Friday, June 13, 2003

Chain of Title

A basic principle of the law of real property is that a putative owner must demonstrate a continous chain of title back to the "beginning." In most circumstances, the "beginning" is a sovereign: an English or Spanish king or the United States government. In many parts of the Midwest, the chain will stretch back to the grant of land earned by the original homesteaders from the government. In parts of the Southwest, the "beginning" is a colonial land grant from Spain. Tracing this often complex chain of title is a large part of what people pay for when they obtain title insurance.

There is a vocal portion of the Christian Right that claims that the present state of Israel is entitled to all of the ancient land of Canaan. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, argues from scripture:

"The Bible tells us that God gave that land to the descendants of Abraham through Isaac. That is the Jews, not the Arabs, who are descendants of Abraham through Ishmael," Land continued. "Both correctly claim Abraham as their father, but one is the child of covenant promise and one is not. Jesus came as a descendant of Isaac, not Ishmael." While some observers say Israel's aggression threatens their covenant with God, Land disagrees. It is important to understand this was not a conditional blessing, he said. "God does judge his people when they are disobedient, but He always keeps His promises. God's covenant promise is unconditional. He promised He would bless those who bless the Jews and He would curse those who curse the Jews. And He promised He would give that land to the Jews forever."

There can be a lot of complications when tracking the title to land here in the United States, but these are small problems compared to the difficulties of trying to trace a chain of title through the Bible. First, there is the matter of the land description. "Land of Canaan" is a little vague, especially if we're going to try to figure out what that meant during the 2d millenium BCE. There is a passage, however, in Genesis 15 that provides a more concrete description:

"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (NRSV)

Check that out on your map. The Genesis 15 description comprises part or all of the following nations: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and perhaps Turkey. Such a "greater Israel" never existed historically, of course, and we don't hear Land or Falwell or Authur openly advocating such boundaries for modern Israel. But if Land wants to talk about biblical land grants, that's the property description.

Another problem appears when we try to follow this chain of title from Abraham to the present. David stands as successor in title to Abraham as the Lord's anointed king. He receives what sounds like an unconditional affirmation of the grant of land, but when it is time to pass it on to his son Solomon, there is an "if" attached:

"I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, be courageous, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn. Then the Lord will establish his word that he spoke concerning me: "If your heirs take heed to their way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a successor on the throne of Israel.'" (NRSV)

The promise even to David is now dependent upon the faithfulness of the people of Israel. There is a weak link in the chain of title.

Solomon never assumes that he has more than a conditional land grant. Before long, the conditions are not met. Ten of the tribes are taken away from Solomon and become the northern kingdom of Israel with Solomon ruling the kingdom of Judah in the south. The house divided against itself does not stand and the northern kingdom falls to the Assyrians in 722 BCE never to be re-established in ancient times. Judah survives a bit longer, but it too falls and the temple is destroyed in 586 BCE. Not since then has there been a descendant of David on the throne of any nation called Israel.

A critical approach to scripture can make sense of all this. The Abrahamic promises served to justify a nation-state of Israel carved out of land that had belonged to the Canaanites, Jebusites and others. The Israelite claim, paralleled in other cultures, was that God, or at least their god, had given them the land--even given it unconditionally.

Changed circumstances brought a changed understanding of the land grant. As writers who lived in a time of a fallen northern kingdom and a threatened Judah wrote the history of Israel, they realized that no one could maintain that an all-powerful God had bestowed upon them in perpetuity land that was already lost. These promises were not excised from earlier texts by these later editors; they were made conditional upon the faithfulness of the people and their kings. The Deuteronomistic history from Joshua through 2 Kings is a story of repeated failure of the kings to rule justly and the Israelites to be YHWH's faithful people. According to the biblical account, the ultimate destruction of the temple and the end of the Davidic monarchy did not happen because God was weak or untrue to his promises. From the Deuteronomist's point of view, disaster overtook Israel because of her unfaithfulness.

Later writers did look forward to a return from exile, the rebuilding of the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and even a time when Israel and Zion would exceed her earlier glory. The reality was that the rebuilt temple compared so poorly with Solomon's that those who remembered that first temple wept as they watched the second being built. Though the Jews did manage self-rule for around a century under the Hasmonean dynasty between the time of the Maccabean revolt in 166 BCE and the arrival of the Roman Pompey in 63 BCE, the throne of David was never re-established. Does anyone really want to argue that the fulfillment of the grander prophecies of the restoration are to be found in the tiny, besieged modern state of Israel_

There are good reasons for the existence of the state of Israel, but they have nothing to do with any Abrahamic land grant. By its own terms as the text now exists, that promise was conditional and lapsed centuries ago. The chain of title has been broken. People like Richard Land should not mislead his fellow Evangelicals with his selective use of scripture. The Christian Right should stay out of Middle East peace efforts except to pray for what would now be a miraculous cessation in the bloodshed and permanent peace.

An appreciative note
to Nicholas Kristoff for picking up on the divisions within the Evangelical community over Israel. We had written in "Some in the Family Don't Approve of this "Mixed Marriage" about Howard Fineman's failure to do the same.

Obscure Bible passage of the day: 2 Kings 21: 10-19

"Because King Manasseh of Judah has committed these abominations, has done things more wicked than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has caused Judah also to sin with his idols; therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such evil that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line for Samaria, and the plummet for the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. I will cast off the remnant of my heritage, and give them into the hand of their enemies; they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their ancestors came out of Egypt, even to this day." Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides the sin that he caused Judah to sin so that they did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh, all that he did, and the sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah_ Manasseh slept with his ancestors, and was buried in the garden of his house, in the garden of Uzza. His son Amon succeeded him. Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz of Jotbah." (NRSV)

Comment
For the Deuteronomist, Manasseh brings about the end of the promise of the land.

Personal Note
We've reached the end of our fourth week of blogging as one of The Right Christians, and it's been very encouraging so far. Visitors and inbound links are increasing in number. We've added our first guest author with two more in the works. Many of you have very positive with your feedback.

The next new entry will be Monday as is our practice. Check out the "Index" for postings you may have missed and read Jack Good's piece about the Bogus Biblicism of the Religious Right. Tell your friends about us and submit us to your favorite blogs and progressive sites. Do something to help out those right Christians (and others) in Alabama. Have a blessed Trinity Sunday.

Allen

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Thursday, June 12, 2003

Lost and Found

In the 18th year of the reign of King Josiah of Judah (622 BCE), the king sent his secretary Shaphan to the temple in Jerusalem to handle the financial details of a temple repair project. The high priest Hilkiah reported to Shaphan that he had found the Book of the Law in the temple. Shaphan took the Book of the Law and, after reading it himself, took it to King Josiah and read it to the king. Upon hearing the words of the Book of the Law, Josiah tore his robes in contrition and repentance and said,

"Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our ancestors did not obey the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." (NRSV)

Biblical scholars like Harvard professor emeritus Frank Moore Cross mark the finding of the Book of the Law as a critical point in Jewish history. Cross argues that the entire telling of Israel's history from the book of Joshua through the end of Kings was shaped by the reforms that Josiah undertook. And these reforms were Josiah's response, at least according to the writer(s) of this Deuteronomistic history, to the finding of the Book of the Law now usually identified with the book of Deuteronomy.

Josiah, at least after hearing the words of the Book of the Law, was a man of action not just of words. He had the Book of the Law read to all the people. He cleansed the temple of all the paraphernalia of other gods that had accumulated there as the Book of the Law had lain unread and unheeded. He destroyed all the altars on the high places that had been built to false gods. He obliterated the place in the Valley of Ben Hinnom where people sacrificed their own children. Finally, when his work was done, the king gathered everyone together to celebrate Passover as one people.

"I've seen Republicans get blackballed for merely observing that national investment is limited by national savings; that large deficits typically reduce national savings; or that higher deficits eventually trigger higher interest rates. I've seen others get pilloried for picking on the wrong constituency -- for suggesting, say, that a tax loophole for a corporation or wealthy retiree is no better, ethically or economically, than a dubious welfare program. For some ''supply side'' Republicans, the pursuit of lower taxes has evolved into a religion, indeed a tax-cut theology that simply discards any objective evidence that violates the tenets of the faith."

Mr. Peterson may be referring to a tax-cut theology that assumes, on faith, that reducing taxes on the rich will result in an economic boom that will solve all of the deficit problems. He's right that these radicals are driven by a "theology" but it is not a baseless hope that everything will work out for the best. Instead, the goal is to destroy all social programs because they are "immoral." These modern-day Social Darwinists are ready to let the "unfit" figure out how to survive with no safety net--or perish. This is what we have been saying in "Evolution and the Christian Right" and "Checking the Christian Right's Compass."

Comment

Maybe All Christians Aren't Like Jerry Falwell After All

We appreciated the comment from one well-respected academic to our piece on "Evolution and the Christian Right:"

"Good man! Folks like you make me think that there is something to be
said for christians after all -- but there are days when I am tried!!"

The longer progressive Christians let the Christian Right dominate the media and act as spokespersons for all Evangelicals and even Christians, the more people outside the Church will believe that "christians" have nothing of value to say in the public forum.

Comment

We Aren't All Crazy

Along the same lines, last night's Sixty Minutes had a very good feature on the Christian Right and Israel. Bob Simon's piece was excellent--chilling when Kay Arthur implied that God had Rabin killed to block the Oslo accords. But Simon had nothing on the split among Evangelicals over this issue. I sent an e-mail into the great CBS void referring them, for starters, to "Some in the Family Don't Approve of this Mixed Marriage." Our readers should consider writing them as well.

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"The Right Christians" was founded to serve people of faith who object to the agenda of the Christian Right. Our purposes are fourfold: 1) serve as a source of information about Christianity and politics; 2) provide a voice for those whose faith leads them to different conclusions about political issues than those of the Christian Coalition, etc.; 3) create a Web community for the mutual support of like-minded Christians and those of other faiths; and 4) reach out to those in the Christian community who have begun to question the motives and agenda of the Christian Right.

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