[41.1] BEYOND DEADLY ILLUSIONS

This from weblogger Alvarny Windrider:

My friend asked, "Do you want to be Jesus Christ?"

And I shook my head and thought to myself, "He had the easy way out, all He was required to do was to die. I am required to stay alive and live the consequences."

It is, of course, the superficiality of much Christian thinking -- not to mention twisted, forsensic doctrines of the meaning of this paradigmatic death (see, by contrast, J Denny Weaver's The Nonviolent Atonement) -- which have led to the popular caricature of "the man born to die." What crucified Jesus was not his avoidance of life or divine sadism, but deep-seated fear of unrestricted life (and the uncontrollable God of Life) on on the part of those bound to religious and political authorities. Similarly, risen life is not the magical resolution or reversal of death, but the capacity to live fully in the face of it -- which is the gift of God. But Alvarny is absolutely right: life is tough, and death-as-a-virtue is no answer. Nor is it what the Gospel proposes.

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