Rainbow Shabbat, by Judy Chicago (1992).
From the Brooklyn Museum: the piece is the last image in a Holocaust project the artist created with her husband, Donald Woodman.
This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Whatever your faith community or theological persuasion, on Easter Sunday let’s be clear: The world is unredeemed. No amount of “redeemed and not yet” theological hocus pocus will do.
Rituals have a hard time with reality. Theology is the easy way out.
Theology is patriotism without a national flag. Though, if you’ve noticed in our churches and synagogues, flags have a way of slipping in. Check out the pastor with the American flag by his side. Not to be outdone, the rabbi has Israel’s flag by his side, too.
Quite a patriotic scene.
But if we’re going to be clear about out unredeemed/unliberated world, we need to add the obvious: What we do and don’t do in the face of injustice defines our faith or lack thereof. Simple as that.
Easter and Passover place us in a bind. How can Christians celebrate Easter with their own history of Holocaust, previous events of atrocity – shall we speak of the aftermath of 1492 in the Americas? – and the injustice that well-meaning Christians perpetrate today? How can Jews celebrate Passover while the oppression of Palestinians becomes permanent?
The “no rescue” prophets aren’t going anywhere near this religious – and political – charade.
Where do the “no rescue” prophets go? Some Christians remain Christian in a radical mode. Some Jews remain Jews in a radical mode. The difference is one of expressed faith. Radical Christians deepen their faith to survive the exile that awaits them. Radical Jews leave Judaism behind as a form of irredeemable hypocrisy.
Or maybe exile is the Jewish way of embodying faith. Thank God, Hosanna to the Highest isn’t the Jewish way. Can Christians learn a thing or two about their faith by exploring this Jewish exile embodiment and holding back on their endless and triumphal resurrection proclamations?
The Christian religious/secular Jewish twain shall meet in exile. When both Jews and Christians realize that there’s no going back, something interesting is going to happen. Hold on to your hats.
The Jewish prophets today are decolonizing the Biblical prophetic – in order to set the prophetic tradition free.
Christians of Conscience are trying to pry themselves away from Constantinian Christianity – to set Jesus free.
Being seen at the Passover Seder and church on Easter Sunday to show everyone how Jewish and Christian you are can’t continue – can it?
The troubling question remains: Does doing Easter and Passover the “right” way set us free? Or no matter the intention, does it deepen our Constantinian entanglement?
We’ve had the innovative Easters and Passovers for a long time now. Everything is the same – and getting worse. Time for something different?
The “no rescue” prophets aren’t much help as yet another Passover/Easter season comes to close. They aren’t going to provide a rescue ritual to cover over injustice.
No rituals until there is justice?
Mr.z the Nazis were not Christians and what you do in the face of injustice means very little .Pls define injustice ?What does it mean to you ?Doing nothing might be very smart.Doing something might get you killed.
bb, it is no suprise that the point of the article misses your head like a bullet. The point is that when your religion is either an accessory to a crime, or is ambivalent in the face of injustice, then it’s time to reform or abandon it, as it has become an insult to God and it’s prophet.
Zoroastrianism would have had many more opportunities to be ambivalent in the face of injustice had it not been so insignificant and irrelevant to the arc of history.
Iska Waran says:
Zoroastrianism would have had many more opportunities to be ambivalent in the face of injustice had it not been so insignificant and irrelevant to the arc of history.
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Zoroastrianism had it’s opportunity to impose its’ stamp on the world 2,500 years ago if the Achaemenid kings of the Persian Empire had imposed their faith on most of the known world at that time, as all other empires have done, rather than allowing all of their territories to retain their own religious traditions.
Iska Waran says:
“Zoroastrianism would have had many more opportunities to be ambivalent in the face of injustice had it not been so insignificant and irrelevant to the arc of history.”
Iska, I like Mr. Z. I want to say though, only once did I ever come close to this your rejoinder. As a fellow smart-ass, my hat is off to you. Saludos!
Mr *Z. ,you missed my point.Everyone has a different idea of what injustice is at any given moment.Every religion has a different idea about justice.To a Moslem the very fact that you exist is an insult and an injustice to Mohammed.Is it time to abandon Islam? I hope say.
Saying ‘no rituals’ ’til there’s justice’ is childish. It sounds like a spoiled 3- year old screaming ‘I’ll hold my breath til you give me what I want.
Rituals are what feeds you emotionally. You can’t control everything out there, so why deprive your family of your treasured Holiday?
Or maybe the folks at TheBurningPlatform don’t want anybody to be religious at all, and this is their way of sneaking that in?