M*A*S*H 4077 and M*E*S*S HB 333
In the episode of the television series, M*A*S*H entitled Dear Sigmund, a bomber pilot is in the 4077 for a minor wound. He brags about how easy the war is for him, as he just flies above his targets, drops his load, and goes back to his base. Not one to allow this lack of connection between the man’s work and the destruction he created, Hawkeye takes the dangerously naive pilot into a surgery room where an operation on a small Korean Girl is taking place:
Capt. Hathaway: What happened?
Hawkeye: Somebody dropped a bomb on her from an airplane.
Capt. Hathaway: Who was it?
Hawkeye: He just dropped it. He didn’t autograph it.
Capt. Hathaway: No, I mean, was it one of theirs or one of ours?
Col. Potter: What difference does that make?
Capt. Hathaway: A lot! It makes a lot of difference.
Col. Potter: Not to her.
[Hathaway walks out of the O.R. stunned, Hawkeye goes out to join him.]
Capt. Hathaway: You brought me in there on purpose, didn’t you?
Hawkeye: Yep.
Capt. Hathaway: You’re a real S.O.B., you know that?
Hawkeye: Look, you seem like a decent enough guy, too decent to think that it can be always a clean war.
Capt. Hathaway: Up there it is. . [breaks down into tears] was! That was just a little girl!
As long as the pilot stayed high in the air, separated from the explosive blasts of the bombs he dropped on the ground, he could maintain his illusion of a “clean war.” It was that illusion that made the man so dangerous. He could continue in his illusion of pristine flying while the messes and disasters he created remained almost illusory and unreal. Ground soldiers have no such delusions. They know the messiness, blood, and agony that war entails. They know because it is in their faces each and every day.
This Emmy winning episode reminds me in many ways of the Ohio pastors’ efforts to pass HB 333; a law which will in essence shut down the Payday Lending institution in the State. As this series of posts has noted, by driving out such lenders, the law will not guarantee lower interest loans to the low credit poor. More likely it will ensure that they will have few or no legal lending options at all; thereby making them prey to the illegal ones.
Alternatively, if the Ohio pastors feel that high interest rates are oppressing the poor (to use their exact words) then they should not appeal to Caesar to pass laws; instead, they should get involved in the process themselves. By getting involved in the process I don’t mean the legal or legislative process; I mean the Payday Lending process. If the Payday Lenders are charging usurious interest rates in order to make oppressive profits on the backs of the poor (an assertion I reject, by the way); then the church should not seek to interfere with the lenders using the State. Instead, if a church is called to this mission of limiting such interest, then they should open their own lending office charging rates that they feel are just.
After all, the Roman Church has had its own credit unions for decades. It is not like this is without precedent.
Also, this course of action has other factors in its favor. In the front of the line is that this strategy on the part of the church would better reflect its nature as the body of Christ. God did not redeem man from the high territory of heaven; instead, his son was incarnated among us; to live, work, sweat, bleed, and die among the people he sought to rescue. Or as William Stringfellow has said, “What does the incarnation mean, other than the fact that you are there! You are present!”
Second, the involvement in the business will increase the opportunity for the Body to witness to the presence of Christ in the community. Certainly, it gives more opportunities to witness than would a fiat coming from the State Capital and enforced by men in blue suits, paddy wagons, and fines.
At the same time, it would afford the church to actually extend grace to the Payday Lenders themselves. After all, it is better to judge a group of people once you have “walked in their shoes.” It certainly is more honest to appraise such businesses and the people who run them after you have worked in these situations yourself. You may find out that these people are doing the best they can in very adverse situations.
And if you can’t keep your operation running at a least break even at your “just” rate of interest, then maybe you should step back your efforts in imposing this same rate on others. A rate that forces people out of business is not a “just” rate and ends up being “oppressive” legislation on the Payday Lenders and disastrous legislation for the poor.
The major downside of this approach is that it will involve a lot of work on the part of the church. They will have to find funding sources for their operations, find people to staff the operations, get the legal advice necessary to create the appropriate documents and contracts, procure the office locations—even if they are church buildings—and make then secure. In short, they will have to incur all of the hassles and expenses as do the payday lenders themselves.
In that way, and only in that way, will the church avoid being the high flying bombardier, appealing to Caesar to pass laws like Hathaway dropped bombs, remaining clean and separate from the explosions they will cause. Instead, it will be the M*A*S*H surgeon on the ground, working for healing. But this will take work, hard and long term, sometimes frustrating, work. However, if the churches as a whole are not willing to get involved and get their hands dirty on that level, then they should get out of the way and let the Payday lenders do their jobs.
I may be as much of an “S.O.B” for saying that as Hawkeye was in the above quote, but the Ohio pastors, like the pilot Hathaway, “are too decent to think that this can always be a clean war.” Better to do nothing than to cause that level of destruction.
Next, and Finally Last: An Even Better Approach
“Or as William Stringfellow has said, ‘What does the incarnation mean, other than the fact that you are there! You are present!’”
I get what you’re saying, but I don’t understand what Stringfellow means here (I wasn’t able to find this quote in context, and based on what I did find, I don’t think the context would help).
I don’t understand the Incarnation to mean anything approaching “William is here!”… I don’t see how it could mean “Jesus is here!” either, since the Incarnation emptied the Word of omnipresence.
Why did you quote this particular passage?
—William Tanksley JrActually the quote from Stringfellow was from an old speech of his that I found on tape. The problem is that even I don’t remember which one, so I may have to do some listening to find it. All I remember was the impact it had on me.
Bill was talking about his involvement in the black communities as a lawyer in the 60’s. He took a job as a lawyer for a small church in the ghetto, and to everyone’s surprise, moved into the ghetto himself. In explaining it, he noted that as a follower of Christ, he could not just live outside the neighborhoods of the people he was going to serve; he had to be there. Then he made the analogy of Christ’s not staying in heaven, but coming down to live with the people he served. As a follower of Christ he could do no less.
That was his context, as best as I can remember. Perhaps not a job and tittle Orthodox analysis of the incarnation, but it packed an emotional charge.
I made a big shortcut, I see, in my post. Probably the long hand should be: Jesus did not stay in heaven but was “God with Us.” I am a follower of Christ. A follower tries to emulate his Master as much as is possible. Therefore I should not be content to stay “in heaven” or the church building, but to live among those I serve. Therefore, since I cannot be “God with us” to those people, my closest approximation will have to be “Caine with us.”
Hmmmm. Sounded good at the time.
—Caine