Jersak says that the God Whom the United States believes in "seems obsessed with freedom and capitalism. But somehow when he visits his chalet in Canada, the same God (supposedly) is more enthusiastic about tolerance and the common good. Look for God in China and you'll see his dedication to harmony and honor. Latin Americans and Italians are really into family (a la the "Godfather" trilogy), so what does their Catholic God look like? The Holy Family is huge, right? Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. And so it goes: the highest values of any given people group get stamped into their image of God, are reinforced by their worship, and downloaded back into their people." (from "A More Christlike God.")
We have to ask ourselves: what do Americans believe that God values most, pure freedom, or pure love? We Americans are so individualistic that we speak a lot about God Values in terms of a God Who creates us with free will, Who creates every one of us as uniquely different, Who wants us to be true to ourselves, to become all that we can be. And, that's absolutely true. But God's notion of "freedom" does not correlate 100% with the way in which many Americans view freedom.
For many Americans, freedom and defending one's freedom is the ultimate value, even more important than love. Freedom tends to slip into self-will, or willfulness. In governmental politics, in marriage, in parenting, in careers, in money-making, and in purchases, we preach the false Gospel: our freedom, our right to make our own destiny, take care of ourselves, feed our wants, and protect our independence, as individuals and as a nation, is the Greatest Good in our lives, and is more important than anyone else's so-called rights. It's our God-given right, we say to ourselves, to always come first. But, when we always put ourselves first, who else gets hurt or oppressed? Whose rights end up being trampled into the dirt?
Jersak says, "Right or wrong, isn't this exactly how we live? The stubborn fact is that freedom has come to mean, ' I do what I want to do to get what I want to have - according to my conscience, my desires, my convictions, my passions, - myself, my way.'" Didn't Frank Sinatra immortalize this life philosophy when he sang "I Did It My Way"?
But, being a Christian isn't about "MY will be done." It's about "THY will be done." It isn't about "I Did It MY Way;" it's about "I Did It JESUS' Way." When our will rules, we are prioritizing mastery and power. "Far from 'live and let live,' self-will imposes itself on the other - whether it's the most vulnerable in our society or a terror suspect in some out-sourced dungeon....In fact, in a 2009 poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 54% of people who attended church services at least once per week and 62% of white Evangelicals agreed that using torture against suspected terrorists is often or sometimes justified.
"How is so much hostility and death possible for 'freedom-loving' Christian people? Well that majority mind-set is not only possible but considered morally necessary so long as freedom-as-self-will stands as our premier value....Moreover, that kind of freedom demands someone else's rights and freedoms to be sacrificed, their peace and security violated. Unfortunate." (Jersak)
When we worship our self-will, some lives automatically matter less. For God, we ALL matter - equally. How can we forget that?
When we live with self-will as our priority, we actually lose our inner freedom. We become slaves to paranoia and fear. We build walls to protect ourselves, and shut out the people, the inspirations, the insights, that broaden our vision of Who God really is - pure Love. We put ourselves first and take the isolationist path, when, in love, we could be walking with each other in soul-enriching companionship.
But - what if we live with pure love as our priority, as Jesus did? "...What happens when love reigns? Could God's love for us somehow make loving God (worship), loving one another (fellowship), loving our neighbor (compassion) and loving our enemy (forgiveness) our highest moral vision?" (Jersak) God-in-Christ demonstrated for all of us for all time that pure love is selfless commitment, self-giving, self-sacrifice.
What if people didn't walk away from a marriage partner in order to "find themselves" but, instead, walked towards their marriage partner to "find Christ" in them? What if parents, instead of teaching their children to "do what they want," instead taught them to pray and discern what GOD wants for them? What if parents were less intent on building up their self-worth though spending most of their time on their careers, and instead sacrificed their self-absorption and spent more time with their children? What if our country worried more about the tragedy of sacrificing North Korean lives through a pre-emptive strike against a mad dictator, and instead chose more constructive, diplomatic talking, talking, talking with that mad dictator to save EVERYONE'S lives?
It's counter-intuitive, but what Jesus preached and lived and died for is that love is even more compelling than our own freedom. The downward path to simplicity and service is more spiritually fruitful than the upward path to success and adulation. Love hinges on knowing that our True Selves are not our personalities, not our talents, not our relationships; yes, all that is part of who we are, but our True Selves are our souls, where Christ lives, our souls hidden with Christ in God. Our souls yearn for God, Love, more than for anything our enlightened self-interest can promise us. Remember Jesus' words:
"Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" (Luke 9: 23-25).
"Very truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me." (John 12: 24-26)
Do we follow Christ to where He is hurting, even dying, in order to serve him? In the August 10, 2017 issue of "Sojourners", Adam West reports
"Buried beneath daily headlines dominated over the past year by the Russia investigation, Brexit, and the impasse over health care lies an escalating humanitarian crisis that should be breaking our hearts and assaulting our consciences: More than 20 million people’s lives hang in the balance due to a mounting famine in Yemen, South Sudan, northern Nigeria, and Somalia.What is even more alarming is that an estimated 1.4 million severely malnourished children will likely die in the next few months if bolder action is not taken. This mounting crisis has been declared the worst humanitarian crisis since World War II. Before you accuse me of alarmism or hyperbole, this is not my assessment but that of the United Nations and numerous, credible international NGOs who are working tirelessly to avert this crisis.
If you have heard very little about this crisis, you are not alone. A poll by the International Rescue Committee showed that 85 percent of Americans are largely uninformed about the food shortages.
"Multilateral agencies like the World Bank Group and the World Food Program have sounded the alarm and are working to mobilize the resources and political will needed to match the scale of the crisis. Back in March, the World Bank Group pledged $1.6 billion to build social protection systems, strengthen community resilience, and maintain service delivery to the most vulnerable, and the World Food Program is seeking to scale up its delivery of emergency food assistance across all four countries. Eight international relief NGOs, including World Vision, have formed an unprecedented alliance called the Global Emergency Response Coalition, which has attracted backing from several U.S. corporations, including Blackrock, PepsiCo, and Google to match funds raised for the humanitarian response.
"Despite these valiant efforts, the U.N. Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that only 43 percent of the $6.27 billion needed to avert famine this year has been raised. Unbelievably, the Trump administration and some in Congress have threatened to slash by up to 40 percent U.S. foreign assistance — life-saving funding that includes emergency humanitarian assistance.
"The woefully inadequate global response makes me wonder why our churches have been relatively silent and why this crisis remains so far from reaching a tipping point of public consciousness and even righteous indignation. My sense is that without the haunting and harrowing images of starving women and children blanketing our evening news and social media feeds, this crisis will remain far too invisible. And without references to this crisis in our weekly sermons and communal prayers, the cries of those most impacted will remain unheard.
"So I wonder how would Jesus respond? Not the overly meek and mild Jesus who is only interested in soul salvation that some churches promote. No, I’m talking about the biblical Jesus who demonstrated and preached both grace and steadfast love — and a radical commitment to compassion and justice. Short of Jesus performing one of his famous miracles of multiplying fishes and loaves to compensate for the drought and ensure that everyone has enough, I can picture Jesus speaking against the brutal disregard for the sacredness of every human life and saying woe to leaders who ignore the weightier matters of justice and mercy."
Daily, if we truly want to follow Jesus, we must ask ourselves: Who is the God I imitate, a God Who values distorted, willful, freedom and self-interest, or a God Who asks me to lay aside my ego and choose to freely, willingly, sacrificially love? Do I believe in a God Who sees my nation as the Chosen People, whose wants and needs are more important than anyone else's, or the God Who loves all His children equally, and asks us to as well? St. John taught us that to know what love is, we need only look to Jesus, Who willingly laid down his life for us. Daily, in our own quiet, anonymous ways, we can choose to believe that all lives matter. We can lay down our lives for ALL our brothers and sisters - and bring about the Reign of God Who is Love.