Jesus and Guantanamo Bay Podcast
I've decided to have a stab at podcasting. I'm not sure if I'll take to it or not but you can listen to this podcast by downloading the file here. I'm a bit of a rambler so for this first attempt I decided to read through a sermonette I've been preparing rather than try and talk off the top of my head or from notes. Any feedback (either positive or negative) would be welcome! Also, if anyone knows anywhere where I can host large sound files relatively cheaply (or ideally, for free) then please let me know. I'm running out of space on my own webserver and this sound files tend to fill it up quite quickly. The text below is a rough transcript of the podcast.
John Pettigrew also has a post related to Guantanamo Bay over his blog.
For over a year now I've wanted to write a post about Christianity and Guantanamo Bay, or even human rights abuses in general. I've never really been able articulate what I want to say accurately. It is a very difficult topic to blog on, and perhaps quite a divisive one. Torture is an extremely emotive issue, and Christian opinions on the matter range from absolute indifference to actually going so far as to affirm and condone the actions and abuses of the US and other governments. Therein lies yet another sticky issue for Christians - national allegiances, political preferences and the Gospel of Jesus Christ can all too often overrule and obscure one another, with quite poisonous and ugly consequences in many cases.
This isn't a rant about Christianity and the war on terror - there are far too many of those floating around the blogosphere already - but if Christianity is worth anything at all, then it must speak about and speak to the Guantanamo Bays and Abu Grahibs of this world. If the Gospel offers only a hope for some transcendent soulful bliss in the hereafter then Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God are nothing if not profoundly irrelevant.
But what does Jesus Christ mean for the inmates of Guantanamo Bay? What does Guantanamo Bay mean for those who belong to and who proclaim Jesus Christ? Does he condone our indifference, or does he even affirm and commend the use of torture? It is with Jesus Christ that our answers to these questions must begin and end, not with patriotic sensibilities, poltical sentiment or even our sense of moral outrage. To attempt to answer questions about Jesus Christ by beginning with these things will accomplish nothing except to fashion him in our own image and likeness, little more than a divine yes-man who is quite content to leave us to play our games and to spectate from the sidelines.
This cannot be so. We must begin with Jesus, the image of the invisible God, to answer our questions about these matters. What does Jesus reveal and teach about torture?
The Passion of Jesus
All too often the story of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus is abstracted from its place in the Gospel narratives and made to serve the purposes of dogmatic theology, but in doing so the historical circumstance and significance of Jesus' passion is overlooked. The Gospels are not dogmatic systems, they are stories. Most significantly of all, they are the stories of God's self-emptying and his coming to dwell alongside his creatures. The birth narratives announce that he shall be 'Immanuel' - God with us, and the Gospels tell the story of God's history with us.
What does this mean for the prisoners and for the tortured? God's being "with us" in the Gospels has nothing to do with the warmed heart and sense of sweetness where God is "with us" in our times of private piety. The history of Jesus Christ and his passion is altogether more objective and concrete.
The Gospels tell of Jesus' arrest and mistrial. He is beaten, scourged, spat upon and made to wear a crown of thorns before being nailed to a cross and left to die a slow and humiliating death. Generations of Christians who reflect on this story through the eyes of pietism and popular devotion are in danger of missing the significance of this part of God's self-emptying and fellowship with us and instead reducing it to a mere symbol or living metaphor in a doctrine of atonement. Yet what the passion reveals about God is that he is in fellowship with those who are tortured, that he identifies with those who are humiliated, abandoned, beaten, and killed. The tortured are Christ's companions in his suffering, and he is their companion in his.
Christians who wish to celebrate or rejoice over the torture and killing in Abu Grahib, Guantanamo Bay, and everywhere else in the world are not in fellowship with the crucified Christ. To approve of and to applaud the torture of human beings made in the image of God places us with the crowds who cried "Crucify Him!", not with Jesus. To take such a stance is to side with the perpetrators of torture, and not the victims. We find this problem in theodicy too. After every Auschwitz, every Rwanda, every 9/11 and every Tube bombing we are quick to defend God's omnipotence, his sovereignty, and especially his almighty judgments upon humanity. These responses reflect a curious and bewildering condition that afflicts many Christians, namely, that we are incapable of understanding God christologically. Martin Luther famously stated "I know of no other God except Jesus Christ," and this needs to become our core confession. For Christians, the question of God is answered by Jesus Christ - "whoever has seen me has seen the Father", and this is equally as true when we consider the question of torture and abuse. Jesus Christ is the brother of the tortured, because he has shared in their sufferings. Fellowship with Christ means ministering to and speaking up for those who cannot do so themselves. The Kingdom of God means freedom and justice for the prisoners. "Whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me."
The Resurrection of Jesus and Torture
We have briefly considered the question of Jesus' passion and what it means for Guantanamo Bay, but what about Jesus' resurrection? Very early on in the New Testament, the resurrection of Jesus is interpreted as a triumph not only over death, but over all the forces of evil who had conspired to oppose the Kingdom of God. Jesus dies, but he is raised to life and exalted to the highest place "that every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father." Jesus Christ is Lord of the whole universe.
The resurrection of Jesus means that death and evil have been overthrown and will finally be destroyed, and this has special significance for our particular question. The resurrection means that the dead will not stay dead, they will be raised to life and justice will be done. This means that the murderers and torturers of history do not finally triumph over their victims. The governments and nations who kill and torture in secret will finally be exposed and called to give account to God. Every time we pray "your Kingdom come," we are praying for an end to regimes and individuals who torture and kill. How, I wonder, does this cause us to rethink our discipleship and the way we respond to Guantanamo Bay and other unjust and inhuman institutions?
Judgment and Torture
In closing this piece I want to briefly consider the idea of judgment in the light of the issue of torture and military violence. Because Jesus identifies with the victims of torture and murder in his Passion, then his resurrection and vindication is also the beginning of God's judgment upon those who torture and abuse. The resurrection of Christ from the dead is the firstfruit of the new creation which God has planned. This means that our belief and confession that looks to the "life of the age to come" is simultaneously a "No" to the practice of torture and barbarity in this present age. We cannot simultaneously pray "Lord Jesus, your Kingdom Come" at the same time as we applaud or acquiesce to governments and individuals who torture and kill in secret. No man can serve two masters.
The same Jesus who was tortured and crucified is the same Jesus who will judge the world. At the Last Day, those who have tortured will be confronted with The One who has been a victim of torture. Everything that has been hidden from the world behind barbed wire and behind prison walls will be brought into the light. Governments and nations who torture will come face to face with the one whom they have tortured: "whatever you did to the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me." Neither money nor military might can repel the justice of God.
For those who torture and who support its use, the Good News of the Gospel is a double-edged sword. A summons to follow the crucified and risen Jesus means forsaking ways of living that are contrary to him. We cannot proclaim the Kingdom of God with our lips whilst simultaneously opposing it with our practices. The other side of the Gospel is this: because Jesus Christ has also been a victim of torture and injustice, he is able to forgive and make new those who have tortured. A murderer cannot be forgiven by his victim because his victim is dead. Only because Christ identifies with his victim can a murderer find forgiveness. It is in Christ, and nowhere else, that true forgiveness and reconciliation between friend and enemy, between tortured and torturer and between the perpetrator and the victim takes place.
Amen.