On Christian Values (1 April 2004)

There's a parable that Jesus tells, about the Pharisee and the tax collector who go to the temple. The tax collector, overwhelmed with the knowledge of his sin, bows his head in the presence of God and prays bent over, humbled by his own weakness, asking for mercy. The Pharisee stands nearby, looking at the sinner in scorn. His prayer is different. It's a prayer of praise: Thank You, Lord, that I am not like other men.

I've been thinking a lot about that story lately. Everywhere I turn, I hear talk that the Bahamas is a nation "founded on Christian values". A year or so ago, before the Constitutional Commission began holding its public meetings, many discussions took place that invoked the inaccurate concept that the Bahamas is a Christian nation; being "founded on Christian values" is not exactly the same thing.

I for one am glad for the distinction.

Before you pray down hellfire/call my archbishop on me, let me explain. There are two main reasons for my gladness.

The first is obvious, but it receives too little airplay. Not everybody in this country is a Christian. Literally. There are enough Bahamians out there who profess different faiths — Rastafarians, Muslims, Mormons, Buddhists, and countless others — for the idea that the Bahamas is a Christian nation to give the lie to their citizenship. I'm very glad our Constitution does not do that. And I wouldn't talk about that other group of Bahamians — far larger than the public discussion would allow — who profess no faith at all.

The second is not so obvious, but it has a lot to do with the Pharisee and the tax collector.

You see, we talk a whole lot about Christianity in this nation. It's our national pastime; nothing appears to make us happier than to discuss our blessings, our evidence that God loves us oh-so-very-specially.

I once had taught a group of students who informed me that Hurricanes Michelle and Floyd did not do as much damage in the Bahamas as they did to South Florida because we Bahamians were the new chosen people of the twenty-first century. Now beyond the fact that being the Lord's chosen scared the pants off me (think of all the trials and tribulations visited upon the Children of Israel since God made that arrangement with Jacob), I'm not so convinced that how Christian we are had all that much to do with it. After all, the Lord was willing to spare the cities of the plain if there were even ten good men in them. And then there's always that little matter of building codes.

See, I don't buy the idea that the good Lord loves us any more than anyone else. And to claim it sounds awfully to me like praising God that we are not like other men.

There's another reason I'm glad that our Constitution talks about Christian values and not about Christianity itself. It's this: despite our penchant for discussing the rules and regulations about our faith, despite our declamations about what God thinks is right and what God thinks is wrong, despite our proclamations about how we are supposed to live and our heavy implications about what God will do to those who veer from the straight and narrow way, we rarely talk about Christian values.

I'm not talking about the stuff the Pharisees looked at when they made the measure of men and discovered that they were the greatest — how much they tithed, how often they prayed, what they did on the Sabbath, where they sat in the synagogues.

I'm talking about what God, in the form of Christ, actually did and said when He was around.

(Allow me to take a moment to apologize to all those Bahamians I mentioned above, who may not accept the idea of Jesus Christ as God. I am not intentionally excluding you from this discussion; but the fact is, the common Bahamian invocation of Christian values assumes His divinity.)

Jesus hung out with fishermen and tax collectors and whores and other women. He took the Scriptures that everybody knew, and interpreted them in a new and radical way. He healed on the Sabbath, broke bread with sinners, and lost his temper in the Temple. He preached humility and forgiveness, and reminded everyone, religious leaders included, that they were not free of sin.

He had a wealth of stories that challenged the religious norms of the day. He even recognized the Samaritans, who (like Haitians here, today) were outcasts in Roman Jewish society. He told his followers not to lay up treasures on earth. He advised people against judging others, and spoke about motes and beams and camels and needles and mercy and forgiveness and vengeance's belonging to God.

Christian values.

So much of our current discussion on our Constitution and its proposed amendments seems to have been come out of the pages of the Old Covenant, not the New. It's legalistic, not Christian; it addresses the appearance, and not the heart, which God judges. The beams in the eyes of those who are looking for motes run the risk of blinding us all.

So allow me to rejoice in the fact that the preamble of our Constitution reminds us of Christ's values, not of ours. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation. Judge not that ye be not judged. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, and soul.

And love thy neighbour as thyself.