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PRIESTS, PIRATES and PILOTS of PEOPLE

At this time, there appears to be an eerie confluence of political and religious historical events. This is Good Friday, the celebration of the Last Supper that Jesus, the self-intimated “Messiah of the Hebrew People,” shared with his twelve disciples, just prior to his crucifixion—brought about by that insolent intimation. That ritual meal, iconically and inaccurately represented by Leonardo Da Vinci in a wall painting, was in fact a celebration of the Jewish Passover Seder.

As the Pharaoh’s Hebrew slaves huddled in their homes that frightful night, just prior to their Exodus from Egypt, they were protected by lamb’s blood smeared on the door. That differentiated them from the Egyptian households, in each of which God’s last curse condemned to death the first-born son thereof. As they waited, they washed down unleavened bread with the wine—unleavened, in practical preparation for their forthcoming, forty-year trek in the wilderness.

This is also the anniversary of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He was shot on Friday and died on Saturday. The man who was hated by half the nation he was trying to save suddenly became the object of religious reverence. In Christian celebration, the lilies already prepared for Easter literally were painted black. In Jewish Seder celebrations, he was compared to Moses, who had freed his people and took them to the gates of the “Promised Land,” where under strict orders from Yahweh he was prohibited from entering. That comparison augured a similar situation that was to occur a hundred years hence, when Martin Luther King was destined to follow a similar scenario.

This week, the up-tick in pirated ships in an ever-widening arc off the Somali coast ends with an attempt to seize a ship under the United States’ flag. Although the ship was retaken, the captain is being held for ransom. It has been about two hundred years since ships belonging to the nascent American republic were hounded by Muslim pirates off Africa’s Barbary Coast. It is ridiculous that, with all of our orbiting satellites and electronic know-how we seem no better prepared to deal with these maritime annoyances!

It is interesting that, in certain quarters, there is great rendering of garments over President Barack Obama’s statements to the world that the United States is not a “Christian” (or Jewish or Muslin) nation. If those beating their breasts so furiously would stop for a moment and take time to review the archives, they would find that a letter was sent to those Barbary pirates by a fledgling U.S. government with a similar statement of denial. Failing that, there is a clear proscription in the Constitution of the United States against our government favoring any religion—while at the same time providing for the liberty of worship by everyone. Of course, to the clear-headed, that letter and Obama’s statement both are intended to reiterate to the world that this country operates upon the basis of religious objectivity.

And shall he come forth out of Illinois, another shepherd—this time of a whole people.
And shall he also lead them to the Promised Land.
And shall he, this time, pass over with them into the Land of Milk and Honey.