Well, I have to admit it—I haven’t been keeping up with reading Nietzsche like I should. But with exams to take, papers to write, friends to spend time with, and so much other reading to do, it’s hard to get everything done! Anyway—I have a few minutes to spare this weekend, so I decided to scribble down some thoughts.
Interestingly, even though I haven’t gotten very far in Twilight of the Idols, some of the things I’ve been learning in my politics class tie in with Nietzsche’s ideas.
Recently my politics professor (infamous around campus for his outrageous—and often crooked—bowties!) assigned Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Like Nietzsche, Dr. King had grown disillusioned with the church of his day, because most church leaders refused to act against the racism and injustice rampant in the Deep South. King expressed his frustration to them in his Letter:
“There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society…By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound.”
Whether he realized it or not, what Nietzsche really longed for was the early church as described by Dr. King. Yet most of the Christians he knew were content in their apathy, and were, as King aptly labeled them, “more cautious than courageous [remaining] silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.”
Is the church like this today? King warned, “If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century.” And I have to admit that, in many cases, this is the state the church is today. Because we aren’t willing to live our lives for Christ, making Him our overwhelming passion and allowing Him to care for others through us, we have failed our mission. Big time.
But in order to affect the church, we have to live out our calling to bring love and justice to the world on a personal level. So—how are you doing in this area? Are you actively working to solve the injustices that you see? Are you showing God’s love to others in practical ways?
"Are you one who looks on? Or one who lends a hand? Or one who looks away and walks off?"~Friedrich Nietszche
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