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 In his An Introduction to the Old Testament, Walter Brueggemann reflects on the importance of the first commandment that Israel is to have "no other gods before me" (Deuteronomy 5:7) for understanding Israel's historical experience. He notes that God established a covenant with the people of Israel, one that required mutual loyalty to each other. Speaking particularly of the Book of Judges, he writes, "The tales that follow in the book of Judges make clear that disobedience to this elemental requirement of covenant is the clue to the endless cycle of disaster that now is to be narrated." (page 123). It is clear from what he writes, furthermore, that Brueggemann is convinced that the struggle between obedience and disobedience to the first commandment is a central theme in Old Testament holy history. It is the struggle between the people who hold to the promises of God and those he calls the "antipromise peoples." The anitpromise people, according to Brueggemann, pose two dangers to the people of Israel: oppression and seduction.
A case can be made that the first commandment is a key to understanding the history of Thai Protestantism as well. In the context of the Thai church, the "antipromise people" are all of those who are not Christians in general and Buddhists (convinced or nominal) in particular. The relationship of Thai Christians to the "non-Christian" other is a complex and highly important one. From the beginning down to the present, foreign missionaries have focused on this relationship and tried to regulate it ostensibly for the sake of Thai Christians themselves. Thai churches, consequently, have what amounts to a fixation on their relationship with people of other faiths. They exhibit considerable anxiety as they try to figure out how to manage the conflicts (real and apparent) between the expectations of their faith and their culture.
How do those of us who are not Thai make theological sense of the struggle over the first commandment as a central dynamic in Thai church history? If we take the historical interpretation of events found in the Old Testament as normative for the Thai church, there is a clear mandate for separation. The church, that is, necessarily has to look at Thai culture and society with suspicion and fear, believing that the antipromise people are potential sources of oppression and seduction now as they were then. Historically, Protestant missionaries have largely, although not entirely by any means, taken seriously the Old Testament attitude (as especially mediated by the King James Version) that people of other faiths are heathens or infidels. They have taught the churches to maintain their distance from the larger society and culture, seeing them as being inimical to true Christian faith.
My personal theological approach is to take Christ and the gospels as normative and to measure the Old Testament approach to people of other faiths by Christ. Jesus saw in Samaritans a good that other Jews could not see. His attitude towards women ran counter to that of his society. He disagreed with the "righteous" who believed that wealth, power, and status were marks of the favor of God. The early church imitated his example when it decided that Gentiles did not have to become circumcised, re-culturized Jews before they could be followers of Christ.
From Christ's perspective, that is, people of other faiths or no faith are not antipromise people. They are the church's neighbors. They are people Christians are called on to love. It is extremely difficult to love your neighbor when you build high, hard walls of prejudice and judgment against them.
Herb Swanson
Ban Dok Daeng
July 2006 |
