Empires Prefer a Baby and the Cross to the Adult Jesus

Published on Friday, December 24, 2004 by the Guardian/UK
Empires Prefer a Baby and the Cross to the Adult Jesus
From Constantine to Bush, power has needed to stifle a revolutionary message

by Giles Fraser

Every Sunday in church, Christians recite the Nicene Creed. "Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven. And was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary and was made man; was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried; and the third day rose again according to the Scriptures." It's the official summary of the Christian faith but, astonishingly, it jumps straight from birth to death, apparently indifferent to what happened in between.

Nicene Christianity is the religion of Christmas and Easter, the celebration of a Jesus who is either too young or too much in agony to shock us with his revolutionary rhetoric. The adult Christ who calls his followers to renounce wealth, power and violence is passed over in favor of the gurgling baby and the screaming victim. As such, Nicene Christianity is easily conscripted into a religion of convenience, with believers worshipping a gagged and glorified savior who has nothing to say about how we use our money or whether or not we go to war.

Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire with the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312, after which the church began to back pedal on the more radical demands of the adult Christ. The Nicene Creed was composed in 325 under the sponsorship of Constantine. It was Constantine who decided that December 25 was to be the date on which Christians were to celebrate the birth of Christ and it was Constantine who ordered the building of the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Christmas - a festival completely unknown to the early church - was invented by the Roman emperor. And from Constantine onwards, the radical Christ worshipped by the early church would be pushed to the margins of Christian history to be replaced with the infinitely more accommodating religion of the baby and the cross.

The adult Jesus described his mission as being to "preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed". He insisted that the social outcast be loved and cared for, and that the rich have less chance of getting into heaven than a camel has of getting through the eye of a needle. Jesus set out to destroy the imprisoning obligations of debt, speaking instead of forgiveness and the redistribution of wealth. He was accused of blasphemy for attacking the religious authorities as self-serving and hypocritical.

In contrast, the Nicene religion of the baby and the cross gives us Christianity without the politics. The Posh and Becks nativity scene is the perfect tableau into which to place this Nicene baby, for like the much-lauded celebrity, this Christ is there to be gazed upon and adored - but not to be heard or heeded. In a similar vein, modern evangelical choruses offer wave upon wave of praise to the name of Jesus, but offer little political or economic content to trouble his adoring fans.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1224-08.htm

it explains why the Christian right never mention what Christ said. it also examples why millions thought Gibson psycho portrayal of Christ`s death struck such a nerve with the fundamentalists. no wonder Laura had to go to the old testament for the official whitehouse Christmas card ,the meek shall inherit the earth? suffer the children unto me for they are born without sin? or the real message bush never wants to hear-render unto Caesar Caesar`s and unto god god`s-or something to that effect.that passage is the foundation of the Coptic church, which in my mind, is closer to the true teachings than the greco-roman christian religion. i believe christ was a man with a message to all people then and now.

They rather peddle some variant of Oral Roberts's seed faith nonsense, the theology that if one gives money to the Church, G_d will make you rich.

by claiming that the "eye of a needle" was actually the name of one of the gates to the city of Jerusalem, and that the Bible didn't mean a literal eye of a needle...

Ah yes, the wonderous hypocrisy of those who claim to accept the Bible literally -- except when it is inconvenient for them...

sent it to all my christian friends. If only Christ were celebrated in this way. thanks again and happy holidays
Scott

It expresses very well what I've long felt about "Christians" who first failed to walk the talk, then stopped talking altogether except to make demands for blind, unreasoning obedience.

This says it all: "... this Christ is there to be gazed upon and adored - but not to be heard or heeded."

Those who follow this kind of Christianity hear and heed not Jesus, but the false teachers -- who want only to enforce and use blind faith and obedience of the many for their own corrupt purposes of power and profit for the few.

MILK showed just how powerful a MSG Christ's teachings were/are in a Christian society.

(do you suppose thats why he was despised and killed)

Could the same leader rise and be as effective, today?

though, in todays hopelessly tarnished, cynical and ignorant America who would trust anything a preacher said nowadays?

Falwell and Robertson as well as the Catholic priest are sure doing their part in dividing us even further and making sure the above will always be true.

can a secular person ever hope of harnessing the power inherent in Jesus (and all the rest of the peoples wise-men) MSG and deliver it in an acceptable form that unites us once again?

i don't think so... our history is filled with religious leaders out in front of most of our peoples movements and i don't think that has changed.

the only questions are who and when?

however, the www is a variable that may play a large role in shaping the things to come, so maybe, it won't be 1, but many, that the traditional establishment is ill prepared to effectively deal with.

:shrug:

anyways, excellent article. thanks, for sharing :toast:

peace