new essay
Crass and 20th Century Christianity
By Chris Rooney
I was listening to the Crass album Best Before for the first time in almost two years today. I can remember feeling uncomfortable listening to their song “Reality Asylum” even back then, before I had fully embraced the Christian religion or gone back to church. It is a song that has been both maligned and praised, in it’s time it has been called obscenity, free speech, and any number of other things, it has been banned and censored at various times and even attracted the attention of Scotland Yard to what might have otherwise become an obscure punk rock band. You reading this might never have heard of this band or even know that this song exists, it’s been more than twenty-five years since it was written and certainly almost as long since it was recorded or performed live so I will try and explain why this song has been on my mind today and why I think that it poses an important challenge to Christianity, a challenge which has in many respects remained un answered.
Reality Asylum is six minutes and thirty-seven seconds of polemic against Christianity, against Christ, against the concept of a Trinitarian god, against the resurrection, against God, and against everything that professing Christians believe. It is spliced together with samples of a young girl praying, the sounds of monastic chanting and various other audio clips and instruments. As a track it is a lot closer to audio collage after the fashion of the Beatles “Revolution Number 9” than it is to the traditionally rigid style of most punk rock songs.
I didn’t intend to listen to it when I put the CD into my computer, I actually wanted to skip it but couldn’t recall the song’s title or where it was on the album and so I shouldn’t have been surprised when it turned out not to be the song I had muted in my itunes playlist. Of course once the song had started I decided to listen to it anyway. It was very hard for me to do.
As a self identified Anarchist and Pacifist I have a lot ideologically in common with the band Crass but as a Christian this aspect of their message has always been hard to listen to comfortably.
Above I mention that I think this song poses a challenge to Christianity, a challenge I think that many people, myself included, might find easier to ignore or skip past. For some it might never even be seriously raised or contemplated. It is always easier to be content with the status quo, with business as usual; it is always easier to turn your back than to get spat on, but that is not what we as Christians are here to do. Christ exhorts us to take the hit and offer the other side of our faces for the same beating; we can do nothing less and should never seek to either. And that’s why I forced myself to listen to the whole song.
What is this challenge, you might ask? I would answer with another question:
What have we done to the good news of Christ that it would become a poisoned letter to the very people who should be its most vociferous supporters? What have we done to make the marginalised, the radicals, the poor, the anarchists and the pacifists and the punks curse us and strike out at us?
When Christ came to the people of Israel he didn’t come first to the politicians, the chief priests, and the leaders of the people, he came to the prostitutes, the beggars, the leprous and mentally ill, he came to the starving, the guerrillas, the anti-Romans, and the people who for what ever reason had been turned out of their communities, he came to the tax collectors and the working class, the fishermen and the stigmatized, he came to the despised.
On his first visit to Jerusalem what did he do in the temple? Did he go and speak with Caiaphas the high priest? Did he entertain with Herod and Pilate? No, he fashioned himself a whip and turned over the tables of those doing business on the temple grounds, he chased out the bankers the people selling and buying animals to sacrifice. In other words he disrupted the status quo, he disturbed “business as usual”.
When he spoke of the laws and about how to treat those who abuse and walk all over you he talked not of violent solutions to the problems of living in an occupied land; he preached of a radical forgiveness, he talked about the dignity of the oppressed, he said that they would inherit the earth. The teachings of Christ as contained in the gospels and echoed in the epistles are primarily stories of social justice, of liberation for the prisoners, of dignity and acceptance for the stigmatized, and for aid and comfort to the poor. The gospels and Christ’s apostles are messengers of a peaceful insurrection. This is something that can be taken for granted or ignored so very easily two thousand years later.
Why is it that the same marginalised all over the world are so likely to forget these truths? Why are the churches seen by many to be the seats of power when the teachings they hold are about abandoning worldly power and authority as false and returning the power to God?
When Christ was tempted in the desert the devil offered him the powers of the world if only he would bow before him. Christ rebuked Satan and for it was given true power, the power to save the world from itself.
What has happened to this good news? Why is it that many think first of the metaphysical when they think of the Gospels--that Jesus died for our sins—instead of the radical messages of social justice that underscore the whole New Testament?
I spent the rest of today day riding my bicycle around the city trying to think through all of this. The song I started this paper describing to you had left me with a strong feeling of being ill at ease. I could only ask myself what I had done as a Christian to share this good news, how have I behaved as a disciple of Christ in relation to the people who need this good news the most?
I started by asking myself “why do they hate my religion?” Only it is easy to rattle off a list miles long, replete with two millennia of historical examples of why someone might hate Christians or Christianity, we have a rich history of bad actions attached to the name of our faith. So I tried asking a different question, “What have I done to disprove history? What have I done withy my faith?” This question brought on yet more; “What is good news to the drug addicted, to the prostitute, to the man serving time in a federal prison? What is good news to the man or woman who has to steal groceries in order to feed their starving family?” And just as importantly I asked myself “What have I done about this as a Christian? How have I helped to share my faith in their good news?” The answers I got to these questions were not easy to digest. I give what I can to people when they ask me, but giving money or food to a man on the street is not a solution to the problems that keep him there. I try to protest against unjust laws and against globalisation, I write against capitalism and I try to show support for others who do as well, but when I ask myself “is this enough?” I can’t help but feel that it’s not.
Why do so many public figures praise God with one side of their mouth while they give speeches against the poor with the other? Why do many people donate large sums of money to Christian charities only to write the donations off on their tax returns? Why can a man or woman extol the virtues of faith while depriving other people of the reasons to have faith? Can a four star general order men to kill each other in far away lands and still feel good about going to church on Sunday?
Can a politician run on a “pro-life” election platform and sleep easy at night after posing for a photo-op as he signs his name arrogantly on a bomb or after denying clemency to people on death row? Can that same “Pro-life” politician feel justified in his beliefs and still do nothing about all the ways the system kills people? Can a President? Can a Prime Minister? And what can I do in my life as a Christian to set this right if only in the smallest personal way?
These are all questions we each ought to ask ourselves at some point or another I just hope that it takes less than the raw anger of a polemic against the things that you love in order for you to do it. <
By Chris Rooney
I was listening to the Crass album Best Before for the first time in almost two years today. I can remember feeling uncomfortable listening to their song “Reality Asylum” even back then, before I had fully embraced the Christian religion or gone back to church. It is a song that has been both maligned and praised, in it’s time it has been called obscenity, free speech, and any number of other things, it has been banned and censored at various times and even attracted the attention of Scotland Yard to what might have otherwise become an obscure punk rock band. You reading this might never have heard of this band or even know that this song exists, it’s been more than twenty-five years since it was written and certainly almost as long since it was recorded or performed live so I will try and explain why this song has been on my mind today and why I think that it poses an important challenge to Christianity, a challenge which has in many respects remained un answered.
Reality Asylum is six minutes and thirty-seven seconds of polemic against Christianity, against Christ, against the concept of a Trinitarian god, against the resurrection, against God, and against everything that professing Christians believe. It is spliced together with samples of a young girl praying, the sounds of monastic chanting and various other audio clips and instruments. As a track it is a lot closer to audio collage after the fashion of the Beatles “Revolution Number 9” than it is to the traditionally rigid style of most punk rock songs.
I didn’t intend to listen to it when I put the CD into my computer, I actually wanted to skip it but couldn’t recall the song’s title or where it was on the album and so I shouldn’t have been surprised when it turned out not to be the song I had muted in my itunes playlist. Of course once the song had started I decided to listen to it anyway. It was very hard for me to do.
As a self identified Anarchist and Pacifist I have a lot ideologically in common with the band Crass but as a Christian this aspect of their message has always been hard to listen to comfortably.
Above I mention that I think this song poses a challenge to Christianity, a challenge I think that many people, myself included, might find easier to ignore or skip past. For some it might never even be seriously raised or contemplated. It is always easier to be content with the status quo, with business as usual; it is always easier to turn your back than to get spat on, but that is not what we as Christians are here to do. Christ exhorts us to take the hit and offer the other side of our faces for the same beating; we can do nothing less and should never seek to either. And that’s why I forced myself to listen to the whole song.
What is this challenge, you might ask? I would answer with another question:
What have we done to the good news of Christ that it would become a poisoned letter to the very people who should be its most vociferous supporters? What have we done to make the marginalised, the radicals, the poor, the anarchists and the pacifists and the punks curse us and strike out at us?
When Christ came to the people of Israel he didn’t come first to the politicians, the chief priests, and the leaders of the people, he came to the prostitutes, the beggars, the leprous and mentally ill, he came to the starving, the guerrillas, the anti-Romans, and the people who for what ever reason had been turned out of their communities, he came to the tax collectors and the working class, the fishermen and the stigmatized, he came to the despised.
On his first visit to Jerusalem what did he do in the temple? Did he go and speak with Caiaphas the high priest? Did he entertain with Herod and Pilate? No, he fashioned himself a whip and turned over the tables of those doing business on the temple grounds, he chased out the bankers the people selling and buying animals to sacrifice. In other words he disrupted the status quo, he disturbed “business as usual”.
When he spoke of the laws and about how to treat those who abuse and walk all over you he talked not of violent solutions to the problems of living in an occupied land; he preached of a radical forgiveness, he talked about the dignity of the oppressed, he said that they would inherit the earth. The teachings of Christ as contained in the gospels and echoed in the epistles are primarily stories of social justice, of liberation for the prisoners, of dignity and acceptance for the stigmatized, and for aid and comfort to the poor. The gospels and Christ’s apostles are messengers of a peaceful insurrection. This is something that can be taken for granted or ignored so very easily two thousand years later.
Why is it that the same marginalised all over the world are so likely to forget these truths? Why are the churches seen by many to be the seats of power when the teachings they hold are about abandoning worldly power and authority as false and returning the power to God?
When Christ was tempted in the desert the devil offered him the powers of the world if only he would bow before him. Christ rebuked Satan and for it was given true power, the power to save the world from itself.
What has happened to this good news? Why is it that many think first of the metaphysical when they think of the Gospels--that Jesus died for our sins—instead of the radical messages of social justice that underscore the whole New Testament?
I spent the rest of today day riding my bicycle around the city trying to think through all of this. The song I started this paper describing to you had left me with a strong feeling of being ill at ease. I could only ask myself what I had done as a Christian to share this good news, how have I behaved as a disciple of Christ in relation to the people who need this good news the most?
I started by asking myself “why do they hate my religion?” Only it is easy to rattle off a list miles long, replete with two millennia of historical examples of why someone might hate Christians or Christianity, we have a rich history of bad actions attached to the name of our faith. So I tried asking a different question, “What have I done to disprove history? What have I done withy my faith?” This question brought on yet more; “What is good news to the drug addicted, to the prostitute, to the man serving time in a federal prison? What is good news to the man or woman who has to steal groceries in order to feed their starving family?” And just as importantly I asked myself “What have I done about this as a Christian? How have I helped to share my faith in their good news?” The answers I got to these questions were not easy to digest. I give what I can to people when they ask me, but giving money or food to a man on the street is not a solution to the problems that keep him there. I try to protest against unjust laws and against globalisation, I write against capitalism and I try to show support for others who do as well, but when I ask myself “is this enough?” I can’t help but feel that it’s not.
Why do so many public figures praise God with one side of their mouth while they give speeches against the poor with the other? Why do many people donate large sums of money to Christian charities only to write the donations off on their tax returns? Why can a man or woman extol the virtues of faith while depriving other people of the reasons to have faith? Can a four star general order men to kill each other in far away lands and still feel good about going to church on Sunday?
Can a politician run on a “pro-life” election platform and sleep easy at night after posing for a photo-op as he signs his name arrogantly on a bomb or after denying clemency to people on death row? Can that same “Pro-life” politician feel justified in his beliefs and still do nothing about all the ways the system kills people? Can a President? Can a Prime Minister? And what can I do in my life as a Christian to set this right if only in the smallest personal way?
These are all questions we each ought to ask ourselves at some point or another I just hope that it takes less than the raw anger of a polemic against the things that you love in order for you to do it. <
posted by Chris Rooney | 1:20 AM
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