Modern biblical scholarship has enabled critically thinking Christians to understand what the historical Jesus actually said and what was tacked on later to serve the interests of Rome and early church leaders, but those original messages remain politically inconvenient today.
We now have the best biblical scholars ever, academics who have developed research tools that amaze me and offer a very good handle on what Jesus said and what he did not say as well as the cultural, historical, religious and social context in which he lived and taught.
With what I now know, I find it impossible ever again to see Jesus with a sword in his hand or in possession of a protective shield. The Jesus that I meet in the Gospels is a man of peace, who gently nudges me toward non-violence. Love and kindness are the ways of Jesus.
Jesus taught his disciples (and us) to pray that the kingdom of God might come to earth. Yet, people of Christian faith can pray without ceasing but until we collectively abandon the ways of violence and war, peace on earth and the reign of God will never fully come.
The first great challenge to Christian faith in the future is the abandonment of the ways of violence and war. Love, peace and kindness must become synonymous with Christian faith.
The second challenge involves the ownership of property. This is a key to understanding the teachings of Jesus, who lived in a time and place of economic disparity. Jesus advocated a new celebration of the Year of Jubilee, which, according to the Bible, is the time when property and possessions were to be returned to the Temple priests for redistribution among the tribes of Israel. This massive redistribution was to take place every 50 years (though it never actually did).
Yet, there is no way we can avoid the clear Bible standard of limitation of private ownership — of land in particular and wealth in general. That was also the view of Jesus.
By Bible standards, today’s wealth gap between the rich and the poor is so enormous that it is a complete affront to the professed beliefs of those who are wealthy and claim to be followers of Jesus. The standard is clear: We are to be stewards of wealth, not owners.
Jesus advised one wealthy man to sell all that he had and give his wealth to the poor, then to follow him. Jesus ridiculed the man who kept building bigger and bigger barns to hold his wealth. These two examples are not incidental to the teachings of Jesus, but are at the very core of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
Some people who call themselves Christians will cry out against these clear tenets from the Bible and Jesus’s teachings as the imposition of socialism. But the issue with Jesus and Bible standards is not socialism but stewardship. Christians are called upon to practice radical stewardship and to encourage others to do likewise.
The challenge of stewardship has a modern application to world environment as well. Stewardship cannot be understood only on the level of individuals. Stewardship is a major part of Christ’s challenge to churches, nations and the whole world.
The greatest challenges to Christians of the future are two in number: peace and stewardship. All other concerns pale in their presence.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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