Peace, Love, & Understanding

(Intro with music) Peace, love, and understanding.

Hello, and welcome again to another episode of Peace, Love and Understanding. I'm your host, Steve Dehner. Thanks for joining us. First up, some news: we have a Facebook page now, for the audience. That means you, and the name of the page is: "The peace, love and understanding podcast." As it turns out, there's a lot of Facebook pages and groups with that phrase in it. But ours is called, the peace, love and understanding podcast. You can also find it with the username at Steve Dehner podcast all one word.

Is it wrong to say Jesus cares about the poor and fed the hungry and healed the sick? That's not wrong. And it's not wrong to say that he went into the Temple and he got really ticked off at the people who were making a commercial enterprise and exploiting, taking advantage of people entering the temple by selling them animals for sacrifice and making change so they could get the, the tiny little coins to pay their temple tax, and things like that. And Jesus didn't like that. He went in and he cleaned them all out. It doesn't follow from that that he hates business people, or he hates people doing business or making money. It doesn't follow from that that Jesus loves violence, and he likes to beat people up and destroy their stuff. It doesn't follow from that that Jesus wants to confiscate all private property and deliver it to Caesar, okay? This stuff just isn't logical. On the other side, to say Jesus was a free market capitalist, and just was really concerned that everybody make as much money as possible, and everybody for themselves. They're just all, just really lame, illogical, fallacious arguments, and they are being made in order to use the most popular, most famous person who ever lived to support their particular worldview or agenda. Okay, and I'm here to say: it drives me nuts! Fundamentally, what's wrong with these sort of approaches to describing Jesus' teaching or his lifestyle in this way is that it draws a false conclusion. It does not follow that because Jesus loved poor people and cared a lot about them, and said some pretty harsh things about religious people, religious leaders, who also happened to be elites and wealthy, and in charge of a lot of things -- the Jerusalem religious establishment -- it does not follow that he wanted to take away all private property and deliver it to the people. It does not follow that he wanted all of the poor people sitting in his audience to pay higher taxes, so they could get a bunch of services and goods from the Roman Empire. It just doesn't follow. It also doesn't follow that just because Jesus used money -- actually told disciples to buy and sell stuff -- and understood that buying and selling was a basic part of life for everybody in the world at that time -- It also doesn't follow that he favored one kind of economic system over another.

Okay, but that's not my problem. My problem isn't the oversimplified or distorted arguments that people make in favor of capitalism, or socialism. My problem is the way that Jesus is portrayed is distorted, and it's a mischaracterization of who he is. Jesus is used as a prop, as a mascot for the team. Leaving aside for the moment the dictionary definition, in the world of sports, what is a mascot? A mascot is a character -- an animal, a person, an object, created to represent, promote, cheer on, and excite enthusiasm for a sports team. Now, let's look at some of the ways Jesus is characterized and used as a team mascot. People make a caricature of Jesus to represent themselves and their team, their agenda, using Jesus of Nazareth as your mascot for whatever it is you're selling. Whether it's true, whether it's false, whether it's great, whether it sucks, I just don't like people using Jesus in that way. And that's what I wanted to say. That's what drives me nuts. You want to know what makes me crazy? That's one of the things that makes me crazy. You're not taking Jesus for who he is. You are using him to express or endorse what you have to say or what you think, okay? You're just using him. Now, it's a free country, and you can do it. I'm not saying it should be against the law. What I am saying is, you should be honest about what you're doing. Now, there are a lot of great memes out there about Republican Jesus. Some of them are pretty good, some of them are terrible. And I just have to warn any of you that are of, of more tender spirit: don't go searching for Jesus memes, and do an image search, unless you're prepared to encounter some pretty offensive images, okay? Trust me, there's stuff out there that didn't surprise me, but I didn't like looking at it. It was pretty gross. There's some pretty gross stuff out there. So just think about clicking on the safe search, or something like that, if you're gonna go looking for this stuff. Just take my word for it.

If you are making a meme to attack Christians, or criticize Christians, or criticize people who profess faith as Christians -- again, it's a free country. I want you to be allowed to do it. I don't think you should be stopped from doing it. But realize that you're doing for your point of view, what you no doubt criticize believers for doing, which is weaponizing their own religion, weaponizing, their own religious founder, or teacher, or God, for the purposes of attacking someone else's point of view. So what I'd like to just say for the record, is that I don't like it when believers do it. They weaponize their faith. They weaponize their God. They weaponize their sacred writings toward the harm of other people. Sometimes it's people within their own ranks, and sometimes it's people outside their faith. I don't like that. I don't approve of that. And I don't like it when people outside, who are either of another religion, or of no religion at all, attack religious people with their own religion. You know, I think it's fair game to say, "Are your words and actions consistent with what you profess?" Fair question. Good question. I think serious, committed people are always asking that about themselves. So if somebody of another faith or no faith asks that question, and says, "Well, is this -- what you're, what you're proposing, what you're saying, what you're communicating, what you're actually doing with your actions -- is it consistent with what you profess? Because we're hearing what you profess, and maybe you could try to explain how this lines up?" Fair. Totally fair. I don't really have a big objection to that. But I have a big objection to the deliberate weaponization of especially, especially Jesus himself. Why? Why? Because I'm a Christian. So I don't actually see a lot of people using Buddha as a, as a moral bazooka, you know, and pointing it at people to blow them away. You know, maybe it happens, you know, maybe Hindu gods are used that way I suppose, I suppose they probably are. Some of them are kind of violent, and we know the problems that are going on in Islam. But I'm a Christian. So I'm looking at Jesus, and seeing how he's distorted both by people who profess faith in him, and by people who are critics of him and people who believe in Him. I think you're both wrong, and I wish you'd stop.

Now I'd like to say this to my fellow believers: I am concerned because I think that if we are in the habit of making a mascot out of the One who we worship as God incarnate, the One who is in all and overall and through all and we are turning him into a poster boy, a celebrity endorsement for our politics, for our favorite causes for our socio-economic viewpoints, then we are not seeing him. What I mean by that is, I am looking at him and projecting from my own mind onto him what I want to see. And if I am doing that, I have actually made a false Christ. And a false Christ is an idol. He is a product of vain imagination, he is an invention. He is not real.

(Musical bridge)

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(Music fades)

(Outro with music) Peace, love, and understanding.

Many years ago someone said, "In the beginning, man created God in His own image." I don't believe as this suggests that God is the invention of humans. But it does contain a truth about how humans tend to conceive of Yahweh, or any other deity for that matter. There is an unending compulsion for us to describe God in ways that are suspiciously similar to ourselves. This can take two forms. One is blind, a person does not realize they are doing it. It is a kind of unconscious self affirmation: "I am vengeful and violent, and what do you know? So is God." "I believe in forcing my will on others; It turns out so does the Almighty." A variation of this is the transposition of our earthly fathers onto our image of God: "My father was distant and silent. Coincidentally, this is how I see God." "My father was angry and unforgiving. Coincidentally, this is how I see God."

The other form it can take is more conscious and deliberate. I would like to address the second problem. Why? It just annoys the heck out of me. I see it all the time on social media.Tthe social media that I use mostly is Facebook. And the easiest and most obvious place to see what I'm talking about is right there with internet memes. Yes, they're created by just a few people. But they're posted and reposted and seen by very many people. Now, do some people find these convincing? Yeah, I guess they do. They have pretty fallacious arguments. They're misleading. They have a lot of straw men. But people love them. I think a good example of the type of representations that bug me so much, (have) Jesus being politicized or used for your personal economic worldview. So what we see commonly is "Jesus was a socialist," or, " - is a socialist," or the opposite: "Jesus is a capitalist." You know, "Jesus believes in free markets," that sort of thing. This touches on a number of my concerns. The first one is using Jesus. And the second is, instead of seeing him and hearing him -- in other words, having a receptive posture and attitude toward him -- we are projecting onto him and making him look and sound the way we want him to. So let's talk about that. A very popular category of memes is the 'Jesus is a socialist' theme. Usually they have very, sort of, fallacious approaches to this argument. For example, "Jesus cared about the poor, feeding the hungry, healing the sick -- therefore, he was a socialist." Because only socialists care about those things, or those only matter if the government's doing them, those only are important to somebody or of concern to somebody if they're being paid for with tax dollars -- which is exactly what Jesus taught, right? You should give your tax dollars and Caesar should be taken care of all this stuff, dammit. Right? No, it's it's really, it's a pretty empty argument. It doesn't really follow logically at all. Okay. On the other side, of course, is the counter argument suggesting that Jesus loved free markets and he loved capitalism and he loved, he loved us making money and getting lots of stuff.

The only way that I can see Jesus, as he really is, is to seek him, to listen, to take in, to sit with, to read about. But if I have settled in to some cultural products -- beliefs, values, systems that are produced by the culture that I live in -- and I don't care if it's subculture or prevailing culture, but it is nevertheless a product of the time in place that I live in, and in which I unconsciously hold values and beliefs that were taught to me by the culture that I've grown up in and live in -- if I hold to those things, and then I come to Jesus, and expect him to endorse and support the things that I hold dear, when in fact some of those things really need to go -- They need to be dispensed with, they need to be tossed aside, they need to be set on fire and you watch them burn. But if I go to Jesus, and I expect him to just put the Jesus Christ Stamp of Approval on what I've already decided, I am, and I believe, and I value -- without regard to what he teaches, or what he says, or how he reveals the living God -- I won't hear him and see him. I will be molding him, like a piece of playdough into what I want. I'll do that.

Here's a question that seems relevant to our times: If you happen to believe that Jesus, as you know him, as you see him, as you hear him, is at home in any of our political parties in the United States of America, this year, today, in our lifetimes -- then perhaps Jesus is your mascot. If you think Jesus is pleased with any side of the culture wars, that he gives full endorsement to either side on the culture wars, then perhaps Jesus is your mascot. You see, we, we can't put him into our little spats and assume that he's taking our side on any of it -- Oh, maybe on this point or that point, on this little front or that little front. Perhaps he does favor one side or the other. But I like what Abraham Lincoln said, when he said, "My concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is to be on God's side for God is always right." And in the current cultural moment I think there's just too little of that. We are forming our identities by our political affiliations. We are forming our identities by race and class and privilege. We're forming our identities by what we stand to lose or gain. We're forming our identities by the things that we're afraid of. And as Christians, this simply won't do.

Don't make Jesus your mascot.

Otherwise you will have made him an idol: a Jesus who is not real, a Jesus who you can see but who isn't there, a Jesus you've made in your own image.

As you know, I hoped to keep the show ad-free. That depends on getting support from my listeners. And you know, that's that's probably going to take a while. In the meantime, I've got expenses. The show does does actually cost money to produce, even when it's a small operation like I have. And it just so happened that well, opportunity came knocking and, lo and behold, I have our first sponsor for the show, which is really surprising to me. But they came to me. Just to be clear: they came to me. What can I say? I'd love to keep it ad-free. But you know, it's really it's, it's up to you guys. So anyway, here we go, our very first sponsor. And, (old fashoined skating rink style music starts) this is what they asked me to read. It's newly released from Covfefe Negative Press:

"Listen to the people who wrote this Bible! General editor: me, of course. Nobody has edited a study Bible better than me. Old Testament editor: Tila Tequila. New Testament editor: Gary Busey. Listen to my contributors, all who wrote such a beautiful and wonderful and inspiring study notes. Every single one of these fabulously talented and successful people gave me their endorsement, so you know, they're people you can trust (scattered applause under the following): Ted Nugent, Roseanne Barr, Dennis Rodman, Steve Bannon, Gene Simmons, Bobby Knight, Hulk Hogan, Randy Quaid, Kid Rock, Mike Tyson, Wayne Newton -- Mr. Las Vegas! It just goes on like this. All Stars. Johnny Rotten -- love that guy; Alex Jones, truth teller; Rudy Giuliani, brilliant; Roger Stone, brilliant. Best of the Best. The glitterati. Bible scholars? Hell, no. You didn't want a statesman for president, why would you want some over-educated crusty old professors? Some unknown know-it-all types making your Bible? Very weak. So weak. Just to give you some examples of what makes my Bible different:

Folks, I gotta tell you, that hurt me more than it hurt you. That was a tough five minutes -- probably felt more like fifteen. The only way I know that we can avoid further travesties of advertising and marketing like we just heard, is to find a different way to support this podcast. Fortunately, there is one: it's over at Patreon dot com. Look for my name, Steve Dehner, or look for the Peace, Love, and Understanding Podcast -- and think about whether you really want to hear another ad like that. (Whispering) I don't think you do.

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Transcribed by https://otter.ai