WILLIAM LAUD. THE
PURITANS, ELIJAH AND THE DANGER OF EXTREMISM
(Homily at the Chapel
of Christ the Lord, 815 Second Avenue, New York. 01/10/2013)
Today we commemorate the life of William Laud, the archbishop
of Canterbury (1633-1645) who was beheaded, following (among other things), the
“surplice controversy.” Yes, the surplice controversy!
Today, it is unthinkable,
even ridiculous to think that a person, much more an archbishop can be executed
for defending his sartorial taste on liturgical vestments but during the late
1500’s and early 1600’s, there were Christians in England, called the Puritans
who strongly objected to the garment called the “surplice.” Surplice is “white,
knee-length, fairly loose garment with loose sleeves” worn over a cassock,
normally a black, floor length tight-fitting robe. The Puritans objected to the
use of surplice for two reasons: “It is not mentioned in the Bible” and “It is what
the Roman Catholics wore before the English Reformation.” Following this
argument, a surplice is therefore “one of the props of idolatrous worship.”
Contrary to the argument of the Puritans, Archbishop Laud
regarded the surplice as a seemly, appropriate and dignified garment that
corresponded with “Anglican decency and order.” And so the controversial battle
lines were drawn. The Puritans would disrupt services where surplices were worn
and even went to the extent of stealing, ruining and burning the surplices and
other vestments.
Under English law, it was part of the Archbishop’s Office to
maintain order and punish offences against the Church, so Laud readily proceeded
to punish the Puritan vandals and relentlessly prosecuted those who made scurrilous
attacks against the custom and discipline of the Church. Combating the
Puritans, Laud enforced a strict adherence to the Book of Common Prayer and
included not only the wearing of surplices but also placing the Communion Table
railed off from the congregation and the bowing when the name of Jesus was
mentioned.
To Laud, it was the properly Christian thing to do but for the
Puritan radicals, those were reminiscent of pompous and medieval Roman Catholic
practices and a return to their hated “popery.” When the political tides were
turned and the Puritans rose to power following the English Civil War (also
called the Bishops’ Wars, 1639-40) Laud was arrested, imprisoned in the Tower
of London and condemned to die. He was mercilessly beheaded on January 10, 1645
on the Tower Hill, at the age of 72.
The story of Archbishop Laud and the overzealousness of the
Puritans set amidst the turbulent times in the history of the Church of England
remind us how zealous fundamentalism can easily degenerate into a dangerous
trajectory of violence, even if it is acted “in the name of God.”
One of the classic examples of this unbridled zealousness is
the story of Elijah, the prophet of Israel, confronting the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel.
Baal was the “fertility god” worshipped by the Canaanites, in contrast to
Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews. What made the very name Baal anathema to Elijah
and the puritanical Hebrews was the religious program of Jezebel, the
Phoenician queen, the wife of King Ahab who ruled Israel in the 9th century B.C. It was Jezebel
who introduced into Israel her Phoenician cult of Baal in opposition to
the official worship of Yahweh (I Kings 18) during the fledgling era of Israel
as a young Hebrew nation.
In the kingly house of Ahab, the husband maybe the
head but the wife was the neck, so whenever the neck goes, the head follows.
Jezebel filled the king’s house with Baalitic prophets and killed many of the prophets
of Yahweh to the boshet (shame) of the
Puritan Israel. Elijah, one of the Yahwists, prayed that there be no rain in
Israel as a punishment to their apostasy. As a result, there was drought all
over Israel for 3 ½ years, during which time, the prophet Ellijah would taunt
King Ahab and his followers with these words, “how long would you limp on two
opinions? If Baal is god, follow him, but if Yahweh is God follow Him!”
What happened at during the contest was fascinating: “the
power of Yahweh is far more superior than the power of the false gods of Baal.”
What happened AFTER Elijah’s victory, however, was something that defied
imagination. When the people was emotionally convinced that Yahweh was the true
and living God, Elijah ordered all the prophets to be killed with a summon, “let
not one of them escape.” They massacred all the 950 prophets of Baal at the Brook
of Kishon.
The late Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama likened the overzealous
action of the prophet Elijah to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945 following World War II. The (Emperor) Meiji Restoration period (1868-1912)
resulted in the emergence of Japan as a new and powerful nation but also in
idolatrous “emperor worship.” The idolatry to power caused Japan to inflict
intolerable sufferings to their neighbors in Asia, and ignited the War in the
Pacific by its ignominious attack of Pearl Harbor.
While it is true that the Imperial Japan needed to be
stopped, the atomic bombing in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, according to Koyama was an
“overkill,” similar to Elijah’s incantation, “Let no one of them escape!” For
America, the country which prides itself as Christian and described by
English-born Puritan John Winthrop as the “city on a hill,” the atomic
narrative was a necessary evil. That it happened on a Wednesday, August 8,
1945, made the word “Ash Wednesday” a horrible reality as cities were
flattened, 166,000 died instantly in Hiroshima and 80,000 in Nagasaki---not
counting the thousand who later die from nuclear fall-out and radiation.
“Let no one of them
escape” is a statement of extreme prophetic zealousness, even if done in the
name of God. Someone said that when the name of God is invoked in a war, the
war becomes even more cruel, recalling the Crusades and the religious wars in
human history.
It is interesting to note that after Elijah killed the
prophets of Baal, he went into hiding in the cave, fearing the revenge from
Jezebel. From the cave he expected God would appear from the earthquake, from
the wind or from the fire but God did not appear there. Instead, there was a
still small voice, saying “What are you doing here, Elijah?” It sounded like
the voice who asked Adam, hiding among the bushes, “Adam, where are you?” There
was no standing ovation for Elijah’s overzealousness. There was no clapping and
patting on the back. As with Adam and Eve, Elijah’s action was a fall to the
temptation: we can not arrogate unto ourselves the power that belongs to God
alone.
So the story of Archbishop Laud who zealously persecuted the
erring Puritans, the overzealous Puritans who pursued their revenge against
Archbishop Laud, the overzealousness of Elijah in terminating the prophets of
Baal, the Emperor Worship of Japan and the American action in dropping the
nuclear bombs, cannot be a model in today’s world of globalized pluralities and
diversities.
Let me end with a story from Dickson Yagi, Director of the Council for Pacific Asian Theology:
A postal worker hurried on his way to deliver
a social message. It was the pre-computer, pre-internet, pre-cell-phone era. He followed the
written address and rang the doorbell. A lady appeared. So he sang to her,
“Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy Birthday Mrs. Brown. Happy
birthday to you.”
“Thank you very much, “ the lady said. “But I’m not Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown moved down the street to that white house over there.”
The postal worker hurried down
the street to the white house and pushed the doorbell. A lady opened the door
and he sang again, “Happy birthday to you…Happy birthday, Mrs. Brown…”The lady
said, “Sorry, but I’m not Mrs. Brown. Mrs. Brown is my mother. Let me go call
her in the kitchen.”
At last Mrs. Brown came to the
door. He sang again, “Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy
Birthday Mrs. Brown. Happy birthday to you.”
A man standing on the sidewalk
said, “I have been following you to hear you sing. How could you be so foolish
as to sing ‘Happy birthday’ to three different women?”
The postal worker replied, “Objectively speaking, I may have sung ‘Happy birthday to three different women, but in my heart I always sang only to Mrs. Brown.”
The postal worker replied, “Objectively speaking, I may have sung ‘Happy birthday to three different women, but in my heart I always sang only to Mrs. Brown.”
Dr. Yagi remarked, “Of the
hundreds of religions in the world, how can anyone be sure which one is really
right? Wouldn’t the worshipers say exactly like the postal worker,
“Objectively speaking, we may not have worshiped the right religion, but in
our hearts we always know we worshiped the one, true and living God.”
If we must survive as a human race, we must all learn
to be tolerant of each other’s faiths, cultures and ways of life for so long as
they do not harm. As a matter of fact,
if we are to survive and thrive as a People of God, we must learn to embrace diversity
and transcend the boundaries of faiths, cultures and ideologies in the name of
the One who holds all things together. Amen
I particularly like the story at the end and final paragraph. I agree, let's see how we can encourage people of all faiths to strengthen their spiritual practices in this age of unprecedented crises and opportunity.
ReplyDelete