"One reason that the world finds the New
Testament's message of peacemaking and love of enemies incredible is
that the church is so massively faithless. On the question of violence,
the church is deeply compromised and committed to nationalism,
violence, and idolatry" (Richard Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament, p. 343).
If the essence of the "Law" -- of how we should live -- according to Jesus is justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23.23, compare to Micah 6.8, high water mark of OT spirituality), the church stands overwhelmingly guilty of faithlessness on the issue of violence.
Stan Hauerwas was the one who suggested to me -- and I think he's right about this -- that the one difference between the church and every other social organization in our society is that the church is that community that gathers around the true story. It's not our piety, our sincerity or even or morality. (Let's be honest, the church never had a monopoly on those things anyway.) It's the story we treasure. The story which tells us who and Whose we are. If it's not the true story, it's all a pack of lies. But as the true story it exposes every other would-be "truth" as a lie. Even the half-truths of American dominance and violence.
Yesterday, at my first-ever baseball game, I was presented, yet again, with whether or not to stand and pledge for the American flag and its chorus. I simply couldn't. I wanted to. I wanted to, because I really hate the social pressure that comes with not participating. But I couldn't. Because I've seen too much, even in recent days, to know the whole damned system is idolatrous. It asks more of us than God himself asks. God asks that we love, but that flag asks that we hate.
That flag asks for my atheism to Jesus and his nonviolence. That's a way I simply cannot walk.
If the essence of the "Law" -- of how we should live -- according to Jesus is justice, mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23.23, compare to Micah 6.8, high water mark of OT spirituality), the church stands overwhelmingly guilty of faithlessness on the issue of violence.
Stan Hauerwas was the one who suggested to me -- and I think he's right about this -- that the one difference between the church and every other social organization in our society is that the church is that community that gathers around the true story. It's not our piety, our sincerity or even or morality. (Let's be honest, the church never had a monopoly on those things anyway.) It's the story we treasure. The story which tells us who and Whose we are. If it's not the true story, it's all a pack of lies. But as the true story it exposes every other would-be "truth" as a lie. Even the half-truths of American dominance and violence.
Yesterday, at my first-ever baseball game, I was presented, yet again, with whether or not to stand and pledge for the American flag and its chorus. I simply couldn't. I wanted to. I wanted to, because I really hate the social pressure that comes with not participating. But I couldn't. Because I've seen too much, even in recent days, to know the whole damned system is idolatrous. It asks more of us than God himself asks. God asks that we love, but that flag asks that we hate.
That flag asks for my atheism to Jesus and his nonviolence. That's a way I simply cannot walk.