Election Day quote of the...er...day
From the lj of deconcentrate:
"Christianity, as practiced by Jesus Christ, is an inherently subversive religion. It topples governments, upturns the social hierarchy, and is in general one of the most infectious memes on the planet, because its central figure, Jesus Christ, is the sort of person you would want to meet. He didn't pal around with big-shot money launderers like Jack Abramoff, and didn't wine and dine at the most expensive hotels. No, he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and vagabonds. The outcasts. The dregs of society. The people everyone else hated, and who - unsurprisingly - probably hated everyone else in return.
As Christians, our primary goal, regardless of all that Paul wrote in his letters, is to glorify God in this world. Christians glorify God by showing the love of Christ throough ourselves. Did you catch that last part? The love of Christ. I assure you, that is no easy task. That is no cakewalk. Because common sense and every fiber of my being finds the love of Christ an appalling, terrifying thing. The love of Christ leaves no room for hatred, no room for pity, no room for anything, except this simple fact:
If you love someone, you must be willing to die for them. And if they hate you, you must be willing to let them kill you.
The central tenet of Chrisitanity is not the "Great Commission," as it is known ("go out and make disciples of all people"), but the life and behaviors of Jesus Christ - it's right in the name of the religion, for crying out loud. And if the life and times of Jesus, son of Joseph, are our guide to walking this world, then there is absolutely no one in office or currently running who I would vote for.
Why wouldn't I be voting? Because I'd be out stamping up and down the steps of Capitol Hill, protesting until someone came along and kicked the crap out of me or I got arrested for vagrancy. Because as a Christian, you stand up for what you believe, yes, but you let them do to you what they believe is fair. If they think you need to be locked up for the rest of your life, by the grace of God, you'll take it and you'll accept it, but you don't have to like it.
To be blunt, I doubt Jesus would have cared had one of them wanted to stab him. And neither should any of the people who follow his words.
To be even more blunt: Should anyone on my flist who calls themselves Christian come face to face with a terrorist, I expect you to offer yourself up to them. I expect you to let them kill you. Because they hate you. And that means you must love them more than anyone else. Love them like Jesus loved us, enough to lay your life down for them even if they do not understand why. Because they despise your very existence.
It all boils down to one thing: a cry of pain as one man's flesh is torn by a set of nails tacked to hard wood. It boils down to the fact that this man Jesus said nothing and did nothing but tell the truth, and he accepted that it could not stop them from stringing him up to die. If someone hates you and fears you that much, you offer your cheek to them, to strike as often as they like.
Christianity is a religion of freedom. There is no freedom that is not bought and paid for with its weight in blood, to be sure - not someone else's blood, but our blood, laid on the line for another's salvation. The call to Christians is not "save your religion!" but "kill yourself!"
. . . yeah, you don't hear that one every day, do you? Why? Because it goes against all rational behavior. It's nonsensical, it's absurd, it's - it sounds, to most people's ears, downright suicidal. To be willing to die at someone else's hands, much less the hands of someone who wants you dead? How is that in any way rational?
It isn't. Which is why Christianity has no place in politics. The Founding Fathers understood that. To put faith in the hands of the government is to cheapen it to the point of a poor man's juggling act. Government, and the people who are elected to it, has one overriding interest and one interest only: to preserve peace by maintaining status quo. By its very nature, government will fight to the very last breath to survive. This is what I am concerned about today, because this is inherently non-Christian. I mentioned above that Christianity is inherently subversive - this is why. A Christian govenrment must be willing to destroy itself or let itself be destroyed, no matter what the reason. It must be willing to overturn the Temple's marketplace. And a government, by default, cannot ever do that. The idea that a theocracy as postulated by liberals and conservatives and as secretly or not-so-secretly wished for by the so-called "Christian Coalition"/"Moral Majority" will be be in any way Christian outside of in name only is pure and utter bullshit.
And I will not vote for bullshit. I hope and pray that you will not vote for that, either.
They are lying to you, those people who champion "Christian values" and then turn around and vote in favor of the Iraqi occupation. They are lying to us all, and they are using the name of Jesus to do it, and they honestly believe what they're saying is moral and true. They're a danger to every person of faith in this country, so long as they maintain the stranglehold on politics they currently enjoy. What they preach is in danger of covering over the truth of Christ in favor of a Christianity red with the blood of other people's bodies on our hands.
The power of Christ is in self-sacrificing love. Not in some desire to protect democracy. You cannot make the message of Jesus political without making it a mockery of itself."
"Christianity, as practiced by Jesus Christ, is an inherently subversive religion. It topples governments, upturns the social hierarchy, and is in general one of the most infectious memes on the planet, because its central figure, Jesus Christ, is the sort of person you would want to meet. He didn't pal around with big-shot money launderers like Jack Abramoff, and didn't wine and dine at the most expensive hotels. No, he ate with tax collectors, prostitutes, and vagabonds. The outcasts. The dregs of society. The people everyone else hated, and who - unsurprisingly - probably hated everyone else in return.
As Christians, our primary goal, regardless of all that Paul wrote in his letters, is to glorify God in this world. Christians glorify God by showing the love of Christ throough ourselves. Did you catch that last part? The love of Christ. I assure you, that is no easy task. That is no cakewalk. Because common sense and every fiber of my being finds the love of Christ an appalling, terrifying thing. The love of Christ leaves no room for hatred, no room for pity, no room for anything, except this simple fact:
If you love someone, you must be willing to die for them. And if they hate you, you must be willing to let them kill you.
The central tenet of Chrisitanity is not the "Great Commission," as it is known ("go out and make disciples of all people"), but the life and behaviors of Jesus Christ - it's right in the name of the religion, for crying out loud. And if the life and times of Jesus, son of Joseph, are our guide to walking this world, then there is absolutely no one in office or currently running who I would vote for.
Why wouldn't I be voting? Because I'd be out stamping up and down the steps of Capitol Hill, protesting until someone came along and kicked the crap out of me or I got arrested for vagrancy. Because as a Christian, you stand up for what you believe, yes, but you let them do to you what they believe is fair. If they think you need to be locked up for the rest of your life, by the grace of God, you'll take it and you'll accept it, but you don't have to like it.
To be blunt, I doubt Jesus would have cared had one of them wanted to stab him. And neither should any of the people who follow his words.
To be even more blunt: Should anyone on my flist who calls themselves Christian come face to face with a terrorist, I expect you to offer yourself up to them. I expect you to let them kill you. Because they hate you. And that means you must love them more than anyone else. Love them like Jesus loved us, enough to lay your life down for them even if they do not understand why. Because they despise your very existence.
It all boils down to one thing: a cry of pain as one man's flesh is torn by a set of nails tacked to hard wood. It boils down to the fact that this man Jesus said nothing and did nothing but tell the truth, and he accepted that it could not stop them from stringing him up to die. If someone hates you and fears you that much, you offer your cheek to them, to strike as often as they like.
Christianity is a religion of freedom. There is no freedom that is not bought and paid for with its weight in blood, to be sure - not someone else's blood, but our blood, laid on the line for another's salvation. The call to Christians is not "save your religion!" but "kill yourself!"
. . . yeah, you don't hear that one every day, do you? Why? Because it goes against all rational behavior. It's nonsensical, it's absurd, it's - it sounds, to most people's ears, downright suicidal. To be willing to die at someone else's hands, much less the hands of someone who wants you dead? How is that in any way rational?
It isn't. Which is why Christianity has no place in politics. The Founding Fathers understood that. To put faith in the hands of the government is to cheapen it to the point of a poor man's juggling act. Government, and the people who are elected to it, has one overriding interest and one interest only: to preserve peace by maintaining status quo. By its very nature, government will fight to the very last breath to survive. This is what I am concerned about today, because this is inherently non-Christian. I mentioned above that Christianity is inherently subversive - this is why. A Christian govenrment must be willing to destroy itself or let itself be destroyed, no matter what the reason. It must be willing to overturn the Temple's marketplace. And a government, by default, cannot ever do that. The idea that a theocracy as postulated by liberals and conservatives and as secretly or not-so-secretly wished for by the so-called "Christian Coalition"/"Moral Majority" will be be in any way Christian outside of in name only is pure and utter bullshit.
And I will not vote for bullshit. I hope and pray that you will not vote for that, either.
They are lying to you, those people who champion "Christian values" and then turn around and vote in favor of the Iraqi occupation. They are lying to us all, and they are using the name of Jesus to do it, and they honestly believe what they're saying is moral and true. They're a danger to every person of faith in this country, so long as they maintain the stranglehold on politics they currently enjoy. What they preach is in danger of covering over the truth of Christ in favor of a Christianity red with the blood of other people's bodies on our hands.
The power of Christ is in self-sacrificing love. Not in some desire to protect democracy. You cannot make the message of Jesus political without making it a mockery of itself."