© Merle Harton, Jr. | About | XML/RSS

The humongous irrelevancy of that stupid question.  Asking the question "Who killed Christ?" is not unlike looking for the culprit who passed wind in the elevator: After a few minutes the evidence has dissipated, the crime becomes a memory, and urgency of purpose refreshes the elevator corridor as travelers—now one, now another—come and go, ebbing and flowing like tides under the moon. I mean, who cares, really, who caused the death of Jesus? If we find them, should we hate them or love them? The passion of Jesus is and was a play. Had not the actors played their roles well, you and I, dear Christians, would be either God-fearers standing in line for a rabbi's bris or just another swarm of pagans on the lookout for a redemption which won't happen. Am I repeating myself? Here's another slant.

This talk about "Who killed Christ?" is a distraction, deliberate or not, and Christians should stop falling for it. The real message of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ keeps getting lost in the din of much whining about the possible anti-Semitic overtones of Christ's crucifixion. Whenever the passion is played, whether in Oberammergau or in some new, controversial, artsy cinematic expression, it always happens that when the play is shown, or the movie reel is started, there is someone there who screams out "Fire!" and the playhouse is emptied, and we don't get a chance to reflect on the story, or to share it, because we keep getting run out of the theater. Did you ever go to a cocktail party and you walk up to a person there and start a conversation, but they aren't really interested in you or what you have to say? They pretend to listen but keep looking past you, like there might be someone more important coming their way, and if you happen to ask a really important question, something that might need thought or sincerity or a straight answer, they point to any available objet d'art and, well, effectively distract you. And you let them, because they really aren't interested in you, or what you have to say, and you're aware now that nothing you say can get past their own distractions. The only effective way to deal with a person like that is to look them in the eye, not wavering, grab them by the throat if you have to, and tell them the truth—until you know that they hear you, until they know they can't distract you. Of course, you won't do that, even if the truth is the gospel of the living Christ and his passion is a story this person needs to hear; you won't do that because we don't do such things in polite society, especially not at this cocktail party, where important people are seen and ought to be seen and where there are so many objets d'art in the periphery of our sight. And besides, the smoked salmon is to die for ....

I think our children will be quoting Jimmy Carter very much in the way we quote Martin Luther King, Jr. today—and for good reason, I think. I wasn't a fan of Carter as president, but I am warming up to him: perhaps I like him better as a statesman than as a US President. In any case, like King, he is a Christian with an apparent, developing prophetic vision. Witness this remark in his op-ed article in the New York Times back on 9 March 2003. Here he is speaking about the aftermath of a pre-emptive US military attack on a sovereign Iraq:

"Although there are visions of peace and democracy in Iraq, it is quite possible that the aftermath of a military invasion will destabilize the region and prompt terrorists to further jeopardize our security at home. Also, by defying overwhelming world opposition, the United States will undermine the United Nations as a viable institution for world peace."

And, sadly, that is just what is happening in the now destabilized Iraq, as ethnic and sectarian interests compete for control of a country without a lighted path toward the future, and as troubled countries run first to the US before consulting the UN.

The Christians for Dean blog site has recently published a really funny book featuring emails to the blog from Christians who are stuck in the tar pit of the religious right. The Political Wisdom of the Religious Right is only $9.95, so that's affordable for "a revealing window into the stupefying mind of the Christian Right." While you're at it, too, go listen to the Howard Dean Remixed MP3. It's almost as good as the original Dean Scream, which I still think is a cool expression of genuine emotion from a worthy, sincere candidate for President of the USA. You can also get a smorgasbord of MP3 versions of Dean in an excitable mood on this playlist.

Kids, don't try this at home.  As Christians, we are called to evangelism, but if we behave badly when approaching others with the good news about Jesus, we risk totally misrepresenting our motivation. The evangelist should not benefit from the encounter. A real conversion is not something that we ourselves accomplish—it's nothing that we ourselves do. The gift of the Holy Spirit is not our gift, and accordingly we should not expect to be rewarded in any way for it. Nor, for that matter, are we called to compel or force others to hear the gospel. My point is that evangelism is not conversion, although Christian evangelists on other shores are frequently accused of doing just that. And this is one obstacle to the gospel message in the so-called 10/40 Window, a vast area located 10 degrees to 40 degrees north of the equator, stretching from North Africa to China and containing the world's largest concentration of non-Christians. Here it is not uncommon for missionaries to be beaten, mauled, imprisoned, tortured, and killed for trying to convert believers. Not surprisingly, this area is also where the largest concentration of persecuted Christians can be found, and where there is a big risk of encountering enacted "anti-conversion laws" which forbid evangelism. Even trying to perform social services that are common among Western missions—giving food, drinking water, clothes, education—are seen as enticements, tricks, to get people to embrace Christianity through some sensual pleasure, not by an intellectual assent.

I have a concern, then, after seeing reports of two recent examples in the US of evangelism that uses forms of enticement. It goes on often, of course, but our culture is starting to get intolerant of it, although not yet as intolerant as the cultures within the 10/40 Window. Here I am thinking of the American Airlines pilot who asked his passengers in flight to identify themselves as Christians, calling those who weren't "crazy," and encouraged the Christians on board (those who raised their hands) to evangelize their pagan seatmates. Well, it freaked out the passengers. I mean, we're all still stuck in the memory of religious zealots who used an airplane to level Manhattan's Twin Towers: what was he thinking? And then there was the Dayton, Ohio, case of kindergartener Madison Wuebbens who wanted to hand out The Jelly Bean Prayer to her Orchard Park Elementary School classmates before last Easter. The teacher denied the request, prompting the lawsuit. That followed a similar case in New Jersey in which an elementary school student wanted to give his classmates pencils imprinted with "Jesus loves the little children" and candy canes with a religious story affixed. In that case, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August sided with the school in denying the boy's request. [Sources: AP, February 9, 2004; CNN, February 9, 2004]

I think we would do well to remember the example of Philip's evangelical encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in Gaza. In the eunuch's conversion, Philip gave no enticements, nor did he give any appeals to the man's sensual nature; he simply followed the Spirit's lead and used an opportune moment to declare the good news about Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit did the rest. [See Acts 8:26-40]

I feel a rant coming on.  I often seem to be behind the times, but then not really. I just bought Neale Walsch's Conversations with God (Putnam, 1996) and can't finish reading it. But wait, no, that's not accurate—I pick it up and read it, but then throw it down, pick it up again, and throw it down. This has been going on for a week now, so what difference would it make if I had the book back in 1995, when it first came out in paperback. Really, I don't know that I've ever encountered anything so blatantly obscene as this book, which is now a popular series, translated into 27 languages, sold in over 30 countries, blah, blah.

Now this book is subversive. You thought you were cheated by Carlos Castaneda's The Teachings of Don Juan? The Celestine Prophecy is too contrived to escape from its fictional roots in the spooky brain of James Redfield? Just can't hack L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology? Well, then how about a real conversation with God? All of your questions answered! I mean, this God is downright chatty—he just won't shut up.

According to Walsch, he was depressed and beaten down, and while in a dark mood he handwrites an embittered "letter to God," a letter littered with questions. And God answers him! At first it seems that Walsch's pen is moving on its own, like a Ouija board triangle: he says that "I had no idea what I was about to write, but an idea seemed to be coming, so I decided to flow with it ... Before I knew it, I had begun a conversation ... and I was not writing so much as taking dictation." That's what he says in the book. He now has a whole freaking foundation, called the Conversations with God Foundation, and here the encounter is described in this way:

"Neale says that he heard a voice, soft and kind, warm and loving, that gave him an answer to this and other questions. Awestruck and inspired, he quickly scribbled these responses onto the tablet. More questions came, and, as fast as they occurred to him, answers were given in the same soft voice, which now seemed placed inside his head. Before he knew it, Neale found himself engaged in a two-way on-paper dialogue."

And so we have our own modern, direct communication with the Deity. I pick it up and read it because it really does answer the questions that you can't get answers to by reading Scripture—but then I throw it down because God is like a modern bruh, with all the answers, in colloquial lingo, with cool metaphysics and just the right amount of syncretism so that all religious notions are represented here. You will want to shout out, as Walsch does, "My God, this is so simple—and so ... symmetrical. I mean, it all fits in! It all suddenly fits! I see, now, a picture I have never quite put together before." We were created because God needed to know himself experientially, so he "divided" himself into creative parts (that would be us). Our task in life is not to learn or discover anything new, but rather to create ourselves. Learning is just rediscovering what we already know. There are only two paramount emotions, fear and love, and we are free to choose which one will direct us. In this we are to be guided by—get this—our feelings, because "Feeling is the language of the soul" and all communication from God is known in the "highest thought," "clearest word," and "grandest feeling." Got that? Here's how to be sure that God is speaking to you:

The Highest Thought is always that thought which contains joy. The Clearest Words are those words which contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is that feeling which you call love.

Joy, truth, love.

These three are interchangeable, and one always leads to the other....

Where else, really, can you get Plato, Plotinus, Spinoza, Existentialism, and New Age irrationalism all in a matter of 20 or so pages? And also manage to get elements from the Old and New Testaments, the Upanishads, Buddhist and Taoist literature, the Koran, and others, all packaged in a nonthreatening, handy volume. Conversations with God and a cappucchino. Could it get any better than this?

I pick the book up, probably for the same reason others do, because it's like warm milk and honey, with my Mom at my bedside, and everything's okay. But I throw it down because this is not my Lord speaking, either to Walsch or to me. Please heed my warning: Don't touch this book!

Shockwave 100 will innervate the Internet through this prayer event.  I just requested information—they call it a "resource pack"—about the massive global prayer event being planned for March 5. I think this may be a good project for our small Christian group at Herkimer County Community College. Shockwave 100 is sponsored by Underground USA, itself a youth project of Brother Andrew's Open Doors ministry for persecuted Christians. It is expected to be a global 24-hour youth prayer event conducted through Internet chat rooms and prayer meetings throughout the world, starting in New Zealand, working its way across the world's time zones, and eventually covering the globe in focused prayer for the 200 million members of the Persecuted Church.