Protesting Easter

Take note of this over at Newsweek, in a blog post entitled "Save Jesus, Ignore Easter":

"The fact is, American Christianity has historically been focused so obsessively on the Nicene Creed -- which says Jesus was the son of God, who was crucified for our sins and rose from the grave three days later -- that it never made much room for the actual teachings of this radical Jewish street preacher. 

This is why I'm against Easter. It celebrates the death of Jesus nearly to the exclusion of his life. If the Easter miracle can save us from this life, then why bother with the harder work of enacting the kingdom of God here? It is, after all, much harder."

Let me put this as bluntly as possible:

If there is no Easter, there is no kingdom of God. There would be no King in the kingdom. No power, no authority for the kingdom to advance.

Did God set up a King in the Kingdom or not? Apparently this author wants the kingdom without an actual king. That leaves our work in vain. The whole point of serving in a kingdom is their is sovereign protection along with rights and privileges. The kingdom is indeed about what this author denigrates as a "salvational Christ".

1 Corinthians 15:58 tells us that the only reason that our labors for the kingdom are not in vain is ultimate because there is a resurrection. The real question should be why bother to work at all if the first guy bringing the kingdom couldn't even be victorious?

The author believes Christ died but fails to see that without resurrection Jesus is just another failed radical. Every good first century Jew knew that.

In response to the first paragraph, I think the author doth protest too much. We could debate whether or not American Christianity is really committed to the Nicene Creed--probably not very much outside of theologically conservative circles. But here's the irony and the author doesn't even see it: it's not American Christianity that is committed to the Nicene Creed--it really is the whole of true Christianity that is committed to the Nicene Creed.

American Christianity should take its lumps on the chins for some of its problems, but being to rooted to the historic orthodoxy really isn't one of them.

So basically what the author is complaining is that American Christians are too, well, Christian.