Jesus is Magic

Before I write about Anadarko, or about what an awesome name it has, I'm going to swerve back to the subject of religion. It comes to mind again particularly because of a man in Albuquerque who took the microphone just as the ceremony was coming to an end and quoted more-or-less random scripture verses to the crowd for a half-hour. I'm sure this was news to most people, but apparently you can be saved by believing in Jesus. Thanks, guy.

I mulled this over for quite a while in my head. Luckily, we have entire days of driving where mulling is a perfectly acceptable option. He was saying good things, but he still felt offensive and unwelcome to me; I think it went deeper than just the facts that he made us wait another half-hour, that he was off-topic, and that he was oblivious to the hostility in the room and made no attempt to address the damages done to the people in the room by other missionaries.

So here's my newest thought on religion: the biggest problem Christianity has faced is the belief that "Jesus is Magic." It seems that many people -- including many very corrupt people -- have been comfortable throwing up an unthinking "Jesus-shield" whenever their actions are called into question.

Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light.
I Believe in Jesus.
I Am Saved and Thus Morally Superior.

The problem, here, as I see it, is that I don't really believe God's plan for the spiritual well-being of mankind is "Believe in Jesus" in the sense that most people seem to interpret it. What does "believe in" mean? Believe He existed? We have concrete proof that a man named Jesus existed and was crucified. That's not even slightly in question; the records exist. Does this knowledge make you a better person? I think not.

When we're called to "Believe in Jesus," I think that means to believe in what He taught, in the quality of life He led, and in the lessons He shared with us. The important fact about His life is not that he existed -- lots of people existed -- but that he came to give us kinds of wisdom we'd never had before.

But many people seem content to use Jesus as no more than a talisman, disregarding what He did and said, relying entirely on a meaningless "I Believe Jesus Lived." That's what I mean by a shield, or by magic. If you disregard the lessons of His life, but still justify your actions by your faith, your faith is nothing but a hollow shell for hiding behind. Maybe your bumper sticker says you believe in Jesus, and you probably do. What good is that if you don't pay any attention to Him?

These are the kinds of people who can molest children, safe in their own sense of moral superiority. These are the kinds of people who can live lives of secret degradation and still look down on their neighbors for not going to church. These are the people who can "stand up for life" by murdering doctors. These are the people who ran the boarding schools. And we have far, far too many of them; I'm ashamed of their presence in our society and in our history.

So let's set aside our get-out-of-jail-free "magic make-everything-okay" Jesus and take a look at gaining a belief in what He taught us and in what He stood for. This is so much harder, but it's what I believe is the path to spiritual wholeness and what God always intended. As always, the things that are truly valuable take some work; the easy no-effort version gets you nowhere.

I make no claims of being a Bible scholar; my best effort got bogged down in the Old Testament and I never even finished reading it. I did, however, attend nine years of Catholic school, and I feel like I have a decent sort of moral compass. Those are my only credentials.

But here's what I understand of Jesus, in list form:

Be Humble. God's in control; he wants you to succeed and may give you gifts to help you along the way; but don't let it go to your head. Jesus was the Son of God, and he washed people's feet.

Be Thankful. There's a lot of great, great stuff in the world. Those are blessings. Acknowledge them and give thanks. If you have difficulty finding the time, try setting aside Sundays.

Judge Not. Only God really knows, and it's His prerogative to make moral decisions. We have no business second-guessing Him. And, seriously, stop stoning people. Mary Magdeline was a prostitute, and she got the second-best song in the Andrew Lloyd Webber play. Think about that!

Love Your Neighbor. God loves your neighbor. Don't presume to know better than Him. Besides, all us little people are in this together. Jesus loved his neighbors, and even gave away his last two loaves and fishes. Things still worked out okay, and there was a little more love in the world than there was before.

Love Your Enemy. This is the hardest thing to ask, but it's important to realize we're all just brief little specks of life in a big world. We're small and we're all loved by our Creator. We're all loved! Learn to forgive; we're better off helping each other out a little bit than we are by hurting each other.

God Loves You. In some ways, this is the only lesson. If you really understand that there is an all-powerful creating force, and He loves you, I think you're inexorably bound to humility, thankfulness, and being decent to other people.

These Things Are Simple, Hard, and Rewarding. Sometimes you have to fall in the ocean a few times before you can walk on water. It's not easy to do, however simple it sounds -- "Just step out of the boat and join me." The real reward comes to those who step out of the boat, not those who stay seated but smugly point and say, "Yeah, I can see that guy over there. I believe in Him."

Jesus came to Earth to tell us these things. What we're looking at, in these boarding schools, was a race of Native people who already believed these basic lessons, and tried their best to live their lives according a system of humble praise and love for each other. Then, along came a whole army of people who only made it as far as "Believe in Jesus." The Native Savages didn't believe in Jesus, so they were systematically eliminated.

The nauseating irony here is overwhelming. By acting only on a belief in Jesus, the invaders disregarded every kind of belief in what Jesus meant to the world, and killed off a people who already believed in the things that Jesus taught. True, the Indians attributed those lessons to the Earth, or to the Trees, or to the Animals, but they were the same basic lessons.

God abandons no one. The lessons of love and respect for the divine were passed on through different channels, that's all. We're all God's children. We've all been given the tools we need to lead good lives.

Jesus is not a magic shield that makes you moral. You still have to work at it, every day, the same as everyone else. He meant something, and it's the height of disrespect to ignore that.

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Two disclaimers: I'm tired and don't have the time I'd like to polish my argument or even really review what I've written. I'm really hoping I didn't say anything too blasphemous. My heart's in the right place, I swear.

I also don't want you to think I'm slapping on the rose-tinted glasses when looking at Indian history. They were real people, too. I'm sure they failed those lessons an awful lot, same as any other group of people. They had wars with the neighbors, they fought with their spouses, they probably coveted stuff once in a while. We're all just people, in the end. If I seem to be idealizing them too much, it's only to save space and focus on my real argument.