Contesting the theft of Jesus -Jun 10, 2006

A close friend recently lamented in conversation that in the United States the political right have "stolen God". Maybe, I said, but at least they haven't stolen Jesus.

While many on the political right say they’ve "found" him, the story of the Jesus they’ve found is the one they’ve largely written themselves – the one in which a vengeful Jesus wields his cross as a sword and a shield. That’s not the Jesus I know.

I personally know many on the right who recognize this. They recognize that their party has been hijacked by those who’ve taken scissors to their Bibles and cut them so severely that their version now begins with the Genesis and ends with Revelation, but with little resembling Jesus’ teachings left in between.

America in 2006 might be better understood not as a nation divided into red states and blue, but as a nation divided by two Christianities.

While acknowledging and celebrating the presence of millions of Americans practicing religions other than Christianity, or practicing no religion at all, the simple fact remains that most Americans define themselves as Christian.

How terribly unfortunate it is for non-Christian Americans, and for the world, that the conflict between the two American Christianities may well direct the events of the 21st century.

Americans who consider themselves Christian may perhaps be overly generalized as thinking about Jesus’ impact in one of two distinct ways, or perhaps both. For some the pursuit of one’s own salvation is paramount over all other concerns. Jesus is a “divine spirit” who dies for personal sins – a docetic saviour.

For others, Jesus is the Word made flesh – a peasant revolutionary who lived by example and died for grace and compassion. To model your behaviour after him is to bring heaven closer to earth. To turn away from your fellow human beings is to turn away from his teachings, and from God.

The Jesus I understand was born of the most humble beginnings and raised in poverty. Throughout his life, Jesus was concerned with the poor, the powerless and the oppressed. He was the friend of sinners, of the undesirables, and of the outcasts. Ridiculed, scorned, betrayed, condemned and crucified, his life was defined by suffering.

The Jesus I understand honoured the victims, the sufferers and the human soul. In America today, we honour the victorious, the successful, and the pampered body. Jesus glorified the dignity of all, whether he agreed with them or not. In America today, we largely shame the dignity of those we disagree with.

Jesus resisted all temptation toward spectacle. No dazzling, pyrotechnic displays of omnipotence from him! In fact, Jesus refused the temptation of coercive power, knowing respect and faith are garnered through patience and compassion, rather than compelled through fear. Using power and the promise of security to force obedience was the way of Herod, the Rome-installed "King of the Jews".

Jesus instead preached the way of God, the way of nonviolence. He was quite explicit in his pacifism: "Love your enemy", and "resist not evil", he said. Jesus refused the temptation to destroy evil by force, preferring to destroy it by faith, and love.

To this Jesus, a nation that rains down destruction upon another people, and then waxes triumphant, cannot possibly be becoming in God’s eyes. A leader who claims war as his providential mission is a leader whose Christianity, as well as that of his followers, needs to be born yet-again. Blessed are the conquerors! Blessed are the strong! No, Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek", and "Blessed are the peacemakers".

The Jesus I understand would consider it vainglorious to say "God Bless America", as if America were divinely entitled – singled out for and deserving of special blessings, especially during wartime.

Somehow I cannot imagine God up there in the cosmic bleachers as war plays out down here on earth. Look! There’s God! He’s cheering for us! He’s waving our flag!

If Jesus showed favour, it was towards the weakest and most humble members of humanity. This country once welcomed such people, as evidenced by Emma Lazarus’ eloquent invitation to the tired, the poor, the huddled masses, and the homeless inscribed at the base of our Statue of Liberty. Now these are the people our nation has forsaken.

If political progressives are to win this 21st century conflict, we cannot let anyone steal the Jesus we know. It’s up to us to insistently restate and defend the true Christian principles – Jesus’ principles – of justice, humility, grace, and compassion.

It’s up to us to walk with the poor, the sinners, and the undesirables.

It’s up to us to call national attention to the gulf between what Christians and anyone else awed by Jesus’ teachings are called by Jesus to do – be peacemakers, lift up the hungry and impoverished – and the unjust, war-mongering, wealth-favoring policies of our self-proclaimed "born-again Christian" political leaders.

It’s up to us to refute the myth widely-held amongst the powerful and wealthy that power and wealth are somehow a mark of having established a personal relationship with Jesus, and that poverty and suffering are punishment for having not.

To believe in this manner simply dishonors the teachings of Jesus, who chose a life of poverty, and gave his life for grace and compassion.

It’s up to us to insistently call attention to the planks Jesus would see in our national eye: our growing numbers of homeless and impoverished, our increasingly ill-fed and ill-educated schoolchildren, our evermore neglected disabled veterans and chronically ill.

It’s up to us to finger those as hypocrites who have abused Jesus’ name to promote their personal bigotries, hatreds, and revelational fantasies. It’s up to us to finger them as hypocrites for claiming to follow the Prince of Peace by serving the God of War.

It’s up to us to talk more, much more, about spirituality and about Jesus. Protecting separation of Church and State does not require that religion be banished from public discourse.

If it’s true what my friend said, that the political right has stolen God, then by continuing to let them control the religious conversation we'll soon let them succeed at stealing Jesus, too.

(c) Todd Huffman. Todd is a pediatrician and political columnist living in Eugene, Oregon, USA. He is a regular contributor to the Springfield News, the Portland Oregonian, the Eugene Register-Guard, the Washington Free Press, and the Columbus Free Press.