Friday, January 07, 2005
(1:35 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
A Moratorium Request
Everyone needs to just calm down, collect themselves, and stop throwing the Sermon on the Mount around. Its precepts are not an adequate response to every situation. Following the principles outlined therein is not the solution to every problem. I know that liberals love to toss out the Sermon on the Mount and direct it toward governmental leaders to get them to stop being such assholes. I agree that governmental leaders should not be assholes, but the Sermon in the Mount is not intended as advice for governmental leaders. Similarly, I know that conservatives love to throw around the Sermon on the Mount as a way of getting inconvenient people with inconvenient grievances to shut the hell up. As useful as that is, I don't think that was Matthew's intent.The Sermon on the Mount is a set of strategies to use when you are radically outgunned. It contains advice on how to deal with legalistic religious authorities and well-armed and well-funded political authorities. In situations of complete powerlessness, when fighting back in the normal sense of the word is tantamount to suicide, the Sermon on the Mount recommends using one's powerlessness as a weapon. It might not seem like a very radical idea now, after those principles have been used so many times in our recent history, but in absolute terms, it's a pretty radical idea. And in situations such as that of the early church, which abound in today's world, I still think that advice stands a fair chance of being the best possible advice, all things considered. But even in those situations, the use of the strategy is not an end in itself, but a powerful means toward the end of establishing a community in which justice and peace prevail.
Thus, the Sermon on the Mount is not the pinnacle of all gospel teaching. It is not a new law that must be followed unconditionally. It is one strategy among others in scripture, a strategy that is simply not applicable to either George W. Bush (who is far from powerless and whose adherence to the principles of the Sermon would be an obscene charade, for structural reasons) or to those annoying people in your churches whom you've offended (for whom you are hopefully not in the position of the corrupt Roman authorities). Viewing the Sermon on the Mount as one strategy among others does not devalue it -- on the contrary, it gives it its proper value and prevents it from being abused, as it almost always is.
Thank you. This is still not a Christian blog.
