Is Jesus Relevant Anymore?
Over the course of this last week a question has been rolling around in my head. A question that is going to piss off a lot of people. I was asking myself, "Is Jesus relevant anymore?"
The catalyst for this question came from this wonderful article by my friend Peter Montgomery over at Religion Dispatches. Jesus Hates Taxes
After reading through that amazing and terrifying history I had to start asking myself, what the hell is wrong with people? Why on earth would anyone use the language of obedient slavery in the Bible to justify a modern equivalent? It's just absolutely abhorrent to contemplate.
But I took a step away from this issue, controversial and insane as it is. I thought further on the root of this, and wondered to myself, why is there such unquestioning devotion to this particular passage of the Bible? Sadly we find that the question answers itself, anyone thought to question their masters is seen to question the word of God, and that is to lead you down the path to hell.
However, that position should not hold water. All of the faith traditions espousing this radically detrimental theology are protestant Christians. It was my understanding that the Lutheran Reformation paved the way from people to interpret text on their own. These people have fallen prey to the same structure of unilateral interpretation of text that Luther himself questioned.
But beyond Luther, let's talk about Derrida. We live in a postmodern society, one in which textual deconstruction has been the primary mode of literary analysis for about 20 years at least. The fertile ground that deconstruction gives us allows for these radical interpretations of text whereby someone can focus on the elements of slaves obeying masters and man shall not lie with man, only to turn around and ignore phrases such as render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. The Bible is not looked at as a whole text, if ever it was, it is instead looked at in pieces, all of which are decontextualized, then recontextualized in a modern setting and reinterpreted for an audience 2000+ years beyond its original target audience in order to fit the whims and wills of those who wield the words. We are so far removed at this point from any semblance of meaning that to attempt to extract "literal, non-metaphorical" meaning from the text is beyond absurd.
So I have to ask myself, is Jesus relevant anymore? Are the words that he spoke completely meaningless, completely useless in a post-modern era where anyone can reinterpret those words however he or she sees fit?
Spiritually, I think there is something to gain from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Though I myself am no longer a Christian person, I still believe that there are spiritual truths in what was spoken in the Gospels. And not just the official four, but the Gnostic texts as well. There is beautiful affirmation of life in there, the importance of giving, and the vastness of heaven. It's beautiful and full of hope.
But is this relevant to developing a national, state or municipal economic policy? I don't think so. There's too much room for interpretation, too much opportunity for decontextualized hyperfocus and too much of a risk for serious abuse of people's most delicate and personal trust in their soul.
That's what we stand to lose in these situations. If we lose sight of the bigger picture, allow someone else to tell us what they believe is the will of God, surrender ourselves wholly to an abusive master then we lose more than our lives, we lose our very soul.
Protestant theology gave us the chance to think for ourselves. Some folks ought to exercise that option once in a while.
The catalyst for this question came from this wonderful article by my friend Peter Montgomery over at Religion Dispatches. Jesus Hates Taxes
After reading through that amazing and terrifying history I had to start asking myself, what the hell is wrong with people? Why on earth would anyone use the language of obedient slavery in the Bible to justify a modern equivalent? It's just absolutely abhorrent to contemplate.
But I took a step away from this issue, controversial and insane as it is. I thought further on the root of this, and wondered to myself, why is there such unquestioning devotion to this particular passage of the Bible? Sadly we find that the question answers itself, anyone thought to question their masters is seen to question the word of God, and that is to lead you down the path to hell.
However, that position should not hold water. All of the faith traditions espousing this radically detrimental theology are protestant Christians. It was my understanding that the Lutheran Reformation paved the way from people to interpret text on their own. These people have fallen prey to the same structure of unilateral interpretation of text that Luther himself questioned.
But beyond Luther, let's talk about Derrida. We live in a postmodern society, one in which textual deconstruction has been the primary mode of literary analysis for about 20 years at least. The fertile ground that deconstruction gives us allows for these radical interpretations of text whereby someone can focus on the elements of slaves obeying masters and man shall not lie with man, only to turn around and ignore phrases such as render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. The Bible is not looked at as a whole text, if ever it was, it is instead looked at in pieces, all of which are decontextualized, then recontextualized in a modern setting and reinterpreted for an audience 2000+ years beyond its original target audience in order to fit the whims and wills of those who wield the words. We are so far removed at this point from any semblance of meaning that to attempt to extract "literal, non-metaphorical" meaning from the text is beyond absurd.
So I have to ask myself, is Jesus relevant anymore? Are the words that he spoke completely meaningless, completely useless in a post-modern era where anyone can reinterpret those words however he or she sees fit?
Spiritually, I think there is something to gain from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Though I myself am no longer a Christian person, I still believe that there are spiritual truths in what was spoken in the Gospels. And not just the official four, but the Gnostic texts as well. There is beautiful affirmation of life in there, the importance of giving, and the vastness of heaven. It's beautiful and full of hope.
But is this relevant to developing a national, state or municipal economic policy? I don't think so. There's too much room for interpretation, too much opportunity for decontextualized hyperfocus and too much of a risk for serious abuse of people's most delicate and personal trust in their soul.
That's what we stand to lose in these situations. If we lose sight of the bigger picture, allow someone else to tell us what they believe is the will of God, surrender ourselves wholly to an abusive master then we lose more than our lives, we lose our very soul.
Protestant theology gave us the chance to think for ourselves. Some folks ought to exercise that option once in a while.