St. Paul // Current

Is Globalization God's Will?

"For many Christians, the life of Jesus signifies the birth of a new kind of God, a God of universal love. The Hebrew Bible—the “Old Testament”—chronicled a God who was sometimes belligerent (espousing the slaughter of infidels), unabashedly nationalist (pro-Israel, you might say), and often harsh toward even his most favored nation. Then Jesus came along and set a different tone. As depicted in the Gospels, Jesus exhorted followers to extend charity across ethnic bounds, as in the parable of the good Samaritan, and even to love their enemies. He told them to turn the other cheek, said the meek would inherit the Earth, and warned against self-righteousness (“let he who is without sin cast the first stone”). Even while on the cross, he found compassion for his persecutors: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

But there’s a funny thing about these admirable utterances: none of them appears in the book of Mark, which was written before the other Gospels and which most New Testament scholars now consider the most reliable (or, as some would put it, the least unreliable) Gospel guide to Jesus’ life. The Jesus in Mark, far from calmly forgiving his killers, seems surprised by the Crucifixion and hardly sanguine about it (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). In Mark, there is no Sermon on the Mount, and so no Beatitudes, and there is no good Samaritan; Jesus’ most salient comment on ethnic relations is to compare a woman to a dog because she isn’t from Israel.

Why would some scholars downplay the earliest description of Jesus in favor of accounts compiled after there had been more time for myth to accumulate? In part, maybe, because some of them are Christians, or at least lapsed Christians who still resonate to their native faith. But in part, also, because it’s not obvious why a whole mythology about a “good” Jesus would have taken shape decades after the Crucifixion. What, after all, would have inspired early followers of Jesus to invent the idea of a brotherhood that knows no ethnic or national bounds?

Clues have been emerging in recent years, but not clues of the usual kind—not long-lost scrolls or other ancient artifacts. The clues come from the modern world, and they’re all around us. It’s increasingly apparent how analogous a globalizing world is to the environment in which Christianity took shape after Jesus’ death. And in this light, it makes sense that early devotees of the crucified Jesus would develop the now-familiar Christian message, which could later be attributed to Jesus himself.

Now, as we approach the global level of social organization—and see the social order threatened by strife among the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) —another burst of moral progress is needed. Success is hardly guaranteed, but at least the early history of Christianity and indeed of all Abrahamic faiths gives cause for hope. However bleak a globalizing world may look at times, the story could still have a happy ending, an ending that brings out the best in religion as religion brings out the best in people.""For many Christians, the life of Jesus signifies the birth of a new kind of God, a... more

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St. Paul taps two to review RNC cops — but not misconduct

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will undergo an outside review of the public safety effort tied to the Republican National Convention — but its limited scope may not satisfy calls from various quarters for independent review of police misconduct.

Leading the charge is former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger, who now works for Minneapolis law firm Best & Flanagan, and Andy Luger, previously an assistant U.S. attorney who is employed at Greene Espel in Minneapolis.

They’ll be putting a team together to perform the assessment and define its parameters, according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The timeline for the study and other details are yet to be nailed down, according to mayoral spokesman Bob Hume. He told Minnesota Independent that the city had always planned to “take a hard look at the events of the week,” but didn’t before know “what form it would take.”

“Today we basically said we would bring in a fresh set of eyes to work through the process of determining what went well and what lessons are to be learned,” said Hume.

Regarding the questions that members of the public have raised about security measures during the RNC, “We want to be able to answer those as best we can. Our feeling is these two [attorneys] will help us navigate that and will give an honest look at how things went,” he said.

But Heffelfinger is saying the team will not look into allegations of police misconduct, raising the question of whether St. Paul’s move will satisfy the various organizations and officials demanding independent reviews. An international human rights group, a national civil liberties organization and a smattering of local officials have issued calls — ranging in tone from livid to tepid — for investigations:

Amnesty International wants “city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations” — adding that it should be prompt and public.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants “an investigation into possible violations of the First and Fourth Amendments, including the arrest of reporters trying to gather the news; the mass arrest of hundreds of peaceful protestors; the surveillance and subsequent raids on several activist groups and private homes; and the confiscation by law enforcement agents of constitutionally-protected private property.”

Locally, St. Paul City Council Member Dave Thune has said he wants “a public airing of what went right and what went wrong.” To that end, he’s scheduled a “community conversation” on Sept. 24, 5:30 p.m., City Council chambers, to hear from interest groups — but no open mic for public testimony. He’s also is soliciting citizen comment for St. Paul’s official police “after-assessment.”

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak wants to investigate police actions personally — “just the mayor taking a look at how the police responded to the protests,” his spokesman told MPR. The mayor is eschewing any formal review.

Minneapolis City Council Members Cam Gordon and Gary Schiff want “an independent, blue ribbon panel to conduct a thorough investigation into the events, decisions and policies surrounding security issues and the RNC, hold hearings and make recommendations for future policy changes.”

Another parochial concern that may elude Heffelfinger are Minneapolis’ guidelines of recent vintage against which Minneapolis council members intended to measure police actions during the RNC, the “police policies regarding public assemblies” that the council passed in July 25. Gordon aide Robin Garwood and Schiff agreed city police appear to have violated at least one of the 29 policies regarding treatment of the press.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman announced late Tuesday afternoon that the city will... more