For you are the children of your father
John 8:44:
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
This verse came to mind when I reflected on a question I asked yesterday:
What prompted my musing was Mike Pence. He decided over the weekend to mock Pete and Chasten Buttigieg, casting derision on Secretary Buttigieg taking "maternity leave" when his children were born prematurely.
Pence, of course, makes loud noises of his so-called "Christian" faith. Now, as you all know, I don't call myself a Christian. But I was very much raised in the holy, Roman, catholic, and apostolic Church. Moreover, I was raised in that Church at the height of the Vatican II reforms. It was a Church where, as I've written, my high school religious studies teacher would take students during summer break to protest at nuclear test sites in Nevada. (Yes, for our younger readers, I'm old enough to have lived through a time when nuclear weapons testing was a regular occurrence.) Another religion teacher would say "Yes, Jesus is Lord, and Jesus loves everyone, whether or not they recognize him". This is all to say that I was raised in a very different climate than Mike Pence.
That piece of Scripture, to Christianity's eternal shame, has been used to scapegoat and demonize Jews for two thousand years. But the interesting thing about texts is this: texts can be reinterpreted and recontextualized as times change. The words the author of John puts in Jesus' mouth were most definitely aimed at Jews. But at heart, the text is one of a prophet excoriating a stubborn people, something which is not much different in tone or matter from the prophets of the Hebrew Bible calling out the sins against God committed by their fellow Israelites. As such, we can refashion that text from one used to condemn Jews to one which has a new meaning and a new target: people who claim divine sanction but have no concept of divine consciousness.
Were Jesus to return to Earth, the Sadducees and Pharisees he would face and be martyred by again would not be Jews. They would instead be those who claim him as Lord and Savior.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, there is a famous "story within a story" contained in the novel, called "The Grand Inquisitor". Christ returns to Earth in Spain during the height of the Inquisition. He performs miracles, and the people know who he is and adore him. But he is arrested and burned at the stake the following day. The Inquisitor tells him that the Church no longer needs him; the freedom Jesus offers is beyond most of humanity. Instead, it is in fact Satan who offers a road to end human suffering and create unity under the Church. As the British would say, Christ is not fit for purpose.
Those who attend megachurches where they are taught that anyone who thinks unlike them is evil and deserving of eternal hellfire are the same ones who would deny Christ three times before the cock crows. The words in John apply to them. They offer God the sacrifices of their prayers, but as he says in Isaiah 1:15-16:
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!
Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong.
They are miserable and inflict their misery onto others. They think themselves sacred and engage in sacrilege. They see themselves as the sheep in heaven but are the goats destined for Hell. They serve not the God of Abraham and Isaac, but Mammon and Moloch, reveling in wealth and violence. They are the children of their true father.
As I wrote yesterday: Their time is passing. They will be blown away as chaff. And all they will have to hold on to as the world passes them by is their hatred and fear. Let them go.
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