Is God a Psychopath?
The Dean of St. Alban’s (Anglican) Church in England, the Very Rev. Jeffrey John (a homosexual, but no longer sexually active), used a Lenten talk on BBC Radio 4 on April 4 to attack the doctrine of the Crucifixion and the Atonement (according to The Telegraph, April 5).
The Very Rev. John said: “What sort of God was this, getting so angry with the world and the people he created, and then, to calm himself down, demanding the blood of his own son? And anyway, why should God forgive us through punishing somebody else? It was worse than illogical, it was insane. It made God sound like a psychopath. If any human being behaved like this, we would say they were a monster…. That explanation of the cross just doesn’t work, but sadly, it’s one that’s still all too often preached.”
But he preempted that bit by saying: “On the cross Jesus died for our sins; the price of our sin is paid; but it is not paid to God but by God.” Of course this is contradictory. But we know what he means.
Anglican Bishops Wallace Benn and Pete Broadbent said in a statement: “Jeffrey John is saying that the cross is not about anger or wrath or sin or atonement, but only about God’s unconditional love.” Here we go again. Then God didn’t have to crucify His Son on the cross. If the Crucifixion isn’t about God’s anger and wrath or our sin and Atonement, if He doesn’t hate sin, if His love is unconditional, then everyone goes to Heaven. So why be a Christian?
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Justice is an essential ingredient of love; love is not complete unless — to switch the metaphor — it is built on a foundation for social justice.