29 June 2026
Matthew 25:40 "What you do for the least of you, you do for me." I -ished that but I'm not wrong.
This is a line from a parable. As a kid being fed the Bible twice on Sundays and on Wednesday nights, I came to appreciate the parables. Even at a young age I understood what they were, and Immma sucker for a metaphor. Also, I was a child, and they teach Jesus in Sunday school downstairs, who is nice and kind and full of lovely stories. Upstairs in church they teach God who is mad absolutely all of the time because nobody does what he says. There is also that whole "jealous God" thing that is open for interpretation.
Since God was always yelling I didn't hear much of what he said. But I heard Jesus, who did not yell at all, he just told nice stories, so I follow his advice.
To Be Very Clear: I am not a Christian. I do not attend church. Read the above paragraph as to how often I was forced to attend church and the reason is clear. I do like parts of the Bible, and I took a class called "The Bible As Literature" in college that was pretty cool, cause I discovered parts they never taught in church. Church doesn't work for me, even as an adult. I researched Judiaism but had no interest in converting. I did the same with Buddism. And for a minute I practiced Transendentalism because it made a ton of sense and was close to what I think the tribal ideals were. Mix that up with some Joseph Campbell and the Greeks with a dash of inherited intuition and the unwanted ability to chat with the dead and...here I am.
Jesus' parables line up with a lot of other stories "out there". I didn't make that up, but I also don't have the energy to teach this morning. Look it up. So do a lot of the God wrath stories. Zeus is up there having tantrums daily, and can't keep it in his pants. Part of the appeal of Budda is his lack of rage meltdowns.
Historically, the Matthew passage has been used in reference to the unhoused, the poor, the "less fortunate". It should be a pillar of Christian action, as it is easily expanded to war refugees, immigrants,folks just down on their luck, children and special needs.
That's the one that sticks with me, and the one on my mind this morning.
Cutting programs in schools for special needs children, under a regime waving a Christian Nationalist flag, horrifying. The same regime is cutting free lunch for kids, medicare and medicaid and education. Everything American society put in place to support "the least of you" is being ripped apart.
Occasionally I toddle down rabbit holes. Sometimes it's accidental, I follow a thread that should have all like minded people responding. Other times bots or just rotten humans stab theie evil thoughts into the thread. I was not on a thread regarding special needs education, specifically when I saw the post. Bots and rotten people struggle with a throughline.
The one I stumbled on yelled that "Special needs kids have their own special school to go to. They shouldn't disrupt the learning of other students." That's paraphrased. It's not a new thought. And I'm here to confess that 26 years ago, it was my thought.
First, I want to point out that those "special schools" are few and far between. Only a handful are fully funded public schools with specialized staff. Others are for profit. Which means parents have to pay. In 1975 they passed the law stating that sped students must be allowed in public schools, however they were separated out in their own center classrooms and not integrated into the general ed population. By 1990 the IDEA act made them more visible and here we are. Do the research, it's really disheartening. Just being deaf or blind could land you in an asylum.
Like all government programs inflicted on public schools (notice I won't talk about NCLB), they were forced without financial support or teacher training. Awesome. So it went poorly, largely because people are horrible. Parents don't want their kids "left behind" because the teacher has to accomodate special needs...but your kid is already behind and -technically your kid is special needs-because you do not read to them at night or support their education. Instead, your kid is a bully. Your kid acts out and at 14 is reading at a third grade level. This means extra time with the teacher is needed, even though you did not ask for additional services. But your kid is taking time away from "regular" kids. And here we are.
Instead of getting in your own way, Belial, take a breath. Look at your own life. At some point somebody---your mom, dad, an Aunt or Uncle, a church friend, a teacher--fed you when you were hungry. They showed you kindess when you needed a hand. If you were truly abused one hundred percent of your life, you would not be mad about sped kids in your class because you know how it feels to be "othered".
We aren't born cruel. We learn to fear the other. The face of the other depends on who raised us. It can be black folks. It can be Catholics, Jews, Muslims. It can be immigrants.
It can be kids in wheelchairs.
All of these others are victims of unfounded hatred because they are perceived to steal from us. Steal our jobs, use up valuable resources.
OK, I just wrote myself into a dark hole. Hold on, I need to find my way out.
I think I'm equating kids who refuse to learn and are therefore behind with sped kids, because they both need additional attention and support. The difference is the first type of kid is disruptive and rude and doesn't want to learn. The second kid desperately wants to learn and to be included. They both require extra attention in school, but the sped kid is the one you're mad about.
You're not mad that Josh flips his table at the end of every class, refuses to sit down or stop talking, holding an entire class hostage. Your defense is that he's fine at home, the teacher is failing at classroom management. But the same teacher has kids with IEP's who need additional support but are not deliberately disruptive, and that's when you get involved. Seriously?
Removing funding for support is not stopping imaginary fraud.
The funding is not siphoned off of the gen ed kids, it's separate. It's funded that way on purpose. Because people like you, Belial, exist.
I love the argument that the USA is great because there are no accomodations in any other country for special needs students. At the same time, the same people pounding their chests with pride are advocating for the dismantling of the public school system and defunding special needs support.
You aren't getting any of that money, friend. You're being played. And rather than see it for what it is, which means accepting you've been duped, you double down. You don't even have kids in a public school, but you doubled down. They're going to dismantle public education, slap higher price tags on private schools that they control and pump out non critically thinking Bible babblers who equate cruelty with patriotism. But hey---those special needs kids aren't getting "special" treatment any more, so you win.
And what you did for the least of you, you did for Jesus. Which is support cruelty.
That was the point of all his parables: Be Cruel Constantly. Fuck Humanity. Hate Everyone Who Looks, Believes Or Acts differently than you. Blessed be he who detains, murders, defunds and deports.
Scene.
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