Lessons from an Easter egghead?
Easter and politics — two things that probably shouldn’t be considered at the same time. Or should they?
One of the great myths circulating these days is that America was founded as a Christian nation. Not only did our founding fathers want there to be absolute separation of church and state, but also one of the most important of them — Thomas Jefferson — had beliefs that many might find troubling.
Among the things Jefferson did after leaving the presidency was to create a special edition of the Bible removing everything that he considered miraculous or mystical. He assembled it with his own hands, cutting and pasting from a regular Bible.
Whether he was a deist who didn’t really qualify as a Christian remains a matter of debate. Despite some questionable dealings regarding slavery, Jefferson was a man of such intellect that he might very well have believed that the magic of the Bible isn’t why it should be followed. It’s the message — the way Jesus tells us to live our lives — that’s important. He’d even be among the first to note that a lot of what Jesus said is present in other, non-Christian religions as well.
As we gather to celebrate the miraculous story of Easter, we should never forget that the point of the entire experience is not the resurrection miracle or even salvation as much as it is giving us guidance — divine, perhaps — on how to be better humans, whose lives will live on in others’ memories because of the way we behave.
A lot of these same tenets are present not just in Christianity but also in the next great religion to emerge from it — Islam, which regards Jesus as its second greatest prophet.
Isn’t it a shame, as we approach Easter, that world leaders from these two religions, while expressing great piety, seem to have forgotten fundamental tenets and turned into bullies, lashing out at each other rather than treating each other with the mutual respect that pervades most doctrine of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim faiths.
Let us never forgot that Jesus, whose sacrifice and resurrection we celebrate this week, is widely known not just as Son of God but also as Prince of Peace.
It’s tempting to want to support bullies who at least manage to get something done, but ends never justify means, and bullying tends to become so habitual that what start out as good goals quickly become bad ones.
If you are among the faithful, rejoice this Sunday in salvation, but consider what we are being saved to do — support more bullying or strive to make the world more like the one Jesus envisioned?
— Eric Meyer