Mao, Humanity, and Faith

The way we think is the way we live. Our lives show off our values in sometimes horrific ways:

·       Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said yesterday. Frank Dikötter, a Hong Kong-based historian… compared the systematic torture, brutality, starvation and killing of Chinese peasants to the Second World War in its magnitude. At least 45 million people were worked, starved or beaten to death in China over these four years; the worldwide death toll of the Second World War was 55 million. 

The extermination of 45 million wasn’t simply a matter of poor judgment. Instead, it had been the result of genocidal values. Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief of World Magazine, reports that in 1957, Mao stated:

·       I’m not afraid of nuclear war. There are 2.7 billion people in the world; it doesn’t matter if some are killed. China has a population of 600 million; even if half of them are killed, there are still 300 million people left. I am not afraid of anyone.

For Mao, people, even his Chinese people, were little more than numbers. In the atheist/communist estimation of things, humans might have risen to the level of “animals,” but still entirely expendable to achieve their great progressive vision.

Mao and others were murderers. Dismissively, we call them “revolutionaries” or “idealists” to dignify their horrors.

But why shouldn’t we regard human lives as the necessary cost to accomplish our ideals? Perhaps a good idea, if achieved, is worth the price, even of the murder of 45 million?

Genocide is never justified! Why not? According to the Word of God, we are endowed with inestimable value, having been created in God’s very likeness. Without this revelation, genocide will always remain an option, however much we deny it.

Only the Bible stands against the degradation of humanity. Today, we remain numbers. We called “wet machines,” and are regarded as just another member of the animal kingdom. We are no more than products of our environment and genetics, lacking freewill, driven exclusively by deterministic forces, which dictate all of our choices. Should we be surprised when we are treated according to our diminished status?

Challenging the Racial Divide: Fight or Flight

T.D. Jakes was being interviewed on Racism by the 700 Club. He said some important things:

1.     Racism is endemic in the USA today.

2.     The Black community continues to suffer.

3.     The Church should be playing a leading role.

4.     However, racism remains the elephant in the closet. The Church will not touch it.

5.     Separation remains.

Indeed, the interview reflected this very problem. The interviewer played it safe rather than to do the risky – to enter into a genuine and needful exchange of perspectives. He declined to challenge Jakes’ ensuing narrative of Black victimization, opting instead for superficiality and avoidance. Result – the distance remains.

This reminded me of a film I attended in the mid-eighties, while in seminary. It presented us with a vivid portrait of the problems that plague the African American community.

During the subsequent discussion, I naively asked, “What can I do?” I was essentially slapped-down. The white speaker explained that this isn’t what it’s all about. It wasn’t to provide an avenue for the white to conveniently expiate for his guilt. And admittedly, there had been horrible injustices perpetrated against African Americans.

Well, what was the purpose for showing the film? I mulled over this issue for years. I finally concluded that it was about being shamed and made to suffer for what “we” have done to our African American brothers. It was a matter of accepting our corporate guilt by virtue of our skin color – a narrative that seems to lie at the heart of our increasingly polarized culture. Besides, it is an absolute conversation-stopper.

This is a narrative that many Whites just cannot receive. After all, they hadn’t been proponents of slavery or even Jim Crow. Why then should they have to bear the guilt! And even if they did play a role, doesn’t the blood of Christ bring forgiveness and cleansing from all sin once we confess?

Therefore, many Whites remain on the sidelines. Others remain on the “sidelines” in a different way. Instead of engaging the liberal and inflammatory narrative that the US is still the same racist nation, trying to keep Blacks down, they embrace it entirely for the sake of “peace” and “love.” But is this love? Will it bridge the racial divide or will it further isolate and disenfranchise the Black community?

I recalled talking to a tour-guide in East Germany. I had asked her what she felt about all of the suffering that had been inflicted upon the German people after the war. She passionlessly stated, “We deserve it!”

I was shocked! Yes, there are just consequences of sin and criminality. However, she and many Germans are still bearing the guilt and shame of the Nazi era.

Is this healthy? Well, it has certainly led to hard work and economic advancement. But does it lead to brotherhood and love? While shame can lead to needful self-examination, can persistent shame lead to other-centeredness or does it lead us to retreat into a “safe” and controlled cocoon, containing only people who think like you?

Persistent shame leads to flight. If we cannot find comfort within ourselves, we cannot find it in the presence of others, especially those who refuse to accept us. I tried to engage our tour-guide further, but it seemed fruitless.

What will it take to build the Body of Christ? We cannot run from this question. This is central to the heart of our Savior. He prayed to the Father:

·       "My prayer is… that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:20-23)

What is the answer? Prayer! Also, we must embrace, to the fullest, the concerns of our Savior for love and unity, especially among the races, so that the world will believe. This determination must take precedence over our desires for comfort, of being right, of wanting to punish, of resentment, of jealousy, and of everything else.

Meanwhile, we have followed the world. Instead of trying to honestly hack our way through barriers, speaking truth in love, fearful of the consequences, we have taken the safe way – the way that has replaced comfortable platitudes for real engagement and relationship.

We have to say, “I want to be your brother, but will you let me be me? Will you allow me to speak honestly in love, even if I say painful things that you don’t agree with?” Why? We will never agree on all issues, right? However, love doesn’t depend on that. My wife and I don’t always agree, but we can still love each other. Why then do we have to deal with these divisive issues?

These are festering pustules that must be lanced by the medicine of true Christian brotherhood. Without this, the distrust, cynicism, and distance remain unchecked. I think that the old ways – the superficial affirmations and platitudes – haven’t worked. It seems that they have even contributed to the distance. Instead, we have to commit ourselves to prayer and to His Word:

·       Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:15-16)

Even though speaking the “truth [of the Gospel] in love” is central to this context, it also pertains to the truth of our feelings and convictions, as Paul later reflected:

·       Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

Let us lead the way showing forth honest, yet respectful and loving dialogue. Let us show the world that, for the sake of our Savior, we can disagree and still love.

ADDENDUM

Now, let’s bring all of this theology home where it belongs. An elderly black woman friend recently called me aside. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body!” she confided with a smile. She knew her statement would lure me in, and it did!

She continued, “I needed to buy a house, the same house where I still reside and where I raised my children, but I didn’t have the money for the down-payment. It was a white woman who co-signed for me!”

For my friend, that was the deal-maker. What influence - the transforming power of a single act of love!

The Rush to Ritual and Liturgy

Younger Christians are now embracing ritual, sacraments, and liturgy. Former Evangelical, Rachel Held Evans explains:

·       What finally brought me back, after years of running away, wasn’t lattes or skinny jeans; it was the sacraments. Baptism, confession, Communion, preaching the Word, anointing the sick — you know, those strange rituals and traditions Christians have been practicing for the past 2,000 years. The sacraments are what make the church relevant, no matter the culture or era. They don’t need to be repackaged or rebranded; they just need to be practiced, offered and explained in the context of a loving, authentic and inclusive community.

Ritual is fine, but if it is divorced from truth, it is no more than a good feelings, and good feelings grow old quickly. Church has to come back to the question, "What is the offer of the Good News and how do we get onboard?"

Keith Anderson also warns:

·       Deepening and enriching sacramental liturgies is surely a good thing. But even if it were possible for every congregation to achieve that goal, liturgies alone won’t save the church. If we view worship merely as an “if we build it, they will come” strategy for church revitalization, we are bound for disappointment, because most of the time, “they” won’t come. They’ve made that pretty clear.

Instead, Anderson’s answer seems to be a social Gospel - how we live out our faith in the world. Although this is important, we cannot forget the supportive roots in favor of the fruit. Without the nourishment of salvation and the teachings of the Gospel, we are impotent in our attempts to love others.

Emergent church leader, Tony Jones, sums the problem up this way:

·       I’d even go one level deeper than Anderson’s challenge. Before mainliners head out the door, they’d better figure out what the gospel is. Survey after study after poll has shown that American mainliners struggle to articulate what it is that they believe. The content of the faith has been lost among all this civil religion… What is the gospel for mainline Protestants? That’s the question that needs to be answered.

Mainline Protestants know that they are missing something, but are they willing to make the required sacrifices? Jesus proclaimed:

·       I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. (John 12:24-26)

But who wants to die, especially if we are relatively comfortable! And what does it mean to die? To put Jesus’ priorities above our own! How do we do that? By clinging to God’s Words, even above our own:

·       Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4)

This means that we cannot pick-and-choose. Instead, we have to humble ourselves as little children and receive nourishment from the entirety of Scripture. Scripture must judge us and our beliefs. We, therefore, cannot sit in judgment over Scripture to reject those teachings we find offensive.

Many will find this price too exacting. Meanwhile, ritual alone places no explicit demands on us. We feel that we are free to experience it without hearing its underlying demands.

The Stoics’ Solutions to the Anger Problem

The Stoic offers excellent, but perhaps inadequate advice for handling anger:

·       Resist our natural tendency to assume the worst about others.

·       Things that cause us anger often turn out not to actually do us any real harm, as they are more likely to be mere annoyances.

·       "Furthermore, as Seneca observes, “our anger invariably lasts longer than the damage done to us.” What fools we are, therefore, when we allow our tranquility to be disrupted by minor things."

·       Our own behavior is likely to anger others. As Seneca put it: “We are bad men living among bad men, and only one thing can calm us — we must agree to go easy on one another.”

But I have to make an admission to you. This wise advice is not enough for me. In addition, I need to know that God is in control. This is the only way that I can relax my grip. I have to know that God is in control of the justice part, and He will avenge:

·       Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. (Romans 12:17-19; Also, see Romans 13:1-4 where God avenges through the criminal justice system.)

·       Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17)

Without this knowledge, I am prone to take justice into my own hands, even if I know that it will harm me. The indignation is that powerful!

I also need to know that my Lord has me entirely covered and even has a good purpose for the abuse I might receive:

·       For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. (1 Peter 2:19-21)

Only with these assurances can I stand against the growing horrors of this world.