PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

The headline of this blog also was the headline in a major story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on the day before Easter.

Here are excerpts from the article:

“How did this happen? How did a ragtag band of nobodies from the far edges of the Mediterranean world become such a dominant force in just two and a half centuries? The historical sociology of this extraordinary phenomenon has been explored by Rodney Stark of Baylor University, who argues that Christianity modeled a nobler way of life than what was on offer elsewhere in the rather brutal society of the day.

“In Christianity, women were respected as they weren’t in classical culture and played a critical role in bringing men to the faith and attracting converts. In an age of plagues, the readiness of Christians to care for all the sick, not just their own, was a factor, as was the impressive witness to faith of countless martyrs. Christianity also grew from within because Christians had larger families, a by-product of their faith’s prohibition of contraception, abortion and infanticide.

“For theologians who like to think that arguments won the day for the Christian faith, this sort of historical reconstruction is not particularly gratifying, but it makes a lot of human sense. Professor Stark’s analysis still leaves us with a question, though: How did all that modeling of a compelling, alternative way of life get started? And that, in turn, brings us back to that gaggle of nobodies in the early first century A.D. and what happened to them.

“What happened to them was the Easter Effect.

“There is no accounting for the rise of Christianity without weighing the revolutionary effect on those nobodies of what they called “the Resurrection”: their encounter with the one whom they embraced as the Risen Lord, whom they first knew as the itinerant Jewish rabbi, Jesus of Nazareth, and who died an agonizing and shameful death on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. As N.T. Wright, one of the Anglosphere’s pre-eminent biblical scholars, makes clear, that first generation answered the question of why they were Christians with a straightforward answer: because Jesus was raised from the dead.”

Consider the basic proposition in the article.

What is labeled “a ragtag band of nobodies from the far edges of the Mediterranean world” became a dominate force in the world in just two and half centuries based on a other-worldly reality: Jesus was raised from the dead.

All of this was driven home to me as my wife and I attended an Easter service at our church, Salem Alliance. For me, it is always one of the most uplifting services of the year because it attests to the reality that infuses our lives with purpose and commitment: Jesus was raised from the dead.

Frankly, the service this year was a little less upbeat than in some past years. Not sure why.

Of course, there was still an emphasis on the reality of the resurrection, but, as an expression of personal priority, I would have been happier if an important hymn would have been sung: Up from Grave He Arose.

Here are the words of the refrain, which still resonate with me nearly every day.

Up from the grave He arose;
with a mighty triumph o’er his foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
and He lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Great words – and true ones!