It is disturbing, and depressing, to note the contradictions of so many theological and political conservatives who fill the airwaves with their mutually exclusive preachments. On one hand they demand that the criminal pay the full penalty of extended imprisonment for his misdeeds. On the other hand they announce that the sinner never has to pay for his sins if only he mouths the proper magic words, “The blood of Christ – Jesus paid it all.” It’s an easy way out of accepting responsibility.
The visit of Pope John Paul to the prisoner who tried to kill him dramatizes the issue. The Pope forgave his assailant, but the legal system keeps the man in jail to pay the stated penalty. One question comes up, “Where does God stand in the matter?” Isaiah 55:8-9 may shed some light on the affair. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The Bible spells out some troublesome ideas.
This is particularly true in our relationships with the rest of the world. The administration in Washington tells us we have won the world’s respect by our invasion of Grenada. In that invasion our forces bombed a hospital for mentally retarded persons, killed a dozen or more of the helpless inmates, and injured another score of innocents. We showed our power to coerce others to conform to our will. We have power.
In our pride of conquest we ignore the dictum, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Centuries earlier, the same idea was set forth in simpler terms by a young man in Galilee, as told in the book of Luke 4:6-7. “And the devil took him (Jesus) up, and showed him all the kingdoms of this world in a moment of time, and said to him, ‘To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me it shall all be yours.”
The choice is clear. If you want power over others you must worship the devil. Conversely, if you have power over other peoples and nations, you have worshipped the devil to get it. Whether you believe in a real devil from a fiery hell or a devil who is merely the symbolic embodiment of evil, the processes are all the same. Worship of the devil and power to control others through coercive force go hand in hand.
So many of the more frequently quoted TV preachers insist vigorously that God dictated every word in the Bible. Then they proceed to ignore most of the Biblical teachings. They reduce the gospel to a lot of abracadabra. They adulterate the gospel with a batch of pious, magic phrases. They water it down to a nebulous glob. They mouth the slogan on our currency, “In God We Trust.” But practically, for the moment say “Let’s forget all that and look for salvation in MX and Pershing missiles, and more and bigger nuclear warheads.”
Christianity has a cutting edge. It calls for change in our way of looking at things, change in our attitude toward even our enemies, change in our way of life. We may accept or reject Christianity, but it can’t be ignored in the market places nor in the halls of statecraft throughout the world. We must choose between Jesus and Mars, between Christ and the devil.
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