By Jim Palmer – From his Facebook post on 11/1/2026.
“If the hope of humankind depends on Jesus returning from the sky to straighten everything out, we have made a religion of postponing our responsibility. The hungry need food now. The persecuted need protection now. The earth needs our care now. None of them should have to wait for our theology to reach its final chapter.
Jesus was already here. The world remained capable of cruelty, domination, and indifference. His presence did not relieve people of the responsibility to become more human. Neither does believing in his return. A world organized around greed will not become compassionate because its inhabitants expect a supernatural intervention. We remain responsible for what we tolerate, what we participate in, and what we refuse to change.
One of Christianity’s gravest failures has been turning Jesus into a substitute for the human transformation his life demands. Compassion becomes an object of worship while the systems that inflict suffering remain intact. Courage is celebrated from the safety of conformity. Divinity is elevated beyond human reach, excusing the refusal to develop our own capacity for love, truth, and moral courage. Reverence becomes a way to honor his life without having to change our own.
I once described the alternative as discovering a “heavenly dimension” within ourselves. Today, I would put it more plainly: whatever we mean by the sacred must become real in how we live. An inward awakening that leaves our conduct untouched changes little. Its substance emerges in the difficult work of relinquishing domination, confronting our capacity for harm, sharing power, and caring for people whose lives offer us no advantage.
The language of Jesus as both human and divine raises a question that doctrine too often closes: what depths of love, awareness, and responsibility remain undeveloped in us? Calling Jesus exceptional becomes an evasion when it excuses us from cultivating the very qualities we claim to revere.
We do not need another promise that someone else will eventually make the world livable. We need people willing to undertake that work here, together, without guarantees. Whatever you believe about a second coming, another person’s suffering is already a summons. We have spent centuries asking when Jesus will return. The more urgent question is when we will show up.”
– Jim Palmer, Inner Anarchy
Read IA -> http://tinyurl.com/ke25zdu
