Restoring God’s Image — (Part 1)

Peter TeWinkle
Aug 25, 2017 · 6 min read

I’m thinking about writing a book. It’s about the way we imagine God and how we embody that image in our lives (or not). I’m going to test it out on Medium. I’ve already posted the Preface. Below I start the Introduction. Here we go!

Trinity, Andrei Rublev

“The gods conceived of as the friends of cruel spectacles…” — Nietzsche, Genealogy

I have an agenda. I imagine that most writers do. I have no need to hide it and, in fact, I think that you’ll agree with the agenda even if you don’t appreciate the approach. I’m not sure of your faith background as you read these words. It’s likely that you’re Christian. If you’re not, we likely have more in common than you think.

As a pastor, I do think it is worth knowing what the Bible has to say about God. I believe that it is encouraging to understand what God is up to in Jesus’ life and death. I still have a hope that the church can offer a taste of a better way of life in the world today. However, none of that really captures the agenda I have for this book. So, while I do trust that Jesus is worth the bother, my agenda goes beyond a religious faith.

My agenda has something to do with the quote above. Too often the word “god” is used to justify cruel spectacles. And, not only cruel spectacles, but “god” is used to sanction beliefs, divisions, politics, wars, marriages, parenting techniques, and many ways of life in general. When those ways are violent and abusive and “god” is behind them, then God becomes the problem.

Again, my agenda is not related to a religious faith, but to a way of life that is violent, seeks revenge, uses punishment to control others, and uses “god” to justify those behaviors. My agenda is with nations who use war, terrorists who use bombs, gangs who use guns, husbands who use fists, and parents who use belts. I want to disempower anyone at all who gets satisfaction out of punishing and especially with those who claim “god” to make it o.k. I have a hunch that you share that agenda and I want to suggest to you that God is on your side too. This is part of what I mean by restoring God’s image.

One of the books I read in preparing for writing this book is called The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Punishment. It’s written by T. Richard Snyder, a man who spent a lot of time in a teaching ministry at the infamous Sing Sing Prison. Out of 50–60 applicants, 14–16 men would join him for conversations about the Bible, theology, and life. He noticed in those men an incredible enthusiasm for learning and wrestling with ideas. He considered them students. He also noticed the regular disdain from guards. The guards didn’t trust the inmates and thought that they were all con men. Many, but certainly not all, of the guards considered the inmates scum.

We’re left to wonder if the response of the guards was different between those who held a belief in a god and those who didn’t. Who was more judgmental? Who was quicker to punish? Who saw less possibility for redemption? Who was more encouraging? Who wanted to see the inmates succeed in education and life? I’d like to think that those who believed in a god were less judgmental and more encouraging. Often studies show that the opposite is the case.

“Old Sparky” hvmag.com

For example, Helen Prejean in her book Dead Man Walking, writes that Christians are slightly more in favor of the death penalty than the general population. T. Richard Snyder writes, “There is a spirit of punishment in the air. Our society is wallowing in the ethos of punishment, nowhere more evident than the way in which we deal with criminals, but not limited to that response.” (p. 5) I don’t know if punishment is the word that I want to use for this book, but I do agree that there is a “spirit in the air.” It is controlling. When it doesn’t get its way it becomes cruel.

There is a way of thinking and feeling about crime and punishment, about security and safety, about difference and division that is often about revenge and violence. It’s more than just a group of individuals or a segment of society. We experience it from our parents and teachers in the form of discipline. We dish it out on the playground when we are treated unfairly. These rules of life we learn as children are rarely questioned and they are often reinforced. It’s in movies and TV, it’s in laws and codes, and it’s even in church.

It is a way of thinking and feeling that sees punishment and revenge as the right way to respond when wrongs are committed. This way of thinking seeks to control others and becomes cruel when they don’t obey. When someone offends or hurts us it feels so natural to expect them to make amends. And, it often feels so good (even if we don’t want to admit it) when the way they make up for it includes some kind of punishment, violent if necessary.

T. Richard Snyder and many others, myself included, wonder if one of the reasons this “spirit in the air” exists is because of the church. The reason there is little difference in the ways of thinking and feeling between Christians and non-Christians is because we have all bought into the same system. While most of the population is not sitting in church on Sunday morning, we all live in a country that uses “god” in its Pledge of Allegiance and its money. Our President swears an oath of office on the Bible. The stories of this same Bible were there as men thought about crime and punishment, security and safety, difference and division at the founding of this country.

What I want to suggest is that God has been misused in all of the above. In my mind the problem is found in the way that we talk about God. In particular, the way that the church has taught about Jesus and his death has contributed to a cruel spirit of control which is the source of so much trauma and conflict today. This “spirit” has been around for so long that we no longer even know where it came from when we experience it or ask for it. It all just seems so natural and necessary for us even if we are not religious people at all.

However, if we are going to address issues of revenge and violence and cruel and unusual punishment we need to address the foundation on which they are built. If we want to see more people devoted to healing trauma and resolving conflict among the nations, in the streets and at home, we will need a different spirit to inspire them. It will require a spirituality and symbols and rituals because that’s how culture has always been and always will be shaped. I agree with T. Richard Snyder that “the basic problem…is neither a lack of awareness nor a lack of alternatives but rather that our culture is captive to a spirit of punishment. Until we address this spirit, all calls to reform will fall upon ears that cannot hear and hearts that cannot feel.” (p. 3)

In the rest of this introduction, I’ll give you a brief summary of the ways of thinking and feeling about Jesus that have helped to create or at least validate this “spirit of punishment.” My hope is that in the remainder of this book one of two things will happen. If you’re a Christian already, I hope that you will reconsider the way you think and feel about Jesus’ death and open yourself to a different spirit that is more true to the Spirit of Jesus. There ought to be no hint nor suggestion that the God we belong to is a “friend of cruel spectacles.” If you’re not a Christian, I invite you to take this alternative view of Jesus’ death into conversations with Christians. Challenge them and change them because we need it. Here’s Part 2 of Chapter 1.

“Lucky Jesus”

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Peter TeWinkle

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Partner, Parent, Pastor & potential Placemaker pursuing God's peace and stopping occasionally to play golf.

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