I was lucky enough to be listening to NPR instead of football pregame radio last weekend, and heard something that really shook me up: the Sunday sermon by my new hero, the Rev. Dr. Robert Cummings Neville of Marsh Chapel at Boston University.
The point of the sermon is something that ought to be obvious but nobody talks about: these people on the right who call themselves "Christians" promote policy that is so far away from the teachings of Christ that it seems weird to even call it Christian. If Bush actually read what his fave philosopher had to say, we'd be in a much different place. The Rev. Dr. got into this issue very deeply, laying out a series of goals for the new Christian witness in the present circumstances, and he brought out a big can of whoop-ass to boot. (Details below.)
Over the next few years the Christian Left will start to make a lot more noise. For those who are inclined, I think we should begin to isolate those elements of this argument that are most easily digestible, and spread the word far and wide.
So the whole sermon is available
here, but beware: there's an
old_site in that URL, so it may not be live forever.
The sermon was called "Endurance," and here are a few choice excerpts:
The lectionary gives us three amazing readings today. The text from Isaiah comes from the time that the Jews exiled in Babylon were being sent back to rebuild Jerusalem and its temple. Its song of hope stirs our hearts even today: a new heaven and a new earth. Remember last week's prophetic text from Haggai said that God will shake the heavens and the earth. For Isaiah, the new Jerusalem will be a joy, no weeping will be there, no children will die in infancy, death at a hundred years will be considered premature, people will build and plant, and enjoy the fruit of their labor. God will answer prayers as they are prayed, the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the evil serpent will eat dirt, and "They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord."
Don't we need to hear such a word of hope in our time? Instead of peace we have war, instead of prosperity we have unbridled greed that besotts the rich and beggars the poor, instead of glorying in nature's harmony, we destroy it for gain, instead of an harmonious world order the civilization of the West is set against the civilization of Islam. The world's most powerful nation has made itself a loadstone for terrorists where no one is secure, and has so mortgaged its future that others will reap what it plants. We need to hear that there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and that our temple will be restored.
...
Although the culture of consumerism had long been recognized as a demonic parody of the culture of freedom, the very fact that this had long been recognized and criticized meant to me that it was not out of control. In sum, as I matured as a Christian I thought that the Christian critique of American culture was in place, and that I could participate in applying its pressures to the social, cultural, and political scenes of my time. In fact, I thought that the Christian critique of American culture was itself a powerful part of that very culture.
The recent election, however, has disabused me of that view, which I think was shared by many. I believe now that the choices made in the election render a serious Christian witness dangerous, as it has been at so many points in history, and for that very reason all the more necessary. I believe the Christian witness will divide families as it has rarely done in recent history. It will be punished by a government that treats disagreement as unpatriotic and unsupportive of our soldiers who occupy foreign countries. The religious culture that has recently achieved establishment status by its contribution to the election will condemn Christian witness as heretical to its alternate vision of what that witness is. Because there is such disagreement as to what that witness is, permit me to say what I think its basic tenets are.
...
The Christian witness is to the complexity of life before God. To understand the complexities of life, including its ambiguities, requires dedicated, sophisticated, complex thinking, which is a primary way of worshipping the divine Word. The Christian witness to this is both negative and positive. Negatively, the Christian witness needs to expose and ridicule simplistic religion and simplistic politics. The worst kind of theology is that which reduces itself to a simple story with winners and losers, God's people and the enemy. Theology of that sort sells a lot of books these days, and it should be exposed for the satanic simplification that it is. Positively, Christian witness needs to enter into the kind of complex inquiry that can sort through complicated issues and deal with ambiguities. Political and economic issues are difficult enough, and Christian witness should support scholars inquiring about them. Theological issues are even more complicated, and Christian witness should demand preaching and teaching equal to the task. Set aside the desire for a simple take-home message and demand to be shown the complex insides of issues. Christian thinking needs to respect the witness of peacemaking, solidarity with the poor, humility, neighborliness, love, and courage. Yet that respect should never lead it to simplifications that lie.