Traveling in Place

A Brave Declaration of Christian Belief

Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you. – 1 Peter 3:15

Today (May 31) marks the 77^th anniversary of the Barmen Declaration – one of the great statements of Christian belief in resistance to forces intent on undoing the Christian witness. 

It was 1934 in Germany, one year after the election of Adolf Hitler as chancellor.  A rapid series of events had already compromised the churches in Germany.  They had organized into one national church – the German Evangelical Church (or DEK) – led by a nationalistic religious movement known simply as “the German Christians.”  At its first synod, the DEK had voted to apply the “Aryan Paragraph” – the Nazi requirement that all government officials be of pure Aryan stock – to ordained ministry.  No one of Jewish descent, or even married to someone with Jewish roots, would any longer be allowed to serve as a minister in the German church.  The German Christians had jettisoned the Old Testament as a Jewish conspiratorial document, and had even excised several passages from the New Testament for being “too Jewish.”  All Hebrew words (like “Hosanna” and “Hallelujah”) and all references to Jerusalem and Israel were removed from German hymns.  The Christian doctrine of grace was rejected as a Jewish corruption of the true teachings of Jesus (not to mention out of step with the Nietszchian vision of brute power as the highest human virtue).  German Christian pastors no longer baptized children into the body of Christ, but into the German Volk and the Weltanschauung (worldview) of Der Führer.  The communion liturgy spoke of the body and blood of the German soil.  The German Christians portrayed Jesus as an Aryan hero and the cross as a symbol of war against the Jews.

Cries of Faith

The most chilling video to come out of the devastation in Joplin, Missouri, was recorded inside a refrigerator in a convenience store where several people huddled together for shelter.  (I've included the video at the end of this post.)  One of those survivors let his camera roll in the dark and later shared his recording with the media.  The viewer sees nothing but an occasional flash and the suggestion of a human figure.  But the audio is much clearer.  Along with the roaring thunder of the twister, we hear a child crying, words of encouragement (“We’re good…we’re good”), a cacophony of fearful exclamations, including “Oh, my God!”, tearful expressions of love, and one woman’s pointed cry of faith. 

“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!” she utters sharply, almost angrily.  Then a few seconds later, she repeats the name of her Lord in a much calmer tone.  “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.  Heavenly father…”

Was she praying for deliverance?  Was she expecting the rapture?  Or was she steeling herself for her own earthly demise?

Of course, I don’t know.  I recognize the cadence in her voice from charismatic worship services.  But she wasn’t being slain in the Spirit.  Her world was blowing apart.  This woman and the others holding onto each other in that dark metal box would emerge to find their hometown reduced to acres of debris.  The local high school, the Home Depot, the WalMart Super Center – all chewed up and spit out by a spinning monster.  Thousands of homes blown to bits.  Dozens – maybe hundreds – of their neighbors dead.  The local hospital still standing but too damaged to be of any use.  A local park disfigured by mangled and uprooted trees, covered in personal belongings that were carried miles from their rightful places.

Religion Is Older Than We Thought

The source for this post is Charles Mann’s article in the June 2011 edition of National Geographic, pp. 39-58.

In the highlands of southern Turkey near the Syrian border, archeologists are busy uncovering and analyzing the remains of the world’s oldest known temple.  Göbekli Tepe is at least 11,600 years old, challenging widely held assumptions about the development of civilization and the role of religion.

For nearly a century, following the work of V. Gordon Childe, archeologists have assumed that when the Ice Age ended in about 9600 B.C., human beings responded to the warm, wet climate by developing the tools and skills of agriculture.  Farming then led to permanent settlements, where people developed pottery and technology.  As populations became increasingly dense, ideas were more easily exchanged and refined, leading to greater social innovation.  On the basis of this “Neolithic revolution,” anthropologists have postulated that religion emerged after the development of agriculture, providing a salve for the tensions that must have resulted as people lived in closer proximity to each other.

Göbekli Tepe, however, predates the end of the Ice Age.  It belongs to the era of hunter-gatherers.  Its stone pillars are fashioned into a set of rings and appointed by artwork depicting gazelles, snakes, foxes, scorpions and wild boars.  It is undoubtedly a shrine of sacred worship.  Its very existence strongly suggests that devotion to the sacred preceded permanent settlements.  Nomads journeyed to this temple much as pilgrims approach the Shrine of Mecca or the Western Wall of the Jerusalem Temple.  Göbekli Tepe, then, is strong evidence that religious worship – not agriculture – is what led people to gather in large numbers.  Instead of farming begetting religion, it may well be that religion beget farming and the complex societies that followed.

The End of the World - Again?

Here we go again.  Times are uncertain.  People feel insecure about the future.  And, just like Jesus said they would, false prophets are taking advantage by predicting the end of the world.

This time, the false prophet-in-chief is Harold Camping, a California evangelist who hosts “Open Forum” on the Family Radio Network, which broadcasts in 61 languages on 66 radio stations across America.  Camping has developed an elaborate numerological scheme to calculate when the world began (11,083 B.C.) and when it will end (exactly 7,000 years after the Great Flood, or 2011.)

Camping says that the “tribulation,” a time of great trouble preceding the final judgment, actually began in 1988.  The judgment itself, he says, will commence this Saturday, May 21.  On that day, believing Christians (according to Camping’s narrow definition) will be “raptured” into heaven.  Everyone else will endure another 153 days of suffering before the world is destroyed by fire on October 21.

An Early Spring Mountain Hike

It’s barely spring in the Adirondacks.  The streams and brooks are swollen.  Dogtooth lilies are in bloom, and the careful observer may spot a few trilliums.  But the trees are still bare and, above about 3,000 feet, snow still covers the ground.

On Monday, my calendar was free of scheduled appointments.  It was a beautiful day.  My son Aaron is home from law school for a few days before he departs for his summer internship.  It was time for a mountain hike.

We drove up to Speculator and turned north to the Snowy Mountain trailhead.  At 3,899 feet, Snowy is the highest point in the Adirondacks outside the high peaks region.  The trail to the summit measures 3.9 miles.  The first 2.5 miles is a pleasant walk in the woods that crosses several pretty streams and ascends only 600 feet.  From the base of the mountain to the summit, the trail climbs another 1,500 feet in 1.4 miles.  I climbed Snowy with a friend four years ago, and I remembered how challenging the trail became just below the summit.

Obama the Christian Realist

Perhaps the most influential theologian of the 20^th century was Reinhold Niebuhr, author of the famous “Serenity Prayer” and architect of a pragmatic world-view that came to be known as “Christian realism.”  Faced with the atrocities committed by the Nazis and political and economic oppression in modern totalitarian states, Niebuhr rejected liberal theology for not taking seriously enough the problem of sin and the reality of evil. 

He criticized Christian pacifists opposed to U.S. intervention in World War II, arguing that sometimes, force is necessary and therefore morally justified.  “We are responsible for making choices between greater and lesser evils,” he wrote in Faith and Politics, “even when our Christian faith, illuminating the human scene, makes it quite apparent that there is no pure good in history, and probably no pure evil, either.”  Niebuhr warned against naïve idealism that sees the world in simple terms of good and evil.  But he also rejected cynicism, believing that human beings still have the responsibility to discern the most moral course of action and seek to build a more just society.  In short, he believed society could always be improved to reflect more nearly the values of God’s kingdom, but also knew that this world would never be perfect.  Evil exists and must be confronted – with force if necessary.

This week, we have been reminded in dramatic fashion that the shadow of Niebuhr looms large in the White House.  Niebuhr’s thought has influenced presidents of both parties.  He was personally consulted by the Truman administration in the development of U.S. Foreign Policy during the Cold War.  But no president has so intentionally embodied the principals of Christian realism as Barack Obama.  Indeed, the historical reckoning of Obama’s foreign policy in the future may well be either an indictment or acquittal of Niebuhr’s worldview.

"Cracking the Book" Gets Positive Review

My thanks to Don Mills, recently retired professor of classical languages at Syracuse University who is very active in the Lutheran Church.  Don posted this unsolicited review of my book on the website of the upstate synod of the ELCA.

Looking for a book to deepen your understanding of the Bible? Here's one to consider. J. Mark Lawson, Cracking the Book: How to Start Reading the Bible, Wine Press Publishing, 2011. Lawson is pastor of the United Church of Christ in Bayberry, Liverpool, New York and an adjunct Professor of Religious Studies at Lemoyne College in Syracuse. This book is intended to be an introduction to Bible study for those who know very little about the Bible, what it is and how it came to be. Its style is quite approachable and down to earth, yet it is clear that the author is well versed in biblical scholarship and able to present scholarly ideas in a clear and cogent fashion (an uncommon ability in some professors).

Bin Laden's Death, the Arab Spring, and the Hope for Peace

This morning, Americans awoke to stunning headlines most of us never thought we would read.  A secret White House operation has resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks who has successfully eluded the American intelligence and military communities for a decade. 

The news set off a few boisterous celebrations in our country.  Mostly, however, I suspect it has made people here and around the world reflective.  We’re grieving again the loss of 3,000 lives.  We’re thinking about all the lives lost in the War on Terror, we’re hoping the elimination of bin Laden moves the world closer to peace. 

We’re also asking questions.  How does this action increase the short-term terror threat to the U.S., and does the absence of bin Laden strike a long-term blow to large-scale terror plots, since Al Qaida has metastasized into a loose confederation of smaller cells?  How much did the government of Pakistan know about his whereabouts (in a secluded compound two hours from Islamabad)?  Where is Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden’s second-in-command, and does he have the ability to unite disparate Al Qaida movements the way bin Laden did?

The question I am most interested in, however, is whether and how this will affect the “Arab Spring,” the head-spinning series of revolutions across the Arab world.  In particular, I am paying close attention to Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group that has to this point refused to accept the existence of the state of Israel.  Bin Laden’s original cause, and the root of most of the anti-Western sentiment in the Arab world, is the absence of a Palestinian state and the occupation of Palestinian territories by the state of Israel.  Soon after being expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991, bin Laden declared to Arab Muslims, “When we buy American goods, we are accomplices in the murder of Palestinians.”