I'd go so far as to say that the most visible difference between the gods and God in Christ is that the gods, even the most respectable, benign looking ones, are ultimately bloodthirsty and demand blood sacrifice.
God in Christ requires no person's sacrifice.
[From my earlier blog entry: The Beginning of Christian Ethics]
If one can take the allegations at face value for purposes of discussion (without rendering a judgment on Governor Blagojevich's guilt which has yet to be determined)...
If the allegations are true, then it would appear to me that Governor Blagojevich's effective god in this situation (in distinction to any nominal commitment to God in Christ in this situation or even any actual commitment to God in Christ in the other spheres of his life) is revealed as being quite self-serving and disinterested in Governor Blagojevich's welfare, the welfare of the people of Illinois or the welfare of the American political system.
The key difference between service to God in Christ and the gods of money, power, etc. is not Governor Blagojevich's newly acquired disgrace, as Christians can suffer disgrace as well for following their Christian commitments. (Jesus' death by public crucifixion comes to mind.)
The key difference is freedom.
What Jesus did, what Dietrich Bonhoeffer did, what the Berrigan brothers did, they did in the freedom of the Christian to witness to God in Christ's free gift of a meaningful, purposeful and valuable life in the face of all idolatrous claims of the gods.
The allegations (based on phone transcripts) of the federal indictment against Governor Blagojevich reveals a person who is in no essential respect free. He, if the allegations prove true, was acting while in the iron grip of the gods. He is the puppet and the gods are the puppet masters.
God in Christ requires no such thing.
Galatians 5.1:
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. [NRSV translation]
2 comments:
Glad to see this blog up and running....Can you tell me though, how the Judeo-Christian God might differ from those other blood thirsty gods. I know in modern interpretations we like to think of God as love or light but, the Bible makes a clear testimony to the nature of God a punishing, vengeful and jealous diety who really enjoys the sacrificial lamb....Maybe there are other gods that are not bloodthirsty but, I have not come across any lately.
the Bible makes a clear testimony to the nature of God a punishing, vengeful and jealous diety who really enjoys the sacrificial lamb....
That's true, but besides the Bible being inspired by God (rather than inerrant, which I've always found a quite unnecessary belief) it is also a human document written by human communities. There are many voices in the Bible. Amos (along with most of the prophetic tradition) believes that God's concern is for justice and righteousness, not sacrifice. (See Amos . 5.16-26)
This gives me an idea to move the discussion in the direction of biblical ethics. Can one realistically accept the Bible as an ethical resource without accepting fundamentalism, on the one hand, and the liberal tendency to (literally) interpret the hell out of it, on the other :-)
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