Monday, 11 November, 2002

From " Self Deception and Autobiography" by Stanley Hauerwas



This is a longer selection but an important word.

Some of our self-deceptions...have more destructive results than others. Auschwitz stands as a symbol of one extreme to which our self-deception can lead. For the complicity of Christians with Auschwitz did not begin with their failure to object to the first slightly anti-Semitic laws and actions. It rather began when Christians assumed that they could be the heirs and carriers of the symbols of the faith without sacrifice and suffering. It began when the very language of revelation became an expression of status rather than an instrument for bringing our lives gradually under the sway of "the love that moves the sun and the other stars." ...So Christians allowed their language to idle without turning the engines of the soul, and in recompense, their lives were seized by powers that they no longer had the ability to know, much less to combat.



I'm caught by the phrase: "So Christians allowed their language to idle without turning the engines of the soul..." In other words, some other language...the language of another story, seized the lives of those who claimed "in words alone" to be followers of Jesus. I would contend that this is what happens every time the language of the state is intermingled with the words of the faith. "Christian nation" is a good example. In reality, the two words never belong together. The word Christian is about a reign of servants who love one another even unto death. The word nation represents a people whose self interest is a priority over and against others. What happens when we blend the words is that the "nation" part of this word couplet wins the day...and always will. The "Christian" part becomes nothing more than a agent of blessing that which the "nation" want to do. Remember, the churches of Germany went along with the ways of the Nazi regime for it was the "fatherland" and it needed "living space" and it was a blessed "race" of people... We are aliens in all lands. We honor the governing powers but resist them when they live by a standard contrary to the way of the cross.



Connection: Watch out for the many ways the words of the faith and the name of the followers of Jesus (Christian) are tied into the themes and actions of the country. It is often used with guise that we are building morality. In reality we are letting the powers take their language and push it as ours.



Lord God, you alone are God. You make us a people and you promise to bring us new life. Keep us forever within your word of promise that we may be shaped by it and live within the power of your word and life therein. Amen.