Sunday, June 28, 2009

The Politics Of The Crucifixion

This last week, I read Luke 23, Luke's account of the Crucifixion. The story as a whole is one of great pathos. Yet Luke's account points out a fact that is not often noticed, namely that among those in Jerusalem on that day there was a sizeable group of people who were grieved by the Crucifixion – a group composed of many more people than the eleven apostles. Note the following passage:

When they led him away, they grabbed one Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it after Jesus. A great multitude of the people followed him, including women who also mourned and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don't weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming in which they will say, 'Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.' Then they will begin to tell the mountains, 'Fall on us!' and tell the hills, 'Cover us.' For if they do these things in the green tree, what will be done in the dry?” – Luke 23:26-31.

There is also this:

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. The sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” Having said this, he breathed his last. When the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous man.” All the multitudes that came together to see this, when they say the things that were done, returned home beating their breasts. All his acquaintances, and the women who followed with him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. – Luke 23:44-49.

Why was Jesus Christ crucified? The answer to that question is both political and spiritual, and the political aspect is but a pale shadow, the most rudimentary reflection of the spiritual. We know that ultimately, Christ was sacrificed to redeem us from our sins, so that those of us who believe in Him might be made citizens of a heavenly kingdom. Yet why did the earthly rulers of Judea and the Roman empire choose to crucify Him?

The answer is that He was a threat to earthly empire and earthly elites, a threat to earthly rulers who viewed their office solely as a means to maximize their prestige and status by oppressing and exploiting their subjects and making a prey out of them. He was a threat to the scribes and Pharisees, the earthly proxy rulers of the Jews, who “...bind heavy burdens that are grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help them.” His teachings were also a threat to the Gentile power elites, of whom He said, “The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called 'benefactors.' But not so with you. But one who is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and one who is governing, as one who serves.” Though He never preached violent revolution or armed resistance, He was a threat to the earthly elites of His time and place, because by His words and deeds He threatened their legitimacy and their conscience. Therefore they crucified Him.

Who then were the multitudes who mourned the Crucifixion? These were the earthly poor in Israel, those marginalized and preyed upon by the ruling elites. To them, the teaching of Christ was good news, and He had become their hope. Through His words and deeds they got a taste of a new society, a new kingdom in which righteousness dwells, a society whose subjects would no longer be oppressed, exploited or preyed upon. Though their hope was not realized fully at that time, it is no less valid now than it was then.

This is the hope of all true believers in God, from Abraham and onward. This is what makes Christianity such good news to the poor and marginalized, and it is the reason why the Faith spread so rapidly throughout the oppressive Roman empire. This is the hope of true believers today, who cry to God that justice may be done in the earth. And part of the fervency of the prayer for justice comes from seeing and experiencing the injustice done on earth by the ruling elites of the world.

In my blogging, I cover many social issues and events, things that are frankly quite unjust, and I have to admit that sometimes I get really mad at what I see. At times I feel like flinging my computer against a wall and shouting, “There's no justice!” Luke 23, oddly enough, was a bit of an antidote to the anger, a calming answer. (Luke 24 is even better!)

One other thing to note is how out of touch are the spokespeople for the modern American Religous Right. Rather than siding with the poor and marginalized, they have sided with the ruling elites of our time and place, and have become their mouthpieces.

Note: All Scripture quotations are taken from the World English Bible, a public domain translation. No royalties are owed to anyone for its use, and it may be freely quoted and read in all settings, public and private.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Sanctity of Whose Life?!

The United States Supreme Court made the news this week by means of a controversial decision. In the decision, the majority of the Court denied the Constitutional right of convicted prisoners to have access to DNA testing evidence that might clear them. The court case was brought by representatives of Mr. William G. Osborne, who over ten years ago was convicted in Alaska of rape and battery of a prostitute. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts acknowledged the unparalleled power of DNA testing to exonerate the innocent, yet stated that the granting of the right to such exoneration was a matter “best left to the States.” (Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19scotus.html?_r=1)

The trouble is that there are four states which do not have laws granting prisoners access to DNA evidence or testing in order to prove their innocence. Alaska is one of these states. Any state therefore which decides to deny due process to wrongly convicted people can now do so, with the Supreme Court's official blessing. The five Supreme Court justices who formed the majority opinion – Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito – were all appointed by conservative, right-wing, supposedly “Christian” Presidents. Scalia and Kennedy were appointed by Ronald Reagan. Thomas was appointed by President Bush (the First). Roberts and Alito were appointed by G.W. Bush, who brought us the second Iraq War along with Guantanamo and waterboarding.

This is all very interesting, as it reminds me of the arguments often used by the American Religious Right to try to induce all Christians to support the Republican Party and American patriotism. I heard such arguments again recently from people who are upset that Obama won, saying such things as “I don't see how a godly, biblical Christian could vote for Obama!” They get on the soap box of how only the Republicans are willing to defend the sanctity of human life, and they point to traditional Republican opposition to abortion. Then they point to pictures of Republican candidates at religious conventions or at churches, and say, “See? These are God-fearing, church-going men!”

This is garbage. Utter nonsense. As a Christian, I also oppose abortion, and I stand for the sanctity of the lives of the unborn. But regard for the sanctity of human life extends to those who have already been born and who are walking on the earth now. The Religious Right and the Republican Party claim to have concern for all life, yet they show a curious lack of concern for the lives of the people jacked, ripped off and taken advantage of by them and the corporate interests they represent. They are especially callous in their treatment of the poor, the foreigners, and the non-white. (Note the skin color of Mr. Osborne.)

But ah,” said some during the last election. “We acknowledge that 'mistakes' were made by President Bush. But McCain is not Bush! He will be different! And Sarah Palin is a God-fearing, loving, Christian mother!” But Sarah Palin is also the Governor of Alaska, the state that fought Mr. Osborne's petition for enhanced DNA testing, even though Osborne was willing to pay the cost of the testing himself. The prosecutors for Alaska even acknowledged that this testing could have cleared Mr. Osborne's name once and for all. Sarah Palin is also a Republican politician, and has probably benefited greatly along with other Republican politicians from generous campaign donations from the private prison “industry” and the prison-industrial complex. (Source: Looking for the Next Mr. Goodweimer)

Is it true then, that all it takes to get the support of mainstream American evangelical culture is to host a few photo-ops in a church while holding a Bible? Or while on one's knees, eyes tightly closed and face contorted in an expression of “serious” prayer? How gullible and stupid we are! Will we traipse along behind any liar promoted by the mouthpieces of the Religious Right, just because we see their campaign ads on the “Fox Faith” network or we see books in the local “Christian” bookstore talking about how “godly” these people are? What happened to our Lord's warning, “You shall know them by their fruits”? Those who continue to support the Republicans as the party of “godliness” are neither wise as serpents, nor harmless as doves. Rather, they are so gullible that they shouldn't be let outside their homes unsupervised – especially if they have money in their pockets. Of many of the Republicans, the Good Book says, “They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.” (Psalm 94:21, World English Bible) Godly? Hah! Gasoline has a better chance of surviving hell unburnt than some of these people.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

How Do Children Receive?

I've been reading the Gospel of Luke lately. I was in Luke 18 and came on three short vignettes that made me think. The first is the Lord's story about the Pharisee and the tax-collector, how they both went into the Temple to pray, and how the Pharisee thanked God that he was better than other men while the tax-collector kept saying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!” The second story concerns how people were bringing their babies to the Lord Jesus to be blessed by Him, and how His disciples tried to stop this. The third story is that of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked Him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life.

The story about the children is the one that impressed me most. After I left the abusive church I wrote about in my blog, TH in SoC, I checked out a few older, traditional churches with a more formal liturgy. One thing that I found hard to swallow was their practice of baptizing infants (although I thought their liturgies were cool). While their pastors justified infant baptism via passages such as Luke 18 (and I eventually learned to keep my mouth shut on this point), I don't think that this passage has to do with sprinkling water on babies. To me it seems that the story about the children seems to tie all three stories together, because I think it has an element that is common to all three, namely, that receiving the Kingdom involves a conscious choice to assume a humble and lowly identity, rather than trying to be a big, impressive grown-up.

For instance, the proud, self-righteous Pharisee who prayed in Luke 18:11-12 received nothing in return, but the tax-gatherer, fully aware of his faults, who kept asking God for mercy, received mercy. The children who were brought to the Lord were incapable of putting on adult acts to try to impress anyone, yet they received His blessing. The rich young ruler was offered a chance to receive perfection, if only he was willing to give up his wealth and the privelege and status that went with it.

How very different this line of thought is from our present culture, which manufactures all sorts of societal and organizational ladders composed of our fellow human beings, and trains us all from youth onward to be ladder-climbers. Many of us see the ridiculousness of this aspect of our culture, and we poke fun at it via comic strips like Dilbert and TV shows like The Office. Why do we try to drag this ladder-climbing culture into the Church?