RE: Holy Thursday By: William Blake

In commemoration of Holy Week, William Blake has prepared a pair of poems for us. The first one is called Holy Thursday, and gives a nice, cute little depiction of some orphans singing about Jesus.

Holy Thursday (Song's Of Innocence) By William Blake

‘Twas on a Holy Thursday, their innocent faces clean,

The children walking two and two, in red and blue and green,

Grey headed beadles walk’d before, with wands as white as snow,
Till into the high dome of Paul's they like Thames’ waters flow.


Oh what a multitude they seem’d, these flowers of London town!
Seated in companies they sit with radiance all their own.

The hum of multitudes was there, but multitudes of lambs,
Thousands of little boys and girls raising their innocent hands.



Now like a mighty wind they raise to heaven the voice of song,

Or like harmonious thunderings the seats of Heaven among.

Beneath them sit the aged men, wise guardians of the poor;
Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from your door.

The second is also called Holy Thursday, and it calls shenanigans on the first poem.

Holy Thursday (Song's Of Experience) By William Blake

Is this a holy thing to see
In a rich and fruitful land,
Babes reduced to misery,
Fed with cold and usurous hand?

Is that trembling cry a song?
Can it be a song of joy?
And so many children poor?
It is a land of poverty!

And their sun does never shine,
And their fields are bleak and bare,
And their ways are filled with thorns:
It is eternal winter there.

For where'er the sun does shine,
And where'er the rain does fall,
Babes should never hunger there,
Nor poverty the mind appall.

William Blake wrote in London in the 1700s, a time when the poorest peoples, the widows and orphans, were not treated especially well. It is to a society of inequality that Blake wrote these Holy Thursday poems. Holy Thursday, or Maundy Thursday, is the day Jesus ate the last supper with his disciples. Before the meal he washed their feet, a servant's task meant to set an example of service for all Christians. Since then Christians have traditionally used the day to perform humble acts of service for the poor and needy. Over time, acts of true service were warped and replaced with more symbolic acts. One such act was to bring the orphans of London's Foundling Hospital to sing at St. Paul's Cathedral. Allowing the orphans to sing for the parishioners was considered as a treat for such poor children. Blake didn't think, “allowing the poor to sing to you” was quite on par with Christ's example of humble service.

I don't think Blake's 1700s criticisms are irrelevant. I think we have just as much temptation today to engage in symbolic acts of service and neglect real ones. We “like” causes on Facebook, we attend Christian rallies, and Christian concerts, and post Christian articles. There's no inherent problem with any of these activities, just like there's nothing wrong with orphans singing in a cathedral. My challenge to you today is to find a way to serve your neighbor in a tangible way. After all if one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?(James 2:6)

Song's of Innocence and Song's of Experience are for sale on Amazon, and free at Project Gutenberg.

RE: The White Man's Burden & Kony 2012

In the weeks since the Kony 2012's viral launch the expression “White Man's Burden” has been thrown around quite a bit. The expression has generally been used badly, so I've written a short guide to help us better understand the expression and where it comes from.

The White Man's Burden is an expression that comes from an 1899 poem of the same name. The poem was written by Ruyard Kipling. If you don't recognize his name he's the same author who brought us The Jungle Book. While the book version didn't contain Disney's famous “I wanna be like you” song, Mowgi's story in the novel and in the film are very similar. The story goes that Mowgli, a feral jungle “half devil and half child” who was raised by wolves finally found redemption once he left the jungle for civilization. If you're not picking up on the symbolism I'll just say that Kipling had some racially biased opinions about who was and was not civilized.

The Jungle Book has a lot in common with The White Man's Burden. Both works depict non-whites as a poor souls in need of a civilizing outside influence. Kipling proposed in The White Man's Burden that it was the responsibility of “civilized” white men to “fix and reform” the “savage” colored peoples of the world; the arrogance of his proposal is astounding. Sadly many people thought Kipling had the right idea and they used their whiteness and alleged moral superiority to excuse the exploitation of Africans, Indians, Native Americans and countless other peoples. C.S. Lewis calls this sort of morally motivated oppression the “worst sort of tyranny.”

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. -C.S. Lewis

So “The White Man's Burden” in a nutshell is the flawed idea that white person's supposed superiority gives them both the responsibility and authority to take leadership and resources away from anyone who is not white. This ideology couples tightly with the tyrannical idea that non-white persons are unfit to govern themselves. “The White Man's Burden” is an abominable propaganda tool that is used to excuse exploitation and oppression. This isn't what I've seen from Invisible Children.

I personally haven't seen this idea represented in Invisible Children's videos or literature. The founders of the organization, and many of it's volunteers, are white. The citizens of Uganda are largely black. As long as Invisible Children isn't attempting to take power or resources away from Ugandans then I don't care in the slightest what color any of them are. The core problem with The White Man's Burden poem is not that it promotes people of one race helping people of another race, its problem is the awful idea that one race can be inherently superior to another.

There need be nothing racist about a white person supporting a program that assists black persons, just as there need be nothing racist about a black person supporting a program that assists white persons. Race may not be an issue. I would take issue with anyone who refused to help their neighbor because of their neighbor's race, and I may even take issue with someone demanding to help their neighbor because of their neighbor's race. Those actions are racially motivated. Invisible Children's work doesn't appear to be racially motivated. They talk about children and they talk about soldiers, but not race. Invisible Children promotes people helping other people; more specifically they promote students helping other students. It is hard for me to see that as racist.

RE: A Call To Conscience Chapter Four

I began reading A Call To Conscience with the intention of gleaning wisdom to advance The Orant's Lenten “fast from racism”. In this particular speech Dr. King addressed what he saw as the pivotal issues of racial injustice effecting citizens in the North. Because I am under the impression that racial injustice is no longer legally sanctioned in the United States, I believe these issues to be particularly relevant to today's struggle for racial and social justice.

“Now in the North it’s different in that it [racism] doesn’t have the legal sanction that it has in the South. But it has its subtle and hidden forms and it exists in three areas: in the area of employment discrimination, in the area of housing discrimination, and in the area of de facto segregation in the public schools. And we must come to see that de facto segregation in the North is just as injurious as the actual segregation in the South.” - Dr. King in Detroit 1963

To review, our goal of reading this book is to better recognize and eliminate racism in ourselves. Unless you are an employer or landlord, King's first two issues don't effect you directly. If you are an employer or landlord I admonish you to be just and equitable in your practices, avoiding favoritism of any kind (James 2:9). However the issue of public school segregation is an issue that effects every parent and child in my country.

As a parent, student or taxpayer you are connected to this issue. You and I contribute money each year to a system of education that is tailor made to fit certain demographics, but leaves others out in the cold. A Harvard University study found that schools were more segregated in 2006 than they were in 1991 (read more here at NPR.org). The SAT test, although it is revised regularly, consistently awards black students with lower grades than white students (JBHE.com).

Although the system has real problems, I am convinced that the real solution is to invest in it. The public schools of our communities need our full support, full attention, and full funding. I am convinced that when privileged parents keep their kids out of public schools, they do a disservice to both their children and their communities. If you're a parent who is going to demand excellence from teachers and administration then I want your kid in a public school. If you're a parent that holds your child to a standard of academic excellence then I want your kid in a public school. If you're a parent who cares passionately that your child be raised in the Christian faith then I want your kid in a public school.

If you have the resources to send your children to a private school, or the time to invest in schooling them at home, then you have time and resources that could benefit your kid as they learn side by side with people different from themselves. I attended a parochial school, which means it was a faith-based school that you had to pay in order to go to. Out of my class of thirty five students I had only two black classmates. Although I do not believe the curriculum at my school deliberately encouraged racism, the absence of diversity created an ideal environment for racist ideas to develop and thrive. I labored under some very prejudiced attitudes until my senior year of high school. I believe the de facto segregation represented in my school contributed to those attitudes.

De facto segregation is a real and living remnant of racism in the United States. It exists in virtually every community, and I believe it will continue to do so without widespread intentional intervention.

RE:Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglas, An American Slave

Last month I read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and I am very glad I did. It is a short book of only about 100 pages but is very emotionally intense all the same. It tells in his own words, the story of a man born into bondage, who experienced an oppression unfathomable to my mind. Douglas writes, with gut wrenching honesty, about the corruption brought by slavery to the soul of slave holders, he writes with unparalleled eloquence about the power of literacy to free the human mind, and he writes, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, about the discrepancies between the Christianity of Christ and the Christianity practised in the United States.

If you are unfamiliar with the book I give it my highest recommendation. A first hand account of a man raised as a slave offers marvellous insight into the human condition, the Gospel of Christ, the power of the written word. If you have a sensitive heart and cannot stand to read the whole bloody story I recommend chapter VII for its it's insights on the power of reading, chapter X which contains Fredrick Douglas' pivotal anagnorisis, and also the appendix, which contrasts Christianity and the religion of oppression.

The full text is available on Project Gutenberg.

Or available at Amazon.

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Gospel for the Poor - 2nd Wednesday Of Lent

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3

It's amazing how the 2000 year old words of Jesus stay current. Back in Jesus' day a lot of wealthy folks and religious folks had gotten together and these guys ended up deciding that their high position and easy lives were God's reward. They believed and taught that if good things happened to them it was because they deserved it. If bad things happened to anyone it was because God was giving them what they deserved. The Bible does not endorse this view but in every generation the wealthy still explain their wealth as a mark of God's approval. In medieval Europe this idea was called the “Divine Right of Kings” and in early America it was the “Gospel of Wealth.”

Jesus never preached that the downtrodden deserved their trials. He promised relief for all who came to him no matter where they came from. While the rich and powerful told the poor and mourning that they deserved what they'd gotten, Jesus preached a different message. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the rich man is left to suffer, and told, “In your lifetime you received your good things” but Lazarus, who suffered through life found comfort with God.

Challenge:

Are you one of the wealthy or one of the poor? If you live in the US, have enough to eat, and can read these words, then you're one of the most blessed people on earth. Do you act like you deserve it? If you do then it's time to repent. God loves you too much to let you live like you don't need Him.

We Wrestle Not With Flesh, But Sometimes With Our Flesh

I am bugged by analogies that compare the Christian church to an army. When I hear talk of spiritual war I flinch and try to steer the conversation in a new direction. It's not that the church-as-an-army is actually a wrong idea, but too often I see this idea being used to turn Christians against their neighbors instead of against the Enemy who lies and divides (Eph 6:12). Sadly idea of a holy army always makes me think of well dressed church-folks shouting at poor people.

It's not that I don't believe that Christianity stands uniquely opposed to the habits and systems of the world. It is precisely because I believe that Christ and Christianity are so opposed to the world that military analogies bother me. The trouble with overextending these analogies, is that they turns people towards the wrong sorts of battles. My revulsion most often comes up when I hear the phrase “Defending the faith” and at the heart of that annoyance is, in actuality, a loathing for the ass I can be when I'm at my worst.

I spent my freshman year of high school engaged in what I believed to be the holiest of wars for the kingdom of God. At every opportunity, and with any excuse I could find, I wrote and spoke about God's word and my faith in Jesus Christ. That sounds fine if not excellent, but unfortunately what I was often doing was trying to set myself apart from people at the school whom I thought were evil. I was trying to show them that if they had faith they could just stop being evil and be like me. That was a pretentious mission with a rather faulty premise. A Christian who is under the impression that their faith makes them superior to others has missed the point of faith. Faith is a gift (Eph 2:8), and not the mark of some holier tier of society.

If people become Christians solely because they find that the Christian way of thinking is morally or philosophically superior to all others, they are not the sorts of people I really want to call brothers and sisters. Race, gender, religion, and every other conceivable distinction between individuals has been used since the beginning of time as an excuse for one group to call themselves superior to another. Christ's religion does not have room for that nonsense. Christ came to serve, love, and bless anyone who wanted him. Christianity even thwarts those who would earn God's favor. The Bible tells Christians that we are “the worst of sinners” (1 Tim 1:15) who are justified freely by the action of God. (Eph2: 8-9)

Here's what I think about truly “Defending the faith”:

Arguing does not defend Christianity. Arguing, as I understand is a competition in which two people stroke their own egos while belittling the beliefs of others. This closes down opportunities to minister while isolating and dividing peoples. Arguments honor a winning intellect, but Christianity exalts humility (Lk 22:27). When the faith is defended, it is by Christians of humble spirit who do not conform to the petty and adversarial patterns of this world (Rom 12:2). A smart Christian defends the faith when they value loving their neighbor above proving their neighbor wrong.

I know of no one who was intellectually persuaded into faith in Jesus Christ. Bringing people into God's kingdom is rarely done in debate (though God may make use of any means he likes). People are brought into the kingdom of God by generous Love. More practically, people are brought in by Christians who politely listening to people they disagree with, who show authentic friendship, and who act with generosity and kindness (Romans 2:4). These things are much more attractive than arguments, however clever the arguments are.

“Christian” is not a badge to pin to one's chest nor is it a set of rhetoric that explains why one is better or smarter than anyone else. Christianity is a loosing of the cords that bind and blind the rest of civilization. Christianity is freedom. It is freedom from pride, violence, bigotry, judgment, and fear which sap our energy, kill our joy, and repulse our neighbors. Christ sets us free indeed (John 8:36).

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8&9)