Humanism at Easter

Way back in Easter I took the time to visit a number of very different churches and was pretty startled and concerned about the humanist philosophy which had sunk through to Church teaching. Here are two examples that, although rather radical, seem to reflect ideas common throughout the church.

St Michael’s Uniting
Francis Macnab, minister of St Michael’s Uniting, is something of an old hat in ways, repeating the same heresies popularised by Bishop Spong years ago in the US – but I had never read Spong and, not having prepared myself, his message came as a bit of a shock.

The Good Friday address was entitled ‘The Churches Love Affair - With Violence. Time to Choose a Better Way.’

Humans, he suggests, are naturally fascinated by violence – as evidenced by our captivation with violent films, our love of high contact sport. The Church’s concentration on the cross – which he rightly observes to be a symbol of brutality, criminality and domination – is another symptom of this. Substitutionary atonement, he claims, promotes a cycle of violence by suggesting that violence cancels out violence.

The ‘better way’ suggested by Macnab is for Christians to stop focusing on the figure of Jesus and the cross and find instead the good within themselves. This internal goodness (‘god’) allows one to break the cycle of violence. You can watch it for yourself here.

The message was clearly humanism wrapped up in a rather unconvincing guise of Christianity. Gone were any suggestions of human depravity or helplessness. We are the solution to our own problems – the power is within.

St Patrick’s Cathedral Not quite so explicitly heretical, but still problematic, was the message given at the Catholic Cathedral on Easter Sunday. The priest presented the story of two (fictional) couples. One of which were good Catholics who went to Mass, had children and basically lived happy lives. The second could have been equally blessed, except for the abortion they chose to take which, naturally, led to relationship breakdown and a stream of other unfortunate events.

The obligatory defamation of abortion done, he proceeded to inform us of the message of Easter, is one of hope – hope that in the bad times, good times will follow; hope that in our sadness, happiness will follow; hope that (assuming we don’t have an abortion) God will look after us. Look at the disciples after Jesus died –afraid and hopeless, but then comes Easter Sunday and everything is somehow okay again, he didn’t actually explain why this was though.

Much like at St Michael’s, the message was easy words to comfort the heart. There was no explanation of the cross, no assumption of sinfulness. Rather, we can forge for ourselves a happy future by remembering the ‘hope of Easter’ and doing good (or rather avoiding evil, i.e. abortion). We are the solution to our own problems – the power is within.

This is common in the church when we emphasise works over the absolute grace of God. We live in an arrogant age where we can’t accept that we are far gone and desperately in need of saving. At St Pat’s, the motivation for obeying the Church was that God would make our lives easier; it is not God but our own abilities, needs and interests that are central to understanding and living in the world.

My hope is built

Can we doubt that presently our race will more than realize our boldest imaginations, that it will achieve unity and peace, and that our children will live in a world made more splendid and lovely than any place or garden that we know, going on from strength to strength in an ever-widening circle of achievement? What man has done, the little triumphs of his present state…form but the prelude to the things that man has yet to do.
- H. G. Wells, A Short History of the World (1937)

The cold-blooded massacres of the defenceless, the return of deliberate and organised torture, mental torment, and fear to a world from which such things seemed well nigh banished – has come near to breaking my spirit altogether… “Homo sapiens,” as he has been pleased to call himself, is played out.
- H. G. Wells, A Mind at the End of Its Torture (1946)*

So, I was reading these extracts and it got me thinking about what is man, and what course is he on.† We seem to have some vast potential, but will it ever be fulfilled? I cast my mind back to a particularly profound play:

I think everything on earth is bound to change bit by bit, in fact already is changing before our very eyes. Two or three hundred years, or a thousand years if you like I it doesn’t really matter how long – will bring in a new and happy life. We’ll have no part in it, of course, but it is what we are now living for, working for, yes and suffering for. We’re creating it, and that’s what gives our life its meaning, and its happiness too if you want to put it that way.
- Vershinin (Anton Chekhov, Three Sisters)

It’s quite an attractive theory to see us – homo sapiens, that is – as progressing along some path, predestined for glory. What hope! Such a theory places us as agents of remarkable power and prestige. And it answers all life burning questions – why are we here? why must we endure suffering? is our work, our achievements, our life of any value?

But take heed of Chekhov – the same scene offers another, more sobering view:

When we’re dead, people will fly around in balloons, there will be a new style in men’s jackets and a sixth sense may be discovered and developed, but life itself won’t change, it will still be difficult and full of mystery and happiness as it is now. Even in a thousand years men will still be moaning away about life being a burden. What’s more, they’ll still be as scared of death as they are now. And as keen on avoiding it.
- Tuzenbakh (Anton Chekhov, Three Sisters)

Looking back at all the promising developments of the past – drugs that would free us from disease, machines that would allow us to live lives of leisure, laws that would secure our security and happiness – what has really been achieved? We are richer than ever before, but apparently no happier. We fly, not in balloons but in rockets to outer space, yet no more understand life on our own planet. We know the intricate functions of organism in our ecosystem, are completely at odds with how to manage the environment. Our suicide rate swells with those running from life. But most of us are running from death. I see no development in human nature.

We are apt to exaggerate the abilities of man – but maintaining such faith is a great challenge. Men fail. Macbeth, Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, Jekyll and Hyde - they all teach us that man is fooling himself with visions of progress and grandeur. Given the opportunity man will forsake any semblance of civilisation in order to fulfil his own insatiable desire for power. We are locked in a cycle from which we cannot save ourselves. Place too much faith in man, Wells' experience suggests, and you will end up with a hopeless, broken spirit.

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
- Proverbs 3:5-6


*okay, so I haven’t actually read any of HG Wells’ acclaimed works; these interesting passages were extracted from Tim Keller’s The Reason for God. highly recommend the book.
† apologies to any women out there who feel excluded by the generic use of ‘mankind’ – i didn’t invent the word, i just use it