Death is a Prophylactic
I was asked to verify that Billy Graham ever said what I said he said. I guess I have to say he didn't "say" it.
It's tough if you don't accept that he was a man, but here 'tis.
So the reveal?
Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. "Spiritualizing" My Lai. Waving our palm fronds.
Isn't it all of the same stuff?
Doesn't it depend on our creating a self-serving, self-justifying, affirming sense of God- a sense of God that is then for us in a self-serving, self-justifying, affirming way?
I guess we could say it's all in the past and now we know better. I guess we do say that, and do so without thinking that makes us the crowd that rejects Jesus.
Convenient.
...
Here's where it gets maudlin...
Could you stand with King while he was still alive? If you're a White Christian, history says you probably couldn't.*
What would you do or say about My Lai if now was 37 years ago? Say, "Thanks, Billy"?
Where would you be in the last week of Jesus' life: with the crowds, his disciples, the religious leaders? The Gospels don't really give any of us a happy out with those choices.
So where do you stand now?
Are you convinced that your god has saved you from this story?
I'd say y/our submission to y/our god still crucifies love today. But "The cry of revolt against such a god is nearer the truth than is the sophistry with which men attempt to justify him."** [sic all the way around]
If Only I Were Listening to Rattle and Hum
Doolittle- Pixies
* Ouch, did I have to say it like that?
** Some so and so's thoughts on what the Letter to the Romans could mean.
2 comments:
Wow... thanks for posting the BG opinion.
While in seminary I picked up a great book on the nature of ritual in ancient Judaism, contrasting the magical perspective of contemporary religious groups (do this act and the expected magical effect will happen) with the just slightly skewed forms found in the Temple and in the homes of the Jews. The core difference was the interplay of remembrance and salvation. Every ritual started with a less than honorific story about a patriarch or group of people that required God's grace and, in spite of their best efforts, found God's grace. The Jews were to identify with the needy, not the triumphant. And in remembering, they shared in and experienced a part of God's grace as well.
Bitter herbs are served at Passover, not milk and honey.
Of course, the struggle we have as Christians is identifying what our need is when once-saved-always-saved. When you're a new creation, what's the point of remembering your sinful past? Or someone else's sinful past?
I swear, I get more and more Jewish every time I read your blog.
Well so long as you remember you killed Jesus.
Ugh, I guess it does seem like my opinion is the big deal. I meant to suggest that Billy Graham's op-ed piece in the Times was the BIG thing.
My bad, as the kid say. The dumb kids.
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