HOW VERY STRANGE, BUT OH, HOW VERY TRUE!

THE BLOODY LOGIC!

Have you wondered if there is any logic to the outcry of the Jews, in baying for the blood of Jesus, ‘Crucify him. Let his blood come upon us, our children, and their children.

It is a pity that spiritual puzzles like this are neglected by Christians.

How can the evil consequences of a crime done by one person or generation fall upon another? Isn’t this unfair? I am afraid, not. Let me tell you why.

There are two types of crimes. (a) Crimes done by individuals, and (b) crimes done by a community as a whole.

In the case of crimes done by individuals, the consequences are –or must be- limited to the offender alone. If X kills someone, X’s children should not be jailed for it.

In the case of crimes done by a community or nation, as in the case of the judicial murder of Jesus, the burden of its guilt must fall on the people as a whole. The Jews who cried out that Jesus be crucified knew this in the marrow of their bones! [Something that we find so hard to realize even today!]

Why is this so? Well, it is so because the few who directly perpetrated it ACTED ON BEHALF OF EVERYONE ELSE IN THE COMMUNITY. Also, notice this very crucial thing. The priests, whose business it was to get Jesus out of their way, DRAG THE PEOPLE INTO THIS CRIME.

In history, priests have always used the people as instruments for perpetrating their crimes, so that they can appear to be innocent. So, the blood comes upon the crowd and the generations to come after them!

Christians in Kerala need to understand this logic clearly. I must state it even if the vast majority of Christians are averse to understanding anything afresh. [I have written elsewhere about the ‘taboo against knowing’ that afflicts Christians.]

Christians must heed this universal truth -whatever is done by any Christian in a REPRESENTATIVE CAPACITY -a bishop, archbishop, priest etc.- is done by them as a community. Denominational differences don’t apply here. The perpetrators of these crimes represent all of us. So, they act, as it seems to all else, by our consent and endorsement. So, what they do, we too do in an implied and extrapolated sense. So, a community is defiled when a bishop or priest is caught in a heinous crime.

It is useless to protest that this is unjust. In such matters, we need to be rational rather than sentimental. The question to ask here is: -Is there a way to mitigate this unjust logic?

Thank God, there is!

Fortunately, that way is simple and do-able. We can make the larger part of the society understand that such crimes and aberrations are abhorrent in the eye of the faith and the faith community. We denounce such aberrations as contrary to the core values of the biblical faith.

Till we do so, we remain stained by the aberrations that come to light from time to time. It is inevitable that this happens, and it is futile to resent it.

In other words, we involve ourselves in these aberrations either by our silence, or by our senseless attempts to defend the indefensible.

In stating the above, I wish to place on record my gratitude to those who have expressed their resentment about my taking a stand IN PUBLIC against the aberrations –real or alleged- by church leaders in recent years. It made me think through the logic of the inner compulsion I felt to stake a stand in this regard, even incurring the risk that I would be damned as an ENEMY OF CHRISTIANITY.

Often we do things because of inner inspirations, the logic of which we aren’t fully conscious. Clearer understandings of one’s motives, dawn on us when we are denounced. Often, in cognitive matters enemies are our real helpers.

So, there is great value in dissent and criticism. It is this value that no church leader ever realizes. Every one of them regards dissent as defiance of authority. That is largely because they are averse to seeking perfection. In a biblical sense, the seed of spiritual tolerance is seeking perfection. Jesus’s exhortation, ‘BE PERFECT’ can be rephrased as, BE TOLERANT OF DISSENT. This is also the essence of humility. Intolerance of dissent is the well-spring of pride and arrogance. Pride breeds aberrations of diverse kinds.

So, prelates and priests are bound to fall, via crime and corruption, if they become arrogant; especially if they pretend to be ‘meek and humble’ as in the feet-washing ceremony. If you preach a value that you don’t intend to abide by, you can’t help being intolerant. In the priestly context, intolerance is the outworking of hypocrisy. In contrast, truth breeds meekness; and meekness, tolerance.

So, let me state, yet again, the core issue here. Every aberration –crime, and corruption – perpetrated by a Christian leader is also an aberration committed, willy-nilly, by each one of us. By being members of a religious community we come under responsibility for all that the community is. So, if a bishop is accused of rape or fraudulence or worldliness, every Christian too stands accused of the same. Don’t blame the public for this.

A bishop or a priest is there to embody the religious soul of the community. It is their calling to kindle that soul in all of us! So, it is just and necessary that we are judged by what they do. This is the logic of existing as a religious community. It has to be accepted as such.

Given that, we have only two options. (1) Remain passive perpetrators of these crimes and aberrations either by being silent or by defending the indefensible or (2) take an informed public stand against these perversions so that the wider society realizes that these are aberrations and not representative acts.

No third alternative exists.

That being the case, silence in the face of priestly and episcopal offences today is irresponsible and self-demeaning for every member of the Christian community.

As is customary, the perpetrators of aberrations, persuade the community that whitewashing their black misdeeds is our religious duty. Those who swallow this absurdity, degrade themselves and become party to bearing false witness to the Way of Jesus Christ. The more corrupt the church, through its leaders, becomes the more they compel Christians to ask themselves: church or Christ?

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