I have never been comfortable with being labeled a Christian. Of course, this was especially true when I was an absolute paganistic bohemian nihilist living in a world of self absorbed self love sprinkled with a dash of self-loathing and intolerance for the imperfections of others. Wow, that was a mouthful!
Anyway, what I mean is that even before I was a follower of the way of Jesus Christ I knew that the vast majority of Americans who call themselves Christians were and are no more than the same pagans I was who have heard of this Jesus guy and think he had some interesting things to say. These are the people who call themselves Christians but, sadly enough, give the rest of us a bad name.
They judge and they hate. They call our LGBT brothers and sisters abominations and deny the abominable nature of their own words and thoughts before God. They call Christ’s plan for living, the sermon on the mount, an unobtainable state of being, and because it is so lofty and (the truth is) really inconvenient, they decide that it then doesn’t apply to them. They say a “sinner’s prayer” and think it’s both some sort of silver bullet to kill the werewolf inside them and an automatic ticket to a place where the streets are paved with gold, and every ordinary Joe gets a mansion (with only other white folks for neighbors).
I wonder, are angels allowed to wear hoodies in heaven? I would suppose they can, so long as they’re not trying to “conceal their identity,” but that’s another post altogether. Back to the topic at hand…
The fact that these people seem to control the institutional evangelical church in America is a testament to, if nothing else, the fact that this is, indeed, the devil’s world and all human transient power is his to portion out. Sadly, that is what the mainstream church has succumbed to pursue; power, wealth, and the F-35 (a.k.a. death). The devil smiles and God shakes His head wishing and waiting for us to return to Him.
The tragic martyrdom of 21 Egyptian Christian brothers on a beach in Libya is our chance, as followers of Jesus and not the twisted machine made up of broken levers His church has become, to truly state our case to the rest of the world, and the people of the Islamic State in particular. This is our chance to tell the institutional church of the far right that their ways of darkness do not apply to us. They may get all the TV time and that’s fine with me for right now. Their power, and wealth, and harsh judgment of people who are different than them, and especially their false claims of persecution in this “culturally Christian” landscape are all nothing more than check points on the wide path of destruction.
What then is our case to place before the world and the people who support the methods of the Islamic State? Our case is this: “We, “the people of the cross” as you call us, love you. We shall not fight you as you seem to want us to fight you. We will tell you every day how much God loves you. We will tell you every day that both He, Allah, and we, his children and your brothers and sisters, forgive you for being as misguided in your actions as the rest of humanity has been throughout our shared history.”
“We do not support what you do; we find it tragic, repulsive, and in the service of the enemy we all share. However, in the same breath, we do not support those who seek to kill you in return for what you do either. We, as the people of the cross, as followers of Jesus, “Isa” as you call Him, know that there is a better way for the children of the living God to live together and resolve their differences. We know that the escalating cycles of violence in which the devil wants us to engage serve only his interests. We know it is the violence of our history and not you who are evil. You, like us all, are sinners seeking the grace of our merciful God.”
I think that is a brief, but effective message to the people of the Islamic State, but perhaps of even greater importance is that this message be shouted loudly among the “so called” Christian community of this world. The captive news media in the United States calls the Islamic State “so called” as a means by which to debase and insult them. I take a different path. I call the people who call themselves Christians and support war in any form, oppression in any form, revenge in any form, or exploitation in any form whether against people or this planet “so-called” Christians, for they are anything but followers of the way of Jesus. They are subjects of their divine right sovereign; the “Power Church.”
My dear friends and followers of Jesus, this is our chance, and it is the best chance we will have this month, to stand together and symbolically cry “I am Spartacus!” It is our best chance this month to stand in the breech, not only for those who have been martyred in the name of our Lord, but also for those who martyred them. Our best chance to offer them our cloak.
I say ‘this month,’ because this world parades so many tragic events before our eyes on such a regular basis that I am certain we will have another chance to stand and cry out next month…or perhaps next week…or perhaps today. My friends, we must seize every opportunity to stand firm for love and forgiveness; for our dear Emmanual.
Love and peace to all,
Niemand