The Man or the Pigs

It’s been a little more than a month since Charle Kirk was murdered. There’s little more to say or write. However, I do have one more thing I’d like to add to the mix. At his funeral and across the internet he was celebrated as a Christian. I am not here to judge who is a Christian and who is not, but I will say without equivocation that his rhetoric had no resemblance to the words or actions of Jesus.

I want to be clear that I have no problem with him expressing his views though they are not mine. I am both appalled and saddened by the violence of his death. However, condoning the rhetoric of Charlie Kirk by calling him a Christian is deeply disturbing to me.

The word “Christian” has been used by kings, popes, and politicians, over the centuries to condone war, genocide, cruelty, slavery, and the demeaning of women. It is as if wrapping greed, hate, superiority, power-seeking, and cruelty in pretty clothes somehow makes it noble. Mention the word “Christian” and whatever follows is good.

Christianity has been reduced to a transaction. By simply asking Jesus into one’s heart they are guaranteed entrance into heaven. This is both a perversion and gross distortion of Jesus’ teaching and life.

What’s the history of the word, “Christian”?

The term, “Christian”, was not used until 42 AD almost 10 years after Jesus’ death. Being called a “Christian” was not a badge of honor that led to societal acceptance. Quite the opposite, being identified as a Christian was extremely dangerous. Followers of Jesus were hung upside down, jailed, beaten, hunted down, stoned to death, and shunned. But about 280 years after Jesus’ death Roman Emperor ,Constantine, declared Christianity the state religion (Christian nationalism). He granted concessions to Christians, including legal privileges such as tax exemptions and financial support for the Basilicas. Those professing to be Christians were elevated in society and could hold important positions in the government. Christianity became popular and fashionable. The label “Christian” was used by many who were politically ambitious, while they remained religiously disinterested. The emperors granted bishops civil, judicial, and legal power, blurring the lines between church and state and elevating the social status of church leaders. Being a “Christian” was the necessary requisite to upward mobility.

Finally some 50 years later Christianity was weaponized when Pope Urban II ordered the suppression of “pagan” practices. He condoned and encouraged the seizure of pagan’s property while outlawing their worship. This corruption of the real Jesus movement finally led to the Christian crusades. The “soldiers” marched under the banner of a cross and were promised spiritual rewards if they liberated the holy sites in the Holy Lands from the “pagans”. The crusades were violent, brutal and bloody. Isn’t it convenient to use the word “crusade” when it was war against anyone who did not think or believe like them? Between 1 to 3 million people died as the “soldiers of the cross” did their jobs.

The contrast between “Christianity” and being a true Follower of Jesus could not be more stark.

Jesus invited people to follow him. He did not ask them to join a church or attend regular Sunday services Let’s be clear. His invitation to follow Him was costly, disruptive and counter cultural. No one followed Jesus to better their social or economic standing. The Jesus “way” flies, both then and now, into the face of political and religious power.

As Richard Rohr says, both Jesus’ teachings and actions showed a clear bias to the bottom of society.

The people He noticed and the individuals He engaged were the very “least of these”. He saw and loved lepers, helpless widowed women, dirty children, social outcasts, adulterers, the mentally ill, poor fishermen, and the physically handicapped. He made it very clear that the way “up” in God’s kingdom is the way “down.” He taught that the poor, the meek, the peacemakers, those whose hearts are broken, and the seekers after God are the ones who will be at the top in His Kingdom.

In our modern America to identify as a Christian is not costly. As a matter of fact, it is a badge of honor. Holding a Bible, and publicly praying at a rodeo or football game is right up there with apple pie, family values, and baseball. What could be more respectable?

I’m very aware that what I write here may be offensive to some. It is not meant to make us feel soft and fuzzy. It is hard stuff. Jesus said that very few people would actually follow Him. The way is narrow not wide. It is down, not up. It is less not more. It is dangerous, not safe. It is foolish not smart. Not many of us want to choose that “way”.

I leave you with a story summarizes what I’m saying here.

Mark 5: 1-20

Jesus was in a country called the Gadarenes. This was a region that was cosmopolitan, a trading hub, and economically prosperous. It is here in this seat of power that Jesus encountered a deranged madman. The man lived in the cemetery. He had been banished from society. He was considered beyond hope. Even though the townspeople tied him up with ropes and chains he tore them off, and no one was strong enough to contain him. He was the homeless man we go out of way to avoid. He is the dirty man on the street that babbles to the light post. He is the man who stinks and has a hollow look in his eyes. He was a throwaway. As Jesus encountered this man He did not turn away. He did not pull His robes around Himself to avoid touching such a repugnant human being. Rather Jesus engaged Him in conversation. In talking to man He perceived that the outcast was possessed by demons. Perhaps that is like saying someone is suffering from addictions, depression, bi-polar disease, or other mental illnesses. These individuals are under the control of something that makes them less than their true created selves. In addition to the man and Jesus there was also a herd of pigs feeding nearby. Just as Jesus was preparing to heal the man the demons cried out begging to be sent into the pigs. Now I’m not sure the demons actually talked like this. I’’m not sure if this is just metaphor. But I am sure that the conditions which rob us of life (our demons) do not want to be destroyed or sent away. After Jesus assessed the situation he healed the dirty, hopeless, helpless man, and immediately the “demons” rushed into the pigs. It is important to note that the pigs were prized economic assets. They represented wealth and position. To own pigs was to have land, servants, and animals. The owners were well off. The pigs didn’t know what hit them, so they panicked and stampeded over a cliff to their deaths in the ocean.

Now, here is the kicker. The guys tending the pigs were astonished. They ran to the village and told the townspeople assuming it was good news. Meanwhile the healed man came to Jesus wearing decent clean clothes, making sense. He was no longer a walking madman.

But when the owners of the pigs arrived they were extremely unhappy. They saw their dead pigs bobbing up and down in the waves of the ocean. There went their money. There went their comfortable lifestyles. There went their positions of importance. There went their status.

So, they did the only thing the status quo can do in such circumstances. They choose to double down on their positions of importance, and they demanded that Jesus leave and never come back. It was pigs or Jesus and they clearly chose the pigs. The message they sent was clearly that religion, God, Jesus should never interfere with the seeking of, the hoarding of, and the maintaining of position and wealth.

Right there before their eyes stood a man who had been ostracized, shunned, and was no doubt the laughing stock of the town. He was the crazy guy who lived in the cemetery. Now, he stood there clothed, in his right mind, clean, coherent and healed. But their pigs were dead. They never even noticed the man nor did they speak to him. They just demanded that Jesus leave and NEVER come back again.

We are living in a culture of counterfeit, tamed, co-opted Christianity. At rodeos, football games, town hall meetings we pray “in Jesus name” and go on living lives contrary to the example and teachings of Jesus. It is as if holding a Bible, quoting verses, and praying publicly shows how “Christian” we are.

So let’s be very clear. Nothing about the rhetoric of Charlie Kirk regarding the immigrant, the LGBTQ community, women or the poor was Christian. It was the opinion of a man who could quickly and easily quote Scripture. It was one who used the label “Christian” to lend legitimacy to hatred and “othering” of the least of these. None of that is the spirit of Christ or of being a Christ follower.

The invitation of Jesus is still the same today. We are told that we are “in” the world but should not be “of” it. Our actions, our thoughts, our assets of time and money are to be consistent with the Jesus of downward mobility. Very very few of us want to follow.

Our loving God, may you give us discernment to know the difference between being in the world and not being of it. May you give us courage in these days to enact our faith though it may cost us money, time, social standing, or acceptance. And May You reveal to us the ways each day that we can be true Christ Followers.