The meme said that this is a quote from Thomas Paine. It calls him an “English-American political activist, writer, and revolutionary.” But did he really say this? Some memes put some great quotes out there. Some of them are actually accurate. According to Google, this one is rightly attributed to Mr. Paine.
So I
had this whole, long, rather clever blog post playing with this quote, considering how it
goes back to the founding of the nation, but how true it is today. It was a rather oversized political
consideration of the nation and we who live in her.
But
there were two problems. I knew it
needed to end with a consideration of the faith, but how to make that jump while
maintaining the integrity of the blog post to that moment? The other problem was one that guides me when
sermons go wandering, the question of ‘staying in my lane’ as a Christian and a
pastor.
And Mr.
Paine’s quote could apply as powerfully to matters of faith as it could to political
matters. That opens up a whole new can
of worms on the connection between faith and reason. But I think it is not that theological or
philosophical or even presuppositional for the Christian.
Consider
the colonial foundations of this nation.
Religious groups who found themselves persecuted, imprisoned, even
killed by trial or in open warfare, many found a new start over here. It was a good use of reason to get out of the
‘firing line’ of the ‘old world’. On the
other hand, for me, a sure sign that the use of reason has been renounced in
the Christian faith is when a person or persons of faith slip away from the
plain meaning of the text where Jesus says the law is to love God and love
neighbor.
Consider
the Puritans in colonial Massachusetts.
They reasoned that a new world meant new freedom for their interpretive
structure of the Christian faith. And it
worked. But how far was the use of
reason renounced when it came to the cruel and vicious ways in which they
killed their own during the witch trials?
Paine’s expression, renouncing reason being like giving medicine to the
dead, it resonates. Where was the love of
God and the love of neighbor there?
Consider
the modern era. The KKK was a declared ‘Christian’
institution. The Christian love of God
and neighbor is finding expression in branding the ‘others’ of our present day
and age. Immigrants and people outside
tightly bound “biblical” definitions of gender come to mind. OMG, does that make me a “big L” liberal? It takes the renunciation of reason to
suspend the law of love and condemn our neighbor with the arrogance of doing so
‘in Jesus’ name’. Explain to me how the
suspension of “big L” love leads to “big L” liberal and I will take on that
question.
Shall
we explore the underpinnings of the “Black Lives Matter” movement? As a privileged white male moving into the
upper reaches of the mid-point region of my life, I know few people more
ill-equipped to speak on behalf of someone else on this matter. Does not mean I am not dumb enough to try,
but not today.
In my
original post, I was appalled and relieved to read this quote from Thomas Paine. That much has not changed as I have moved away
from a political point of view to a Christian one. I am relieved that the renunciation of reason
is not just the product of the current age, with the Christian justifications
for unloving activities woven into the polar opposites of the political spectrum. But I am also appalled that in the centuries
of Christian expression in the “New World”, we seem to have learned so little
in how the Love of God and of our neighbor is the universal law of the Lord.
Peter Hofstra
