did you get carried away by the RAPTURE?
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Are you ready for JUDGMENT DAY? Haven’t you seen all the websites warning us to prepare? One website predicts that the RAPTURE will occur some time in 2011 [link]. Not to mention the thousands of billboards and ads sponsored by another group of Christians warning:
!!! JUDGMENT DAY !!!
May 21, 2011
The BIBLE Guarantees It! [link]
If you haven’t prepared yet, don’t bother, it’s too late… looks like you missed the boat.
But just in case you’re wondering what the RAPTURE is all about, I suggest the following video. While Harold Camping, who predicted that end of the world would occur on May 21st, was obviously wrong, one thing remains certain, it 
won’t be long before RAPTURE enthusiasts announce another date:
“Are you ready for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? The greatest prophecy in the bible is not far from fulfillment. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet of God and the dead in Jesus Christ will rise first. Then those of us who are alive and still remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
“Are you ready for his return? Some day soon in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye… events unspeakably strange and startling will occur…. Speeding trains will plunge unsuspecting passengers into a black eternity as Christian engineers are snatched from their throttle. Operations will be halted mid way as believing surgeons are caught up to be forever with the Lord…. There will be milk deliveries unmade, there will be stores remaining closed… housework will be left undone because Christian maids have been promoted to higher realms…”
“For some [Christians] it will mean joyful release from suffering and pain… To all Christians the rapture will mean removal from the presence of sin, drinking, from murder, gambling, unbelief… from wars and rumor of war.”
But for the unsaved: 
” you will be LEFT BEHIND to suffer tribulation as the world has never seen…
The sea will become as the blood of a dead man, rivers and fountains will be turned into blood, men will be scorched with great heat, men will be covered with noisome and grevious sores. The islands of the sea will disappear. There will be lightening and thunder and a great earthquake such as was not since man was upon the earth.”“Are you ready to pass through all these horrible experiences and then go on to a black eternity? Or are you ready now to accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior and be caught up to meet him in the air when he comes for his own?”
There is some debate amongst Christians who believe in the Rapture whether they’ll be whisked away before or after the suffering begins. The pre-millennialists, who seem to be the majority, insist they’ll be carried away beforehand [link].
But most agree that, all the sinners who aren’t “born again,” or “saved” (depending upon your vernacular) will be LEFT BEHIND to suffer these “unspeakable torments.” If you’re worried you’ll be caught unprepared, you can go to yet another site RAPTURE READY [link] and find all the info you need, including new predictions for Jesus’ return.
For me, the RAPTURE sounds like one of those hairy moments on Star Trek when Captain Kirk, trapped on a planet about to be eaten by space monsters, shouts into his communicator: “BEAM ME UP SCOTTY!” When I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, all I want is to be transported out of there. Given the massive problems confronting us today: the threat of violence, the ecological crisis, the rapid growth in global population which will place an ever increasing strain on the world’s limited resources, its easy to understand
why so many Christians want to believe in the RAPTURE, but is it really the Christian thing to do? Isn’t this running away from our problems? Refusing to take responsibility for the mess we’ve made of things? Leaving others to suffer the consequences? Think about it: the tribulations described above read like a grocery list of the bad effects of OUR irresponsible behavior.
As process theologian Catherine Keller demonstrates there’s a link between “imagining the world out of existence,” and the “material habits of world-waste ruining our civilization.” The “expectancy that Our Father will make us a shiny new world when this one breaks explicitly correlates with a willingness to dump this one.” (Keller, Apocalypse Now and Then, 2)
In 1996 when Keller published this she stated that one-fourth of all Americans believe in this kind of end of world scenario (Keller, 8). A decade later a 2005 Newsweek poll revealed that 55% believe in the Rapture, suggesting that RAPTURE READINESS is on the rise - a response to heightening crises around the globe. As our consumption increases unfettered, I’d be willing to bet that the May 21st flop will hardly put a dent in this trend.
To understand the logic at work here, we need to return to the key RAPTURE texts. The pivotal Greek word which appears in these passages is αἴρω (airō) = to take away [see lexicon]. In Matthew 24:37-44 [link], one of the most popular Rapture texts, αἴρω describes the plight of those who were swept away by Noah’s flood. Jesus warns his 
listeners:
For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and SWEPT THEM ALL AWAY, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Notice that in Jesus’ retelling of the Genesis story of the Flood, Noah is LEFT BEHIND in the ark while the SINNERS are CARRIED AWAY. Jesus continues: “Then two will be in the field and one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left.” Given what Jesus says above, those taken are those swept away by the flood. How did it get reversed?
This is followed by a short parable: “if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and not have let his house be broke
n into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.“ Those who believe in the Rapture equate the thief with the Son of Man who’s going to sneak into the house unannounced and steal those who are ready away to safety. This is despite the fact that earlier in the chapter Matthew warns that the coming of the Son of Man coincides with a tidal wave of violent events which will flood Jerusalem, a deluge will happen so quickly that there will be little if any time to escape.
Many Christians, have been told, some of them since they were children, to read these cataclysmic events, not as the effects of their own behavior, but as signs of the RAPTURE, that when the moment comes they’re to be ready and awake, waiting for Jesus to transport them out of there…. but what if it’s really the opposite scenario?
For instance, following 9/11, Americans were easily SWEPT into a war, which many of us now regret. Unfortunately, at the time, it was nearly impossible to resist being CARRIED AWAY by the demands for revenge and the patriotic fervor which overtook the nation. Isn’t this closer to Jesus’ statement in Matthew’s text? Since 9/11 we’ve experienced the painful costs of getting CARRIED AWAY: a war which has stolen not only our loved ones, but also our sense of national security. If only we had recognized the thief in the night we could have stayed awake, we wouldn’t have let our fear get the best of us, if only…
As long as we place our hope in some form of rescue, we won’t be ready. When the tidal wave of trouble comes, as it always does, we’ll be caught off-guard without a lifeboat. Jesus is not up in the sky, he remained on earth. Caught, as he was, between a rock and a hard place, he never cried out, “Beam me up Scotty!” When everyone around him, including the disciples, were overtaken by fear and CARRIED AWAY by the flood of events, Jesus chose to be LEFT BEHIND!
Paul Nuechterlein says it well, “Jesus himself ultimately became the one left behind. All others had gotten swept up in the unanimous violence against him. He was the only one not caught up in the flood of violence as a perpetrator and instead became its victim for our sakes. “
Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary [link]
Why would Jesus choose to be LEFT BEHIND, to become a “victim for our sakes”? French thinker, René Girard claims that in the midst of this contagion Jesus became the scapegoat - to expose the role of the victim, who is forced to suffer the consequences of
our bad behavior. This casts an alarming light on all the apocalyptic fervor in the United States. Isn’t it a form of preparation, a way of tapping into mass hysteria unconsciously motivated by fear, by which we achieve the unanimous emotional threshold that must be reached for scapegoating and 
its ensuing catharsis to occur? Over the course of our history countless millions have been scapegoated. Eventually it has to catch up with us… and somewhere hidden in the back of our minds we know this.
The thief who comes in the night may be read as the tidal wave of violence threatening to overtake us at any moment, a form of judgment or Second Coming, or even a sort of advent of an “unrepresentable” object of fear breaking into our reality - the accumulated suffering of the past centuries, the unfathomable amount of bloodshed - enough to fill an ocean. The countless masses who died unnecessarily of hunger and disease, the people trampled underfoot by the relentless march of global capitalism, beginning, as Keller describes, with the rape and
pillage of the Americas by the European conquistadors.
I find it interesting that another rapture text Matthew 11:12 goes ignored: “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” The Greek word for “take it by force” is ἁρπάζω (harpazō) = carry off by force, a derivative of αἱρέω which is closely related to αἴρω (airō) = to take away. The Latin is rapio, rape. Isn’t it related? The ravaging of the environment, global warming - all this is represented in the video above, “Are you ready?” Are you ready for the accumulated effects of this violence to finally exact its revenge? Incredibly, belief in the RAPTURE resolves all this by transforming “the object of fear into the site of hope,” (Keller, 6) a mechanism so powerful, it even renders it’s gruesome subject matter suitable for children’s cartoons and video games.
The apocalyptic fervor of Jesus’ own time allowed the people to deflect the pronouncement of judgment delivered by John the Baptist, the greatest of prophets. but tensions continued to mount until, in the blink of an eye, Jerusalem was utterly destroyed, the people CARRIED AWAY once again.
I’d rather be LEFT BEHIND, to stay put, to wait, and let it come before it goes that far. And even if the waters rise and the flood approaches, 
to seek ways to resist apocalyptic fervor. Rather than deny or deflect our violence onto others, to prepare spaces within ourselves, a sort of Noah’s Ark, in which we integrate what we’ve always denied and learn to live on in new ways. As LEFT BEHIND “we have begun to respond.” Indeed I read the RAPTURE as postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida does: “We have begun to be caught up, we are caught up, in a certain responsibility - as if it were possible to think a responsibility without freedom. We are invested with an undeniable responsibility at the moment we begin to signify something….” (Derrida, Politics of Friendship, 231)
Let me end by offering a song from my RAPTURE PLAYLIST: “Runaway” by The National [link]
There’s no savin’ anything
I was swallowing the shine of the sun
There’s no savin’ anything
How we swallowed the sun
But I won’t be no runaway
‘Cause I won’t run
No, I won’t be no runaway
What makes you think I’m enjoyin’ being led to the flood?
We got another thing comin’ undone
And it’s takin’ us over
I’d also like to leave you with Peter Rollins [link] revised version of the RAPTURE [link]:
Just as it was written by those prophets of old, the last days of the Earth overflowed with suffering and pain. In those dark days a huge pale horse rode through the Earth with Death upon its back and Hell in its wake. During this great tribulation the Earth was scorched with the fires of war, rivers ran red with blood, the soil withheld its fruit and disease descended like a mist. One by one all the nations of the Earth were brought to their knees.
Far from all the suffering, high up in the heavenly realm, God watched the events unfold with a heavy heart. An ominous silence had descended upon heaven as the angels witnessed the Earth being plunged into darkness and despair. But this could only continue for so long for, at the designated time, God stood upright, breathed deeply and addressed the angels,
“The time has now come for me to separate the sheep from the goats, the healthy wheat from the inedible chaff”
Having spoken these words God slowly turned to face the world and called forth to the church with a booming voice,
“Rise up and ascend to heaven all of you who have who have sought to escape the horrors of this world by sheltering beneath my wing. Come to me all who have turned from this suffering world by calling out ‘Lord, Lord’”.
In an instant millions where caught up in the clouds and ascended into the heavenly realm. Leaving the suffering world behind them.
Once this great rapture had taken place God paused for a moment and then addressed the angels, saying,
“It is done, I have separated the people born of my spirit from those who have turned from me. It is time now for us leave this place and take up residence in the Earth, for it is there that we shall find our people. The ones who would forsake heaven in order to embrace the earth. The few who would turn away from eternity itself to serve at the feet of a fragile, broken life that passes from existence in but an instant”.
And so it was that God and the heavenly host left that place to dwell among those who had rooted themselves upon the earth. Quietly supporting the ones who had forsaken God for the world and thus who bore the mark God. The few who had discovered heaven in the very act of forsaking it.
Comments (0)
Is Jesus THE ONE? Do we really know? Wherever Jesus went, people hounded him, demanding to know, “Are you THE ONE?” Why were they so obsessed with this question? Maybe it’s human nature - a perennial longing for a messiah, some need for a superhero to deliver us.
If Jesus is THE ONE, if he’s all that the church creeds have claimed him to be (the Messiah, the Son of God, half 
human, half divine) why not admit it and get on with the business of saving the world? Why keep us in suspense this way?
From the beginning, the primary characters, Morpheus, Trinity, and Cipher, are focused on this single question of THE ONE’s identity. Morpheus tells Neo, “You are THE ONE Neo… I’ve spent my entire life looking for you,” that person, who according to the Oracle’s prophesy, will free humanity from the Matrix. Morpheus BELIEVES his search is finally over - how can he be so certain?
true Keanu Reeves fashion) Neo replies, “Honestly, I 
But in fact, there IS a very real problem: Neo does not BELIEVE he’s THE ONE; and as long as HE thinks this way, he can’t be it, because he, like most of the characters in the movie, is passively waiting for someone else to step up to the plate. Morpheus, however never loses hope, he insists that when Neo is ready, he won’t have to dodge bullets. Morpheus tells Neo, “I told you that I would show you the door. You have to walk through it… you must free your mind,” but not in the way Morpheus expects. Neo may be physically freed from the Matrix, but he is still trapped within a mental ENCLOSURE, one which continues to render him and all the others passive, as passive as SHEEP.
Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher with a knack for picking apart movies, provides an important clue: “when some of the people ‘awaken’ from their immersion into the Matrix controlled virtual reality, this awakening is not the opening into the wide space of the external reality, but first the horrible realization of this enclosure, where each of us is effectively just a fetus-like organism, immersed in the pre-natal fluid.” But “this utter passivity” is itself the fantasy, “the notion that we are instruments” of the Matrix, controlled by machines, “sucked out of life-substance like batteries.” As Zizek says, “we should turn around the state of things presented by the film.” (Zizek, “The Matrix: Or The Two Sides of Perversion,” The Matrix and Philosophy, 264) 
to the fantasy, all the members of the FLOCK must be unanimous in BELIEF. Individuals or groups who doubt this reality or desire to get free are often viewed as a threat. But few communities, even so-called “Christian” ones, can admit this consciously. Instead we convince ourselves that we’re just following orders, that we don’t make the rules, that GOD or the MACHINES are in charge, and THEY decide who’s in and who’s out, they police the borders, THEY take care of problem-makers and gate-crashers. We blame the machines for the violence done to maintain The Matrix, to protect the FLOCK… and all the while, we remain PASSIVE SHEEP.
But again, we tell ourselves it is God’s will; we blame the machines, or external forces like poverty, for singling out those unlucky few. We insist that they are guilty in some way: they’re trouble makers, they don’t fit in, they’re lazy, or a threat to society. The machines make sure that no one challenges these BELIEFS or disturbs the fantasy, leaving us free to go about our day to day lives, getting to work on time, taking the kids to soccer practice, watching our favorite SCI FI thrillers in the evenings, and without ever having to take notice of those who are rejected, cast out, or exterminated, all for our sake. As Agent Smith says to Morpheus, “Billions of people, living out their lives, oblivious.” 
to be seen again.
fences, letting the sacrificial SHEEP go free, the passive SHEEP tend to grow more anxious, their need to reinforce the fences and protect the FLOCK from outsiders becomes more accentuated. We see this happening on the Arizona border, and in Europe with exclusion of the gypsies.
In fact the more desperate we are to protect the FLOCK, to repair the fences and fix the crumbling system, the less likely we are to recognize THE ONE. As emerging church leader Peter Rollins says, “In Star Wars the Christ figure (Darth Vader) is a force for evil (as he must be in a pagan universe)… ” because he is “the one who brings imbalance,” 
No. The problem, as Caputo says, is that we long for the MESSIANIC, but what we end up with is MESSIANISM. “It is in the end a mystification to treat these figures and images literally - even a dangerous mystification - if the result is to get us in the habit of depending upon a bail out by this divine superbeing at critical moments when things threaten to go wrong. The name of God is the name of an unconditional claim, a call and an address, but it is not the name of a superhero… coming over the hill in the nick of time to bail us out.” (Caputo, After the Death of God, 187-188n)
Neo is THE ONE, but not because of his ability to dodge bullets or outmaneuver the agents, as impressive as that might be. As Caputo warns, “it would be magic, supernaturalism, …idolatry to confine this event within… the confines of some sort of of superentity that can outthink, outwill, outpower, and generally outdo anything we mortals here below can come up with.” (After the Death of God, 65) When Neo went to visit the Oracle, there were plenty of potential candidates able to perform miracles, but not one was qualified to be THE ONE. For the MESSIANIC “takes the form of a call, an address, or solicitation, of a force that lays claim to us, addressing us unconditionally, but without the benefit of a terrestrial army or arsenal of weapons or of some celestial metaphysical power in the heavens.” (Caputo, After the Death of God, 65)
about, or protecting Zion, the last human city. They decide to sacrifice Morpheus to save the FLOCK. Neo interjects: “NO!” He says he BELIEVES, not in a person, but in a possibility, that he can save Morpheus, just as Morpheus once sacrificed himself to save him. Neo decides to re-enter the Matrix, and risk almost certain death, to pass by way of impossibility. In the face of these overwhelming obstacles, with no hope of survival, and unable to foresee the outcome, he refuses to condemn Morpheus, and thus opens up the POSSIBILITY for the MESSIANIC.
SHEEP GATE through which the SUBSTITUTES, the sacrificial animals, have been made to pass against their wills. But this time, Neo, like Jesus passes through it by his own choice. Bearing responsibility himself, he refuses to passively allow another to be sacrificed in his stead. As Jacques Derrida has taught us: “in this messianic time we are required to make every moment of the present a ’strait gait’ through which the Messiah might enter.” (Caputo, The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, 352n1)
When each person recognizes thier responsibility for all the others, then the fantasy, the Matrix, and all that superstitious MESSIANISM begins to lose its power to bind the community - to coral the FLOCK, so to speak. When we refuse to blindly conform, when we take risks, when we make strait the gate, and if it so happens, we pass through it - when we give up passively “waiting” for the THE ONE - we may realize we no longer require a messiah with superhuman powers to save us in the eleventh hour. If we, like Jesus, or like Neo, are able to decide, in the moment, to respond to the call which places its unconditional claim on us; if we, in the face of overwhelming obstacles, can place our faith in the impossible possibility, in the MESSIANIC - then I hope and pray that WE, YOU and I, become THE ONE. For WE are THE ONE, we are THE only ONES able to respond to the cries of those, who like so many nameless SHEEP led to sacrifice, are still denied their full reality. In that moment when and if we pass through the gate, which means like Neo to “pass by way of impossibility,” we can only hope that we will somehow, in some way open it. - Sue Wright
At the last Pub(lic) Spirituality we decided to focus on FORGIVENESS as a topic for this fall’s MOVIE NIGHTs. Forgiveness is a word we use often enough, but what is it really? What does it look like? What should or should not be forgiven? We have two excellent films to discuss and compare. We hope you join us!
All I can say is, poor MIB, stranded on the Island his entire life. Even as a boy all he ever wanted was to leave and see the world beyond the sea. What’s so wrong with that?
Think about it - there’s nothing more enclosed than a remote island in the Pacific… wouldn’t we all want to get free? To be rescued by somebody? You tell me. Postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida identifies islands as “aporetical places: with no way out or any assured path, without itinerary or point of arrival, without an exterior map…“ Indeed, for Derrida the absence of any recognizable horizon, of any calculable way forward “conditions the future itself.“ (Derrida, “Faith and Knowledge,” Religion, 7). Thus we encounter what he describes as an abyss at the center of such experiences, how do we respond to this? These are risky places where the contradictions of our lives may be laid bare, where we’re given the opportunity to see our selves more honestly, to remember the traumatic events that have led us thus far. But for many this is a source of fear, of unbearable uncertainty and chaos. Rather than open themselves to the unknown, to uncertainty, to the future, and the anxiety this provokes they choose to fill it with something, to cover it over.
rn there and has never been anywhere else. His twin brother was born first and was named Jacob, but the MIB’s birth was unexpected. As far as we can tell he was never given a name. Growing up to be curious and highly intelligent, he longs to know what lies beyond the sea. His twin brother Jacob is not nearly as gifted, in fact he’s quite content with life on the ISLAND, and never questions what lies beyond the horizon, but he IS jealous of his brother. When crisis erupts, Jacob, throws the MIB into the abyss, “the Source” at “the Heart of the Island.” He does this to protect the light emanating from it, which we’re told is the source of stability, not just for the ISLAND, but for the entire world. Thus the MIB is a victim of the ISLAND’s ENCLOSURE.
Unfortunately after three years on the ISLAND, and Six Seasons later, LOST’s writers opt for the easy way out. Obviously they have no idea how to carry the plot forward… how could they unless they exposed themselves to the uncertainty, to the loss of horizons, to the abyss at the center of ISLAND. So just like Jacob, they use Locke’s death to resolve the crisis, dissolving all the tensions that have accumulated amongst the survivors since they first crashed on the ISLAND. Like a Grimm’s Fairy Tale, everyone is reunited in the final scene (in a church no less) - not one person bothers to shed a tear for the MIB. Of course not, they are completely at peace, literally basking in the light which has been restored, once the “the Source” of the eruption is plugged, and its fury quelled. 
They no longer have to deal with the anxiety, the loss of horizons, the abyss at the center of the ISLAND, the “aporetical place,” that gave rise to all the tensions in the first place. They no longer have to face their inner demons. But they have sacrificed whatever unexpected possibilities, the new ways of learning to live together, which the future may have offered. Instead they have projected all their tensions and anxiety onto the one person who wanted to leave - the MIB - and this UNANIMITY secures the ISLAND’s CLOSURE once again, at least for the time being.
What is it about that first kiss? Ever notice how in the movies the moment people kiss, they seem to fall in love immediately, sometimes against their wills? Is falling in love really that easy?
Don’t we have a choice in the matter?
Maybe I missed something and should take a closer look. In the movie, Andrew, played by Ryan Reynolds, agrees to marry Margaret, his boss, played by Sandra Bullock, so that she can stay in the country 
We see it time and again in the movies… the moment the barriers come down, former antagonists are irresistibly drawn to each other. For instance, remember Gone with the Wind and that greatest movie kiss of all time 
some sort of feelings for Rhett, but is it LOVE or FASCINATION? It’s important to know the difference, but too few of us do. The fact is, Scarlett and Rhett’s relationship is pretty tense throughout, caught as they are in a continuous game of back and forth, a perfect example of MUTUAL FASCINATION 
When the barriers are removed and we find ourselves in close proximity with the other person, the object of our fascination, it’s true each may be irresistibly drawn to embrace the other. But that fascination can get ugly, especially when one or both sides becomes obsessive.
Andrew wants to be Margaret Tate, he wants to be editor-in-chief, that’s what drives him to keep up with her every step, to be always at her beck and call. 
At times he even imitates her, drinking the same coffee beverage as Margaret: “unsweetened cinnamon lite soy latte.” But in reality the closer they get, the more they imitate each other, the more conflicted their relationship will become. In today’s competitive workplace, where everyone’s convinced they have a right to be the boss, or receive the next promotion, anger, rivalry and resentment tends to run rampant behind the scenes. Just watching one episode of NBC’s The Office is proof enough of that 
but in the old days, people still knew their place. The secretary would never dream of becoming their boss, and bosses never felt so threatened. Now, free of constraints, there is nothing to prevent our fascination with each other. Margaret, though she wouldn’t dare show it, is equally fascinated with them. She knows that her employees are vying to take her place. Her ability to keep her job actually depends on her maintaining her hold over them, on her ability to manipulate them. LOVE has nothing to do with it, these are really fatal attractions.
Dear Abby recommended contacting a lawyer 
So instead of Dear Abby, we may choose the advice of postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida: to love is “to surrender to the other, and this is the impossible, would amount to giving oneself over in going toward the other, to coming toward the other but without crossing the threshold, and to respecting, to loving even the invisibility that keeps the other
This Lent I’d like to extend to you a friendly challenge, one I will undertake myself: if you consider yourself a Christian I’d like you to suspend any and all confidence you have in your “Christian” identity and join me in this Lenten experiment…
I’m sorry, no matter how cute BABY JESUS might have been, you can’t tell me that the Three Wise Men (or Magi) knew just by looking at him that he was the messiah. How could an infant be GOD IN THE FLESH? And yet that is what many Christians believe took place, the very EVENT we commemorate during the Season of Epiphany [read more].
The idea that even as a baby Jesus was immediately recognized as the fulfillment of the people’s longing and expectation sounds 
like an exaggeration born of hindsight. Not to mention all those bible stories which recount Jesus’ early childhood - they’re downright silly - sounding more like myths, than anything grounded in reality. 
today? In Haiti? In Sub-Sahara Africa? In the inner-city ghettos? Why is it that today the United States, a so-called Christian nation, imprisons more people than any other country in the world?
tear down prison walls… indeed, no one ever came to John the Baptist’s rescue, instead he was beheaded by his captors. Jesus himself was arrested, taken prisoner, and tortured. He was tried in the middle of the night and brutally executed the next day. And, as it happens, the State of California, in response to public demand, has refused to release its prisoners. It has filed an appeal to reverse the federal court order, delaying the process indefinitely. So much for the fulfillment of that prophecy…
Jesus allowed himself to be taken captive, he intentionally submitted to imprisonment, to oppression, and execution, his humanity utterly destroyed, erased, denied. But in doing so “a perfectly unknown god arises” with what Girard calls “the consenting scapegoat.” He is “the one that is most outside yet also the most inside common humanity.” (Rene Girard, Battling to the End, 50) Jesus allowed himself to be taken captive, in the crazy hope that he could unlock
the prison doors from within, that the way to free the prisoners was to dismantle the closed social structures from the inside. The problem is, we are so reliant on these institutions, there are so many encrusted layers which enclose us, it is difficult for us to imagine how a stable society could function without them. But this renders us blind to the plight of those held captive, to the extent that we are not even aware of their existence. Which is why 2000 years later the process of freeing the prisoners is still underway.
We have this idea that Christianity was born, pure and simple, in a single event - a birth that changed everything - an assumption that postmodern philosopher Jean-luc Nancy calls the “Christmas projection” (Nancy, Dis-Enclosure, 145). When Jesus proclaimed that the prophecy had been fulfilled, he announced an opening in the closed structures which imprison people, a small crack in the prison walls that was not visible prior to this - a crack in the very foundation of Western culture - not to tear it down, but to free those trapped inside, to set free their reality, that which had always been denied.
The decline of traditional social structures, the cracks in the facade of the institutional Church, and the criticism of its time honored doctrines, like the federal court’s demand to free the prisoners, may be unavoidable for this process of opening to occur. Christianity calls to us, not from the Church steeples, nor from the hidden recesses of its stone vaults, but from the prison cells, from the mass graves, begging us to hope for a future in which prisons and executioners play a far lesser role in maintaining the social fabric. “As long as we do not grasp the full extent of this situation… we will remain prisoners to something that has not been elaborated in such a way as to be adequate to that history and that destiny,” (Dis-Enclosure, 148) - we are all held captive to some extent.
We have made progress since Jesus’ day. He was condemned for “religious” crimes: violating the Sabbath, threatening to tear down the Temple, acting and speaking as if 
he were God. He directly challenged the closed religious structures of his day. Luckily, we no longer imprison people for those specific crimes, at least not in this country. And yet, only a century ago, entire families, women and children, were locked up in debtors’ prisons. Imagine how many would be jailed today, if that was still the case. So many Americans are imprisoned by indebtedness, a crushing reality, which most of us no longer consider a crime. Indeed, increased awareness of their suffering has led the Obama Administration to bring forth legislation which will begin to alleviate their plight.
For hope itself is born, not just once within a manger, but from within these very sorts of prison cells, in the very places where, historically, hope has always been extinguished. Its birth, wherever and whenever it occurs, is a wondrous event, and its proclamation continues to be good news - a light in the darkness, a process of
everything has been transformed.” (Caputo, What Would Jesus Deconstruct, 26-27) What does this mean in 21st century terms? It must concern those we continue to criminalize:
