A Life of Service

With Rosalynn Carter’s funeral this week, I’ve been thinking about the legacy of the Carters. I’ve always admired them. They demonstrated how Christian politicians should be—concerned for the poor, focused on peace, and placing their values above greed or power.

Jimmy Carter may not have been the most effective or most popular president, but I think he may be the most admirable ex-president. From divesting from his peanut farm to avoid any semblance of conflict of interest to negotiating the famous Camp David Accords to devoting his later years to building houses and Bible studies, he’s been a role model in a world where good role models seem harder and harder to find.

Jimmy and Rosalynn are also a wonderful example of love. Jimmy’s mother was Rosalynn’s delivery nurse, so they literally knew once another her entire life. They married right after he graduated from the Naval Academy, and they celebrated 77 years of marriage. Jimmy spoke and wrote adoringly of Rosalynn. “Rosalynn was my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished… As long as Rosalynn was in the world, I always knew somebody loved and supported me,” he said after her death.

Monday Motivation: Flannery O'Connor

“I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you fell you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. ”

― Flannery O'Connor

“Alexamenos is faithful.”

One of the earliest depictions of Jesus is a sketch mocking him. The Alexamenos graffito, also known as the graffito blasfemo, was scratched into the plaster of a wall near Palatine Hill in Rome around 200. The building had been an imperial house for Caligula then a boarding school for imperial page boys. It seems the graffiti was done during this time, by boys mocking a Christian in their ranks. The wall was covered up when extensions were added and remained hidden until 1857.

The image shows a figure being crucified with a head of a horse or donkey and a man dressed as a Roman soldier or guard looking on. There seems to be a Greek upsilon, tau cross, or Y written above. The Greek words below say, “Alexamenos worships his god.” It seems to be graffiti mocking a Christian named Alexamenos. There seems to have been a common claim among pagan Romans that Jews and Christians worshiped god in the form of a donkey around the first century. It’s possible that’s why the Christ figure in the drawing has a donkey head.

Tacitus claims the Jews, when wandering in the desert, followed a herd of wild asses to water, and so in the Temple, "they consecrated an image of the animal which had delivered them.” And even though, upon entering the Temple, found its sanctuary to be empty, it must have been from this story, that the notion that Christians, coming from Judaism, also worshipped that image, supposed Tertullian. Contemporary Jewish and Christian writers like Josephus and Tertullian both are seen refuting the charges of donkey worship.

God's Name in Vain

The next year is bound to be a political mess. One of the worst aspects of the current political climate is the way Christian language has been coopted by political ideology. Rather than letting faith dictate how they vote, people let their political beliefs dictate their views of God. The two are so twisted in some circles that for many people, the face of Christianity is this hateful, toxic political movement that glorifies the wealthy and the warmakers.

As children, most of us are taught that the commandment “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain” means not to use God’s name flippantly, as in “Oh my God” or “goddamn.” And that’s part of it. We shouldn’t invoke God flippantly. The Jewish tradition of not mentioning God’s name (Tetragrammaton) unnecessarily comes from this.

The second part of both Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11 both say, “for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that take his name in vain.” It is for this reason that some faith traditions don’t take any oaths, less they swear in the Lord’s name or on the Bible in vain. “In vain” here means using the sacredness of the Lord’s name without honor—without seriousness or to commit a falsehood but make others believe you are telling the truth. It’s about disrespecting God.

Inherited World

It’s the time of year when we are called to reflect on the dead—All Saints, All Souls. Really, we should always be aware of those before and those coming after. We do not exist in a vacuum. We are beholden to the generations before us—our genes, our environment, our political boundaries, our existing laws, our economy, our social mores. We are born into certain circumstances, and then it our lot to maintain or change them. And then it is our duty to pass along something to the next generation. Will it be an inheritance or a debt?

In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis says, “Each generation exercises power over its successors; and each, in so far as it modifies the environment bequeathed to it and rebels against tradition, resists and limits the power of its predecessors.”

That’s why there are generational tensions. The younger generations feel like the older ones cheated them out of an inheritance or the older generations feel like the younger ones don’t appreciate the work put in into maintaining or building the current environment.