Jesus has been killed so many times: first by the Roman State, then by the various Christian states, Empires, monarchies who killed, tortured, pillaged, and raped in his name, and finally today by the mulitnational capitalists who take advantage of poor people, spread war, and hatred while espousing so called "Christianity." Christianity is the final thorn in his crown, stab in his side, nail in his wrist. Jesus taught messages of love, resistance, and equality. The church kills him when they ignore the poor, support genocidal wars in Iraq, enable the suffering of the Palestinians abroad and communities of color at home. The same people who killed Jesus run the church today. Everyday they crucify him in a million ways.
So when a preacher with strong language and analysis enters the American imaginary, the media, churches, and parties crucify him like they crucified Jesus. Reverend Jeremiah Wright has suffered the gauntlet of the ideological state apparatus as Barack Obama has struggled to get into a seat of power. For acknowledging racism and genocidal foreign policy, he has been denigrated by Obama and the public alike.
To be Christlike, or Christian, a person must follow in the footsteps of Jesus and confront the horrors of the contemporary world, bare witness to the suffering of others. This is the Jesus and the Christianity that should be resurrected this year. The self-help megachurches and their capitalist empires should fall like Babylon, turn to salt like Sodom and Gomorrah and those who bare witness, multiply food and wine, comfort and love should rejoice. They are the true Christians and in each witness of human suffering, each act of selfless kindness and humility, each confrontation of the state, Jesus is resurrected.
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