[11-27-04]

We recently pointed you to an article by Barbara Ehrenreich in which she called on the Democratic Party to take "the faith factor" (and faith-based values and concerns) far more seriously - but seeing the breadth and depth of what that really means.

Brian Jordan, of Palm Coast, FL, responds positively to this idea, urging that we see this as a moment of kairos - the crucial moment - for acting as disciples of Jesus, taking risks to proclaim that our ultimate concern is not purity but truth, love and justice. For all.

November 23, 2004

RE: Ehrenreich's Article in The Nation

Doug -

First thank you for posting Barbara Ehrenreich's article. This is good stuff, for sure. Reading it has induced the following reflection - which I hope will spur further discussion, as the point of her last paragraph is not one which should be left alone. She writes:

One last lesson from the Christians--the ancient, original ones, that is. Theirs is the story of how a steadfast and heroic moral minority undermined the world's greatest empire and eventually came to power. Faced with relentless and spectacular forms of repression, they kept on meeting over their potluck dinners (the origins of later communion rituals), proselytizing and bearing witness wherever they could. For the next four years and well beyond, liberals and progressives will need to emulate these original Christians, who stood against imperial Rome with their bodies, their hearts and their souls.

I am not one who fancies himself a believer that "History repeats itself." However, I do find some merit in the observation that more often than not in recorded history, humanity has predictably responded to the environment and consequence that it has found itself in.  This is not a constant, but a consistent. An evolution of thought however, does occur as we progress - and is clearly marked by an inspired community amongst the masses whose voice is found prophetically in the individual - however - the predictable response is a result of the human condition coupled with a loving God and not of a historical process that breathes and writhes on its own. Without the community and its voice in the prophet, the prediction based on past events usually holds - i.e.: The hegemony knows what works and will follow suit, lest the community exalts the prophet to present a new direction.

Our institutional ancestors, who stood, buckled and physically broke under the penalty of oppressors, did so at the hands of secular politicos of the empire.  While it might be argued that Jesus himself fell at the hands of the religious establishment of the time (a threat to power in the form of Caiaphas) - clearly, the early church fathers fell at the hands of the empire.

The comparison from that day to this day is an interesting one indeed.  We've all read our share of comparisons between America and Rome, The Road to Empire, et al.  Yet comparisons between the religious establishments have been lacking.

There are a few reasons for this, in my opinion...

First, Progressives really do not want to yield the establishment, itself, to evangelicals.  Many believe to do this is both a sign of weakness - and an admission of failure.

Secondly, any discussion of the death of Christ at the hands of the Religious Establishment inevitably brings with it the critical prospect of condemning the entirety of the Jewish faith for a Saviors' death.  Informed academic reflection carefully avoids such a "lumping" but for some reason - even Progressives prefer not to tread here for fear of the inference.

Finally, A positive comparison and admission that the Protestant Religious Right is now, and perhaps has been for 10-20 years, the Christian Religious Establishment - eclipsing Papal Primacy on the world stage in true power - presents with itself a dangerous scenario unseen since the Charles and the Holy Roman Empire - A fusion of both the Political and Religious establishments of the day. This has not been untried since, lets be serious here - just looking in the recent past of the 20's - 50's Hitler, Stalin, and Hirohito attempted to "merge" establishments by either removing the religious component from everyday life (when it could not be controlled) - Stalin, co-opting it with a National Occultism - Hitler, or claiming godliness, itself, as emperor - Hirohito.

Tillich looked at this as a question of Ultimate Concern. The great fear was that that which demands the total surrender of the individual while promising ultimate fulfillment - would be Nationalism. The marriage of both political and religious establishments demands a Nationalistic Ultimate Concern. For within such a marriage, once the adherent adopts Nationalism as ultimate concern - there can be no True Faith, there can be no ultimate fulfillment that transcends our estrangement.

To circle the wagons back to where we were, let there be acknowledgment without concession but with observation that the time and place we find ourselves in is one where the Religious Establishment of the Day has entered into union with the Political establishment. At such point the relevancy of scripture is relegated to the literal pronouncements of those that direct the state - which is a far cry from relevancy borne out of a presupposition of the true Logos found in John.

I think it behooves us then to return again to Tillich. He was once asked "How do you define kairos?" (Tillich in Dialogue by D. Mackenzie Brown) He responded,

This refers to a qualitatively different and unique moment in this time process. So the first (Chronos) is a quantitative word and the second (Kairos) a qualitative one. Perhaps the closest English can come to kairos would be the good word "timing"… (which) presupposes some qualitative element in relation to the temporal process. … when this word was taken over by Christianity, it did not refer to any special moment which might involve almost anything in daily life, but only to moments important for the historical process itself. In symbolic phraseology, it referred to "divine timing."

To Ehrenreich and each of you alongside myself, I exhort you that perhaps we stand amidst a kairos of unique circumstance. Where the early Church Fathers and Mothers stepped into the stream, so too we find ourselves stepping. The place may feel the same as the stream rushes with a deliberate abandon, but we know that you can never step into the same spot twice. The Good News is that this, itself, is new water. If the Right has co-opted our institution, let it not co-opt our ultimate concern.

It is high time to reclaim Scripture unequivocally, and not forsake the conflict in hope of quiet peace. This new water we find ourselves in, before we attempt to swim to shore - let us go under and come back up, we can be born anew amidst the slings and arrows of the zealots of this new American Nationalism. Perhaps this is our kairos.

We have been given this moment in time to show our worth, prove our mettle, and proclaim the Truth in the Love of Jesus. There may come a time when we too must march, many of us out of our lily white upper middle class safe houses and denominations. The time may come as a thief in the night to us, as we've sat (perhaps in future historical retrospect) idly by and fought the good fight with our voices and pens - searching for common ground that exists not. We must prepare, we must be ready. For when that time comes, as the writer of Revelation knew it would against the Roman Empire, we must rise in peace and remember,

"I know your works, your toil and patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. "

Let us not abandon the love we had from the outset, by accepting the circumstance and eating another super sized value meal to quell the pain inside. (Our sound byte culture will do all it can to prevent the Kingdom of God from being realized. Would we not have been ripe from a letter from Paul at this point?)

The time to stand ready and pray humbly is on us, let us pray that our faith and love remains steadfast just as Christ's remains for us.

Let history, as Ehrenreich reminds us, be our reminder and Christ be our guide.

Brian Jordan
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Palm Coast, FL