The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 1983 Page: 4 of 24
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ROLLING THE WHEEL by John Cunyus
"He is invisible persuading
numbers of people all over the
world to accept his faith and be
obedient to his teaching. Can
anyone, in face of this, still doubt
that he has risen and lives or rather
that he is himself the life? Does a
dead man prick the consciences of
men0..."
St. Athanasius
On the Incarnation
Christianity in its institutional
form is almost dead. In making
Jesus Christ a white, middle class
businessman and putting the
values of capitalism and
competition in his mouth, the
architects of modern Christianity
and modern churches have made
the symbol of Christ almost an
absurdity to modern man. In the
name of Christianity, Catholics
and Protestants shoot each other
daily in Ireland, just as in days
gone by Christian raped the
Middle East (the Crusades), Africa
(the slave trade and imperialism),
and India.
Ostensibly they did so to "spread
the Gospel" among the barbaric
and sub-human non-Christians
who lived there. The slave trade
and the perpetuation of the
institution of slavery could be
clothed in the raiment of Christian
righteousness because the blacks
were "backward" and it was the
"Christian" man's duty to bring
them forward. Britain could
assume "the white man's burden"
around the world for the same
reasons.
When Christian Europe divided
itself again and again into armed
camps and bled itself white it did so
— allegedly — in the name of
preserving Christianity. Today,
the Reverend Jerry Falwell gives
lavish support for an insane arms
race because it is carried out by
God-fearing, "Christian" America
in opposition to Godless, atheistic
Russia. Perhaps it is time for us to
take a new look at Christ.
Let us first put the Christianity
of the vast majority of the so-called
Christian West in perspective. The
Protestant Reformation, in
shattering the monolithic unity of
Catholic Christendom, managed
to free secular governing
authorities of Western Europe
from the all-encompassing arm of
the Church and, furthermore,
enabled them more than ever
before to reduce the Christian
religion to no more than an arm of
the state.
Of course this is an
oversimplification. Certainly the
Catholic church of the time was a
corrupt and decadent institution;
nevertheless, the Reformers
unwittingly freed the emerging
nation-states from the one body
that could exert some sort of moral
authority over them. It became
possible for the national
governments of Europe to hide
their imperial pretensions and .
economic exploitation behind the
expropriated tradition of the
Christian religion.
The America Falwell lauds so
thoroughly is, by that token, no
more of a Christian country than
the avowedly atheistic Russia he so
virulently denounces. At least (and
this should not be taken as a
compliment to the Soviet Union)
the Russians don't stand convicted
of the hypocrisy of being a
Christian nation pursuing brutally
non-Christian goals. Christian
America and the Christian West
are no more than fictitious titles
invented by the economically
ascendent elites of the nations
involved to lend some moral
justification to the blind pursuit of
profit at the expense of weaker
peoples around the world.
Let us return to the person of
Christ and the message he
purported to preach. It is relevant
today, the decadence of the so-
called churches notwithstanding? I
would have to say so. The message
of Christ is not, as the legalists
would have us believe, one of harsh
judgement, condemnation, and
social division. The message of
Christ is not a justification for all
manner of injustices done in the
name of Christianity.
The message is one of such
enormous simplicity and utter
ON HONOR by Randy Marshall
Freshman enthusiasm is up as
always this year. Over 45 people
signed up to interview for the t#/o
freshman representative positions
on the Honor Council. The
Council is very conscientious and
thorough with the whole process,
so we spend quite a lot of time
doing the selection, probably more
than is even necessary.
We know that there is a very
good chance the freshman will stay
active with the Council after their
term is up. Both of last year's
freshmen are now officers, and two
of the last four chairmen began
their humble careers as freshman
reps.
After over seven hours of
interview and debate just over the
last 12 finalists, the Council has
chose Susan Lenamon from
Lovett and Patricia Perkowski
from Brown as this year's
representatives. Congratulations!
And while I am doling out
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Students of All Majors and Fields Invited
Come to our meetings to hear about our M.B.A. and
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Accounting Management Science
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Monday, October 10, 1983
Contact Career Placement for Sign-Ups
The Rice Thresher, October 7, 1983, page 4
recognition, I should mention one
other person who is single-
handedly keeping the Honor
System going — Raymond Russell
in Will Rice. He is the only
ombudsman left from last year
(there are usually five),
consequently he has had to sit on
every investigation, hearing and
trial, since we can do almost
nothing without an ombudsman
present.
We had ten cases pending at the
beginning of this year involving
fifteen people, all left over from the
end of last spring. As of this week,
all but one has been handled. Also
this week, the University Court is
finally getting around to properly
choosing our new ombudsmen. I
am sorry that Raymond has had to
bear the brunt of this
incompetency, which is the only
explanation for such a delay.
Anyway, at least the Honor
Council is complete, now that we
have our freshman. Please glance
over this list in case you ever need
to get with any of us. Also the list is
posted in the colleges, with phone
numbers.
Randy Marshall/Chmn./Sid
Greg Jumper/V.Chmn/Baker
Bob Casey/Int. V. Chmn./Wiess
Kevin Dowden/Sec./Sid
Sandie Moon/Trial Clerk/Lovett
Chris Parma/Senior Rep./Sid
Greg Smith/Senior Rep./Sid
see Honor, page 5
beauty that an "intelligent" human
being feels almost compelled to
make it complex and obstruse. It is
a message of love, forgiveness and
hope, of a community of
humankind, and of a release from
the chains of ignorance and hate
that bind us in this world.
Jesus the man was not a white
businessman. He was a member of
an oppressed, despised ethnic
minority that would, 40 years after
his death, be utterly uprooted from
its homeland and dispersed
throughout the world. This ethnic
group was awaiting a Messianic
King who would crush its enemies
and make it the master of the
world.
In the end they utterly rejected
him because he did not offer them
this; given the condition of Israel at
the time, the humiliation it was
forced to endure, one can hardly
blame them for rejecting him. For
his commandments were not those
of a Messianic despot, but of a
loving brother. He urged a people
seething with rage to forgive and to
love and to trust. He told them all
were equal before God, that none
could claim righteousness by right
of birth or economic status, and
that the Kingdom he came to
establish would not be an earthly
kingdom.
In short, he taught that freedom
was not an external, political
condition, but a conviction in one's
own heart and a realization of a
love that had no limits. And the
Falwells of his day said he was an
anarchist, a threat to the state, and
hung him on a cross.
I could end my discussion here
and urge upon you the ideals he
taught: love, justice, and mercy.
Indeed they are powerful, world
transforming ideals. But to leave
Christianity and Christ on the
cross is to strip it of its power and
to make it just another ethically
upright philosophy.
Happily, the story does not end
with a broken body on a cross. In
fact, it does not end at all. For the
man crucified on the cross was
resurrected and lives — even in this
secular age — and his resurrection
has made the agony and death at
the hands of men who did not
understand him into an eternal
victory and an eternal affirmation.
I realize that this is an alien
thought to a rational mind — it is
decried as a fantasy and a pipe-
dream, a delusion. And yet, its
reality was sufficient to transform
twelve very ordinary men into
world-conquering apostles afraid
of nothing this world could do to
them. It is the same power that
exists today and still transforms
weak souls into fearless believers.
Dead men cannot prick one's
conscience, as Athanasius says.
Christ, the love of God and life of
humanity, is alive, and no king or
president can kill him. The
Christian message is a message of
love and reconciliation filled with
power and hope. It is not for weak
hearts or for those afraid to admit
that mysteries exist in this world. It
is for those unafraid to tell the
world what it needs so desparately
to hear — that we are not
Americans or Russians or
Kenyans, but that we are brothers
and sisters in Christ's love. Think
about it. Maybe even pray about it.
THRESHING IT OUT
To the Editor:
There will be no clever preacher
trying to manipulate your
conscience. Nor will anyone
demand to save your soul, require
you to be born again, or pass a
collection basket.
There will be an invitation to
share life with others for a brief
time. There will be singing of
simple repetitive Latin and English
melodies interspersed with periods
of silent contemplation. There will
be a journey into the neighbor-
hoods and streets of the city in
search for signs of hope in the
midst of human suffering.
Monks from the ecumenical
community of Taiz6, France will
join Houstonians in a citywide
"Pilgrimage"of Hope" October 14,
15, and 16 — the first three days of
Rice's midterm break — as one of a
series of similar events in cities on
several continents. For the first
time local residents will have the
chance to witness a phenomenon
which each year draws thousands
to a village too small to show up on
a map of France.
Taizd began forty years ago
when its founder, now Brother
Roger Shutz, opened his doors to
WWII political refugees and began
a small community centered
around common prayer. Today,
Protestant and Catholic brothers
from twenty countries strive to live
a "parable of community" in
France and, among the poorest of
the poor around the world, lead
radically simple lives of prayer and
work, accepting no donations.
Scores of young people began to
travel to Taizd in the late sixties,
drawn perhaps by the brothers'
idealism, social conscience and
communal lifestyle. It is still not
uncommon to see students, alone
or in pairs, hitchhiking across the
continent, on their way to greet
others like themselves at the
continuous festival that is Taizd.
The Brothers trust the young, and
believe their creative intuitions to
be a tylessing to the community.
Christ Church Episcopal
Cathedral in downtown Houston
will be the first stop on the local
Pilgrimage of Hope, where at 8:00
p.m. Friday there will be a quiet
see Threshing, page 5
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Ekren, Christopher. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 71, No. 8, Ed. 1 Friday, October 7, 1983, newspaper, October 7, 1983; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245540/m1/4/?rotate=270: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.