Chaplain's Dispatch: Against Hatred as Social Orthodoxy |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jul 02 2008 at 12:37 PM |
| Resources >> Christian Students Uniting |
The Christian church came into existence because of a set of convictions concerning the "Lordship" of Jesus Christ and his saving vision - the rule and reign of God - as justice and equity for all people. New Testament theology is clear, "the Lord" referred to in the apostolic teaching is none other than the crucified, risen and exalted Jesus, upon whom God has conferred the designation which contradicts the expectations of every other authority and allegiance. The theologian Paul Tillich used language which engraves this meaning on our imagination:
"Even the greatest in power and wisdom could not more fully reveal the Heart of God and the heart of humanity than the Crucified has done already. Those things have been revealed once for all. 'It is finished.' In the face of the Crucified all the 'more' and all the 'less,' all progress and all approximation, are meaningless. Therefore, we can say of Him alone: He is the new reality; He is the end; He is the Messiah. To the Crucified alone we can say: 'Thou art the Christ.'"
From this breakthrough in language and symbolisation of the only true and living God revealed in the crucified Jesus came the distinctiveness of primitive Christian subversion and the content of its alternative set of ideological investments. God in Jesus was declared on the side of the struggling poor. God has a bias against the haughty, on the side of the lowly. Variously these convictional concerns and their historical acidity became some of the most widely exercised theopolitical designations within the primitive Christian communities and the church.
The "white rage" that Ms. Hanson stands for, and has vented in our society is antithetical to the gospel of Christ. In stark contrast to her decrees - whereby hatred becomes social orthodoxy - the message of Jesus has come as "our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us" (Eph 2:14). Let all those who follow the biblical Christ say a loud NO to her muddle-headed prescriptions, and join with all people of good will in condemning her racism and xenophobia! To try to point out error is one thing, to deliberately sow the seeds of fear and enmity is something that is against the good of Australia; it is blasphemous and against the willing of God.
With you in the learning,
Rev. Dr. John Hirt
UCA Chaplain to the Universities
jhirt@mail.usyd.edu.au
11th March 1999
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