My Brother's Keeper's SUV - Christianity Today

From my journal: An interesting comment by novelist Paul Theroux: “There is always a shiver of satisfaction that the smugly voyeuristic public feels when marginal people kill each other, when a boxer dies from a lethal punch, or when the corpse of the unwelcome boat person is revealed by the ebbing tide. It is the rush of the spectator at a cockfight, for the faceless struggler has not character beyond his struggle, no personality, and all anyone cares about is the outcome—the loser is indistinguishable from the winner. Mexican farm workers suffocating to death in a box car, prison inmates clawing each other to death, vengeful mobsters, furious gays—such murders arouse little emotion. You don’t feel that their distress places you in any personal danger. They asked for it.”

I don’t like Theroux’s observation because it is too close to a truth I see in myself. How little I have ever heard about the words of Cain, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” I guess, from a Biblical standpoint, I am—my brother’s keeper. Then how do I keep my soul properly sensitive to the suffering in the world today? The anguish, the misfortune of enemies as well as friends?

A biblical passage to examine the state of one’s soul: Revelation 3:14-22. Ah, Laodecia! The place where so-called Christians were neither hot nor cold (passionless, I guess), thought they were rich and independent, and boasted that they were well-clothed and healthy. Jesus has a different perspective; read it if you’ve forgotten. And then he reminds the—and us—that he’s always knocking.

How many ways will Jesus knock on the door of my life today? It sure makes a wonderful sermon. I tried preaching it the other day. Don’t know what it did for the folks in the pews, but it sure stung me.

I don’t like Laodecians; guess I’ll move to Corinth.

New books I’m absorbing: Donald Spoto’s Reluctant Saint (Viking/Compass), the latest biography of St. Francis. It is an excellent treatment of a man in Christian history that I think is going to mark the 21st century. Francis understood things about thinking like, acting like, and serving like Jesus that few understand today.

Chris Seay’s The Gospel According to Tony Soprano (Archer/Putnam). Admission: I swallowed hard when I first opened it. And swallowed hard a few more times when I felt that Chris Seay was reaching to make some of his points. But he sure made me think. And ask some hard questions. It’s been a great read.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America. I can’t look at another minimum-wage worker the same way again after reading this thoroughly engaging book. Somehow I feel as if I’m reading about the people with whom Jesus would have spent most of his time.

Something that bothers me: News articles about folks who have found a loophole in the tax laws that encourages them to buy huge, expensive SUVs because of the incredible tax break (20-25percent of the SUV’s cost apparently). When interviewed, these guys say, “I can’t afford not to buy one!” And so they do and drain off just a bit more of the energy that our grandchildren and great-children will never see. Is it Christian to be bothered about something like this? Do I come off appearing this selfish to people who aren’t as well off as me? Just asking.

From an older book on my shelves: “We have not advanced very far in our spiritual lives if we have not encountered the basic paradox of freedom, to the effect that we are most free when we are bound. But not just any way of being bound will suffice; what matters is the character of our binding. “The one who would like to be an athlete, but who is unwilling to discipline his body by regular exercise and by abstinence, is not free to excel on the field or the tracks. His failure to train rigorously and to live abstemiously denies him the freedom to go over the bar at the desired height, or to run with the desired speed and endurance.

“With one concerted voice the giants of the devotional life apply the same principle for the whole of life with the dictum: Discipline is the price of freedom.”
Elton Trueblood in New Man for our Time

I had to write it down and think about it: “Christians who can’t or won’t share their faith with others may be in a crisis of faith of their own. The question is whether they believe in the efficacy of the gospel—the gospel which justified so that we don’t need to earn our status before God or vie for position with others; the gospel which gives shape and purpose to live, making us other-directed rather than self-centered; the gospel of peace which reconciles broken relationships and builds community; the gospel of justice which advocates for the poor and the marginalized. This is good news. So how can one keep from sharing it?” (from the Leadership Network, first published in Christian Century, 11/20/02)