Spiritual fraud--self absorbed living

My good friend Gordon sends his reply to my interaction with Dan over the deity of Jesus Christ.  He gives a very clear depiction of jail and prison culture.  

I read your story of the encounter with Dan, and for a moment was transported back to those days.  I knew lots of Dans in my time in prison, and I’d like to add my two cents.

First, consider who Dan really is:  He has spent his short life in suspicion, conflict, assault, drugs, hate.  Any move he makes, any person he meets is a threat.  

 If you asked him about doing the Right Thing, he would say “nobody does the Right Thing.  You get what you can take”.  To him, it’s all a fraud.  It doesn’t matter what – it is all a fraud.

In Dan’s world of complete self absorption, what matters is HIM.

•             “I NEED whatever I want”
•             “Everyone does things TO ME”
•             “I WANT whatever I think of”
•             “They ganged up AGAINST ME”

Nowhere will you find in him concern for others, for doing right, for anything external to himself.   He doesn’t care if Jesus is divine or not; to him the whole religion is a fraud and there is no logical way to prove him wrong.  Any argument goes back to a belief in basic scripture, and you either believe its divine origin or you don’t.  There is no objective proof.  Faith, then, lies in the heart.  We believe it because we know in our soul that it’s right.  We take that faith to the Bible and we learn, and live.

The answer for Dan, indeed for all of us, is more personal and emotional than logic.  Ask him this: “You’ve met a wonderful girl.  You’re enchanted with her.  You have two choices.  You can beat her to make her comply and rape her, or you can experience her smiling at you, coming to you, hugging you, telling you she loves you.  Which do you want?”

If he favors rape, the talk is over.  If he favors love, then what does it take to experience this?  He has to care about her, take care of her, put her needs first.  He has to act selflessly – not to gain advantage but to help her.  Only it this way can he win her heart.

Walla Walla State Penitentiary

What is true of the girl is true of the world.  He can either love or hate, and either reach out or crouch within.  He knows the result of the latter.  Jesus came to show him how to live, how to align himself with nature (read: God’s plan), how to become someone who can understand.   

The Bible is the story of this.  Take it or leave it, but first look around you and ask – who is happy, who is content?  By and large, the committed Christian.  He smiles even as he is giving to help others.

I remember well an evening in Cell Block A, Building 1, Washington State Penitentiary.  I listened to an inmate berate his wife over the phone because she “didn’t send his money for smokes”.  His profanity echoed in the room.  Concerned with himself, he was oblivious to a miracle God gave him – a faithful wife.   

That is the real story for Dan, and where his real choice lies.  If he cares about the rest of his life, he needs to give the Bible a chance, see what it says.  Then the question of Jesus’ divinity will not be a debate over quotations.  It will be a conviction in his heart.