Fundamentals: God, Part III

Lent is probably as obviously a time of humility, albeit usually our own.  We’re humbled by the knowledge and acknowledgement of our own sinfulness.  We begin the season with ashes and lament and end with a vigil commemorating the murder of love himself.  The word kenosis sometimes gets tossed around in those forty days.  Kenosis is Greek for self-emptying.  Christ willingly laid aside power and glory and majesty in order to enter the human scene and sublimated himself to that scene.  The scourging and death of Jesus isn’t just a side note in his story.

Every so often (or too often) I get an email citing statistics on theists and atheists in America.  Here’s the message in part:

"It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, I have a very hard time understanding why there is such a mess about having `In God We Trust' on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance. Why don't we just tell the 14% to Sit Down and SHUT UP!!!"

Despite my own style, poor grammar annoys me.  Three exclamation points are not only redundant, they’re useless.  We get it.  You think it’s important.  Conventional rules of grammar are adequate to communicate your thoughts, believe me.  Then there’s the historical issue.  “Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954.  Finally, the very act of pledging one’s allegiance to a piece of cloth ought to remind Christians of burning incense to Caesar’s effigy. 

All that aside, it never fails to astonish me that people who claim Christ could hold such Christless views, let alone send them to all their email contacts.  I always respond.

To claim a connection to Jesus is to claim connection to the oppressed, not to try and oppress others.  To profess allegiance to any form of historic Christianity means humility.  To follow Christ means to shut up oneself, not defend one’s own rights, and demand justice for others before oneself.  It sure as shit does not mean telling other people to shut up.

I certainly haven’t exhausted even my thoughts about God, nor the myriad other ways to talk God.  But it might be nice to move on, n’est pas?