Conspiracy and Conflict
James 3:1-12
September 13, 2009
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
I don’t know about you, but I really like conspiracy movies. I’m not sure what it is about them, but I love them. Whenever any come on television, I’m glued.
I do have a favorite one, although I haven’t seen it in over fifteen years. It is a movie called Capricorn One. It’s about three astronauts who are scheduled to fly to Mars for the first landing on Mars. One of the astronauts is O. J. Simpson, back in the day when we thought he was okay. As the countdown begins, the astronauts are put into a sleeker, more modern version of the Apollo moon mission capsule. The countdown continues to the final 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,… lift off! You see the rocket lifting off on televisions across the country. Then we see the astronauts in the capsule. They are looking at each other bewildered because nothing is happening. Their rocket is still sitting on the launch pad. Then the door opens and the three are ushered out.
They are told that there is a problem with the rocket. Eventually they are taken out into the desert where they are placed in a makeshift filming studio that looks exactly like the surface of Mars. They are told that the government couldn’t afford a real Mars mission trip, so they are to fake it for he sake of the country.
After complying for a while, the astronauts eventually rebel. At that point they are threatened with death. Meanwhile, the public is told that they all died in a fiery explosion on Mars. The three astronauts escape into the desert and are hunted by government agents in black helicopters. One-by-one they are killed until the last one finally makes it to civilization and tells the world he is alive. The conspiracy is revealed.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved conspiracy films, novels, and theories. For instance, I like History Channel conspiracy documentaries on the assassination of JFK, shows on the conspiracies of secret societies and government agencies, and even cover-ups of UFO sightings. Now, to be honest, I rarely believe any of them, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like watching them, especially if I’m folding laundry. Conspiracy makes for great entertainment, which is good because we are bombarded nowadays by conspiracy. I spent about 15 minutes on Saturday afternoon listing all the recent popular films that have conspiracies at their core. Here’s my list:
Eagle Eye
Star Wars: Phantom Menace Attack of the Clones Revenge of the Sith
The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum
JFK, No Way Out the X-Files movies
Enemy of the State Conspiracy Theory The Manchurian Candidate Syriana Clear and Present Danger The Da Vinci Code Angels and Demons and even,… Harry Potter
What’s our obsession with conspiracies? Obviously I find them entertaining, but there’s something more here. Our culture is obsessed with conspiracies. Think about all the conspiracies theories people in our culture believe in. Again, I spent about fifteen minutes thinking about conspiracy theories, and here’s what I came up with:
The Assassinations of JFK by either the Russians, the Cubans, or the CIA. The assassination of RFK by the FBI or the Mafia. The assassination of Martin Luther King either by the FBI or the KKK. The assassination of Malcom X by either the FBI or the Muslim Nation (the FBI is popular among conspiracy theorists, as is the CIA). The faking of the 1969 Moon Landing. The secret plot for Jewish World Domination, which is based on the book, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Nixon cover-up, which, well… actually was a conspiracy. The New World Order, which through the United Nations is planning on taking over the world. The Skull and Bones secret society at Yale University, which has had a number of U.S. presidents and other powerful figures as their members. The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy cited by Hillary Clinton. The suicide of Vince Foster, an aide to President Clinton, who was said to have really been killed by Clinton or his minions back in the 1990s. In fact, there is a whole conspiracy theory about what is called “The Clinton Body Count,” which is a suspicion that Bill Clinton killed or had killed 50 to 60 people who stood in the way of his becoming president. The Freemasons, which I believe is the next conspiracy target of Dan Brown’s new novel (Brown is the author of the The DaVinci Code). The 9/11 conspiracy, which says that 9/11 either was orchestrated by the Jews to get the world to hate Muslims, or by the Bush Administration for their own nefarious reasons. There’s the whole Obama birther conspiracy, the belief that he was really born in Kenya and faked his U.S. birth certificate. A recent one I’ve heard is that Obama is hiding his college transcripts from the public for some sinister reason. There is also a conspiracy theory surrounding the digital television conversion. The theory is that the converter boxes and the new digital televisions have secret cameras integrated in them so that we can be watched (so make sure you don’t dress in front of your television, or Big Brother will see you naked).
I look around at our culture, and I’m now wondering if our collective love of conspiracies is infecting our souls. I’m wondering if all this belief in conspiracy is leading to our increase in conflict. The fact is that nowadays, especially in the political arena, people constantly see diabolical reasons behind every idea. I think this has an eroding effect in which people don’t trust each other because we suspect everyone of having hidden, evil motives. The result is that nobody trusts anyone else, at least on a large scale, and it is leading to a tremendous amount of conflict. Everyone is right, and everyone else is wrong. And we are a culture in severe conflict.
This conflict has even infected our churches. It’s amazing nowadays how many on the right see a liberal conspiracy in the offices of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to erode the morality and belief in Christ, and how many on the left see an evangelical conspiracy to destroy our denomination for their own purposes.
Everywhere I look I see conflict, and it’s leading to the point where treating others with disdain is becoming more acceptable. Because we see others who disagree with us as less than us, it gives us permission to treat them with disdain. Here’s the thing that gets me: We say we’re a Christian nation, but where’s the evidence? It certainly isn’t in how we treat each other. I suppose many of us measure our Christianity based on thinking that we believe the right things or do the right things, but how we behave towards others is the real outward mark of our faith, and I look at the behavior of Americans, and much of it is embarrassing. I hear Barney Frank, a congressman from Massachusetts, say to a protester at a town hall meeting (who herself ignorantly asked, “Why are you supporting this Nazi policy?"), "On what planet do you spend most of your time?... Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table." Then, a few weeks later, Joe Wilson, a congressman from South Carolina, during a speech by President Obama, yells out, “You lie!” And his apologies are less than convincing.
This stuff is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg. Whether we are talking about Serena Williams’ treatment of a line judge in the finals of the U.S. Open, or Kanye West’s protest at the Video Music Awards, there’s an incivility that it ripping apart the culture. I believe that what sparks a lot of this conspiracy and conflict is talk radio, the internet, and the media. The funny thing is that I hear so much that the mainstream media has a liberal bias, but I have to tell you that I don’t see it. And there’s a good reason. Fox News, who often who promotes the “media-is-liberal” talk, is more popular than the other cable news channels combined. That makes them a large part of the mainstream media. Consider also that in this city, and many others, right-wing talk radio dominates the ratings. That makes them the mainstream media. I do believe the mainstream media is biased, but not as much politically as in another way. Their politics go all over the map, but they all share a common bias, which is that they are all biased toward conflict. The mainstream media, the radio, and the Internet love conflict. They can’t get enough. If a leading figure gave a tremendous speech about any topic, but said in the middle of it something critical of another, that’s the part the media would focus on.
This raises a significant problem for us Christians. We love conflict, but at the same time we are called to something more. So many of us Christians have terrible behavior in the way we treat others on scales large and small. They excuse their behavior by saying that because they are right, and they are only speaking truth, they can act that way. For a Christian, even being right doesn’t excuse poor behavior. And the behavior of Christians right and left is actually hurting our brand. Take a look at this recent research by the Barna Group, an evangelical polling organization. They polled a sample of 16-29 year-old non-Christians, and here’s what they found:
• 91% say we are antihomosexual
• 87% say we are judgmental
• 85% say we are hypocritical
• 78% say we are old-fashioned
• 75% say we are too involved in politics
• 72% say we are out of touch with reality
• 70% say we are insensitive to others
I find these statistics appalling. I realize that much of what sparks those beliefs are not the kinds of actions folks from our church engage in, but we are still lumped in with them.
We Christians are called not only to a standard of belief, but especially to one of behavior that rises above the conflict of today. I want you to look at scripture and see what it tells us about how we are to treat others, especially those with whom we disagree. Read our passage above, and listen to what James says about the power of the tongue. Or look in Matthew’s gospel at what Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy’” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”
Read what Paul says in his Letter to the Ephesians: “I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” In his Letter to the Philippians he says, “If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” What if we took these passages seriously not only on a personal level, but in our country? What if we made these beliefs the mark of being a Christian nation?
So how do we get to this better standard of behavior? I think the answer is found in the writings of a Jewish philosopher named Martin Buber. Back in 1923 he wrote a small, groundbreaking book titled I and Thou. In it he stated that the problem with much of human life comes through how we regard each other. He says that when we use a word like “thou” (which is an old English word used to call another “you” in a very personal, intimate way), we are using a word that says “I care about you.” He says that God looks upon each of us a “thou,” and hopes that we will look upon God as “Thou.” When we see ourselves as “I” and another as “thou,” we bind ourselves in a respectful, caring relationship. Regarding others as a “thou” removes conflict and enhances love.
The problem is that we only rarely look at others as “thou.” Instead, we look upon others as a “she,” “he,” “they,” or “it,” meaning that we consider others to be of lesser value or as an object. To consider another as a “she” or “he” means to consider another to be distant and of less importance. When we consider another as an “it,” we consider that person to be almost as nothing. For Buber, the answer to our conflict is to work personally to consider others in the same way God considers them—as a “thou.” We see them as a “thou” even if we disagree with them. This is a key to breaking the cycle of conflict, at least in our lives.
My point here hasn’t been just to blast right-wing talk radio, left-wing blogging, and all your favorite media sources. My point is to remind all of us that we have a higher calling, one that extends beyond the agendas of the media. We have a calling to listen, to be careful in how we speak, to build up. And to get there we have to make a decision to root our thinking and our behavior in Christian values, not the culture’s values.
So, with that, I have a question for you to ponder: What’s the foundation of your behavior? Is it Christianity or something else?
Amen.
