Vendor Writing: Proud To Be...

Proud to Be...

BY JEN A., CONTRIBUTOR VENDOR

I sell newspapers by the side of the road. It's my only source of income and I'm proud to do what I do. The Contributor is a quality, award-winning, publication with an innovative model that lifts up, not only those of us who sell the paper, but the entire Nashville community.

When I first started selling The Contributor, I believed I was the only one benefiting from the sale. But it didn't take me long to realize that my customers gain as much of a benefit — if not more.

Contributor vendors standing out on the street throughout the city, forces the good people of Nashville to look poverty in the face and decide what they are going to do about it. Are they going to live their faith and buy a paper, or turn a blind eye?

For the most part, my customers are wonderful people. A few are not so wonderful and a few are downright obscene. But recently I've noticed some who puzzle me. They'll wave their dollars at me and when I get to the window, they snatch the money back and ask, “Are you a Christian?” I was raised in the Christian tradition, so at heart, that is really all I've ever known. I consider myself a Christian. I believe in the teachings of Jesus. I believe that we should all love one another and bring His light into our world. I don't demean anyone.

But recently I've noticed that there seems to be a different kind of “Christian”. There are Christians like me, who live humbly and love our fellow citizens. And then there are “Christians” who revere vile, immoral, demigods and whose only purpose in life is to belittle the least of us and amass guns, great wealth and power. They call themselves "Christians", but are they really?

Republicans have been grooming these “Christians” for a very long time. I'm sure you've seen them. They and their families, each holding powerful guns, are photographed in front of a Christmas tree, then made into cards to be sent out to their friends and associates over the sacred holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ.

They burn books and forbid our children from even discussing our state's history of the brutal treatment of Native Americans, Blacks, Jews, women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, or any other group they arbitrarily disapprove of: anything that will get them votes from the “Christians” they've created.

Maya Angelou once said, "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time." Maybe Tennessee “Christians” have let the corruption of their core beliefs go on for so long they don't know who Jesus is anymore — let alone who they are themselves.

Our “Christian” governor did nothing to stop a law that will send homeless residents to prison for six years and is about to turn our schools, and all the associated tax dollars that go along with them, over to out-ofstate “Christians” who say our teachers are stupid and that anyone can do what teachers do: no education training required. God save us all from these “Christians”.

Instead of doing the Christian thing to help the poor, the sick, the homeless, and the suffering, these other “Christians” draft laws and level harsh penalties and fines against the least among us. Are our privatized prisons running low on people to lock up? Or maybe some new corporation is moving to Tennessee and needs some captive, low-cost prison work crews.

These “Christians” are so pervasive anymore, I expect to walk into a Tennessee church sometime in the near future to see an altar draped in American flags with an AR-15 suspended over it instead of a cross. I believe Tennessee “Christians” have lost their way and are wandering in a vast, endless desert. I pray they find their way back to Jesus.

I don't really know what I'll say the next time a potential customer wants to play the, “Are you a Christian?” game. I will probably say nothing and just turn away to greet the next car in line. I know who I am in my heart. I'm proud to be the kind of caring Christian I am: no gun or fealty to an abhorrent demigod or political party required.