As Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan prepares herself for
confirmation hearings this summer, some of her critics accuse her of
being insufficiently patriotic. Why? For two reasons. First, when she
was dean of Harvard Law School, she tried to prevent U.S. military
recruiters from setting up offices on the Harvard campus, not because
she was anti-military but because she opposed the military's
discriminatory treatment of gays and lesbians (she was supported by many
other law school deans and university presidents). Second, in an
article she wrote several years ago she said that the interpretation of
the U.S. Constitution needed to change with the changing times, as the
views and morés of Americans changed. Her critics have seized
upon this second point and accused her of saying that the Constitution
was in need of change from the very beginning. Of course, she's right.
The original Constitution supported the perverse institution of slavery,
and abolitionists were right to oppose it from the beginning, and civil
rights giants like Thurgood Marshall were right to oppose its
interpretation in the light of racist Supreme Court decisions like
Plessy v. Ferguson, which authorized the "separate but equal"
doctrines that afflicted African-Americans in the South for a century.
Kagan's critics are upset because many of them hold to a doctrine called
"American exceptionalism," a belief that the U.S. is a uniquely blessed
nation whose righteousness and incomparable legal and economic system
positions it as the world's unchallenged leader in the realms of
politics, commerce, and foreign policy. Today's reading from Genesis
tells of a group of people thousands of years ago who similarly believed
themselves to be exceptional, far surpassing their neighbors in wisdom
and greatness. They said to one another, "Come, let us build ourselves
a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name
for ourselves." The citizens of Babel were impressed with their own
works, and in that way they were quite similar to many Americans, who
consider our country to be head and shoulders ahead of every other
country, even our allies. Like Babel, America is a land dominated by a
single language, one that many of our citizens would like to enshrine as
the official language of the nation, de jure, not just de facto. The
buildings in which many Americans put so much pride are not physical
structures but are rather economic and political structures. Those who
proclaim American exceptionalism seek economic hegemony over the rest of
the world, a form of neocolonialism. They also strive to enforce
political hegemony, a kind of Pax Americana. Ironically, though, or
rather hypocritically, the kinds of governments that we insist on in
other countries are not necessarily those based on so-called American
principles like democracy and equal rights (the latter of which is not a
real, historic American principle), because when countries like Iran,
Palestine, Chile, Venezuela, or Haiti elect a government that the
American government doesn't like, we have no qualms about replacing
them. There are indeed many parallels between the city of Babel and the
"exceptional" America that many see today, and I am afraid that the same
fate may await us as overtook Babel millennia ago. As people of faith,
we must learn the lessons of the past and remind our fellow citizens
that just as God had to "come down" to visit the tower that purportedly
reached to the heavens, so God is less than impressed with American
military and economic might in the world today. The consistent
testimony of the Bible is that God expects people of faith to build
hospitals and orphanages rather than towers, to spend money on food and
health care rather than weapons systems, to spread love and concern for
others rather than economic control. In short, if America is
exceptional today, it is exceptional in ways that are largely contrary
to the teachings of scripture. Our only hope is to repent before God
decides to scatter us to the winds of history, as the people of Babel
were scattered.
Psalm 104:24-35, 35b (first published 30 May 2004)
Intense rains in Haiti and the Dominican Republic this week killed more
than one thousand people, many in mudslides. Officials blame the
mudslides on severe deforestation that has occurred throughout the island
of Hispaniola. Locals cut down the trees in order to plant crops and for
fuel, destroying the habitat in the process of meeting their basic needs.
Both the large number of human deaths and the destruction of animal and
plant species that results from clearcutting the forests are the result of
structural injustice. "But isn't a natural disaster like flooding just
that?" you might ask. "It's nobody's fault," you might argue. You might
think that, but you'd be wrong. Ask yourself, when torrential rains hit
more developed countries, like the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Japan, or
Australia, do hundreds or thousands of people die? Some often die, to be
sure, but the number is much smaller. Compare, for example, the
Mississippi River flood of 1993, described by a Web site at the University
of Akron as "the most devastating flood disaster in U.S. history." The
river was above flood stage for 144 days, and "nearly fifty people died."
Fifty people is too many, but it is hardly a thousand. Why do so many
people die in flooding in Hispaniola or Honduras or Bangladesh? The
psalmist gives us a hint in today's psalm: "O Lord, how manifold are your
works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your
creatures." The psalmist goes on to describe God's care for creation and
God's provision for their needs. Humans, whom Genesis describes as
caretakers of the earth, often act contrary to the purposes of God, with
disastrous effects on both nature and other humans. For example,
deforestation destroys animal and plant habitat, driving species to
extinction. With the natural trees gone, the soil is not able to absorb
the rain like it would otherwise, and great sheets of mud move during
heavy rains, covering whole villages. The poor are forced to live on the
sides of mountains, and thus they die in higher proportion than those who
are wealthier when the rains come (the swath cut by a killer mudslide in
Honduras in 1998 is still evident, because no houses are built on the
site, but there are plenty of shacks built on adjacent mountains). We
need to learn to appreciate what the psalmist means when he says, "In
wisdom you have made them all." We need to interact with nature wisely in
order to minimize the destruction caused by natural disasters. We also
need to provide for the poor so that they won't be forced to violate
nature in order to live.
Acts 2:1-21 (first published 30 May 2004)
The story of the Tower of Babel describes the dispersal of humans over
the face of the earth as a result of the confusion of their speech. The
story of Pentecost describes humans coming together and hearing the good
news of God's love as a result of the gospel being preached in a variety
of languages. Thus, in a real sense, Pentecost is the antithesis of the
Tower of Babel. In the aftermath of the Tower of Babel, people were
scattered, and community was broken, but a broken world community is not
inevitable, nor is it God's will. It is important to remember that the
ultimate reason for broken community in Babel was not God's desire to harm
the people but the people's lust for power. Like Babel, Pentecost has God
descending on the multitude, but this time God's purpose is to gather, not
to scatter. Like Babel, Pentecost is about power, but it is divine power
given to humans for the purpose of reuniting them to God, not human power
that challenges God. The church on the Day of Pentecost added about 3,000
people to its number. Religious people sometimes treat success as a
mandate to act capriciously, as though no matter what they did, God would
be on their side. However, we must remember that Babel is the flip side
of Pentecost. When Christians are tempted to force our religious beliefs
on others, we need to remember that the God who blesses can also curse.
When we want to use superior weaponry to advance a "Christian" worldview,
we need to recall that the God who gathers can also scatter. When we
envision a homogeneous world in which everyone speaks the same language,
or embraces the same political goals, or glories in the idea of the free
market, we need to understand that diversity can be a good thing.
Pentecost is a day to celebrate God's gift of the Spirit, but it is also a
time to remember the dangers of the lust for power that so easily grips
powerful nations.
John 14:8-17. 25-27 (first published 30 May 2004)
"Wanted: Growing organization looking for workers to replace those who wouldn't. Great rewards for great results. Successful applicants are expected not only to meet but to exceed the high standards set by the company's founder." Sound like a difficult job? It's the job description of a Christian, according to today's reading from John. "Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these." Greater works than Jesus? How is that possible? In part, it's possible because of God's power working in the lives of many different people through the Holy Spirit. Whereas there was only one Jesus, there are many Christians capable of calling on the resources of the Holy Spirit to accomplish great things. Jesus went about teaching, healing, and telling others God's good news. As followers of Jesus, God calls us to carrying on these ministries. Don't worry if you can't lay your hands on people and heal them. Maybe you can encourage them during their illness or donate money to an organization that is working to find a cure for deadly illnesses. Maybe you don't consider yourself the most knowledgeable person in the world, but you can pass on to others your understanding of Jesus' teachings. Maybe you don't fancy yourself an evangelist, but by your good works you can cause others to glorify God. Today's reading from John is presents a challenging job description. Do you have the courage to apply?