Living Humanly

Living humanly in the midst of this broken and wounded world is no easy task.  Sometimes it seems futile, as it must have seemed to those who resisted the ascendancy of Nazi Germany.  In the face of that tyranny, hope seemed annihilated.  The resistance, then as now, seemed to be puny and ineffective, but it was the only means of retaining sanity and conscience.  In those circumstances (Nazi tyranny) of just 80-some years ago, resistance became the only human way to live.

To live otherwise, at that time, to exist in silence, fear, acquiescence, conformity, obeisance, and collaboration and to simply seek one’s own “safety” or “security” under the conditions imposed by the Nazi State—created a moral insanity.  It was a form of suicide—the death of “humanness.” I am not overstating the case.  The only stance in that period of history worthy of a human being (both for oneself and all other humans) was to RESIST!  Resistance was the only way of living humanly in the midst of the power of death. 

Resistance (speaking out, truth-telling, preaching, protesting) is the only way to live humanly in America today (or any other day).  Tyranny (a cruel and oppressive government) is ascending. We are blind to it , we cannot see it, because we are guilty of interpreting the Bible (and the Christian faith) for the convenience of America.  We are wrapped up in a fatal vanity that we are a divinely favored nation, that we are the only righteous nation, that we are a people of superior political morality, that we are chosen and esteemed by God.  We have distorted the biblical message for our national purposes and it is that which is blinding us now to what is happening. Even the churches are blind and have become menial, manipulated, and degraded vassals of the power of death that now envelops our nation. Even our Senate and House of Representatives have become  acquiescent vassals of the Oval Office.

A prophet engages in “truth-telling” and his or her work is to intercede for human life.  The prophet is an advocate for human life.  People (no matter who they are) are not animals, nor must we allow them to be called such, or to be treated as such.  No human being is a dog!  Every human being is a person, created in the image of God.  To deny this reality, to ignore it, to let it go by, and worse yet, to collaborate in it creates a moral insanity—a form of suicide—the death  (dehumanization) of “humanness.”  The only stand worthy of a human being is to resist what is happening.

"And I have other sheep not of this fold..." John 10:16
"Tend my sheep..." John 12:17