Examining the Meaning of the Resurrection, Part V: The "How" Question — What Was the Context in Which Easter Dawned?

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 30 June 2011 1 Comments
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Question

The Wyoming legislature is considering laws that would make it illegal to apply Shariah laws in our courts.  That is incredibly stupid, I know, but apparently that movement is sweeping the country.  Seems to me that since those espousing such laws say they are like Old Testament laws and a few years ago we had Christian Reconstructionists wanting to make Old Testament law the law of the land.  Comments for your articles?

Answer

Dear Dan,

It is an old political trick to come out against something so absurd that it has no chance of ever being seriously entertained by anyone in order to demonstrate your own blue-blooded credentials.  In the current political atmosphere of fear and anxiety, terrorism and revolution, to have your position be seen as anti-Muslim has gained popularity.  It is, however, distinct propaganda.  We might just as well pass laws condemning the invasion of people from outer space.  Newt Gingrich is in my mind the primary political source from which these absurdities seem to originate.  He was the one who suggested that President Obama’s Kenyan father was “streaming” in some subliminal way anti-colonial attitudes on which presumably the president” was acting, perhaps unconsciously.  He was also the one who suggested that some members of the Supreme Court were “weak” in defending Americans from Shariah law.

These positions are so absurd and Gingrich’s endorsement of them is so out of bounds and irrational as to make his potential candidacy something of a joke.  When a politician is content to mine the irrational fears of the electorate in order to gain political traction, I think he or she forfeits any right to political respect.  The days of Newt Gingrich’s national leadership are long over.  It seems that everyone but Former Speaker Gingrich recognizes that.  My recommendation to Newt Gingrich is that he should retire gracefully from public life before he becomes little more than meat for the late night comedians or a 2011 version of Harold Stassen.

Wyoming’s legislation could use its time more profitably in almost any other direction.

~John Shelby Spong

 

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