A Cup Of Water In My Name: Jesus, Darwin, And Alexis De Tocqueville: New Year Reflection

Until the collapse of the Soviet World in 1991, the Euro-American world had devised ways of controlling the world. They had, as usual incorporated revitalised theories of their ancestors, such as Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Charles Darwin, John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Rousseau into sustaining global asymmetric relations.

So, historically, whether directly or not, these theories had provided a strong intellectual basis for the western world to exploit the world of the Other – particularly Africans. Whenever the West had done enough damage to the rest of the world and when they took a superficial recession to devise new exploitative strategies, they turn against themselves – leading to internal contradiction.

The internal contradiction in the West leads to the spillovers in the so-named Western civilization – often creating ideological cleavages. Consequently, at the end of the so-named World War II in 1945, the West had to turn against themselves as another level of façade to refill and refuel to do more damage to the rest of the world.

The tension resulted in the superficial ideological division of the Euro-American world into the capitalist West and Socialist East. Either way, each side of the divide did not significantly benefit any African country other than the Euro-American world.

Unfortunately, the ideological division in the ideological world led to the creation of a bipolar world, forcing nations to either belong to the West or the East. The force of such dualization was so strong that African leaders were to choose between the two worlds. Nkrumah, who initially adopted a neutral ground (non-alliance) with “We face neither the East nor West, we face forward” had to ultimately capitulate to the force of the East.

Nevertheless, neither the West nor East has significantly helped any African nation, as these ideologies are part and parcel of the old agenda of the Euro-American world to milk the world. This is precisely because it is either the West lays claim to liberalism to promote all manner of debased cultural practices and economic manipulations or the East sacrifices culture at the altar of economic interest to stifle belief in God and bracket the world out of the control of the Creator – which leads to the mugging of human rights.

In a conflagration of a superficial bipolar world, the "collapse" of the East in 1991 reinforced America's sense of superiority over the world. Their fang capitalism is collapsing the world. Human civilization is, therefore, under threat as everything has been monetised, commodified, and weaponised. The political economy of the current coronavirus pandemic has clearly demonstrated the fault lines of western late capitalism.

As the world continues to head towards a capitalist-induced apocalyptic collapse, I reflected on Jesus’s words in Matthew 10:42, which reads:

“Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you he will never reward.”

I simply summarise the text as, "If you give anyone a cup of water in my name". In the world of fawning capitalism, framed as different levels of neo-liberalisation, everything, as I have said above, has been monetised. It is nearly becoming impossible for people to do kindness without reducing kindness to monetary value. Everything is about money and money is about money.

Money has, since the rise of the modern world, become the god/goddess of the world. With the deification of money, capitalism has become the philosophy that routinises it. This development is undoubtedly a dangerous prelude to the collapse of human civilization.

The threat the deification of money portends to the world is such that money is illogical as money is ontologically inferior human beings. This is because money is human creation. So, to reduce human beings into the image of money is crass idolatry. As the apex of idolatry, money would lead the world into the abyss of total destruction. It is dangerously dangerous.

To reverse the dangers capitalist commodification of social relation pose to humanity, which Karl Marx called "commodity fetishism" it is important that we take a critical look at Jesus's statement.

Jesus’s statement is inviting us to do good in His name. This means that when we do good, we should do it for the sake of Christ. We should reflect on how Christ left His glory to die for us. We should consider the fact that we are nothing without God and yet God saved us.

We also remember that God did not and does not owe any of us salvation, apart from His justifiable damnation. Yet, He saved us – making salvation purely a matter of grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. So, let us do good, because of Jesus's ultimate goodness towards us. More so, we should do good without any monetary consideration because there is nothing we own (not the centrality of our salvation) that was given to us by Jesus Christ.

The second reason we should do good in the name of Christ is because, as human beings, we are decidedly selfish. Several academic and popular works, including the nineteenth-century classic work of Charles Darwin's "On The Origin of Species” indicate that human beings are simply selfish.

Meanwhile, a contemporary of Charles Darwin, Alexis de Tocqueville, who was a French aristocrat and political analyst, studied the role of religion in America around the same time that Darwin went to around the world to study nature.

Interestingly, and rightly so, de Tocqueville in his work on American Democracy was observed that religion, specifically Christianity, was/is the basis of human altruism – making American civil society a possibility.

So, Darwin and de Tocqueville appeared to have arrived at contradictory conclusions between selfishness and altruism as they went out in their exploration of a world where religion had to be "relegated" to the background, as a result of the secularisation of politics in the eighteen-century.

Nevertheless, both eventually agreed that altruism is stronger than selfishness. For example, while Darwin was right in his observation that for organisms to survive as individuals, they needed to be selfish (natural selection). But to survive as a group, based on his observation of a so-named tribal group, they needed altruism. But, as someone who had thrown God out of the window, he concluded that altruism may be possible in the realm of a miracle.

The opposite of Darwin's selfishness is de Tocqueville's religion-induced altruism. But since religion can be manipulated and, indeed been manipulated to perpetuate human suffering, including enslavement, we must all do good for the sake of Jesus Christ.

We can do good only when we look unto Christ who has given us an ultimate reason to do good, because He will reward our kindness, generosity, and love for humanity. If we give water in His name, He will reward us with eternal bliss. That, He historically resurrected from death, after doing us the ultimate good (saving us from sin) means He will not only bring us to life after sacrificing for others, He will bring us to glory.

The sacrificial love Christ has for us in laying His life for us implies that when we sacrifice ourselves to the point of death to “give a cup of water in His name”, we shall live. Consequently, the worse that can happen to us (death) because of doing good in His name will lead to the best that will ever happen to us.

With the above, it is clear that the pagan Greek philosophy that "We should do good for the sake of goodness" is simply impossible. When human beings do good without God as the main reason, every good will end up on the axis of neo-liberal exploitation.

Friendship would be reduced to "friendship of convenience", while the Satanic trinity, "I, me, and myself" will reign supreme, with religion turning to a transactional cult of commodifying prayers, prophecies, and blessings.

As we have entered this year, my goal is to continue to "give a cup of water in the name of Christ". I pray you join me in doing the same. We should all endeavour to do good for the sake of Christ. When we continue to "give water in His name", we will receive His blessings.

My family and I wish you all the best in the year. Remember to give someone daily “A cup of water in His name”.

Satyagraha

Prempeh Charles ([email protected]), Kwame University of Science and Technology, Kumasi-Ghana