Nancy Mairs, an award-winning poet, essayist and activist for the disabled, addressed ‘the end of the world’ last night, discussing how the events of Sept. 11 have permanently changed American culture.
Mairs took the familiar question ‘What would Jesus do?’ to the next level, considering its implications while reading her essay.
‘We live differently now,’ Mairs said, ‘not so much because of the catastrophe which was horrific beyond all words but because of the way that event has been exploited to advance the interests and desires of a shockingly small group of people at the expense of humanity.’
One major effect of Sept. 11 has been the repression of freedom of speech, Mairs said. What was formerly dismissed as the ‘rantings of left-wingers,’ some might now consider ‘outright treason,’ she said.
‘This shift really does represent the end of one world and the beginning of another,’ she said. ‘How am I going to affirm the life that the terrorists seek to obliterate, and counter the death-dealing methods of un-checked, corporate, nationally endowed power?’
‘The peace of Jesus does not begin with the establishment and maintenance of an impressive military force, the manufacture of high-tech weapons, the deployment of personnel and their use of these weapons against people whom most of them will never see,’ Mairs said. ‘It does not even begin with the signing of a treaty.’
In His teachings, peace begins in the heart, Mairs said, denouncing the word ‘terrorist,’ saying it ‘places in the hands of others the power to paralyze us with fear.’
‘There are those in our government who play and prey on our fears and terror, drumming up support for uncivil acts that would otherwise be resisted by a confident population that defends and depends on our civil and human rights,’ Mairs said.
As long as the public is afraid, it will do whatever it is told will ensure its safety, Mairs said, ‘including performing murderous acts that will further arouse the hatred and fear of ‘terrorists.” Mairs suggested referring to them by the name they have given themselves: al-Qaeda.
Mairs related Bible parables to the current situation in Iraq.
‘We have good intentions, and they don’t,’ Mairs said, jokingly, ‘We need our weapons to ensure the safety of the whole world because we’re strong and wise, unlike those crazy little men over there.’
‘As long as any possess weapons of mass destruction,’ Mairs said, ‘the world is in mortal danger.’
The main message of Jesus’ gospels is ‘love your enemies,’ Mairs said. ‘He is imposing a discipline, the most strenuous one imaginable: to regard people who bear the utmost hostility toward us and treat us in the vilest ways as our fellow human beings, worthy of God’s love and regard and therefore of ours.’
‘If it were our commitment to do no harm, not to harm one another, think what a transformed world it would be,’ Mairs said.
Mairs was hesitant to characterize her ideas as Christian, mainly because she ‘began to see that ‘the Christ’ referred not so much to an entity as to an accretion of ideas, formed across centuries, largely by men, many of whom benefited from their espousal.’
‘One can easily understand how tellers [of Jesus’ story] might blur some details, elaborate others, add some to suit the needs of a particular audience for comfort, discipline, excitement, mystery,’ Mairs said.
Mairs said she bases her ideas on the original Christians who followed the teachings of Jesus and ‘appeared to be centered totally on concerns about their relationships with God and with other people, and their preparation for the Kingdom of God on earth,’ Mairs said.
The world would be drastically altered if everyone followed Jesus’ basic precepts of tranquility, forgiveness, generosity and love, Mairs said, referring to recent events.
Cambridge resident Jaffray Cuyler appreciated the reading.
‘I thought [Mairs’] application of Jesus’ sayings to today’s world was brilliant,’ Cuyler said.