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King or the Kingdom revisited

In 1965, at a turning point in the battle for voting rights for all people in America, the line was drawn in the sand. Alabama officials were determined not to capitulate to King and others in the growing protest movement against the exclusion of African Americans from the polls.

The mostly African-American protesters who had gathered in Selma to March and demand that blacks be allowed to register to vote had been beaten, turned back and overwhelmed by government forces and regular vigilante white citizens.

Martin Luther King Jr. made a desperate call to ministers across the country to come to Selma in support of their black brothers and sisters. He knew that this battle had to be won, and that help was needed.

In At Canaan's Edge (click here to hear an interview), Taylor Branch describes a response that was both encouraging and discouraging. There were many white Christians who responded. Catholics, Jews, and others. They came in fairly large numbers. They marched. Some were beaten. One even was killed.

Not all was noble about the response, but they came.

But it was discouraging that absent from the list of those who came would be those white Christians who would have been from traditions that evolved into today's Evangelical Christians.

There were Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Jews, even Unitarian Universalists. But Baptists? Others?

Many were on the other side. But still many others simply were focused on personal righteouness while believing that they shouldn't be involved in stirring up trouble. Just save souls. And let God do the rest.

One part of the church wanted the King without the kingdom, the other the kingdom without the King.

More on this to come.

King and the kingdom

The outrage in much of the Muslim world about the political cartoons finally got me to act on an impulse to write some thoughts down that has been brewing in my since Martin Luther King Day.

I was reflecting on the message of MLK and how sad it is that though we now honor his legacy with a national holiday, our nation -- and especially much of the church that I am linked to -- seems to have missed the importance of what King was about (and what the King was about).

When Coretta Scott King died a few days ago, I watched the news reports and was saddened again that the reports evoked images of the Civil Rights movement without an understanding of what was at the heart of it all.

There were people who believed that justice was important and that the way the world was at that time was not the way God intended it to be. Many of them understood that following the King meant being willing to sacrifice and to suffer -- even unto death for some of them -- in order to see Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

It was the idea that following Jesus presents a radical alternative to the world's violent, vengeful and hateful ways of seeking justice, change, freedom (whatever that is) ...

Loving our enemies? Loving those who mistreat us? I was thinking about the lack of these voices in the Christian environment and country that I know best.

Then I got my hands on the latest installment in Taylor Branch's work on the civil rights movement of the 1960s, At Canaan's Edge.

I have mentioned before my admiration for Taylor Branch's work in Parting the Waters. I still think it ought to be required reading for every American. My friend Mark Soderquist, in town for Brian McClaren's visit with us a couple of weeks ago, brought me At Canaan's Edge.

And this one hit me in an even deeper way because the events described take place in the year I was born. In 1965, people were still being beaten and killed just for wanting to vote. There were still counties where no black person had EVER been allowed to register to vote.

Women, too, were still excluded from an alarming array of places (like the Washington press club), jobs and opportunities that we take for granted now. In our nation's capital hotels were still largely segregated. I could not have gone to the same hotel as my wife.

United States immigration policy, without shame, closed its doors selectively to non-Europeans.

This was the world I was born into. As I lay in my crib, oblivious, people were risking their lives to see this world change because they believed things were not the way they were supposed to be.

If I sit here in France, with an interacial family, supported financially by a mix of white and black churches and individuals, serving in a muli-ethnic international church in Paris -- I realize that I owe a debt to those who understood these principles.

Not only was the United States changed, Branch points out, but the entire world stood up and took notice to this movement. Its effects have influenced change in places like South Africa, Berlin and Tienananmen square in China.

No, His will is not done here on earth. But someone realized that following Him meant doing things His way and following His example. ... "Master, what takes more courage? To cut off the ear of the guard taking you into custody, or to love the guard, heal him, accept his abuse and die in order to set even him free of his hatred?"

What takes more courage? To strike back after terrorism with hatred, anger, vengefulness and force in order to protect ourselves against further attacks, or to love those who would do harm -- even accepting that some more of us might die in terror attacks -- in order to show that we truly do follow another way?

MLK and many others applied the principles of the King in order to fight for Kingdom principles here on earth, and they changed the world in which I would live. We need voices like this today.

Our Muslim friends need to hear and see such courage. Our Jewish friends in Israel as well. Tchechens and Russians. Hutus and Tutsis. Sudanese people in Dafour ... The list goes on.

They need to see that His way works. So do husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends who have hurt one another and who are bound by this pain and hurt.

Just as I was oblivious in 1965 in my crib, it saddens me to see that much of the church is again oblivious to the call for the kingdom in this world. Justice. Shalom. So much could change if we were willing to follow the Way of Christ, instead of the ways of our world.

McClaren said it well when he was here : "It's been said that a certain part of the church seems to want the kingdom without the King while the other wants the King without the kingdom."

The world we are in today desperately needs both. And I don't believe many people will be interested in the King if they see no evidence of his promised very different kingdom being lived out by His disciples.

Learning from Islam

OK. I'm back again after yet another hiatus. Just haven't been able to stay in a groove this year. Even Pat Robertson's latest outrageous comments (about Sharon's illness) couldn't get me out of hibernation. ... Too easy. I think Robertson does it on purpose now.

Anyway, today the sad state of affairs between the Arab and Western world is on my mind.

Been watching the clips, reading commentaries, etc., about Muslim outrage over some cartoons that depicted the prophet Mohammed with a bomb-shaped turban on his head.

I was just thinking that is was a good opportunity for Christians to take notice of something important. If you're a Christian, particularly an evangelical American one, think about how you feel about Islam when you see this stuff going on.

Think about your agnostic friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, etc. ... What do you think they feel about Islam when they see this stuff.

My thoughts go like this : "Geez, all of this for a cartoon?" And I can't imagine EVER being attracted to such a seemingly thin-skinned religion. Nor can I imagine most of the French people I know being attracted to it when they see such displays.

Some are attracted to other aspects of Islam, however. I'm not saying there is nothing that draws people. Obviously, that's not the case. There are a LOT of Muslims out there, and quite a few Westernerns are converting. ... But at this moment. When this face is the dominant face in the headlines, there is very little about it that is attractive.

Now. Back to Christians. ... Think about how you feel and how your friends feel about Islam in the face of what's happening. ... If we could see it, it would give us a little better perspective about how many people feel about our brand of Christianity in America today.

We're seen as fighting mad. We think the whole world is against us and seem to whine about it all the time (even though it appears to the rest of the world that we have a lot of power) We're attacking those who go against the way we think the world should be. We promise retribution to politicians. We threaten boycotts to stores who won't say Christmas. ... "I can't imagine being a part of such a thin-skinned religion," someone might say.

OK. Usually we are not talking about killing people (with the exception of Mr. Robertson sometimes), but it's all relative. I think there is a real parallel to what we may be feeling about Muslims right now and what many people feel about Christians.

Is that the face we want to put on our God?

Here in France, for many people, the escalating tensions between Islam and the (perceived) evangelical Christian-led American West is serving to cement a common belief that religion is at the root of all evils.

As I watch these clips I can truly understand that point of view.

Who speaks like Jesus today? "Love those who misuse you ... If someone takes your cloak, give him your tunic as well. ..." The world is starving for another message, it seems. And it's His message. ... But is it ours?