[Peace-discuss] Christianity and War - from Alex Cockburn

[E. Wayne Johnson]

 >>> He is the presence of the power of creation itself

In the beginning before all time was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God.  
All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without 
Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. In Him was 
Life, and the Life was the Light of men.  And the Light shines on in the 
darkness, for the darkness has never overpowered it, put it out or 
absorbed it or appropriated it, and is unreceptive to it.


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Against Saviors
>
> My brother Patrick called on Christmas Day, from his home in 
> Canterbury [England]. Opposite his house is St. Dunstan’s church, 
> containing the head of Sir Thomas Moore, retrieved by his daughter 
> Margaret after her father was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to sign 
> the Act that declared Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church in 
> England. Patrick’s house is as old as St. Dunstans and contains a 
> right of way, through which custom decreed that pastoralists could 
> lead their sheep. One of these days I’ll rent a flock and ratify the 
> right, just in case the brother has any notion of privatizing the 
> whole of his premises.
>
> Patrick reported that he and his family had gone along that morning to 
> listen to Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, give his 
> Christmas sermon. He said it was pretty good. I looked it up online, 
> and the brother was right. It was a bracing critique of “great man” 
> theories of change, specifically citing excessive hopes, now vested in 
> Barack Obama.
>
> “In recent weeks,” the Archbishop  declared, “we've seen some of 
> Barack Obama's advisers and colleagues warning about the level of 
> messianic expectation loaded on to the president-elect.
>
> “The gospel tells us something hard to hear – that there is not going 
> to be a single charismatic leader or a dedicated political campaign or 
> a war to end all wars that will bring the golden age…
>
> “There is a savior, born so that all may have life in abundance, a 
> savior … hidden in the form of poverty and insecurity, a displaced 
> person … whose authority does not come from popularity, 
> problem-solving or anything else in the human world. He is the 
> presence of the power of creation itself.
>
> “It is not the restoring of a golden age, not even a return to the 
> Garden of Eden; it is more – a new creation, a new horizon for us all…
>
> “And our own following of the Word made flesh is what gives us the 
> resources to be perennially suspicious of claims about the end of 
> history or the coming of some other savior exercising some other sort 
> of power. To follow him is to take the risks of working at these small 
> and stubborn outposts of newness, taking our responsibility and 
> authority.
>
> “We can't pass the buck to Caesar Augustus, Barack Obama or even 
> Canterbury City Council – though we may pray for them all and hope 
> that they will play their part in witnessing to new possibilities.”
>
> Not bad at all. The last year the liberals and a lot of the left here 
> have passed the buck entirely to Obama.
>
> http://www.counterpunch.org/
>
>