The Necessity of Social Fabric for a Society

            Last night we watched the old film “Cinderella Man” about the boxer Gentleman James Braddox. He fought during the Great Depression in the late 1930s. He was famous for being a good, decent guy. In one of the early scenes, he talks to one of his three children about why he should not steal from the grocery store. The Braddox family was very poor, and the film depicts the extreme difficulties facing most families. Having been born in 1933 I can relate to this aspect of the film fairly well.

            Basically, Braddox explains that in such difficult times people must stick together, work together, and not take advantage of one another. In short, we must be honest and caring rather than selfish and short-sighted about what makes humanity workable. In his life and in his boxing career he apparently refused to take unfair advantage of others, even those against whom he was boxing, thus the title “Gentleman Jim”. Putting aside the possibility that the film whitewashed his words a lot, Jim’s life and remarks struck a powerful note with regard to my own life during the Great Depression.

            I was born in 1933, and my mom farmed me out to a childless couple so that she could go to work. For several years she made and peddled sandwiches to beer parlors and poolhalls just to get bye. She retrieved me when I was three after she had signed a lease on a tiny café where she could make a living for the two of us. We lived in a one-room apartment above that café for several years while I began going to school. Over the next ten years my mom made her way through several café’s, including that of a large downtown hotel coffeeshop. She finally opened her own restaurant in the heart of our downtown area. She had arrived by virtue of the American Dream that hard work and trusting others will make a good life possible. Along the way she made many friends with those who worked for her.

            Watching the film about Braddox reminded me of those days and my mom’s hard work, but also of the values that must undergird the fulfillment of the Great American Dream. Humans must live within a social fabric of honesty and trust if we are going to survive and prosper. We have made it through depressions and World Wars because we have found a way to rely on and trust each other. It is this commitment that will see us past the horrors of the Trump era to a better future. I really believe this and do try to live by it and hope others will too. I know this sounds a bit “dopy”, but it is the fabric out of which society and humanity thrive.

FAVORITE BIBLE PASSAGES NUMBER 2 – Romans 12:1 and 2

            Another of Paul’s deep insights into the nature of the Christian faith and the life corresponding to it is found here in the twelfth chapter of his letter to the Church in Rome. In the previous chapters he has just completed a review of everything Christ has done for humankind and now he turns to what this should mean for those who live in the family of believers. Everything hinges on the particle, therefore. In Paul’s view, the Christian life is a response to everything God in Christ has done for humankind. The character of Jesus’ life and death provide the pivot point, the basis, for living a life dedicated to embodying that character.

            On the basis of God’s mercy exhibited in the life of Jesus, Paul implores believers to commit themselves as a “living sacrifice” which is now the Christian’s form of worship. No longer does God seek “dead sacrifices”, as in the Jewish faith, but now a “living sacrifice” is deemed the appropriate form of worship, involving both mind and heart. The point of this pivotal passage is to emphasize the clear contrast between Old Testament worship patterns and those of the new faith. Lives living for the glory of God, “living sacrifices” have replaced the dead sacrifices of the Old Testament religion. As the familiar King James translation has it, “present your bodies as a living sacrifice”, rather than as a dead one, so that your whole nature will be transformed, and you will know how to worship God.

            Paul follows his description of this deep pivot point of the Christian life with a lengthy list of how this new life is to be expressed. The emphasis all the way through this list is upon positive moral character rather than on simply obeying the letter of the Law. Indeed, Paul waxes quite eloquent when describing some of the “dos” and “don’ts” of the new life in Christ. This description of Christian morality is explicitly contrasted to the common understanding of proper moral behavior in that day. Then all behavior was judged by fulfilling “the law”, which of course put the focus on external behavior. Paul is here calling for a radical change from this way of determining. He stresses the quality of “internal” character as displayed in both attitude and action.

            In this chapter Paul walks a difficult line between a legalistic view of moral behavior and the new moral life as seen in Jesus Christ. These are not easy issues in which to discern the will of God, and we may not agree with everything Paul says, or with his particular application thereof, but his positive and inclusive spirit sets the tone for his exploration of proper Christian moral behavior. It is difficult, if not impossible, to read this passage in the context of its times and fail to feel Paul’s deep concern for how Christians should live their new life in Christ. At the same time, however, it is amazing that Paul, a converted Pharisee, would ever have such progressive ideas about morality.

He clearly did an about face on many things, like including uncircumcised Jews into the Christian fold, and promoting the place of female believers throughout the church. In this passage he is clearly struggling to find a middle way between a strong Jewish legalism and a more open, flexible approach to morality. His approach seems to be one of taking each possible issue one at a time even though this at times may seem problematic. Still, Paul’s insistence on an open freedom and lack of legalism in Christian ethics comes out in this passage loud and clear.