Sunday, September 14
Bible might be the most subversive book
By Steve Gushee, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 24, 2003
Attorney General John Ashcroft uses personal reading lists to identify dangerous people. He should know better. His favorite book is radically subversive.
The Bible might be the most seditious work ever published. Evangelical Christian Ashcroft believes it is the word of God to be followed to the letter. That could easily make him look like a traitor.
Still, the attorney general sponsored and supports the Patriot Act, passed in the heat of the moment following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A provision of that bill allows the government to examine the records of readers, book buyers and fans of the library.
The aim is to identify terrorists by their reading habits. The result is to threaten anyone who reads anything that government personnel deem dangerous to their idea of patriotism, national loyalties and allegiance to the flag.
The Bible is guilty on all counts. Jehovah's Witnesses and more than a few other Christians will not swear allegiance to the flag on Biblical grounds that they believe forbids taking an oath.
The Christian New Testament specifically identifies followers of Christ as citizens of another kingdom that has authority over all the nations of the Earth.
Churches, according to St. Paul, are embassies in a foreign land. Church members are ambassadors whose job is to lobby for their kingdom, attempt to influence the country in which they temporarily live and, ultimately, overthrow its leadership for the rule of God.
Hebrew Scripture is filled with the life-and-death struggle of Israel's need for a temporal king and the reality that, for Israel, God alone was king.
Israel could have no king but God. Still, it needed a national leader to unify 12 tribes against their enemies. That dilemma drove Saul mad and gave David the opening he needed to assume leadership among the tribes of Israel. The same problem later played a significant role in the division of the country following Solomon's reign.
The New Testament does direct Christians to honor local authorities, but only as a tactic to curry favor and prevent a crackdown on the religious sect.
The church became the dominant political force in medieval Europe. Kings routinely bent to the will of the church's leadership.
Christianity has become so tame and domesticated over the years that few see the subversive nature of its handbook, the Bible. Ashcroft, however, knows and endorses its radical agenda.
Maybe someone should investigate him?