KN Essays

"Letter From a Bourgeois Jail" By Ken Oster Kingdom Now Core Team Member Click Here for a printable version in MS Word format This has been the hardest thing for me to write in all my brief years, but here is my broken heart in full. I realize I use "we" indiscriminately in speaking of the U.S. and Christianity (perhaps I ought first learn to delineate responsibilities) but for this shortcoming, I beg the reader's pardon. This was written primarily for those who claim to follow Jesus. Believe me, I know the temptation to ask "but what about…" "Ah-ah-ah," comes the answer, "What is that to you? You follow me!" So I offer a few hopefully timely, but probably late, observations. Beyond this, I have no answers. Lastly, there's no evil in this world that isn't resident in a mirror, so if this comes off preachy, know it's not meant to attack or overpower you. Sometimes (who am I kidding? Most of the time) things get bigger and bigger the longer they remain in me. Maybe that's just a law of gestation. I've thought about this pretty much non-stop for quite a while, with very little release, so if I let out a low blow, or you perceive that I'm just full of it, please say so. Ken Oster 4202 Cherry Cincinnati, OH 45223 toast@isoc.net I believe a well-oiled war machine has duped us. Allow me to illustrate with the first few rules of war. The first rule of Americana-style war is one that particularly gets God's goat, and has, historically, done more to incite his wrath against nations than all other rules combined. It's this: pick on the smallest kid on the block. If he's smallest, there's a good chance he's weakest, and if he's weakest it probably means he's poorest. A "poor bastard," as General Patton so aptly put it. From Joan Smith's article in The Independent (U.K.), 06 January 2002 In a recent sermon Michael Scott-Joynt, Bishop of Winchester, said that, evil though they were, the events of 11 September had to be understood as a "judgment" upon the West. Scott-Joynt was not, like some evangelical Christians in the United States, blaming gays and feminists; he was making a point about the way Western governments have failed in their responsibility towards poor countries. And they do not come much poorer than Afghanistan, even before the bombing began last year. If the bishop is right, think of the new horrors we may be calling down when we stand by and allow the Americans to demonstrate how little they care about people in that shattered country. I've said from the start (though not as publicly as I should've) that God won't sit idly by while we bully his poor. Now I say if God does remain idle, maybe we're following the wrong God. "Blessed are you who are poor…" Yeah, yeah, right Jesus right. That's the heart of what we're saying to our Afghan neighbors. We protest with "Who is my neighbor?" and think we've stumped him, while he stoops to doodle a circle in the dirt-the very dirt with which he formed us. Our aid, though much lauded by the war machine, came too little, too late. It's been a joke in the eyes of the international community: a very bad, very sick joke. Second rule-demonize the enemy. "Settle down, Deary, go back to sleep. There are no such things as monsters." That was good enough while we were kids, but when did we decide we knew better than our parents? Rational people won't hurt what they value, so a campaign must be waged to make them devalue whatever is at odds with them. This is so obvious, it hardly warrants pointing out, but I do here, because of our tendency to buy whatever we're first offered, and I believe it's our job to yell, as loud and as often as we can, "Stop! We're going the wrong way! Stop, just stop!" In total contrast, what is our guiding rule, which, Jesus says sums up the law and prophets? This command is by no means unique to Christianity, but surely you know that. Can we carry this out with avarice in our hearts? "Indignation," as Tim Wise noted, "is usually very selective." The genital torture practiced by the Taliban is certainly nothing new. Let the one without sin cast the first stone. During the latter half of the 19th Century, the British (who were fast becoming our best friends because of their clout in the industrial revolution) did it to impoverished people in Pakistan. We had power enough to say, "Stop! This isn't right!" but we fell strangely silent. 2. In 1910, Pakistan began doing it in Northern India. Same deal, only with even less U.S. interest, silence continued. 3. In the 1980's our newest best bud, Israel-I won't even speculate on the multi-layered agendas of that unholy union-did it to captive Lebanese on their turf. More silence. 4. In the 1990's, guess whose turn it was at this cruel plate? That's right, Lebanon. Are you seeing the violence breeds violence breeds violence,,, cycle? Me too. And that's what bums me most. It's totally avoidable with the renunciation of revenge. 5. Throughout the late 1960's, we did it to street people in Uruguay. Man! Street people: have we no shame? Homeless (read: disposable) humans then received a quick burial on the outskirts of Montevideo. Although the need to practice new torture techniques was birthed by a U.S. head of the Office for Public Safety, these sessions trained leaders from Panama's School Of Americas-you know, the friendly folks who armed Latinos to go in and murder their brothers, like Archbishop Oscar Romero and hundreds of others who dared to speak up for the poor. Which brings me to rule number three (or is it 2-A?)-silence dissenters. I can no longer communicate with my mom via e-mail. Her work domain banned isoc.net right after, strangely enough, I posted a work with the word revolution. Of course, I was talking about inner revolution, but how was Big Brother to know? He ain't heavy. The mass e-mail I received on the national day of reconciliation did this by calling us, who actually think about what we're being fed, "cynics" and "perpetual doubters." What does one say to that? What can one say to that sort of rhetoric? We do this by speaking disdainfully about "Blessed are the peacemakers…" either the vessel or the text. I've come to believe that even if the rest of scripture were to prove false, we'd still have to deal with the Sermon on the Mount as truth (truth being an agent that can transform). The Sermon on the Mount is utterly livable; you don't even need to be a Christian. In fact, the only exclusive lingo employed during that whole talk was about forgiveness. It's as if Jesus were saying, "If you can forgive, you can do this! If not, what've we got to talk about?" That's really good news, or really bad news. Either way, it's scandalous. The validity of our message, which is really not ours, but his-maybe we're called ambassadors for a reason-rises or falls on this razor edge: forgiveness. There is no scandal to anything we say. No scandal? No gospel. Like Larry Norman has been saying for 30+ years, "It doesn't cost much to be a Christian in America. In fact, you might get a better book deal if you were bad enough before. We've so industrialized the Spirit." That particular quote is from 1989, but throughout his career he hasn't changed his tune much. All that to say, the Sermon on the Mount is our modus operandi, our marching orders, and a description of what can be: not necessarily what will be, as so much of that depends on us. Plus, that it's quite permeated with the notion of peace, which, in turn, is wrapped in very concrete terms of mercy, having as its backbone none other than the essence of suffering love. There you have it; at the core of what we're called to be in this world-as salt and light-is a call to suffering love. We're awful fond of quoting Paul, but we conveniently skip the direct words of God such as "I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name." They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be covered with the knowledge of I AM, as the waters cover the sea. So begins and ends Isaiah's vision of God's holy mountain in chapters 2 and 11. Sounds like peace to me, but the last part begs a question from the first. If brutes and children can get it, why can't we? The act of beating swords and spears into instruments that give life instead of take it, implies work. I don't know, maybe we're just lazy, perpetually opting for the path of least resistance, but I believe this is a mandate for anyone who wants to be a peacemaker (or, as Jesus put it, a child of God). In 1873, when the family of Sam Colt named his new .44 revolver the Peacemaker, it was a mockery we should not have stood for, but that's a subject outside my scope here. I'm just showing how we've been lazy champions of the status quo. I simply refuse to buy the possibility that we, as fallen beings, even have the capacity for a just war. Is that stance really so unchristian? Countless others, throughout the centuries, have thought, lived, suffered, and died along these lines, so why do I feel so alone? I don't know, but such knowledge affords me little comfort. Could this be a sign of how spoiled I am? Almost everything I've heard to the contrary sounded like what we've been fed by the media (a powerful cog in the war wheel). Again, we've been duped, and I bear responsibility for not being more vocal. God, have mercy on me the sinner. Can we offer any other prayer in this time of shame, and not be an affront to the Lord? I'm not so sure. Please read and ponder the following article. It's pretty long, but well cited and, I think, the most comprehensive analysis, to date (around New Year's), of what's really going down. http://www.zmag.org/lakdawalalec.htm Allah isn't Jesus. No duh, I'm really sick of hearing this line, so I'll just say what's on my mind. Allah is said to be all-merciful, while the Jesus we're proposing won't be satisfied until double or triple revenge is exacted. Revenge is not an option for mortals, regardless of religion , but especially for followers of the prince of peace. I'm dead serious about this. "'Vengeance is mine,' says the Lord, 'I will repay.'" In other words, this isn't something you can handle. It never has been, from Cain through the present. God keeps trying to tell us that, but we stop our ears, and say, "A little bit can't hurt, God doesn't know what he's talking about, I can control it." Righteous indignation, with a log in his eye, bleeds into revenge, and good news becomes a stench. Kiss the gospel good-bye. There can be no kingdom, other than one that breeds competition and greed, advanced by force. Means are absolutely inseparable from ends. I can't emphasize that enough. The appeal to the violence of Jesus' death seems moot. Of course, wasn't that the point? Do the words "It is finished!" mean nothing? Notice also that all the violence described therein was done to him, and none by him. That's important if we're going to follow him. He remained silent before his accusers. If ever there was a legitimate case for just war, this was surely it. But he remained silent; thereby downing the entire cup the Father was offering him. This pleased the Father in that it reestablished a lifeline by which he could walk with his children, and that seems to be all he's ever wanted. This was key to his becoming "obedient to death-even death on a cross!" Most distressing are the bigoted slogans about Isaac and Ishmael. Have we not read John? If we think becoming a child of God has anything to do with a lineage, it's clearly time to look again. God is able to make stones into Abraham's children. Think about that. I've read the post 9-11 updates from a prophet who is often quoted in our circles, and frankly, I buy three-maybe four-percent of what he says; mainly that which points to our responsibility for this (crusades, Luther, and such), but I fail to see how his position differs in the least from that which he abhors. These are a few of the recurring statements. "The war is going so well civilization is at stake…western civilization will ultimately win…if we don't let up." War and well don't belong in the same sentence: ever. They have two completely different meanings. One stands for destruction, the other for health or healing. Don't give me that load, 'but it's spiritual…but it's spiritual.' You can't love God and kill your neighbor. I didn't invent that. Take it up with the Author. Maybe he's right here, but is civilization worth trying to save? Is that really our job? If so, I quit. Since when is God into keeping a doubly dead tree around? The axe is at the root of western civilization, though I think it would take scarcely more than a rake to topple this one. Genocide will not go unnoticed, history will see to that; nor will it play fair. Murder always, always, bites back. Under no circumstance are believers to have any part in carnal warfare, much less endorse it. To the extent that we do, we won't see God's power. I believe his, and therefore our, error lies in an American-as opposed to biblical-view of freedom. In 1776, a few wealthy white males, to exclusively remain so, convinced a majority of our populace (then tarred and feathered the rest) that they shouldn't have to pay taxes, and so we sired Freedom with Rebellion. Rebellion is still; last I looked, as the sin of witchcraft. Wonder why? Do you pick grapes from thorns, or figs from a bramble bush? Can a bad tree bear good fruit? Consider the source. That's all I'm saying. Nothing new. Just over a year prior to that horrific date I had the opportunity to ask one of the foremost Pauline scholars around, Dr. Richard Hays, about the true nature of freedom, and I'll never forget his answer. Based on Galatians 5 he said, "Freedom is nothing more and nothing less than the ability to obey the Father at any given time." Far cry from the rebellion we see posing as liberty. The truth will set you free? The truth is, we've been duped. Let's repent. Now.