Summary of the discussion
In October 1893 the Chicago Evening Post journalist Finley Peter Dunne, in his weekly column, quoted his fictional Mr. Dooley that, “The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable”. We might say the same of the Church. But we have to recognise that people who have attempted that have often been given a hard time- and by the Church itself.
Caroline Benn, in her book “Kier Hardy: A Biography”, wrote of how Hardie opposed World War One at a time when most church leaders supported it, and so had a difficult relationship with the Church. Bob Holman, founder in 1987 of a community action project on the Easterhouse estate, Glasgow, also wrote “Keir Hardie: Labour’s Greatest Hero?”, and in his book “Woodbine Willie: An Unsung Hero of World War One”, told how Studdert Kennedy, who first supported the War as an Army Chaplain, worked in the 1920s with returning soldiers whose experiences had led to their total disillusionment with the Church.
Studdert Kennedy strongly influenced William Temple, who also been pro-war (saying that the Germans had made a god of the State), but as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1942 to his death in 1944 gave strong support to the establishment of the Welfare State. By contrast, Bishop Bell of Chichester (friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer) was blocked by Winston Churchill as a candidate for Canterbury because he had opposed the bombing of German cities.
The question of whether the Christian task of “peace-making” (Matthew 5:9) requires a stand of pacifism has always been a dilemma for Christians. One who argues it does is the Mennonite John Howard Yoder in his “The Politics of Jesus” (1972). Jesus says that his disciples need to “lose their life” if they wish to “save it” (Mark 8:35). But the sad fact is that in recent years, many congregations have been too obsessed with their own growth or decline and survival to even consider such matters and to play a creative part in, for example, Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia, or Palestine and Israel.
Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 12 (our reading that morning) quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy “the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah” (31, verses 31 to 34). Hebrews goes on to say (verse 13) that this makes the “first one obsolete”, and it will “soon disappear”. Much Jewish-Christian dialogue today would say that was “anti-semitic”- but perhaps both Israel and the Church today are in desperate need of a “new covenant”, one where “I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts” (verse 10).
It has always been true that in politics where good people abdicate their responsibility, bad ones take over and fill the vacuum. But does the Church have any resources which might enable it to make its own contribution, without simply parroting the slogans of existing groups and parties? Two possibilities might be “Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire”, by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmat (2004); and Walter Wink’s “The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millenium” (1998).
Both Yoder and Wink point us to the Book of Revelation, which has too long been abandoned to the crazy “End Times” people, rather than being seen for what it really is: a hard-headed and thoroughly realistic examination of power and political realities in our world. Simon Woodman’s “The Book of Revelation” (2008) is a valuable guide here.
References:
Caroline Benn on Keir Hardie: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2529003.Keir_Hardie
Bob Holman on Keir Hardie: https://www.waterstones.com/book/keir-hardie/bob-holman/9780745953540
and on Studdert Kennedy: https://spckpublishing.co.uk/woodbine-willie
William Temple Foundation: https://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/
J H Yoder- The Politics of Jesus: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19133.The_Politics_of_Jesus
Walsh and Keesmat- Colossians Remixed: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/259203.Colossians_Remixed
Wink- The Powers that Be: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62029.The_Powers_That_Be
Simon Woodman- The Book of Revelation: https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334041047/book-of-revelation