Monday, May 7, 2012

Judas

The Christian church has forgotten who he was. Maybe a better way to say it is that the Christian church has reinvented him down through the centuries. The story they/we were and are selling doesn't work without a bad guy, a snitch, a backstabber. Judas, as portrayed by the gospels, doesn't really fit neatly into any of those categories. Misguided, overzealous - those are more accurate, but those won't sell quite as well. There's a reason for that.


Judas wasn't a turncoat. He wasn't trying to "betray" anyone. He thought he was doing something good. He thought his actions would force the hand of the conquering Messiah that the OT texts had promised, whom he believed Jesus to be, and finally Israel would rise as the glorious nation God intended as Jesus smote the Romans, chased the heathen gentiles away, and ruled, victoriously, over the ungodly nations. The problem was, he really didn't know who Jesus was at all. Jesus didn't want a political revolution, but a spiritual, personal revolution within the hearts of men and women. Wherever he went, he made things better - healing people, feeding people, loving people. That's all he wanted his followers to do, too. Judas didn't get it, as it wasn't enough to satisfy his religious hunger and fervor. Surely those simple things weren't enough. He chose to take a drastic measure based on his own interpretations and expectations of God and Christ. He took action.


That was Judas.


The lead story on my local news a few minutes ago started with something like "In churches all across North Carolina this morning, congregants were encouraged to vote on Amendment One this Tuesday...", with the implication being that they were encouraged to vote for Amendment One, naturally. All of the pro-AOne ads have spoken of "protecting marriage as God defined it", have shown images of bibles and such, or have used prominent church leaders like Franklin and Billy Graham (which would lead me to wonder about the tax-exempt status of the organizations they head up). What it is is one group of religious people trying to tell another group of people, "You're only entitled to freedoms that WE control based on our religious beliefs, religious beliefs which we're transposing into legislation and State Constitution amendments." That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Before we even get into the religious aspect of it, I'll just go on the record and say that I believe, with my whole heart, that such is blatantly un-American, and very much the way fundamentalist Islamic nations (those people that rabid fundamentalist Christian right-wingers consider "the enemy") operate. Consider this from the 1st Amendment to the Constitution of the United States...


"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."


You might say, "Yeah, but that's the US Constitution, and we're talking about a State Constitution. This is about States' rights." Hmmm. States' rights is the "men in black" of the political landscape. It only shows up when somebody wants to either deny something or outright take something away from someone else, and the first somebody needs something to hide it all behind. Every disgusting, ugly thing that our society has endured over the last couple of centuries has been guarded and protecting eagerly and zealously behind the "States' rights" flag, including things like slavery and segregation. Sadly, the last refuge for those issues and cruelties was also the fundamentalist south. Just like with the same-sex marriage thing, when the majority of the nation has no real beef with it (whether they actually like or agree with it or not), and in a national vote it'd be shot down, the states in the fundamentalist south are putting it to exclusive votes, claiming "States' rights" to uphold another round of ugliness in a long line of religiously justified fundamentalist bigotries.


Why do fundamentalist Christians only seem to care about politically charged issues? Why aren't we voting on a Constitutional amendment against adultery (which is a thousand times greater threat to marriage than homosexuality ever was or will be)? Why do we fund "foreign missions", as if there's no greater task a Christian can undertake, when people sitting in the pews are physically hungry, and especially when, if you go to the logical conclusions of the propaganda, there are so many liberal godless infidels right here in the USA (the people who aren't fundamentalist/evangelical Christians), and even one in the White House *gasp*? Why does so much of the offering go into bigger buildings, repaving the parking lot, or building the "Family Life Center" (known to most rational people as a "gym")? Because the agenda has become more important than the people it's consuming. That's why.


A lot of people will vote for Amendment One because they feel as though their faith will be in the balance if they don't, as if it's a mark God will hold against them, as if random, stinkyfied life will cease to be random, stinkyfied life if only all Americans would live, believe, and behave as fundamentalist Christians. I mean, fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity has already adopted 2nd Chronicles 7:14 as its mantra for America - when it has nothing whatsoever to do with America, and never will. They've convinced themselves that America would be such a drastically better place if only we had a "godly" President, "godly" leaders, "godly" laws. It's time to ACT. It's not just your right and privilege - as an American Christian, it's your duty. Vote your religion. Impose your religion. Take America back!!! Once you take action, God will take action!!!


This is the church.


The church and Judas aren't similar. They're the same. No wonder they had to reinterpret and reinvent him.


The church IS Judas.

15 comments:

  1. How do you come up with your conclusion about Judas thinking he was doing a good thing?

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    1. Hell, I went to a conservative christian middle school and we were taught that, yeah, he's a convenient scapegoat, but mostly he just wanted to try to force Jesus into kung-fu grip mode.

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  2. Why do you think Judas was reinvented? I have read the gospels many times and I have never got out of it that Judas thought he was doing a good thing.

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    1. Common sense.

      Judas was a part of everything the rest of the disciples were a part of. When they were sent out, 2x2, to heal and help people, Judas was in one of those pairs of 2. Judas was "one of them" in every way. He didn't "betray" Jesus by turning against him. The betrayal was in his failure to understand which caused him to create Jesus in his own image - and then acting on his misguidedness...which is what makes the modern church (and the church throughout history) identical to Judas. The Crusaders, for instance, thought they were doing a good thing, when in fact they were just killing people who disagreed with them. The Puritans thought they were doing a good thing during the Salem witch trials, but all they were doing was killing people who disagreed with them. Over the last couple thousand years, I'd dare say that more harm has been done to humanity by Christians (who thought they were doing something good and right) than by any other group or religion.

      Most of the Jewish people, including Judas, had political expectations of the Messiah. This is why a lot of them rejected Jesus. Judas, however, knowing that Jesus was in fact the Messiah (and not understanding what that meant due to his own expectations) tried to force the issue. He thought it would bring Jesus into power. When it didn't work out the way he'd thought, he killed himself.

      The people in the bible, even prominent people like the disciples, were just people like you and me. They weren't infallible, and even with direct access to Jesus for the better part of three years, his own disciples quite often didn't understand him. That makes them no different than the modern church, who wouldn't recognize Jesus if he crashed a car into their living room and smacked them on the buttcheeks.

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  3. I'd say Christ did bring a 'political' (as in it is a community interacting body) Kingdom but the Zealots (who wanted war with Rome) misunderstood along with many Pharisees and Sadducees. The Kingdom was peace,joy and love, not bloodshed and death.

    The Kingdom demands a community focused on the atonement and the resurrection. On mercy and peace. It's radical to the standards of the US and radical to the standards of the world.

    The problem is the "fundamentalist" (they don't even understand the fundamentals!) church is more America's church than Christ's Church. It makes much more sense as a vanguard of the conservative elements of society rather than a pilgrim people always striving to follow Jesus.

    Like Judas, much of the American church thinks in terms of worldly power, money and violence. Just like Judas.

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  4. I'm still just trying to wrap my mind around this.
    What you've presented here is a very new and very different perspective of Judas for me, and probably most. And I like it. It seems like it makes sense.
    How did you come to these conclusions about Judas?

    I did a quick google search of "Bible verse Judas betray", just to see where the actual word "betray" is used with him.
    And it looks like it's in two places: When Jesus said, "Would you betray me with a kiss?" and when Jesus told the desciples that one of them would betray him. They all asked, "Is it I?" To Judas, Jesus replied yes.
    To me, in the first instance, "betray" is being used in the sense of betraying his position. It's kind of like how my dog betrays me when I'm playing hide-n-go-seek with my siblings.
    The second one seems to make sense with everything you've laid out here. Judas is asking sincerely. "Betray you? Who would do that? Is it... I?"
    Anyway. This is just me processing this in real time. Haha.

    Thanks as always for the thought-invoking post.

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    1. When reading the bible, there is a danger of imposing my perspective tainted by the fall to see scripture in human eyes versus how God sees it. The accounts from the apostle stated that Judas was filled by satan to carry this act. Peter himself was influenced by satan but not completely sold out in his attempts to get Jesus thinking about his human needs versus the purpose that he came for which was to die for our sins. We must careful not to see this attitude as harmless since the flesh is our greatest enemy constantly fighting within us to see sin as just our attempts to do some good. Plus Judas was stealing also which contradicts that assumption that he wanted the best for Christ. Judas was in it for himself seeing Christ as ticket to political power not a nice guy.

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    2. "When reading the bible, there is a danger of imposing my perspective tainted by the fall to see scripture in human eyes versus how God sees it. The accounts from the apostle stated that Judas was filled by satan to carry this act. Peter himself was influenced by satan but not completely sold out in his attempts to get Jesus thinking about his human needs versus the purpose that he came for which was to die for our sins. We must careful not to see this attitude as harmless since the flesh is our greatest enemy constantly fighting within us to see sin as just our attempts to do some good."

      This sounds like religious addiction. Lots of religious buzzwords, and reminds me of my former future in-laws. Too much focus on sin and "the flesh".

      "Plus Judas was stealing also which contradicts that assumption that he wanted the best for Christ. Judas was in it for himself seeing Christ as ticket to political power not a nice guy."

      Which makes Judas sound a heck of a lot like the modern church. No one is saying that Judas was a great guy. Judas wanted what HE thought was best for Christ - which, again, makes him sound a lot like the church.

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  5. Yes, this is the way I have understood Judas too-- exactly as you described, Lewis. The way Judas acted after Jesus was arrested,the timing of when he went the Pharisees to offer to deliver Him to them-- all shows that Judas was not just trying to get money. He wanted Jesus to forge an earthly kingdom. You make an interesting parallel between this and the church today. Good points!

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  6. I cringe whenever I hear anyone use the word "godly." I've never heard it said in a sentence that ended up being sane and grounded.

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    1. Amen to that. It's even worse when people are just parroting it and not even using it in the manner that it's supposed to be used by the whackjobs.

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  7. Yeah, that all sounds about right.

    I didn't become an agnostic-borderline-atheist by choice so much as by being shown, time and time again, that there was no such thing as a real christian, the people most obsessed with the Christian faith had no idea what Christianity or faith were, and those people made me feel either ill or like I was about to be attacked by a rabid dog.

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  8. As a child - Judas' story always made me cry. Not because he was a 'bad' person, but because, even when i was small - i agreed with you. He thought he was doing the right thing.

    and that he was so torn by the consequences of his actions, that he took his own life.... Even as an adult, it still breaks my heart. That he was so destroyed by what happened, how it happened, that he felt the only way to make it right was kill himself..

    I never could understand the vilification that the church placed on him. And now - the paralleled you draw between his plight and the church today are chilling.
    I pray we find our way before we finish hanging ourselves, but i truly fear such a drastic reset may be the only way to salvage our faith as a whole.

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