God and Mammon

One of the pastimes that goes on in my feeble brain, almost without me noticing, is coming up with titles for books I would like to read, or would like to know how to write.  I’ll toss this one out in the hopes that somewhere in the ether-tubes will be a person with the right expertise to actually put it together.  Ready?

God and Mammon:  The Big Business of Evangelical Religion In America

Or, for a slightly different emphasis:

God and Mammon:  Christianity and Capitalism in America

This book would review the history and current state of churches, denominations, individual religious superstars, and mega churches, and would provide analysis of how much money is involved in these various organizations, where it comes from and especially how it is spent.  Under the second title it might actually go broader, dropping the rubric “evangelical” from the subtitle, so as to also look at mainline churches, the Catholic Church and its various organizations, questionable cults, non-Christian religious movements, and so on, but that would be a much broader project.

One focus of such a project might be to try to understand how it is that somehow in the United States Christianity has become wedded to capitalism, whether that has always been the case, exceptions to this rule, and how such an emphasis has developed over time. I would definitely buy and read such a book. It could also,of course, do some analysis of the extent to which funds are actually spent on human development, healthcare, housing, education, nutrition; how much on political activism, left and right; how much on real estate, salaries, and other measures of institutional maintenance.  Then, of course, the question would have to be asked, to what extent these things map to the priorities actually laid out in the New Testament by Jesus of Nazareth, who said:  ”where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Verse of the Month — November 2009

Thanksgiving

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 118:1

Verse of the Month — October 2009

Generosity

Give, and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.

Luke 6:38

Verse of the Month — September 2009

Openness

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed,
and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.

Mark 4:22

On justice vs. compassion

Today, the Scottish government has released, on compassionate grounds, former Libyan intelligence agent Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people. He has been serving a life sentence for this crime in a Scottish prison.   He is now dying of cancer.

The United States has expressed dismay over this release.  Apparently, however, there is a provision in Scottish law allowing for such action on the basis of compassion. The talking heads on television are all over this today, drumming up outrage:   How in the heck can a government write compassion into law?

Can it have anything to do with the lack of separation between Church and State in a place like Scotland?  Are we, in the US, which sometimes styles itself as the first  country in  the world to be founded on Christian principles, horrified that in this instance, through an instrument of law, the teaching of Christ, famous for his compassion, has trumped our sense of Justice?

Can anyone hear the admonition:  “Go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice”?

Or do we really believe that compassion has no place in law, no place in government?  And if that is true, have we not effectively excluded God from our way of life, whatever we do or don’t print on our money or recite in our pledge?

Let me break it down like this.  To Christians, at least, the injunction is given:  “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.”… and, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written:  ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.”   But in our secular society, we turn this exactly on its head, and say that we humans must exact vengeance and leave it up to God to forgive if he wants.  Christians, at least, are required (not just permitted) to forgive.  Will “Christian” voices now become among the loudest to shout how wrong the Scottish government is in failing to exact the fullest repayment of evil for evil?  If this occurs, I can only then return to the words of scripture:

They will have justice without mercy who have shown no mercy; but Mercy triumphs over (=trumps) Justice! (James 2:13)

Are Christians too judgmental?

I took part in a panel discussion a few weeks ago on this topic.  A discussion ensued in a private forum where some posters expressed views that suggest people like me, who insist on emphasizing the love of God for all persons, are, let’s say, not really Christians at all because we appear not to have any standards, and because we don’t simply state whatever the Bible says.  I think I hold myself and others to a very high standard, however, and I think I am pretty clear on what the Bible says also.  Here’s my response, in part:

What then do we make of Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, John 8:15, and Romans 2:1?

Jesus was faced with people who ultimately condemned (judged) him because he refused to judge a sexual sin (the woman taken in adultery: immediate context for the John 8 passage) even though they could point to chapter and verse to say she should not only be condemned but punished; because he was so lacking in (their idea of)  discernment that he tolerated uncleanness (eating with unwashed hands) and moral failure (eating with tax collectors and “sinners”). These were the sorts of things that incensed the moral gatekeepers of the day, the Pharisees. He healed indiscriminately; touched a leper, refused to rebuke a woman known to be immoral (at the house of Simon the Pharisee, the muttering round the table was, “If he knew what kind of woman she was….”, obviously a question of their judgment concerning his evident lack of discernment). Of course, Jesus knew in every case what was going on, and made conscious decisions not only to do these things but to use them as occasions for teaching about the scope of God’s love for people and the nature of love and forgiveness. He speaks without compromise about the absolute condemnation from God which is to fall on those who, having received mercy, fail to offer it to others in turn. “So will my heavenly Father do to you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” This says to me that love and forgiveness, not moral rightness or knowledge, are the essential beginning-point of any real discernment “in the Spirit.”

One day soon I will lay out my understanding of the thrust of the argument present by Paul in Romans chapters one through three, which I take to be an extended exposition of Luke 6:37, remembering that Luke the evangelist was Paul’s traveling companion, they worked together, and are likely to have  drawn from one another’s material.

Verse of the Month — August 2009

The Short Version

Always treat others as you would like them to treat you:  
that is the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:12

Integrity redux

Just some random thoughts on a Friday afternoon….. in preparation for Sunday.

I’m thinking about the 24th Psalm:  “Who shall asscend to the hill of the Lord? And who can stand in his holy place?  He that has clean hands, and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol, or swear by what is false.”  This sounds like the search for integrity.

Clean hands:  That’s the behavioral part of ethics. It recalls to mind those things that are prohibited in the behavioral portions of the Big Ten;  murder, theft, adultery.  While motivation is of utmost importance, behavior is here listed first.  Good intentions are no excuse for careless actions.  Short cuts lead to trouble.  Over in the New Testament, an apostle says: “avoid every appearance of evil.”  This can be carried too far, as some focus so much on appearance that the next, more necessary part, gets ignored; but at a bare minimum, a person of integrity should have, as is said, his “act” together.

Avoidance of obvious contamination, however, goes only a certain distance.  Next comes the really hard part, a pure heart.  These two go together.  As Kierkegaard observed, “Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing.”  His essay by  that title goes on to demonstrate how it is that it is not possible to will one thing, unless that thing is “the good;”  contrasting it with “double-mindedness,”  recalling the admonition of St. James.  Here is where our search becomes a search indeed.  Who knows his own heart?  Who can say that his or her own desires are, let’s say, completely unselfish?  I can’t.  That is, I can’t until I enlarge my vision, and begin to truly pray as we are taught:  “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  If the will of God is for peace, prosperity,  and health to prevail, I am double-minded so long as I care for those things with regard to myself, but not for others; but also if I seek them for others while pretending that I don’t want them for myself.  So my sense of my own need must expand to include all of my neighbors, even my enemies (as Jesus taught), and at the same time must acknowledge that I too am one of those whose need requires a divine action.

This leads us to the next thing:  who does not lift his soul up to an idol.  I’m thinking of an idol, in this instance, as anything partial, anything less than the good of the whole, as St Paul said, “worshiping and serving the creature more than the Creator” — even though we are to desire good things for every creature, none is to take on absolute significance. Idolatry, then,  is treating what is secondary as if it were of first importance; and since we cannot see the full picture, nothing we can see or understand can be of first importance. Not myself, not my cause, not my family nor my country, least of all wealth or comfort, belongs in the place of the God who wills the best for me in relation to all of these.  Always remembering that my current picture is partial, again as is said, “Now we see through a glass darkly,”  can I truly value any of these good things rightly.  So often we think that an idol must be something obviously false and wrong, to be forsaken utterly; whereas more often it is likely to be something good and even worthy of much attention, which nevertheless falsely takes the first place, ahead of all else, distorting our view of the rest of the world, never mind that of our Creator.  Which leads us to the fourth matter in this progression:

“nor swear by what is false.”  What is false is exactly this wrong relationship of God’s creatures to one another, when one or another takes absolute precedence.  In my search for integrity I have to acknowledge that I, myself, some of the time, am what is false, in those instances where I have taken the smaller view, forgotten my neighbor, failed to see Christ in the one who is hungry or homeless or imprisoned— or simply when I have taken the easy road, pretending that actions in one arena do not have consequences somewhere else.

The Psalmist presumes that such people as he describes exist.  If they do, these are the ones who never cease in their own search for integrity.  They, he says, shall receive blessing from the Lord.

Verse of the Month — July 2009

Fulfillment

Love does no harm to its neighbor.  Therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Romans 13:10

Verse of the Month — June 2009

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.

—Psalm 37:4