I recently saw a CNN interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali is a former Dutch member of Parliament and an outspoken critic of Islam. Ali grew up in Kenya, Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia and now considers herself a humanist. She said in the interview “Muslims would become better off if they leave Islam, and comes under a better moral system with Jesus as God. His message is all about love”. There's lots that could be said about this statement but I thought her rationale was most interesting. "They need to become Christians and follow Jesus. Everybody loves Jesus. Jesus is a sweet, cuddly, loving, kind of deity who can do no wrong." Ok, not word for word, but close and you get the idea.
I couldn't help but notice that this is quite a bit different than the Jesus I read about in the gospel of Matthew. In chapter 21 Matthew quotes the Psalmist and says "Jesus is the stone that the builders rejected...and the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him." I'm not recommending that we project our own macho culture and re-make Jesus into our own cultural image. Turning him into a super-hero of "Expendables" caliber will help no one. But Jesus as a woolly lamb meek and mild, is one of the strangest caricatures I've heard in the secular media for a while. Sunday School, maybe, but not on the news!!
Nevertheless, it made me wonder: What has happened to Christianity to make her say this? What makes her think that Christianity is "only" a moral system? What has happened to the message of Jesus that was once considered revolutionary, dangerous and heretical and is now domesticated, safe and sweet?
1 comment:
Is absolute monarchy "safe and sweet"?
Christianity has been used by Europeans to defend the divine right of kings since the 4th century.
After the American, French and Russian Revolutions, Christendom finally ended in 1918.
Christendom is a portmanteau word for a Europe of Christian Kingdoms ie a Europe of Absolute Monarchies.
It is a good thing that we have the Founding Fathers to thank for the end of Christendom.
If Christianity has failed the Roman Empire, absolute monarchs and patriarchy as well as failing to prevent two World Wars from breaking out amongst Europeans, it must be time to give it up before it does more harm or starts another World War.
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