Not long ago I overheard a conversation while waiting for my car to be serviced. Fox News was on the screen. There was a mention of Roy Moore, the former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme court who was removed from office twice for not following the law as decided by the U. S. Supreme Court. This is the same racist, homophobic, misogynistic Roy Moore who failed to be elected to the U. S. Senate in 2016 and who is hoping to be the Republican candidate in 2020 for that same seat. Moore was once again pandering to the base desires, fears, and prejudices of some of the whites who are a majority in Alabama.
Some of those listening to his ramblings agreed that the Ten Commandments should be in the courtrooms and schools; that prayer should be mandated in schools; and a constitutional amendment should be passed to ban gay marriage. (Moore was removed from the office of Alabama Chief Justice the first time over his refusal to comply with the U. S. Supreme Court decision regarding The Ten Commandments and was removed the second time for refusing to abide by the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision allowing for gay marriage. I plan a future article defending the position that the Ten Commandments and mandated school prayer should not be allowed in places like courts of law and public schools.) However, as I sat there listening and becoming more disenchanted with a large segment of the U S population who still supports such evil and unscrupulous men, something occurred to me. I have never heard any of those wanting the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls, mandating prayer in schools, or expecting “God Bless America” after every political speech ask for any of Jesus’ teachings to be placed on walls or taught in classrooms. What would the following teachings from our Lord say to our nation?
We are witnessing in our day a horrifying absence of compassion and solidarity with our fellow humans.
The Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” (Luke 6:31) One would think from the way many in our country act that Jesus said, “Do unto others before they do unto you.” We are witnessing in our day a horrifying absence of compassion for and solidarity with our fellow humans.
The Greatest Commandment: Jesus was once asked, “What is the greatest commandment in Judaism?” His answer was, “The first is this, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12: 29-31). In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22:40), In other words, this is the essence of religion, and as I John so brilliantly says, “We can’t love God whom we can’t see and hate our brother or sister whom we can see” (I John 4:20-21).
The Parable of the Good Samaritan: (Luke 10: 25-27) We are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, but who is our neighbor? Jesus told this parable to reveal that our neighbor is anyone in need. He was also challenging his hearers to admit that the Samaritan was good. (Samaritans hated the Jews, and the Jews hated the Samaritans). The Kingdom of God Jesus came to bring breaks down all barriers and all walls.
The Beatitudes in Matthew 5: 1-12: In these opening words to the greatest collection of Jesus’ teachings, Jesus proclaims “blissful” all those the world would discount and oppress. Who would those people be in our country? (If you can’t answer this question, please consider taking a beginning course in ethics and in U. S. history.)
Matthew 25:31-46: This is the only detailed description Jesus gave of what we call “the Last Judgment.” The decisions made in that judgment will depend on whether we fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger/alien/immigrant, clothed the naked, cared for the sick, and visited those in prison. In verse 32 Jesus says that this will be the criteria by which “all the nations” will be judged. In light of our past and present treatment of all those mentioned by Jesus in this passage, I fear for any judgment on our nation—especially today where prejudice, cruelty, disenfranchisement, and neglect are the blatant policy of our present administration.
Jesus’ Teachings on Violence: Jesus told us to “love our enemies” (Matthew 5: 43-44); that those “who live by the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52); and that if his kingdom were of this world (meaning the world of Pilate and Caesar with its agenda and brutality), his followers would fight. But his kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). Mahatma Gandhi said, “It is a first-class human tragedy that peoples of the earth who claim to believe in the message of Jesus who they describe as the Prince of Peace show little of that belief in actual practice.”
Too many in our churches don’t want to hear about nonviolence in a nation where war and incarceration are big businesses and where they serve the purposes of powerful politicians and oligarchs as they fan the flames of fear and suspicion.
Money as Idolatry: In Matthew 6:34 (part of the Sermon on the Mount), Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You CANNOT (he didn’t say you should not or it’s best that you not—he said you CANNOT) serve God and wealth.” Jesus here and elsewhere makes it clear that he sees the love of money as the primary idol of humankind. I would suggest that America’s love affair with money and its addiction to getting more clearly demonstrates that we are a nation of idolaters, regardless of what we profess. As a nation we comprise 4% of the world’s population. However, we possess 40% of the world’s wealth. When I hear someone say, “God Bless America,” I want to ask, “How much more should we be blessed? We already have ten times what we would have if the wealth of the world were divided up equally.” God is not a citizen of the United States. God doesn’t love our country any more than God loves any other country. God is not a buck private in our military. God is not white or male or straight or of European descent. The God of Jesus loves the whole world and everyone within it. So, how can a nation that claims to believe in and follow Jesus (whose message was all about compassion, sharing, love, and peace) dare to ask God to bless them even more when billions struggle simply to survive. And that struggle is directly related to our greed and arrogance. As Mahatma said, “There is enough for everyone’s need but not enough for everyone’s greed.”
I think I know why so many Christians who want the Ten Commandments put on the walls of legal institutions and who want prayer mandated in public schools have never asked for Jesus’ teachings to be put in such public places. His teachings are in direct contradiction to our militaristic, brutally capitalistic, and prejudiced society. Too many in our churches don’t want to hear about nonviolence in a nation where war and incarceration are big businesses and where they serve the purposes of powerful politicians and oligarchs as they fan the flames of fear and suspicion. We don’t want to hear about compassion and solidarity which becomes love in action as we share our excess with those who have so little. We don’t want to hear that the only “Last Judgment” Jesus knows about is based on how we treat the “least of these” who are his “sisters and brothers.” We would rather hide behind our self-righteous outrage over the reality of how pluralistic our society has become. We would rather do anything than follow Jesus. As Clarence Jordan said, “We’ll worship the hindlegs off of Jesus, but we won’t do a thing he says.” Tragically, that’s what passes for Christianity in much of our American empire—an empire which will not be exempt from the judgment of time and truth.
