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January 24, 2005
Day Trip
I am back from my day in Lund, which was a great day-trip adventure. I was on the 7 a.m. bus to catch the 7:33 a.m. train with Lisa and Dave. A delightful two-and-a-half-hour ride later, we were in Lund! Unfortunately, we didn't realize that most everything (museums, galleries, etc.) would be closed on Mondays, but we made the most of it and tramped around the city for a good 6 hours. The city is full of striking architecture, including the academy building, seen here:
Of course, our version was under a couple inches of snow (it was FREEZING--about -2 degrees Celsius the whole day), but lovely nonetheless.
The real highlight of the trip, however, was Lund Cathedral. It was originally built in the 1100s, and it the finest example of Romanesque architecture in the Nordic countries. It was beautiful:
Inside was the real treat.
We were free to walk around and look at the astronomical clock, dating back from the 1400s (we even got to see it's little punch-and-judy show at noon); the crypt downstairs (which was surprisingly airy and non-creepy); and the prayer chapels to the sides. The place was just radiant--we were blessed with one of those bright winter days where the sky is a deep azure blue that only comes when the weather drops below freezing. It was so peaceful, after wandering around for a bit, we just sat on the benches and had some moments of stillness.
Afterwards, I was thinking some deep thoughts. For instance, if you completely put aside the issue of salvation (which, I realize, is critical to the issue of Christianity), and somehow measured:
- All the good things that were done in Jesus' name. This would include big and small acts--such as an individual volunteering at a soup kitchen, an individual sponsoring a child in a developing world, the church's role in the anti-slavery movement; the church's role in hiding Jews during WWII. It would include every "good" (but not necessarily religious) thing every done since the birth of Jesus. To be clear, actually being kind to your neighbor counts, praying for your neighbor does not.
- All the evil things that were done in Jesus' name. Same criteria--big and small acts. The Spanish inquisition, the Crusades, centuries of anti-Semitism, the church's complicity in the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide. Also included are the church's complicity in denying women, gays, divorcees, etc. equal rights (in the political process, not necessarily the church). Also outright ostracism of these gays, Jews, etc. because they don't conform to traditional Christian standards. You get the point.
The question is this:
Which side wins?
It's kind of hard to mentally measure the last 2,000 years in terms of actions done in Jesus' name. Ok, really hard. But I think that overall, the results are kind of negative. The Church has had such a negative role in the world (I'm looking back over 2,000 years, mind you), that the huge genocides, crusades, Inquisitions, and general subverting of equal rights and liberty in favor of consolidating power, that its hard to come up with a viable alternate argument. And while I would like to believe that everyday Christians' simple actions of love and peace somehow outweigh the big, bad stuff, I have to think that over the past two centuries, Christians have also used simple actions of hate in partial (if not equal) measure.
And don't even get me started on the evil stuff that happened "because God said" in the Old Testament. If it's to be believed, God sanctions rape, slavery, stoning, etc. and even occasionally pops down from heaven to bury people alive and decimate cities "to the last man, woman, and child".
Now, just focusing on the New Testament (because I can't even begin to justify the Old Testament), I would like to emphasize that Jesus preached general goodwill, peace, love, joy, and other nice things. How his words have been so twisted, so corrupted, as to have resulted in the last 2,000 years of the Church is beyond me. But it makes a sad case for the healing power of salvation.
And now, with these deep thoughts off my chest, I need to review some work.
