Madison Avenue Jesus

Dear Jesus,

It seems to me that you have no conception of decency and good manners. Apparently you have never really understood the white man's religion. If you had, you would not have begun your public ministry by calling for repentance. I mean, repentance is radical change, a recognition of guilt, a reversal of its past, an about-face. You can't expect that from people.

You must have read the multitude of studies that show beyond a shadow of a doubt that no means of communication can do more than make very slight changes. But you talk about "rebirth." What nonsense! And all this talk about the Holy Spirit is so much childish superstition.

You ought to focus on smaller changes that might reasonably be expected. But no. You make outrageous demands that force people to conclude that you are irresponsible. The only other thing they could conclude is that the entire present world order is fundamentally wicked, and that is preposterous. Your whole position is so extreme that either you or they have got to be stark raving mad.

And you demand! You don't simply request or suggest. Who are you to make demands on people? You must recognize your place. You should come, hat in hand, and tactfully discuss what you feel is needed.

Listen: We're in the midst of a national crisis, and we just can't afford to indulge ourselves in utopian idealism and emotional tirades. What we need are not wild-eyed prophets but hard-headed technicians who are willing to compromise their principles occasionally.

Now don't misunderstand me. I agree with your goals; it is your methods that bother me. I realize that you are young, and youth is impatient. But you must learn that these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, you know. You should aim for gradual, evolutionary development rather than for rebirth. People don't just repent, and all of a sudden redirect their lives. To change your lifestyle is a long, slow process.

And take this matter of tact. You have a splendid opportunity to communicate with the scribes and the Pharisees, our national leaders, and what do you do? Talk to them nicely as any sensible young man would? No, of course not. You call them, "hypocrites," "whited sepulchers full of dead men's bones." What kind of idiocy is that? It is certainly no way to win friends and influence people.

The scribes and Pharisees are the people you really need … they are the opinion molders, the ones with power and money. You just can't afford to offend them. How are you and your followers going to continue living by faith if you alienate all the people with money?

Remember, win the leaders and you have won. But no, you have everything backwards. You are only nice to the other side—publicans and sinners, fishermen and prostitutes, Samaritans and lepers, madmen and cripples. Riff-raff.

Can't you understand that what you need is men with status? They control all the institutions, the machinery of society, the good jobs. That's what counts. The people are irrelevant. You won't get far in this old world of ours if you don't carve out a place for yourself in some institution.

Not to mention that respectable people wouldn't be seen with the trash around you. What middle-class Jewish mother could let her children associate with you when there are all those outcasts around you? Why, it would be a disgrace! What would her neighbors say?

The people you spend your time with are so vile that they know themselves that they need to repent. Why don't you attack them instead of decent people? The way you act you must think there is something wrong with being decent enough to be satisfied with yourself.

And don't give me that bit about not putting new wine in old wine skins. If respectable people were to change gradually, it would still be change even if they never did repent. It would be nice to bring people to the point of repentance, but you can't have everything.

Besides, your idea of repentance is absurd. You can hardly expect an upright citizen to believe that in the eyes of a righteous God he is no different from a leprous, Samaritan prostitute. It is flat contrary to the white man's religion to think that he is no better than anyone else and that his decency is a farce. You just have to learn to accept rich young rulers as they are.

Furthermore, why can't you be positive occasionally instead of always stressing guilt and sin and past mistakes? This country has a glorious tradition you should dwell on. Our people have done many wonderful things. Why don't you say that once in a while?

I suggest that you lead an "Honor Israel Day," and then people will listen to what criticisms you do have. But if you criticize all the time, the majority is going to conclude that you are just a rebellious malcontent with a permissive father who needs to assuage his own guilt feelings and sense of inadequacy.

You see, you need to think more about your public image. There are times when you can't do all you would like to do because it might be misunderstood. If you do it anyway, you will find later that people won't pay any attention to you when an even more important issue arises.

Let the case of Micaiah be a lesson to you. At a crucial time in the history of Israel and Judah, Ahab and Jehoshaphat needed some good, solid advice. Micaiah was the only person who could give it, but by then he was not a credible figure. As Ahab explained, "I hate him; for he doth not prophecy good concerning me, but evil" (1 Kings 22:8). Now if only Micaiah had kept silent earlier and not always been harping on Ahab's weak points, he could have averted a major tragedy. Image is a very important thing.

You may well say that credibility can only be achieved at the price of becoming part of the wickedness that needs to be repented of. But that's precisely my point: you need to learn to think positively instead of dwelling on idealistic notions of wickedness and repentance and non-compromise.

It is true, of course, that if Micaiah had been silent before and had gradually built up a good reputation with the king, then he might have feared losing it and not spoken out when the time came. Or silence in the face of earlier evil might have so dulled his sensitivities that he would have had nothing to say. But who are we to judge?

Honestly Jesus, you are so confused I hardly know what more to say. All this talk about love in a world that only understands power. And surely it is a mistake to insist that you came "not to bring peace, but a sword." At a time like this people need to be reconciled to each other, and you can't do that by insisting on righteousness. Personally, I am left absolutely speechless when I hear you tell responsible citizens to sell what they have. Don't you realize how this strikes at the very heart of our economy?

So I just don't know what to say. But I do know this. If you continue following your present pattern, the same thing will happen to you as happened to John the Baptist and most of the prophets in the Old Testament.

Now, if you really want to accomplish something, here is what I suggest …

Reprinted from The Other Side with permission.

John F. Alexander was editor of The Other Side when this article appeared.