blind obedience is dangerous, as Hitler taught us. But liberalism, enlightenment and autonomy were in their own way unable to save us from the griev- ous brutalities of Viet Nam. Those who boast of their moral autonomy are not obviously superior to those who boast of their simple obedience. The task is to find leaders who take seriously their moral responsibility for the consciences of others and to find an alert monitor- ing power group to be certain that they do. We are desperate for a leader who can speak to and for the lower-middle-classes in a politically humane way now that Bobby Kennedy is dead. Finally, the plain truth that conservative elements in American life are killing their sons overseas, mis managing inflation, depression and unemployment, and duping them with a fraudulent patriotism must be announced plainly and clearly to the lower- middle-classes. Not all who wave the flag serve America or have America’s interests at heart. There are “cadillac patriots,” too. The interests of the lower-middle-class—cheaper housing, better school- ing, more praise and attention, more decision-mak- ing at work—need definition, articulation and sup- port from the religious community. M i ch ael N ovak Criminal WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW criminality of Jesus and to ignore entirely what his status as a criminal may mean for those who profess to affirm and to follow him. I say that Jesus was, according to the testimonies of the gospels, a criminal: not a mere nonconform- ist, not just a protester, more than a militant, not only a dissident, not simply a dissenter, but a crim- inal. More than that, as the Luke passage empha- sizes, from the point of view of the State and of the ecclesiastical authorities as well—from the view of the Establishment—Jesus was the most dangerous and reprehensible sort of criminal. He was found as one “perverting [the] nation,” and “forbidding . . . tribute” to the State. One translation names Jesus a seditionist. In a congressman’s jargon, Jesus was a subversive. He was a criminal revolutionary: not one who philosophized about revolution, not a rheto rical revolutio nary (such a s we hear much from nowadays in America), but rather one whose erred. Our children were also doing the beating. Some of the guardsmen at Kent State were no older than many of the students. The inflamed political views prominent among the children of the higher classes strike vast numbers of Americans as de- ranged and immoral. Two quite different défini- tions of sanity and of morality are at war. The second such victory would be for the liberal upper classes to extend the same sympathy toward the white lower classes as they have recently been trying to extend toward the blacks. When was the last time you had a policeman to dinner? When was the last time agents of humanization devoted efforts and resources to policemen, firemen, service station attendants, bartenders, taxi drivers—asked them how they were doing, found out what pro- grams would lighten their lives? Bread they have; desperately they need the goods of the spirit: pride, dignity, renewed opportunity to learn and to ques- tion, a feeling of control over their lives. Thirdly, upper-class morality must not be im- posed on them. For those who have not had educa- tional opportunities and who choose not only by ac- quiescence but also by a kind of honest common sense to put their lives in the hands of their leaders, obedience is not necessarily immoral. To be sure, He was a Subve rsive, a Criminal Revolutionar y. Jesus the Then the whole company of them arose, andbrought him before Pilate. And they began to ac- cuse him, saying, “We found this man pervertingour nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king ” L u k e 23:1-2 I T IS unamb iguous in each of the gos pel accounts that Jesus Christ was a criminal. Of course, it is part of the grandeur of Jesus that many things may be said of him. Some of what may be said seems to contradict other things that may be said. That makes it tempting for men to overlook or play down attributes and actions of Jesus that are not congenial to us or convenient. Thus, despite what the gospels indicate, it is easy for us to gainsay the WILUAM STRINGFELLOW, a lawyer and Episcopal layman, has con- tributed frequently to these pages. His A Second Birthday: A Confrontation with Illness, Pain and Deathwill be published this summer by Doubleday. 11 9 June 8, 1970
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blind obedience is dangerous, as Hitler taught us.
But liberalism, enlightenment and autonomy were
in their own way unable to save us from the griev-
ous brutalities of Viet Nam.
Those who boast of their moral autonomy are
not obviously superior to those who boast of their
simple obedience. The task is to find leaders who
take seriously their moral responsibility for the
consciences of others and to find an alert monitor-
ing power group to be certain that they do. Weare desperate for a leader who can speak to and for
the lower-middle-classes in a politically humane
way now that Bobby Kennedy is dead.
Finally, the plain truth that conservative elements
in American life are killing their sons overseas, mis managing inflation, depression and unemployment,
and duping them with a fraudulent patriotism
must be announced plainly and clearly to the lower-
middle-classes. Not all who wave the flag serve
America or have America’s interests at heart. There
are “cadillac patriots,” too. The interests of thelower-middle-class—cheaper housing, better school-
ing, more praise and attention, more decision-mak-
ing at work—need definition, articulation and sup-
port from the religious community.
M i c h a e l N o v a k
Criminal
WILLIAM STRINGFELLOW
criminality of Jesus and to ignore entirely what
his status as a criminal may mean for those who
profess to affirm and to follow him.
I say that Jesus was, according to the testimonies
of the gospels, a criminal: not a mere nonconform-
ist, not just a protester, more than a militant, not
only a dissident, not simply a dissenter, but a crim-
inal. More than that, as the Luke passage empha-sizes, from the point of view of the State and of the
ecclesiastical authorities as well—from the view of
the Establishment—Jesus was the most dangerous
and reprehensible sort of criminal. He was found
as one “perverting [the] nation,” and “forbidding
. . . tribute” to the State. One translation names
Jesus a seditionist. In a congressman’s jargon, Jesus
was a subversive. He was a criminal revolutionary:
not one who philosophized about revolution, not a
rhetorical revolutionary (such as we hear much
from nowadays in America), but rather one whose
erred. Our children were also doing the beating.
Some of the guardsmen at Kent State were no older
than many of the students. The inflamed political
views prominent among the children of the higher
classes strike vast numbers of Americans as de-
ranged and immoral. Two quite different défini-
tions of sanity and of morality are at war.
The second such victory would be for the liberal
upper classes to extend the same sympathy toward
the white lower classes as they have recently beentrying to extend toward the blacks. When was the
last time you had a policeman to dinner? When
was the last time agents of humanization devoted
efforts and resources to policemen, firemen, service
station attendants, bartenders, taxi drivers—asked
them how they were doing, found out what pro-
grams would lighten their lives? Bread they have;
desperately they need the goods of the spirit: pride,
dignity, renewed opportunity to learn and to ques-
tion, a feeling of control over their lives.
Thirdly, upper-class morality must not be im-posed on them. For those who have not had educa-
tional opportunities and who choose not only by ac-
quiescence but also by a kind of honest common
sense to put their lives in the hands of their leaders,
obedience is not necessarily immoral. To be sure,
He was a Subversive, a Criminal Revolutionary.
Jesus the
Then the whole company of them arose, and brought him before Pilate. And they began to ac- cuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ a king ”
L u k e 23:1-2
IT IS unambiguous in each of the gospel accountsthat Jesus Christ was a criminal. Of course, it is
part of the grandeur of Jesus that many things may
be said of him. Some of what may be said seems to
contradict other things that may be said. That
makes it tempting for men to overlook or play
down attributes and actions of Jesus that are not
congenial to us or convenient. Thus, despite what
the gospels indicate, it is easy for us to gainsay the
WILUAM STRINGFELLOW, a lawyer and Episcopal layman, has con-tributed frequently to these pages. His A Second Birthday: A Confronta tion with Illness , Pain and Death will be published this summer by
Christ as Man—mature Man, fulfilled Man, wholMan, true Man—ruling the whole of time and creation. The kingship of Christ means, as Paul saw iChrist as Second Adam—as Man (again, as it wereexercising dominion in history over all creature(including all principalities and powers, institutions and ideologies, corporations and nationsover the whole of nature, over all things.
Christ as king means Man no more enslaved tinstitutions, no longer a pawn of technologies, nmere servant of the State or of any other authorityno incapacitated victim of a damaged environmenChrist as King means Man free from bondage tideologies and institutions, free from revolutionarcauses as well, free from idolatry of Caesar and, nothe least of it, free from religion that tries to diguise such slaveries as virtuous, free from all thesand all similar claims that really conceal only deat—only the dehumanization of life—for men.
The authorities of Rome and of an apostate Israperceived quite accurately that Christ as kinthreatened them poignantly and urgently. Christ aking embodies an unrelenting revolutionary threto each and every nation and, paradoxically, to a
revolutions within any nation as they become icarnations of the power of death feigning to be thdefinitive moral power in history.
According to the biblical witness, death is nthe decisive moral power in history, but it is thonly moral power that the State (or any other pricipality) can invoke as a sanction against humabeings and against human life as such. That plainly to be seen now in this nation also: deais the moral power up on which the State relies wheit removes citizens from society for preventive dtention or other political imprisonment, when estops free speech, when it militarizes the polic
when it drives youth into exile, or when it confinmillions in black ghettos and consigns millions moto malnutrition and illiteracy, when it manipulatinflation and credit to preoccupy, demoralize anthereby conform the middle classes, when it puchases grapes to covertly break a strike, when it colusively abets a governor’s defiance of the courts, when it hunts priests as fugitives.
No wonder, in the earlier circumstances, whethe State confronted Christ the king—Christ thfree human being—that it should find him a criminal and send him to the cross.
And it is no wonder that at this moment in th
country—where the power of death is so militain the universities, in the corporate structures, the churches, in the labor movement, in the polical institutions, in the Pentagon, in the business science, in the technological order, in the enviroment itself, in the realms of ideology, in the Sta—as with Jesus, the Christian—living as a free maliving in transcendence of death's power, livinthus, as an implacable, insatiable, unappeasabltireless and resilient revolutionary—should be rgarded by all authorities as a criminal.
As in the time of the trial of Jesus Christ, so this day and place, to be a free man is to be a crim
inal.
Christianity and Cri
pocrisy in America’s revolutionary origins foretells
the contemporary decadence of the revolutionary
tradition in the USA.
To Be a Free Man Is to Be a Criminal
The second matter I wish to mention is the rela-
tion of the State and of established society to Jesus
Christ.
It is instructive, in thinking of the nation’s con-ventional churches now, to note that the ecclesiasti-
cal authorities, for all practical purposes, acted as
servants of the State in the confron tation with Jesus.
In one version, the chief priests protest: “Caesar is
our king, we have no other king but Caesar.” In the
dispute over jurisdiction between Pilate and
Herod, they warn: “If you release him you will not
be Caesar’s friend.” The ecclesiastics were, prac-
tically speaking, surrogates of the State.
That is a too familiar situation for chief priests.
That was the situation in Nazi Germany. It wassimilar, Kierkegaard says, in Scandinavia about a
century ago. It is that way, notoriously, with the
Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. It has
been the role of white Anglo-Saxon denominations
in most jurisdictions in this land both before and
since the Civil War.
On the issues of race and war—which is to say,
on virtually all issues—the white churches and
sects can be fairly viewed as the religious arm of
the political establishment at the present time. Or,
to view it the other way around, the incumbent na-tional administration represents a kind of corny
fulfillment of the profoundly secular character of
white Protestant denominationalism in America.
When I speak of the State, therefore, I mean the
inherited ecclesiastical authorities and institutions
just as much as one notices the guilty association of
the chief priests and Caesar’s interest in the trial of
Jesus.
Why is there this terrible hostility between theState and Christ? Why is Jesus so threatening tothe nation? Why is he found to be criminal?
The answer to such questions is in the indict-ment: He says that “He himself is Christ a king.”
The kingship of Jesus Christ possesses extraordi-nary connotations. On the cross, remember, thecharge affixed over his head read, “King of theJews.” By the virtue of Israel’s election and voca-tion as the people of God, as the holy nation, as thepioneer of mankind in reconciliation—a callingthat is not revoked despite any apostasy of Israel—the King of the Jews is the King of humanity.
The kingship of Christ not only exceeds the au-thority of Caesar, but it also surpasses all aspira-tions for the new or wiser or better kings of Barab-