The grotesque cross (February, 2005)

God uses crucifixion--the most horrific mode of execution--to shout to a dulled, nihilistic and indifferent culture. To confront us with the impact of our own evil and sin. Jesus endured that brutality for my sin, for your sin. I pray that that reality sinks in.

We do "need the bold strokes of the cross to confront us with the impact of our own evil and sin." We're sinners in the hands of an angry God (as Jonathan Edwards put it).

Scot McKnight's The Jesus Creed is a book I really want to read. And though I haven't read Flannery O'Connor, I appreciate her influence on us by influencing leaders like Phelan and McKnight.

"When we bear the image of Christ we risk receiving his beating as well." (2 Tim. 3:12.)

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I don't want to detract from Jay's message, but I'm compelled to look more closely at one thing:

In the United States these days we are not really permitted to see the full results of our own violence. We receive only sanitized reports of our actions from our media and our government. We are not even permitted to see the flag-draped coffins of our own dead less[sic] we wake from our stupor and confront our own nihilistic will to power.

Are our soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq because of the American people's "will to power"? Afghanis and Iraqis cast the first truly free votes of their lifetimes. How does allowing them to assert their own will somehow fulfill our will to power? I don't think Jay thought this through as carefully as he could have.

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To help you ponder his article...

nihilism -- (1 a) a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless (b) a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths

rapaciousness -- (1) excessively grasping or covetous (2) living on prey (3) RAVENOUS

ersatz -- being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation