During a week of study long ago at the United Theological College of the West Indies a professor from the nearby university in Kingston came over to explain the tenets of Rastafarianism.
Following his explanations, he added: “Not everyone who claims to be Rastafarian follows these teachings. Some just like to wear dreadlocks and smoke ganja.”
That reality has broader application.
My youthful years in the late ’60s and ’70s were times of idealistic opposition to discrimination, violence and corruption. Power to the people was among the popular mantras.
Confronting civil rights, a seemingly endless war in Vietnam and the spectacle of Watergate, we believed our nation and world could be better than what we were witnessing.
Sadly, it turns out that the generation of peace and love is as greedy and gullible as those once critiqued harshly for their abuses.
Many from that time, apparently, just liked wearing long hair and bellbottom jeans. Peace and love were nothing more than songs and signs.
The peace train and the gospel were abandoned by an eagerness to embrace authoritarianism that offers false security to the privileged few in exchange for blind loyalty. The hell with “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”
We sang with The Youngbloods: “Love is but a song to sing; Fear’s the way we die; You can make the mountains ring; Or make the angels cry.”
It’s weird the choice that has been made in that regard — as well as the response to the radical revolutionary who two millennia ago said, “Follow me.” John D. Pierce is director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative (jesusworldview.org), part of Belmont University’s Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership. Join us for the second annual Jesus Worldview Conference in Nashville October 12-13,