According to multiple news reports, Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey and someone who clearly covets the Presidential office, has declared, “I am not a bully.”
Now, he made this disclaimer after the shocking revelations that his minions and closest advisors apparently decided to play havoc with a little town called Fort Lee, New Jersey. This town hosts feeder lanes to the George Washington Bridge, which connects New Jersey and New York City and is possibly the busiest bridge in the world.
By the power of a bundle of cheap traffic cones, the perpetrators of this incredibly nasty trick forced three feeder lanes down to one to get through the toll booth and onto the bridge.
Much of the town of Fort Lee was simply shut down by gridlock traffic every day for four days. People were late to work and other appointments, emergency vehicles could not get through, and goodness knows what the economic import of it all was.
As a mother, and as one who has children and grandchildren living in New York City, I immediately began imagining screaming babies who needed be nursed or have diapers changed, older children, the elderly or pregnant women who were desperate to get to restrooms, frantic parents, and all with gas fumes slowly infiltrating their circulatory systems.
There is no question but that the traffic tie-up was a deliberate means to hurt people–the only question is whether Christie instigated or approved it. But as many have said, even that is a moot point because a “culture of bullying” became the descriptive phrase for the manner in which Christie expresses his personality and power.
Of course he is a bully. Anyone who deliberately and without invitation moves into the physical, emotional, economic, social or spiritual space of others to do harm (or even to do good) is a bully.
That’s what bullies do–they strip people of decisions and dignity. Sexual predators, internet hackers, corporate raiders, insecure people demanding that others stop everything in order to cater to them and their fears–all of these are bullies. They are all taking something that is not theirs to take.
Now to the bigger question: Is God a bully? Does God impose divine traffic directions upon unsuspecting travelers? Does God, uninvited, take over our lives, strip us of our choices?
Many theologians affirm just that: God informed by nothing other than God’s desires, picks and chooses who will be the recipients of divine blessings or eternal curses.
I am at a point in my own spiritual journey where I call such a God a bully–and a purveyor of hell, not heaven.
This God can only be appeased, not loved. Appeasal mode underlies fear-informed decisions. Fears push out the possibility of love and willing, sacrificial service for the common good. That God-culture is a place very much like the gubernatorial office in New Jersey: who cares who is hurt as long as we (the Divine We?) get our way.
I don’t think so.
In the theological system I have come to embrace and hold as true to revelation, God always woos, invites, suggests, and offers hope, reconciliation and redemption–but never demands, threatens, unilaterally casts away, or engages in divine temper tantrums when people don’t comply.
In this world, you and I cooperate with God–or we don’t cooperate with God. We choose.
Those who wish to know the blessings of God do what is possible to align themselves to the heart of God. They receive and practice loving kindness, compassion, mercy, holy justice, standing firm to the point of sacrifice against oppression and evil in whatever forms it presents itself.
God offers a world where no one is righteous by virtue of human effort, but is righteous by virtue of holy grace.
But we get to say, “No” to such expensive grace. And most will, unfortunately. Most will be unwilling to cooperate with God in the salvation process and will instead blame God for all their problems and wonder why they don’t get what they want when they want it.
A friend of mine, who is slender and stays that way because she is extremely careful to exercise and eat right, mentioned that her co-workers often complained about their weight problems. As they complained, they would also be downing massive soft-drinks, giant muffins, and piles of greasy fast food. They probably think their bodies are bullies–this is very much the human condition.
We just love to say, “No, thanks. I’ll do it my way.” We say it to those who advocate careful health practices; we say it to those who warn against excessive media consumption and ubiquitous violence in the video/gaming world; we say it to those who call for a disciplined life; we say it to God. No. No. No.
And then scream at God for not overriding our wills.
Just makes me need to take a deep breath.
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