Saturday, October 27, 2012

Building a Better Nation



There is the famous story from the Hebrew Bible: A young shepherd named David, an Israelite, battles a giant man named Goliath, a Philistine. David and Goliath couldn’t wait to kill each other. Mutual hatred of the religious, ethnic other propelled them to fight. Both David and Goliath learned to hate. As an Israelite, David was taught that Goliath was impure and ungodly. Throwing a stone at a Philistine was not just a military act — it was an act of morality. Goliath never saw the rock coming. I grew up in a Southern family. My maternal grandmother was even a chapter president of the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Like David and Goliath, I grew up learning certain ethnic and racial prejudices. I vividly remember the day that I first felt the meanness of racism — my own racism. It was sixth grade. I was one of a handful of white kids bused across town to the “other side of the tracks,” as we called it. When we arrived at the school the racism was palatable. On both sides. The bully who started the fight was large for his age. The name calling was race and class oriented. I was white and he was black. I was well off and he was poor. He didn’t like white kids like me and I didn’t like black kids like him. We both learned this racism, just like David and Goliath learned their prejudice. The white kids stood with me, the black kids stood with him. The slander flew back and forth until violence erupted. It happened so fast. My enemy reached down, grabbed a stone, and threw it as hard as he could. Like the biblical Goliath, I never saw the rock coming. You and I, we don’t throw real rocks at people we dislike — or at least I hope we don’t.
Presumably, you and I are not like David and Goliath. Presumably, we are more civilized. Presumably our racism, classism — or bigotries don’t lead us to physical violence. And yet, I wonder how often we, like David, reach into our little bags, pull out an insult, and hurl it at our enemies? How often do we throw slander at people we dislike? Insults are linguistic stones. Whenever we demean someone’s race, nationality, sexual orientation, political party, class, religion—or physical size we are throwing stones at these people — even if these people never hear the words we say. But God hears.
David and Goliath had it out for each other. Who do you have it out for? Who do you despise? At whom do you throw linguistic rocks? President Obama? Mitt Romney? The homeless? The rich? Gays? Conservatives? Liberals? A family member who hurt you? Do you throw rocks at yourself for something you cannot forgive? If we want to build a better community — a better nation! — we must learn to drop our rocks — our insults. We must learn to throw nothing at anyone, nothing except tolerance and compassion.






Monday, October 8, 2012

HELL


I get weary of street preachers pointing their finger at me--and others--while yelling threats of hell.

The New Testament concept of hell (in the Greek, Ghenna), appears twelve times in the entire body of canonical material (eleven gospel references but not one Pauline), and is associated only twice with particular actions committed by individuals. Once, hell is described as the punishment for calling a sister or brother "fool (Matthew 5.22)" and secondly, the despising of "little ones," i.e., "outcasts" (Matthew 18.9). Typically, when Ghenna is spoken of it connotes generalities and not specifics.

However, even if we allow for an extension of the metaphor of hell to include the uses of the word fire, even still there is little textual reference to actions that are eternally punished by fire. The one circumstance where fire is mentioned in connection to eternal consequences (and paired with individual activity/inactivity) is Matthew 25. 31-46.

In the Matthew text, Jesus condemns to eternal fire all those who fail to act on behalf of their brother's and sister's welfare. In other words, sins of omission: failing to visit the sick and imprisoned, withholding clothing, food, and drink from those in need, and not offering hospitality to strangers.

All of this is to say the simplistic co-opting of the Bible for particular agendas profits the church and those outside its walls little; but the misunderstanding and stereotypes engendered, and the spiritual and psychological harm it may wreak, is much. 

So, if you happen to be the type of Christian who points your finger at people and then beats them over the head with threats of hell, you may want to pause and examine how many fingers are pointing back at yourself.