Last week, late night (fake) news hosts, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced their upcoming rallies to be held on 10.30.10. Stewart announced his rally first. The Rally to Restore Sanity is for people who think all this passionate dialogue about politics has gotten a bit too crazy. Colbert countered with his March to Keep Fear Alive, because he thinks we should stay afraid. After all, reason is just one letter away from treason.
I agree with Colbert. Reason is just one letter away from treason, especially when it comes to matters of faith. Being reasonable is perhaps the greatest killer of faith in all of America, and when we consider that Jesus is our king, being reasonable leads many of us to be treasonous.
- Tithing is unreasonable, so we treasonously withhold our possessions from God.
- Sacrificing for others, especially when they are unappreciative, is unreasonable, so we treasonously live only for ourselves.
- Forgiving someone who wrongs us and doesn’t say sorry, is unreasonable, so we treasonously reject the path laid out for us by our King, Jesus.
- Turning the other cheek is certainly the unreasonable thing to do in a conflict, so we treasonously fight back and violently assert our value through power over others.
In the Kingdom of God, being reasonable can very well lead us to be treasonous towards our King. Love and grace are not reasonable ways to live, so we choose the treason of reason. That’s why I’m with Colbert. Not in the sense of keeping fear alive, but in his assertion that reason is often just another way of saying treason. Being reasonable is just code for being apathetic and self-interested. It’s the sort of life that is antithetical to the call of Christ’s citizens to live under the authority of our sacrificial King.