Some Thoughts about Jesus, the Church, my Country, and the War

FROM Populist America  by Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D. Likely the most controversial individual in the history of the world is Jesus, known by many to be The Christ.  And no doubt everyone, young and old, rich or poor, liberals, conservatives, those who are religious, atheists, agnostics; nearly everyone is likely to have an opinion of Jesus.  One poll, celebrating the beginning of the second millennium, pointed out that Jesus Christ, more than anyone else, is responsible for how people in the Western World think.  Without a doubt this fellow from the city of Nazareth in an area known as Galilee has provided us with much to think about.  Although the man is regarded to be a prophet by each and every one of the great religions of the world, we appear to be on the verge of killing each other for no other reason than our inability to agree on who this man is, what he stood for, and how it is that he would like for us to conduct our lives! Quite obviously, just as yours, my first concern has always been that of trying to figure out just exactly who Jesus is.  And, believe me, if I knew for sure, I would tell you, but like so many who have gone before, I am left with questions.  Is Jesus Christ the Son of God; a God of judgment and wrath or one of mercy and forgiveness?  What was Jesus' mission, to show us how to live a good life and/or to save us from eternal damnation?  Did he die only to rise from the grave?  Is Jesus the one and only Savior of the world, the one in whom every human being must believe or spend an eternity of agonizing pain in the fiery flames of Hell?  Alas, even though I have spent at least five decades trying to figure out who this man is, I am sorry to report that I am yet confused; but, not to give up, I plan to spend the remaining years of my life interrogating God, all in order to better understand who Jesus is. On the other hand, there seems to be little question as to what Jesus taught.  In order to clear away the vast amount of deadwood, the utter complexity of the Jewish faith, Jesus reduced religion to its most essential elements, that we love God, our neighbor, as well as that of our enemy.  Assuming that this was Jesus' mission on Earth, to show us how to live such a life, allow me to share with you what such means to me within the context of the world in which we live. Now, within the context of those with whom I have lived my life, I have found the teachings of Jesus to be my best guide.  I have discovered that when I chose to violate such teaching by treating others in an unkind manner, nothing but harm has come to me.  Believe me, it has been so terribly easy for me to love those of my friends, but so horribly difficult to learn how to forgive those who have harmed me.  But in aging, I am convinced that love is a far better thing than hate.  As I look back upon my life, often have I deplored that which I have done while angry, but never once have I regretted having made amends, having forgiven, having made an effort to love my enemy. But what about the church, Christians who claim to know the truth of God, those who claim to know everything about this man they call the Son of God, those who claim to know exactly how Jesus would deal with the critical issues of our day; homosexuality, capital punishment, abortion, cloning, poverty, and war?  However, as a psychologist, I am quite sure that such pronouncements are often nothing more than rather well rehearsed attempts to justify, that is, to rationalize, the apparent correctness of their views, unconscious maneuvers, permitting them to believe that God has spoken, revealed his truth, to them.  One might wish that church doctrine was, in fact, a spiritual matter, but alas such may be nothing more than canonical attempts to appease the appetite of those who happen to pay the bills of the church.  Add to this the rather mean spirited history of the church (the Spanish Inquisition, the rape of the Indian culture during the westward expansion, the brutalization of black slaves, the New England torture of witches, and the church's longstanding support of America's military-industrial complex) and you have a misguided church that apparently has very little to offer the world.  As James Hillman wrote in his book, A Terrible Love of War: "Western Christianity's god comes front and center when war is in the air.  War brings its god to life."  Consequently, I can no longer, in good conscience, claim to be a Christian.  Rather, I have chosen to accept the teachings of Jesus as well as those of other religions that tend to support the categorical imperative of Jesus' command that we love God, our neighbor, and that of our enemy. And then there is the mess of our own country.  I have often wondered how Jesus might feel about this so-called "land of the free." However, since we will likely never know, the best I can do is to suggest what appears to have taken hold of the American mind.  The verdict: sex, money, an avaricious appetite to acquire more and more things, power, prestige, a jingoistic attachment to that of "the fatherland," and civil religion, and, in all probability, in that particular order.  Added to this there is the undeniable reality of our country's longstanding desire to dominate the world, and all of such supported by a people who have, with no fight whatsoever, allowed themselves to have been brainwashed into believing that our country has been assigned the divine responsibility of carrying out the righteous will of God.  All of such leading to a ridiculously wicked claim that our country can do no wrong! And finally, this thing about war.  There can be no misunderstanding that Jesus' mandate to love is uncompromisingly opposed to the mass slaughter that defines the character of war.  However, because so many have successfully distorted the teachings of Jesus, our country has been allowed to launch a decades-long campaign of death and destruction formulated to destroy all who refuse to play "the game" according to our rules (vis-à­-vis the upcoming invasion of Iran).  As William Blum in his book, Killing Hope, so tellingly describes, "It's not that [the leaders of our nation] take pleasure in causing so much death and suffering. It's that they just don't [seem to care].  As long as death and suffering advance the agenda of the empire, as long as the right people and the right corporations gain wealth and power and privilege and prestige, as long as death and suffering aren't happening to them or people close to them ... they just don't [seem to care]." As a result of such actions millions of people have been killed, the rest having been condemned to a life of poverty, misery and despair.  And of course, all of such through the rather loosely coordinated efforts of the government, the corporate community, mass media, the church, and that of our own public schools who have collectively decided that it would be in our best interests if we, the people, remained uniformly uninformed in regards to the ugly realities of our nation's rather sordid past. Accordingly, I must admit that I am terribly ashamed to have become associated with so much of what so many Americans have claimed to be so very proud.  And I am convinced that if our country is to once again become a beacon of light for the rest of the world to see, a strong and resilient democracy capable of standing up for that which is right and good, then the citizenry of our nation must reverse what has become a slow yet determined decline into a morass of ignorance and sloth, an abject unwillingness to face the fact that our country is under attack (not from without, but rather from within) by that of a rising tide of fascism threatening to consume everything that we, as a nation, once held dear, a neoconservative campaign eerily similar to that which occurred in Germany as Adolph Hitler rose to power. In the meantime however, I ask but one thing... that God bestow upon us the wisdom to realize that time may be short, and that if we are to reclaim our nation, we have no choice but to recognize our constitutional right, our responsibility, and most importantly our duty, to throw aside, even to abolish, any body politic that might threaten to destroy a government created of the people, by the people, and thank God, for every one of the people of our country, the United States of America.   Tags: Jesus war Christianity United States Iraq James Hillman

Christians And Atheists

Many of you may know that I am not a fan of organized religion because it generally serves no good purpose since most churches are all about money and control over their flocks. I'm certainly not any kind of fan of the Fundamentalist Christian right because there is nothing right about them. The attitude of " it is our way or you are going to hell " has never sat right with me. Our president, George Bush, fits within this group of so-called Christians.    Anyway, some real Christians are now beginning to do some real reach out to non-believers instead of insulting them or calling them names.   The group of non-believers that they have started a dialogue with are the atheist because they wanted to know why this group believes as it does.    This was a televised discussion on "Nightline Face Off" on ABCNews.com which was a very interesting program. It was on this past Wednesday and I did not see it at the time it was broadcast but I have the vid. I bring this up because many of the so called " bad views " about Christians are pretty much a valid argument when seen through the eyes of a newcomer who goes to a religious meeting for the first time.     Anyway, here is a writeup of the program.   Christians and atheists start a calmer dialogue By Jane Lampman, Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorThu May 10,  via YahooNews Wednesday night on ABC-TV, two televangelists took on nonbelievers from the Rational Response Squad in a bid to prove the existence of God (see "Nightline Face Off" on ABCNews.com). The TV polemics come in the wake of a rash of bestselling books by atheists challenging religion. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, among others, go beyond questioning God to charge that religion is a plague that needs to be eliminated. Their vehemence, some suggest, is in response to Chris­tian attacks on evolution and stem-cell research. "It's Christian militancy that has evoked a backlash of atheist militancy," says Michael Bleiweiss, a physicist and atheist from Methuen, Mass. Amid the rising heat of this latest culture clash, though, a few people on both sides are finding calmer ways to engage, seeking to build bridges and even learn from one another. Some Christians, concerned that millions of Americans never cross the threshold of a church, want to understand why, as well as learn what it is in evangelistic efforts that turns people off. Some atheists, worried that polls show they are the least accepted social group in the country, want to break down stereotypes and change people's attitudes. So both are willing to sit down together in different venues, discuss their divergent perspectives, and, in some cases, jointly visit church services across the United States. As a result, they are sparking a growing Christian-atheist dialogue on the Web. At a conference in Salem, Mass., last Saturday, for example, Christians from several states listened to atheists and neopagans talk about who they are, the origin of their ethics and beliefs, and what challenges they encounter in a society that is predominantly Christian. "I've never understood treating a people group as [the enemy] because their belief system is different," says Phil Wyman, pastor of The Gathering, a Salem church that sponsored the conference. Jim Henderson, a former Evangelical pastor from Seattle who moderated the atheism discussion, has been getting an earful for some time. Frustrated at his inability to draw more people to his church, Mr. Henderson set out to learn how "the unchurched" respond to various kinds of worship services – what it is they find appealing and what leaves them cold. He began to pay nonbelievers $25 to go to a church and tell him what they thought. "I also became intrigued by why evangelism bothered everybody, including me," he says in an interview. "I decided to devote my life to reimagining evangelism ... how to do it and be 'normal.' " Soon, he got wind of an auction on eBay in which a student at the University of Illinois in Chicago proposed "selling my soul" to the highest bidder. Young atheist Hemant Mehta had been raised in Jainism, but left the faith in his teens. Mr. Mehta was curious about Christianity and whether it could provide any evidence for the existence of God. Wondering if he might be missing something, he offered to attend church with the winning bidder. High bidder takes atheist to churchWith the top bid of $504, Henderson asked Mehta to visit 15 churches, fill out a survey on each one, and share his perspectives on Henderson's website (off-the-map.org). The experience has changed the lives of both men. Mehta, now an honors graduate in mathematics and biology, has not converted, but the two have become friends. Mehta has started his own blog (friendlyatheist.com) and travels to speak to churches and humanist organizations. He has written a book – "I Sold My Soul on eBay" – that explains why he is an atheist and gives churches advice on what it would take to reach nonbelievers. Henderson has gone on to pair with another atheist, Matt Casper, for further church visits across the US, and they've written "Jim and Casper Go to Church." Both books offer insightful, revealing, sometimes humorous critiques of what a variety of Christian services, in churches of different sizes and denominations, look like to the uninitiated. Henderson also conducts interviews with men and women who are non­believers as an event at church and pastor conferences. Many Evangelicals "are obsessed with conversion," he says, and always speak of non-Christians as "lost." The interviews show Christians immersed in their own culture and how that sounds to the people they approach. At the Salem conference, Mr. Bleiweiss recalled a co-worker who "worked Jesus into every conversation we had." Henderson's experiences have led him, with his "Off The Map" venture, into "something larger than evangelism," what he calls "otherliness." Otherliness – "the spirituality of serving others" – involves "drawing people into the idea of paying real attention to each other, of listening." He wants to teach individuals and groups of all kinds how to do a much better job of listening to those they interact with. For his part, Mehta is still open to "any compelling evidence of the existence of God." He describes positive elements in some churches, such as top-notch speakers and impressive community outreach. "The more work churches do for everyone, the more respect they'll get from outsiders," he writes. Yet churchgoers are missing the mark, he says, when they think non­religious people lack a basis for ethical values, look down on non-Christians, or fail to speak out against religious leaders who make outrageous public statements. What would convince him? A miracle.During church services, they often fail to explain traditions or rituals, which leaves visitors confused. "Why is the structure of the service always the same?" Mehta wonders. Zeroing in on "what it would take to convert me," he says a church would need to appeal to his sense of reason, challenge him to think more deeply, and allow for asking questions. "I wasn't confronted with a new line of thinking that challenged my commitment to scientific empiricism," he writes. Also, he'd want a church where "men and women lead on an equal basis." Most important, he states, what would convince him would be "a miracle – an undeniable miracle that has no natural explanation." While on their tour of the most prominent megachurches and stylistically innovative churches, Mr. Casper asked Henderson, "Is this what Jesus told you guys to do?" The 30-something father of two is generally unimpressed with the multi­media "killer" church services they attend. Articulate in explaining his reactions in detail, he, like Mehta, also finds in the predictable format of services that "certainty is boring, certainty is closed off." When a healing is mentioned in one Pentecostal service, though, he reacts strongly. If that man can heal, he says, "why is he ... hanging out in this building?... Get out there, then! There are people who need your help." Saying that he loves the teachings of Jesus, along with those of other important teachers, Casper concludes: "The question that just came up for me again and again ... is, What does the way Christianity is practiced today have to do with the ... words and deeds" of Jesus? For Henderson, Wyman, and Mehta, the value of talking and listening to those with differing worldviews has become crystal clear. Pastor Wyman has been reaching out to non-Christians in Salem, and particularly to the large neopagan community here (attracted, no doubt, by Salem's identification with witchcraft in Colonial times). His stereotypes about witches were often wrong, he says. Having formed respectful relationships, he's now being asked to come to pagan events to speak about Christian perspectives. "Christians for quite some time have been creating events and trying to draw people into our little box, and we call that 'outreach,' " he says. "This is an exciting opportunity – people are opening, listening, and seeking out spiritual things." Copyright © 2007 The Christian Science Monitor   Tags: Christians Atheists