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[kroegerd@aol.com]

 What would this look like in a local congregation?  How would a congregation with divergent politcal views see itself "rendering unto...?
 
November 2, 2005
2000 Deaths Later, the Time Has Come to Render to Caesar His Due! 

A well-known and oft-quoted verse in Matthew's Gospel portrays Jesus, responding to a question designed to trap him between competing loyalties. Where does the line fall between what one owes to God and what one owes to the State? To this question Jesus responded, "You render to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar and to God that which belongs to God." His words suggested that the distinction was clear, that there were no gray areas. That is hardly ever the case. 
Christianity has wrestled with these dual loyalties over the centuries in very different political settings. At the beginning of the Common Era, Christians were persecuted by the State and as a consequence worshiped in the hiddeness of the catacombs. To be a Christian in that era was to be guilty of a capital offense. By the time the 13th century had arrived the roles were reversed as Christianity dominated the State; seating, removing and excommunicating kings. Christian leaders at that time persecuted those deviating from accepted Christian understandings. 
Then there were the more confused times, mostly post-Renaissance, when Church and State lived in a poorly defined, ambiguous relationship. That is the situation today in the Western World. Europe is now a secular society in which the Church has been marginalized, while in the United States, religion has experienced a rebirth of zeal, and seeks to force a particular world-view on the people of this nation. The Federal Government, for example, now funds "Faith-based initiatives." Catholic Bishops threaten to deny communion to Catholic politicians unless they promise to impose Catholic sexual values on the country's population. A president nominates one to the Supreme Court because she is "an evangelical Christian." Strangely, however, this same president lectures the people of Iraq on how inappropriate it would be for them to adopt a constitution that would place a fundamentalist Islamic regime into power. 
"Render to Caesar" has been used historically, to support the state's power of taxation, to affirm a lofty patriotism and to assert one's loyalty to one's country. After all, Paul does say in Romans that we are "to be subject to the higher authority, since all authority is of God." 
I, for one, do feel I owe my country a great deal. I relish the freedom that Americans enjoy and the ideals for which this country stands. I think the taxes I pay to my government are still the best bargain in my budget. Yes, of course, I am aware that not all of our tax dollars are spent wisely. 'Pork' fed to voters back home is the lifeblood of politics. This nation's lawmakers have been known to authorize the financing of a bridge in Alaska that goes nowhere. Government waste, and sycophants who feed regularly at the public trough, are facts of life. Even when these things are taken into account, however, I still believe that the freedom and liberty this country provides, its strength that guarantees our peace is worth everything I pay in taxes. I do not agree with my friend Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, that the money I make is rightly mine and that taxes are the government's confiscation of what is my own. Taxes, I believe, are the payment that I am called upon to make for the privilege of enjoying life in this great nation. If that is what "Render to Caesar" means, then I am prepared to do so and joyfully. 
There is, however, much more to this admonition than just that. I also believe it is my duty as a Christian to bear a public witness against policies that "Caesar" adopts when these policies violate all that I consider holy. In the Judeo-Christian tradition that is traditionally the role of the prophet. When Israel's religion was co-opted by the King, it was the prophets who called their King to accountability. Prophecy had nothing to do with predicting the future; it had everything to do with speaking uncomfortable truth inside the citadels of political power. 
I consider a man named Nathan to be the father of the prophetic movement in Israel. This man stood before King David, armed only with a sense of the rightness of the moral order, and accused him of being guilty of both an adulterous relationship with a woman named Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband Uriah. When Nathan described the King's immoral behavior in a parable, which caused the King to think he was describing another citizen of his realm, the King was irate and said that the man who had done what had Nathan related must surely be put to death. In one of the most dramatic moments in the entire biblical story, Nathan looked straight into King David's eyes and said, "You are the Man!" That is the supreme biblical illustration of what it means to "Render to Caesar that which is due to Caesar." We owe the Caesars in every generation a call to truth when truth is violated; a call to responsibility when incompetence is displayed and a call to morality when evil is rampant. I do not want a religious state, but I do want a state in which the voice of religious judgment can still be heard. 
My current head of state, my Caesar, took this nation into a war in Iraq that has now cost the lives of 2000 of our youngest and most patriotic citizens. It has cost this nation's armed forces more than 15,000 others who have been wounded, some destined to face life crippled or blind. The suffering and loss of life among the people of Iraq has yet to be told or counted. Billions of dollars have been spent to prosecute this war that will place our children and grandchildren in debt for the balance of their lives. I do not mean to suggest that war is never justified. I am not a pacifist, though I admire the witness of the pacifists among us. In my opinion war is sometimes essential in the defense of life and liberty. The leaders of any government, however, must make that case to its people before the sacrifice that war always brings can possibly be justified. The necessity for this war was said by our Caesar to be that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq was developing chemical and biological weapons, and that Iraq was building a nuclear arsenal. None of these things were true. In his State of the Union address in 2003 our President informed this nation that British Intelligence had learned of an Iraqi purchase from Niger of a substance called 'yellow cake,' needed in the development of nuclear weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency knew at the time that this was not so, and members of this administration would soon move to punish those who countered their false version of "truth." The people of this nation were assured that our armed forces would be welcomed in Iraq as liberators. Three years later this claim is patently not so. Our Caesar, standing on an aircraft carrier dressed in full battle gear announced in May of 2003, "our mission is accomplished." More people would die after that victory announcement than had died before it was made. This war was necessary, our leaders stated, because Iraq housed, trained and supported the terrorists who attacked us on 91l. No such connection has ever been documented. 
In the worst-case scenario, we have an administration in the United States that has deliberately lied to the people. In the best-case scenario we have an administration so inept that it does not recognize the truth. There is no other alternative. 
This nation, led by this President, has also refused to treat enemy prisoners according to the provisions of the Geneva Agreement. Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib now stain the national soul. This inhumane treatment goes unpunished to this day except for a few enlisted personnel who could hardly have set this tone without higher approval. Supporters of these methods of torture including the Vice-President and the Secretary of Defense, say that this treatment is necessary because of who the terrorists are. To this self-serving explanation Senator John McCain, who himself knows something about what it means to be an inhumanely treated prisoner of war, replied "This is not about who they are, it is about who we are!" While calling on members of our armed services to make the ultimate sacrifice, this administration has asked sacrifices of no one else. Perhaps that will change this winter when the poor begin to pay war-inflated prices to heat their homes. The oil industry, so closely allied with this administration, will not share that sacrifice, however, since it will be too busy counting its record profits. 
While all of this is bombarding our consciences, this administration diverts the attention of our people from these great moral issues by playing on fears and prejudices. As members of our armed forces die daily in a war entered without honesty, and from which we do not seem to know how to extricate ourselves with dignity, the national debate concentrates on the position a potential nominee to the Supreme Court might have on gay marriage and the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body! 
The time has come for us to "Render to Caesar" what is appropriate, what is due to Caesar. The prophetic word of judgment must again be heard in the public arena. The 'Nathans' of our day must rise up and speak the 'Word of the Lord' to our Caesar. That 'Word,' it seems to me begins with the 9th Commandment: You shall not bear false witness. It continues: You must not kill or cause others to be killed for inadequate reasons. You must not treat those defined as enemies as if they are not themselves human being made in God's image. You must not violate everything for which this nation stands by acting contrary to those principles. The enormity of Caesar's power is best seen in the example Caesar sets for the rest of the world to follow. 
Christian voices of this land must now be prepared to render to Caesar the things that are due to Caesar: truth, confrontation, and judgment. Patriotism and national devotion demand it. 
When Nathan confronted King David, the King repented, changed his path and went on to greatness. Perhaps if we like Nathan, will render to Caesar that which is due Caesar, something similar will occur. I hope so. If it does then we will recognize that we have also been rendering to God the things that are God's. 
? John Shelby Spong 
  
Question and Answer
With John Shelby Spong
John Ruddick from North Sydney, Australia, writes: 
Besides the Bible, what other sacred text that mankind has produced over the millennia would you consider to be the most helpful to 21st century people? 
Dear John, 
I find it very difficult to respond to your question the way you have framed it. There are thousands of texts, ancient and modern, that would be very helpful to 21st century people. 
However, if your desire is to line up the sacred texts of all the great religions of the world then I do not think you understand the issues. A sacred text is not perfect or inerrant. However, it does chart the history of the faith traditions in which people live their lives. The task of a person of faith is to explore the depths of the tradition in which he or she lives, transcend its limits, and separate its wheat from its chaff. One cannot do that unless one knows that sacred text of that tradition deeply and well. To try to do that with a variety of texts is to guarantee shallowness. Of course, that Bhagavad-Gita, the Koran and other ancient texts of human history have value. However, real appreciation comes only with a depth of knowledge about each. I seek, therefore, to master the sacred texts of my own faith tradition in all of their beauty, profundity, uniqueness and even their negativity. I seek to appreciate the others. I am reading the Bhagavad-Gita at this very moment. I know, however, that I will never be able to master the subtleties of a faith tradition in which I was not reared, so I try not to be very specific in commenting on the treasures of another faith tradition. Hope this helps! 
? John Shelby Spong 


 

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