reflection. I had to separate Jesus, the man who beat up bankers and protected s*x workers, from the bishops and priests, the protectors of pedophiles and money hoarders, the colonizers and enemy of LGTBQIA+ communities. Lent is about making a sacrifice in your life to bring you closer to God. But, when we live in an age when vegan/vegetarian meals and fried fish can rival a steak dinner, where is the sacrifice? As someone who has spent days wandering the desert for a crumb of a faith, I never could find God in the pulpit. It was only in spending the past few years at actions against police violence and Palestinian genocide that I felt I was walking the path that Jesus walked. There’s no God in sin or condemnation of the marginalized. It’s only within the company of sharing space with Krishna and Muhammad, Micah, Mary Magdalene and the Buddha that you see all faiths are rooted in liberation theology. I urge my friends and family to look at your faith and make real sacrifices. Perhaps now is the time to demand change or walk away from an institution that has became so inflated that it protects a clergy of abusers over individuals Jesus would deem the closest to god i.e. children, disabled, women and the disenfranchised. Reflect on your own problematic views of LGTBQIA+, immigrants, s*x workers, and our Black and Brown non-binary, brothers and sisters. If you want to be closer to your God/Allah, embrace the people your Jesus most certainly resided with and fought for. Jesus and early Christians were activists and most certainly anti-capitalist that went toe to toe with the bank and "the state" as it existed in that time. Instead of participating in a symbolic gesture of giving up something, perhaps now is the time to give. Break bread and reside amongst the people your Jesus fought for. While our Muslim comrades fast for Ramadan and the holy land and its indigenous people continue to be displaced, murdered and starved, we should walk alongside them. Now is the time to reflect. We must fast, march, share our wealth and use our voice. We must cast down the mighty from their thrones, and lift up the lowly. We must fill the hungry with good things, and send the rich away empty handed. We need to look more like the Palestinian prince of peace, and not the sterilized-colonized image.
