My thoughts on Easter Sunday received the inevitable backlash yesterday, including the suggestion that I was politicising Easter from someone who claimed to be a true Christian.
My response was clear:
I see the whole New Testament as profoundly political
Read the Magnificat
The first sermon on Jubilee — and the message to those who enslaved with debt
The Sermon on the Mount
The instruction to love others as you do yourself
The attitude to the money changers
The bias to the poor
The problem of ‘the eye of the needle'
The instruction on money
Then read Acts 2 and see how those who really followed saw the requirement
This is all radical politics
And the resurrection? This was about the transition to that new understanding and the forgiveness of the sins of the past
As Michael Hudson would have it, the forgiveness of our debts
Being Christian and endorsing the neoliberal world are incompatibilities, as I read it
It seems the Pope and Justin Welby may be on my side right now
I thought I might elaborate on that last point. Justin Welby said yesterday, according to the Guardian:
The next wave coming is the economic one … We have a choice there as a nation and as a society and as a world. Do we take hold of our destiny and make sure the differences are mitigated, abolished where possible — or do we just let things happen, do we let the market rule, in which case there will be enormous suffering.
He added:
We depend on each other at the most fundamental level. Therefore we have to re-look at how we value each other. That includes how we value each other in financial terms, who bears the burdens of our society … If we don't re-look at that, there is no justice in our society.
I would suggest that is a fairly radical call for the reiganisation of society.
And the Pope was thinking along the same lines. In a relatively little publicised letter sent 'To our brothers and sisters of popular movements and organizations' on Easter Sunday he said, amongst other things, in this address to those mainly in developing countries:
My hope is that governments understand that technocratic paradigms (whether state-centred or market-driven) are not enough to address this crisis or the other great problems affecting humankind. Now more than ever, persons, communities and peoples must be put at the centre, united to heal, to care and to share.
I know that you have been excluded from the benefits of globalization. You do not enjoy the superficial pleasures that anesthetize so many consciences, yet you always suffer from the harm they produce. The ills that afflict everyone hit you twice as hard. Many of you live from day to day, without any type of legal guarantee to protect you. Street vendors, recyclers, carnies, small farmers, construction workers, dressmakers, the different kinds of caregivers: you who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time … and the lockdowns are becoming unbearable. This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out. It would ensure and concretely achieve the ideal, at once so human and so Christian, of no worker without rights.
Moreover, I urge you to reflect on “life after the pandemic,” for while this storm shall pass, its grave consequences are already being felt. You are not helpless. You have the culture, the method, and most of all, the wisdom that are kneaded with the leaven of feeling the suffering of others as your own. I want all of us to think about the project of integral human development that we long for and that is based on the central role and initiative of the people in all their diversity, as well as on universal access to those three Ts that you defend: Trabajo (work), Techo (housing), and Tierra (land and food) .
I hope that this time of danger will free us from operating on automatic pilot, shake our sleepy consciences and allow a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the centre. Our civilization – so competitive, so individualistic, with its frenetic rhythms of production and consumption, its extravagant luxuries, its disproportionate profits for just a few – needs to downshift, take stock, and renew itself.
If that's not political, I am not sure what is.
I do not see how neoliberalism and Christian faith overlap. We do need to renew ourselves. And rid ourselves of that thinking.
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I am not a Christian, but the political message of Christ has always been obvious. By criticising your message, they show their own disdain for faith and that those supporting (what was) the status quo will use any means to maintain their position.
Many thanks – I agree entirely with your analysis. Is Archbishop Welby really leaving his previous banking life behind and will he preach denunciation of TINA in every sermon?
I look forward, probably in vain, to responses from people in positions of significant power who very publicly express their Christian Faith, to their Churches Leaders. What’ll Rees-Mogg say in response, for example?
I’ll continue to keep my distance from the steeple houses.
Yes the religious leaders are beginning to see the light regarding our economic, ecological and political burdens. Makes a change from their usual mumbo-jumbo and ridiculous ritual.
Lol prof the bigot mob is after you!
Don’t they realise you are not the messiah or anti christ – just a very naughty boy spreading mmt!
I suppose no church bells and gatherings yesterday and in these weeks is depressing for these who have cone to rely in such public contact – i miss my local campanologists practicing Wednesdays and playing Sundays, at the church behind my house – they were getting quite good. They should let one at a time go and practice at least. Bells shouldn’t be quiet! Not across the country.
I think for these of religious mindsets, having their weekly gathering suddenly removed is like kicking the crutch from a lame person – not nice psychologically for them.
I’d like to say cheer up , the weather has returned to a normal bank holiday blustery, life will go on and watch Life of Brian – Jesus won’t hate you and you will not end up in hell – have a laugh! It is the best cure for depression. Mars Attacks is good too for these who like their apolcalytics free of religion – hilarious.
Happy Easter Monday, All.
I am indeed a very naughty boy 🙂
I’m not religious at all, but I like the sound of this chap called Jesus.
Now this other bloke – God – he’s a bit too like Man himself to me (indeed to me, God and Man are indivisible – they are both capable of creating and destroying in equal measure – both hold amazing and terrible power in their hands and can get a bit out of hand all too often with the latter because of anger – mostly acting in anger). But Jesus – now this dude was something else; he was about life, how to live well by considering others and the world around you. How to live consciously of oneself and of others. He was plugged into people and the Earth itself.
Besides kicking over some money lenders’ tables in a temple (he is sometimes portrayed as whipping the money lenders – did he? I can’t see it myself he seems far too gentle) I don’t think he ever hurt anyone did he?
There are three of the attributes of religion that I have a problem with. One is is what I call the subservience to the idea of ‘deferred benefits’; the other is forgiveness ,the third is that Jesus died for our sins.
All the concepts are abused by mankind – people hedge their bets. It’s not a good system of morality in my view.
For ‘deferred benefits’ the idea is (is it not) that we are only entitled to see paradise when we die and if we have been good in the life we have just left. That we can only have the best on offer when we are dead.
This concept to me is deeply flawed. This focus on life after death all too often I believe leads us to under value ‘the now’ – the life we are leading before death and the planet we live on and will apparently leave. As a result we abuse our lives, the lives of others and the planet.
Yes – I know that supposedly we are only allowed into Heaven if we have been good in life, asked for forgiveness and renounced our sins as well as accepting God. So therefore we can expect to see a decent world as a result of us subscribing to this because we are in effect banking our ‘goodness’ to get into Paradise and ever lasting (after) life. But all of this – Cui Bono – who benefits? Us? Our fellow man? The planet? Or the organisation known as The Church? I think it maybe the Church.
But how well does this system of being good actually work? Look at us now. From the unfairness in our own society, to what has been happening in Syria and Yemen. Something is not working. The post death incentive is not working – it is not producing a better world. Tony Blair – a Catholic – tells us that only God will judge him about his handling of the Iraq war. Hmmm.
And then there is forgiveness. Well how much are we to forgive? Has Adolf Hitler been forgiven? What about the those in charge of Goldman Sachs who sold worthless investments to pension funds? Or the CIA agents who brought down Allende? In all cases, it seems to me that, people are hedging their bets. Do they have their fingers crossed behind their backs as the behave so abominably?
Unless of course, they do believe that Jesus has already paid the bill for their cruelty and treachery by dying on the cross? Now this is something I totally disagree with. Why an earth am I told that Jesus died for me – for my sins – when really I (and I alone) should be responsible for them? I mean, its not even good parenting – is it? It means that mankind should be kept in some sort of perpetual childish state whereby Jesus took our punishment for us making us (basically in my view at least) unaccountable for our actions. It is only natural therefore for people having realised this to act badly because some will believe that they never have to grow up.
Why oh why can we not accept that we could have heaven on earth NOW in this life instead of waiting for death? Stop deferring the better world to some afterlife which may not even exist!! But also, grow up and take personal responsibility for your commissions and omissions.
That is why I like this concept of Jesus and how he conducted himself – someone whom I might be inclined to measure my humanity against. In the desert he apparently tested himself, his desires and his darker side and took responsibility for resisting the temptation to be bad.
That is the example Jesus provides and is so often ignored only for the weaker concepts of Christianity (what I would call the ‘organisational culture’ of the church) to prevail instead – concepts that seem to a give a green light to a lot of human bad behaviour because people take advantage of the concepts of forgiveness, the after-life and the sacrifice of Jesus. As John Adams has said – cybernetics (a cybernetics adapted properly for society and not just an organisational one grafted on) would help us as Stafford Beer said – ‘to think before we think’ – or as Jesus suggests – to live consciously.
I know for sure, that musings such as mine have existed since Christianity existed (I cannot speak for Islam or Judaism) and some of these questions and frustrations would have been recorded coming from people under torture in the Inquisition. So for all my ignorance of religion, I am in good company and one of many, past present and future who will ask these questions until they are answered.
You sound like someone who would be at home with Quakers. (Religious Society of Friends)
Thank you Meg, if you will:
How do I sign up?
How do you qualify?
Hello Pilgrim- look up http://www.quaker.org.uk and find your nearest Quaker meeting, which sadly won’t be meeting just now! So you could read “Being a Quaker- a guide for newcomers” by Geoffrey Durham.
I believe it has been a centuries long campaign by those in power – the established churches & their temporal allies – to sanitise the image of Jesus in order that they could co-opt his life story to enhance and justify their control of society.
All the available evidence suggest Jesus was a revolutionary offering a ‘pathway’ to social justice as well as individual liberation from suffering in the tradition of all the great teachers. Michael Hudson explains the political reasons why he (Jesus) had to be removed before he was able to lead a successful coup against the corrupt Jewish régime. As far as the Romans were concerned he was probably seen as a bit of local trouble to be nipped in the bud and Pontius Pilate simply instructed by Tiberius to ‘deal with it’ : ‘And Forgive Them Their Debts’ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpG_BCDQ-jE
Anyhow, that’s my abbreviated non-Christian take on the story. Happy quarantined Easter Monday!
Pretty good summary…
Agreed – the thing is, is that the frontline clergy whom I in the course of my work rub shoulders with, do not see things quite the same way as the upper/rear echelons of the Church – they are quite clear with me that if Jesus were alive to do looking at all this, he’d want no part in it and would be a major critic of it.
Richard, I wholeheartedly agree with you that “Being Christian and endorsing the neoliberal world are incompatibilities”.
I have for some time been dismayed by my fellow Christians’ propensity to vote in recent general elections for the party whose neoliberal-fueled austerity has caused so much needless suffering, in return for so little economic benefit.
Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur wrote in the report of his visit in November 2018 “The Conservative government has inflicted great misery on its people with punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous austerity policies drive by political desire rather than economic necessity. Child poverty is a disgrace, a social calamity, even though the UK is the fifth largest economy.” (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/nov/16/uk-austerity-has-inflicted-great-misery-on-citizens-un-says).
The bible says “And what does the Lord require of you? That you do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your god”. Whatever your faith, or no faith, I see little to object to in this.
But overall, around one half of Christians think it’s OK to vote for the Conservatives.
See a report dated 11 August 2017 published on the web site of British Religion In Numbers (BRIN), University of Manchester. (http://www.brin.ac.uk/religious-affiliation-and-party-choice-at-the-2017-general-election/). There are similar analyses for earlier general elections from other sources.
Those who criticise for allegedly “politicising” Easter are totally out of touch. Evidently, both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope think it perfectly appropriate!
Thanks
We agree…
Remember the ghastly saying “Talk about anything but religion and politics.”
Pope and Welby have reversed that to “To about nothing but religion and politics.” At last!
(Football, Wimbledon etc in quarantine…hurrah – the sun’s shining, bluebells in flower, swallows returning – nowt to talk about…apparently. Try religion and politics
I was brought up in a household that that absolutely believed in the ‘anything but religion and politics’ mantra
I failed them, badly 🙂
‘I do not see how neoliberalism and Christian faith overlap. We do need to renew ourselves‘
As ever, you have an elevated opinion of your own importance and views, despite the subject being one very much NOT within your area of expertise.
Perhaps you need to read the bible a bit more in terms of humility!
I provided the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury as references. Are you disputing that they know anything about this? The three of us seem to be on the same side
As we’ve seen in the lack of preparedness in the UK for the coronavirus pandemic the austerity culture so hegemonic in this country now for at least four decades has quite literally become a Death Culture.
It should now be increasingly obvious this Death Culture stems from widespread ignorance how the country’s reserves based monetary system works. How can it possibly be Christian to ignore this cause of the Death Culture now throttling the country?
The ‘problem’ with Jesus’ message is that it is very threatening to the established order, whether that is now or 300 AD. I have said for many years that it is much much easier for the church to obsess about sex, personal morality, etc than it is about money and how society is structured. As you pointed out Jesus talked about money, bankers (the money lenders in the temple), power, the poor, discrimination (the Good Samaritan – the point being the Jews saw them as unclean), etc. So far as I can remember he never mentioned sex, and indeed went out of his way to associate with a prostitute while condemning the hypocrisy of those wanting to stone folk for adultery – ‘Let him that is without sin cast the first stone’. He even said we should all pay our tax bill, and got right that coin belonged to the state and wasn’t ‘taxpayers’ money’ – ‘render that which is Caesar’s unto Caesar’. 🙂 Yet the institutional Church was quickly co-opted and dropped all the revolutionary difficult stuff and has spent much of the past 1500 years worrying about sex and more recently e.g. in the US abortion. These latter issues are non-threatening, and provide a great opportunity to feel virtuous and sanctimonious at little or no cost to the individual. See Holy Willie’s Prayer by Robert Burns for an amusing example as he prays for hellfire and brimstone on all the folk he does not like or who slighted him or whatever while asking for forgiveness for his entirely understandable indiscretions with the maid, etc.
Organised religion became a mechanism, for control and not a means of liberation
The early Quaker history is pretty amazing in its struggles on this issue
If people are your business, then your business is people, ergo there will be no business if there are insufficient people with insufficient resources to make valuable transactions.
If there is no business, there will be no trade & with no trade any form of government becomes feudalistic, at best.
Add some very rudimentary Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs & the point is made.
Your Easter post yesterday was illuminating. First, good to know what drives you; second, sad to see that several commentators chose to snipe at you – it must have hurt.
I am glad you have revisited the issue today because whilst we spend a lot of time chewing over “technical” issues it is the “values” that lie behind which are most important and less often discussed in public…. particularly if they are driven by faith.
Me? I always understood the Church of England to be “the Tory Party at Prayer” and the Labour Party to be “the political wing of the Methodist Church”. A lot has changed in 100+ years but I hope Labour can remember its roots in South Wales Methodism.
Finally, do read Amos (old testament prophet from 750 BC). Many elements of Jesus’s message were new but much about social justice was not. The call for social justice has a long pedigree….. almost as long as humans’ capacity for selfishness.
JK Galbraith summed it up most pithily – “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness”.
Thanks Clive
Clive
Illuminating – thanks.
the Pope says –
“time to consider a universal basic wage”
wow, just wow !
I think this is the first Christian Pope!
“Courage will be forthcoming if the leaders of opinion in all parties will summon out of the fatigue and confusion of war enough lucidity of mind to understand for themselves and to explain to the public what is required; and then propose a plan conceived in a spirit of social justice, a plan which uses a time of general sacrifice, not as an excuse for postponing desirable reforms, but as an opportunity for moving further than we have moved hitherto towards reducing inequalities.”
J.M. Keynes, How to Pay for the War, 1940, p. 1.
Thanks
To be noted in a blog post very soon.