THE BEATITUDES: THE BEST THAT CHRISTIANITY HAS TO OFFER

From the Bible, Luke 6:20-26 (KJV):

20And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.

21Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.

22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.

23Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

24But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

25Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger. Woe unto you that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep.

26Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

For more on the Beatitudes, click here.

I was watching my favorite journalist with a Master of Divinity from Harvard, Chris Hedges, in a sprawling three hour interview on CSPAN's Book TV last night. He was talking about how he's debated both proselytizing atheists like Chris Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, and conservative Christians alike, and mentioned how in one of those debates, against a fundamentalist, he observed that everything his opponent was citing from the Bible is the Old Testament, Hebrew stuff: real Christianity is derived from Christ, and those values are embodied best in the Beatitudes.

And they're damned fine values, to be sure. Indeed, not only do I not have a problem with the Beatitudes, by and large, I embrace them as my own values. I mean, minus all that reward in Heaven shit. But really, deep compassion for the poor, the hungry, the suffering, the powerless, the oppressed, and stern warnings for the rich and powerful, that's what I'm all about, as far as how I think the world ought to work. And, if humans made any sense at all, that's what Christianity would be all about, too.

Instead, the mainline, moderate Protestant denominations speak only quietly about these ideas, and mingle them with the salvation imperative. The Catholics have their parishioners reciting the Beatitudes, but when does this powerful and global institution use its great influence to make the Beatitudes actually happen in the real world? And the fundamentalist Protestants, well, their Christ has an AK-47 in one hand and a bag of money, complete with a dollar sign symbol, in the other, pushing a vision of Jesus that has nothing at all to do with the Beatitudes.

Yeah, I think I have a grudge against Christianity for not really pushing the values of Jesus Christ, the ones they say they embrace, but don't. Who knows? If things were different, I might still call myself a Christian, in spite of my agnosticism.

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