The dream of the religious right has finally come true. The United States of America has become a theocracy (although most people, unaware of the meaning of the word, speak of “the Ocracy”). The Ten Commandments are prominently featured anywhere temptation may rear its ugly head – in schools, bars, gyms, on cigarettes, alcohol, lingerie, etc. The District of Columbia is now the Dominion of Christ. Sex – even among married couples – is outlawed, except for procreation. Creationism is the only perspective taught in schools. New federal laws against blasphemy, sodomy, and witchcraft are rigidly enforced. Even Hollywood – the last bastion of liberalism – has been renamed to Holywood. The union of Church and State is complete.
In this environment, a “mysterious stranger” named Jay appears among the poor minorities in New Jersey. He works miracles and preaches God’s love. Though many of the weak and oppressed love him, he is a threat to the Christian establishment and is eventually arrested, tortured, and killed.
Religious Dystopia
In The Messiah of Morris Avenue Tony Hendra retells the Christ story in a modern setting. This time around, the “religious professionals” that oppose Jesus are Christians rather than Jews. In this setting, the values Jesus undermines are those we often associate with American Evangelicalism rather than first-century Judaism. By telling the story in this way, the shock of Jesus’ ministry and message is unmistakably apparent. Clearly, Jesus – whether the first-century version or twenty-first century version – is not safe in the religious dystopia created by contemporary Evangelicals.
Much of the book recounts Jay’s ministry and message through the eyes of Johnny Greco, a jaded journalist past his prime. In an interview, Jay reveals to Johnny that he shares Jesus’ mission: “To reveal the God in humanity and the humanity in God, by teaching, healing, and, if necessary, dying” (83). Like Jesus, he has not come for the righteous, but for sinners:
“A very rich man once said, ‘Christianity is a religion for losers.’ He was absolutely right. It’s always been very hard, even for Christians, to understand that I don’t come for the winners in society – the successful, the creative, the victorious, even the saints. They have their reward. I come for the anonymous, the invisible, the forgotten, the damaged. I come, first and foremost, for the losers.” (94-95)
Though some will quibble with Jay’s emphasis on Mother God, his consistent pacifism, and his liberal politics, many of the insights and critiques Jay offers are profound. In his interactions with a contemporary female version of the “rich young ruler,” he tells Johnny that the wealthy woman “needs to strip her possessions away from her self. Find the true person beneath. The person I love” (83).
In contrast to Evangelical’s emphasis on “the Almighty,” Jay emphasizes God’s closeness: “You honor God in the finite, the knowable… I always spoke of God as a parent: normal, tangible, familiar… It’s from worshiping God as apart and beyond, sacred, faraway, all powerful – instead of ordinary, present, and everyday – that human beings get their great contempt for life. That’s the beginning of evil” (90).
Jay’s view of humanity is not naïve. He clearly speaks of evil – its root and consequences. For example: “All evil begins with this belief: that another’s existence is less precious than mine” (91). Again: “Evil is caused by selfishness, by people acting out of the belief that they and their needs are paramount” (93).
Frustrated with the right-wing conservatism of the status quo, Johnny Greco hopes to take advantage of Jay’s popularity with the crowds to help him take the place of the religious establishment. He believes that Jay has “dramatic political potential” (143). It is this passion for Jay that leads Johnny to ultimately become Jay’s Judas. Unknowingly, Johnny Greco leads the authorities to Jay, which triggers his torture, trial, and murder.
Upsetting the Religious Status Quo
Jay’s ministry and message upsets the norm. Like Jesus, who claimed that he came in order to fulfill Judaism, Jay comes in order to fulfill Christianity. To him, Christianity is completely off course from its founder’s mission and vision. Prophetically, he cries out, “Oh, the Day of Judgment is at hand. For Christianity” (87). He continues:
“Christianity is unrecognizable to me. Christians have removed me from my own religion. They teach that my teachings don’t apply until I return in glory and kill all their enemies. Oh, and reign for a thousand years… Until then, they’re free to ignore my only commandment: Love one another, even your enemy. Free to take revenge on whom they please; wage wars; steal from the poor and blame them for their own poverty; allow disease, misery, famine, and environmental devastation, even nuclear war, to sweep the planet, because – bring it on! All these man-made horrors are signs sent by me that I’m just around the corner. That’s not Christianity, that’s insanity.” (87)
Jay’s message is a threat to the religious status quo. In a passage that strikes close to home, we discover the secret to Pastor Bob’s success:
Pastor Bob’s breakthrough… while Americans were hungry for spiritual nourishment, they wanted it bland and easy to digest – the religious equivalent of fast food. All that New Testament stuff about self-sacrifice and forgiveness puzzled them mightily. So Pastor Bob preached the Christian virtues of feeling good, relieving stress, getting rich, and hiring abundant deadly force to protect the good people from the bad. (61-62)
In Jay’s final trial, the ruling Reverend privately confronts him: “Where were you trying to accomplish, boy? Even if you were Jesus, what’s the point? You ain’t the Christ people want. People want someone who makes them feel safe. What ordinary folks mean by saved is safe. Safe in the world to come, safe to enjoy this world’s abundance” (217).
Conclusion
Regardless of whether you love or hate Tony Hendra’s Messiah of Morris Avenue, his analysis and critique of popular religion is provocative and compelling. A Christianity that delights in the bloodbath of Armageddon, that excuses its neglect of loving all people – including enemies, that assumes Divine endorsement of its military causes, that offers a safe religion that supports the status quo, hardly reflects the wild, radical, revolutionary message of God in Christ – whether Jesus or Jay. Hendra offers us an opportunity to see how Jesus would upset our expectations in the present, just as he did in the past. Now, as always, the question remains: Will we follow?
Quotes excerpted from The Messiah of Morris Avenue by Tony Hendra
Review © Richard J. Vincent, 2006
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