John Dunn

First posted on Sunday, 1 December 2013 at 21:36

You don’t have to be religious to understand the centrality of Jesus to a radical politics for today.

In fact Jesus was suspicious of ‘religious’ practice.

Knowing the other, the enemy, is essential to a vigorous political outlook. Jesus knew.

Jesus said love your enemies, he didn’t say love THE enemy, Mammon.

He went in and whipped the money-changers.

The Jews he confronted were the epitome of those who live disorder as order. Hypocritical self-righteousness was the hallmark of the Pharisees.

Jesus inverted their distorted value system. He said ‘blessed are the meek’, not blessed are the arrogant. He said ‘blessed are those who mourn’, not blessed are the triumphalist. He said ‘blessed are the merciful’, not blessed are the cruel. He said ‘blessed are those who are persecuted’, not blessed are the persecutors.

When the Jews had the Romans crucify Jesus, when he was lifted up on the cross, the natural order, cosmic order, was reasserted.

As God breathed life into the skull of the first man Adam, new life was breathed into mankind at Golgotha, the place of the skull.

The resurrection of Jesus meant new life and a restoration of God’s order.

Yet disorder stalked the earth. Finance, getting rich out of the efforts of others, that’s disorder.

The church councils of the middle ages sought to hold back disorder by banning usury.

The inquisition was about weeding out disorder, exposing those who professed to live to God’s order, but who served disorder.

As soon as the guard was dropped, the money-changers took their chance. Now they rule the world.

The fatuous left-right political dichotomy serves the interests of Mammon.

Those who would reassert God’s order must understand that the only political dichotomy for our times is good versus evil.

No wonder the cultural Marxists would have us all succumb to atheism.

John Dunn.