Slow Your Roll, Highly Political Christians
I’ll be in hot water with some of my friends for this one.
Michigan and Minnesota have Muslim members of congress now, and they are anything but timid and slow to speak. Christians can’t get over the Supreme Court striking down laws banning gay marriage as unconstitutional. Christian makers of pastries are and have been under attack for several years now. Highhanded atheists mock us continually for praying to our “sky daddy”. Christians are being shown with ever-increasing vigor that we are not welcome in the conversations pushing and molding society.
And you know what? Good. Yes, I said it. It’s a good thing. We are set apart by our faith but still need a little nudge here and there.
No one ever adopted our faith as a result of constant haranguing.
As Ravi Zacharias tells it, every man must answer four very personal questions when he sees the world and is on the path to making sense of it. They are, in the following order, origin, meaning, morality, and destiny. In that order, Christians believe our origin is a Creator God, our meaning is to bring said Creator glory and to spread His word, our morality (not just our don’ts but more importantly, our do’s) springs out of that word, and our destiny is to join Him when we are taken from this body. Our morality is the issue at stake here, more than the others because it governs day-to-day lives and interactions with others of varying beliefs.
When you adopt a morality aligned with the Bible; a transcendent authority, you follow it as fervently as you can. What’s lost on many vocal and militant Christians is that criticizing others who don’t follow said morality is offensive and counterproductive. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel, were the barrel empty and the fish dead and motionless. Oh yes, it’s also immoral, as condemning others too often comes into play. We all know what the good word says about that. It’s counterproductive in that when you accepted Christ as your savior, you weren’t feeling hatred, condemnation (from man), criticism, or other offensive emotions. You were feeling the indescribable and unrivaled love of our Christ and his sacrificial work in place of your sins. You may have been feeling the horrific condemnation that awaited you were you to continue in your unrepentant state. You probably felt shame, guilt, and regret for your sins, but that wasn’t induced by harpies screaming in your face about them. It was from being shown in the Bible what putrid filth they are as transgressing God’s holy law.
When we shout from the rooftops (more often nowadays this being a metaphor for our Facebook posts) that homosexuality is an abomination and that gay marriage is sinful and that transgenderism is destructive and that Sharia Law is tyrannical and that and that and that…we don’t do ourselves any favor. Quote the Bible on your feed. Tell those of differing worldviews, theology, and morality that you love them. Invite those who don’t accept our faith to get a glimpse in context of the evangelical parts and the fruit of the Spirit and the love thy neighbor part (every man being thy neighbor) and the turn the other cheek part, and, and, and…you get it. Our faith is offensive to the old man but the unregenerate sinner must see for themselves the sin they so desperately clutch to and forego it himself, rather than be clubbed with our faith from the outset. Because, fair or not, when they see us saying things are sin, they equate us with the “God hates fags” crowd, the papists-and-dominion-theologians-who-want-to-rule-the-world crowd, and the dreadful fictional portrayals of us in the movies. A soft answer turns away wrath. That’s not a general rule. That’s a promise. Try it sometime.
Why subject an unrepentant sinner to something you had the luxury of avoiding? We lose the testimony of God when we harangue the sinner instead of loving them. Might as well set them on fire, tell them it’s a preview of what’s to come if they don’t change their ways, then expect them to love and respect us for it. Many of us don’t do this, but many pigheaded and overly vocal Christians do. Social media is not the church, nor is it the place to argue with folks we want to bring to the church. Yes, the church is for a body of reborn believers, but the work of the church happens in the street. Not on social media, nor in the courtrooms and legislative bodies. This leads conveniently to my next heading.
We can’t reasonably expect all of our laws to reflect our faith.
Thomas Paine, in writing his revolutionary treatise Common Sense, argued that America should be free to be a Christian nation. He should have stopped with the word “free”. He was also speaking out of turn, at best. He wasn’t involved with Christianity much more than he recognized it was a good way to live one’s life and its moral code of honesty and industry served the greatest good in society. He was in love with the material world and realized America was a land of great material wealth. Yes, his perspective was different than ours, but that actually proves my point. He was hurling invective at a ruffian king who believed in his divine right to rule as a natural logical progression stemming from a former king who produced a state sanctioned faith that was not much more than a close-to-the-original facsimile, and conveniently set himself up as the head of the state church as a means to ascertain the power to divorce his wife. This state church played a big part in Britain’s self-delusion that they should make the world English.
Paine’s perspective actually works against the idea of a state church. The things of God are immutable and non-negotiable. Left in the wicked and corruptible hands of man, they are always, without fail, and 100% of the time, weaponized and used as the engine of tyranny. Paine, while his work is brilliant, should have left the sentence alone at free. A frustrating part of being a Christian is that you must tolerate others who don’t adopt the truth as the guiding light in your life. A wonderful part of being a Christian is that you can share this guiding light with them bereft of the government forcing them to pay even minimal obeisance to it. Anything beyond that is out of your hands and in the mighty hand of the Holy Spirit, not in the decrees of human authorities.
My African-American brothers and sisters are fond of saying “God is good all of the time, and all of the time God is good”. I wish the following statement would catch on: “State churches fail all of the time, and all of the time state churches fail”. I stand by that and challenge anyone to show me where they do not. The human rights abuses of the Muslim nations are well-documented. The failures and corruption of the Catholic Church are even better documented. Listing them here would be laughably redundant. The decline of the Anglican church in Britain, and the Catholic Church in Ireland are logical ends to a state church that doesn’t ignite the fire of genuine and un-misguided passion, along with the concomitant secularization of those wonderful little islands, nature (as she always does) abhorring a vacuum.
In “An Act For Establishing Religious Freedom”, Jefferson states: “That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical;” TJ deftly understood that state religion unencumbered by free thought is oppressive and does not bring about the results true evangelism seeks to attain. We who bear witness to the twentieth century can glean that secularism unencumbered by religious constraint quells (often violently) all talk of transcendent moral authority in lieu of the vogue and flavor of the day. Americans have struck as close to perfect a balance as is necessary for the proliferation of secular freedom and individual soul liberty. Praise God for that and don’t cease to thank Him you were born in such a time and place.
We have the most beneficial, the freest, the most ingenious form of freedom the hands of man have ever (and maybe will ever) devise in this country, and yet we want more. We want Muslim legislators kicked out of congress based solely on their faith, not recognizing that our Supreme Court rightly removed the religious test for public service many years ago. We have deviously tried to sneak prayer back in our public schools (citing the rise of unwed pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, and violent crime among our nation’s youth), not recognizing that when the public schools became the devil’s playground God (almost exactly at the same time) gave us the wonderful option of lawful homeschooling and private schools, nor were our children ever once stopped from praying and evangelizing in public schools, were they to remain there.
We all know that progressives (those incorrigible children of liberals) are busy reducing the list of things that are sin while simultaneously celebrating those actions taken off the “do not” list. We all know the unfavorable statistics concerning our youth coincide with the removal of prayer and Bible readings in school. It’s possible to be right and no one care about your being right. I’d say that’s when the church and its protective and comforting effects come into play, but what do I know?
We all know that a Muslim woman from Minnesota in Congress may not have our best interests at heart. But is she not duly elected, will be up for reelection in a few years, and might possibly at this moment being given enough rope to hang herself? Besides, why do she and her anti-Semitic speech occupy so much space when she cannot violate our persons without running afoul of our laws? We all know the lion’s share of our laws reflect the Judeo-Christian ethic. This is in part because our founders recognized the ten commandments serve as a wonderful springboard to the greatest amount of happiness and reasoned restraint in society. Does that not suffice? God wrote the natural law on every man’s heart, and so in this country, one man cannot pick the pocket of another, nor injure his person without transgressing these laws and calling down consequences upon his head. You know where the laws do not do their utmost to bring justice to those harmed? Countries where religion is state-run or religion is outlawed. Leave well enough alone, people. And now, the comforting part.
We all know that our Supreme Court is made of fallible men. But the Supreme Judge is above them and can sway their hearts, should He see fit. We all know many of our recent laws reflect wickedness, but are we commanded to do them? We will revisit this conversation when good faith abortion quotas and worship of the creation (not the Creator) are mandated. Besides, have we not erred and strayed into injustice at one point or another in our history? Many Christians formed the abolitionist movement, but we would kid ourselves were we to say “No man claiming the name of Christ ever owned and enslaved an African”. We all know the law of man is flawed, but is not the law of God more important to follow, discuss, learn, memorize, and live? There is no law against the fruit of the spirit. Recite them all in your mind right now to see if you remember them. When you leave your door, pray to God that you are afforded opportunity to see each one grow on your particular branch of the vine that day. No right-minded civilian or official will ever arrest or rail on you for such a personal commitment.
Moreover, we can help our collective thought by quitting the victim act. Professional victimhood and its demanded recompense does not suit those who seek a greater life to come. Christians have lost many times in court, yes. But often they have lost when they ventured to imprint their faith on public ritual. A bridge too far, dear reader. The propositions of the Constitution and other guiding documents have no choice but to curtail such efforts. Whining in reprisal only blends our breath with the winds. And it is so very shortsighted. Our Supreme Court, that mishmash of worldview theory we praise when in accordance with our views, revile when not, has impartially and legitimately maintained that religious beliefs and religious expression are too precious to be either proscribed or prescribed by the State. Our government’s neutrality and our smarting hand under the chastising switch are a blessing when all is said and done.
We can reasonably expect to live our faith, even were the state to become our avowed enemy.
Can the state change the mind of a man? No state ever succeeded (not for want of trying). The Supreme Court calls the heart and mind of man an “inviolable citadel”, and rightly so. The state can only seek to constrain the heartless, an attempt it fails miserably time and again. But it cannot save the sinner, nor can it strip the saved sinner of his eternal gift. The hands of man can only clasp the tangible by employing carnal weaponry. We are forever bequeathed the intangible with spiritual weaponry.
We enjoy a great measure of comfort here, making the espousing of our faith easy. We know nothing of true persecution. But those Christians who face dispossession, imprisonment, ostracizing, and murder the world over do. Do they turn tail and run? Do they hide their faith? Do they use discretion when their valor falters? No. They breath every breath and walk every step under the threat of recourse and do not waiver.
Shall we ever face persecution like this here? Were the worshipers of government and man’s various machinations to ever tip the scales, most certainly. But I will not say “God forbid” or “may it never be”. I say persecution would cleanse the American branch of the church of its hypocrites. What need to stand fast do those Christians of convenience possess? I say dispossession would galvanize and strengthen our faith, morphing us into creatures all the more reliant on God, as Paul did when cursed with a thorn in his flesh. I say imprisonment gives the chance for stillness and peace, two ever-decreasing blessings in this modern world so full of loud things clamoring for our attention. I say murder is no threat at all, not when you shall speed me on my way to the loving arms of my adoptive heavenly Father.
More importantly, God says you are blessed when you are persecuted because of righteousness, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Kingdoms of men rise, tax, oppress, abuse, rape, pillage, fall, and do it again in spite of their decrees, “divine rights”, and loyal subjects. The kingdom of Heaven will see no such cycle beyond its rise. Would you rather be persecuted for unrighteousness sake? I’ve known and heard tell of many drunkards, strikers, philanderers, adulterers, brawlers, warmongers, gossipers, those of a haughty spirit, and all sorts who practice sin in an unrepentant manner, both in and out of the church’s rolls. Would you prefer to be persecuted for these? Joseph Smith maintained a harem of young women and was strung on a tree by an overzealous mob. He paid the ultimate price for his deviancy. You might one day be called to pay the ultimate price for your faith. Would you have it any other way? Is Smith good company to keep in your possible execution? If yes, I advise you take inventory of your soul.
The Roman and Greek pantheons fell under the weight of their own unrighteousness. The Caesars reveled in Christian martyrs being ripped to shreds by bloodthirsty cats in the Colosseum. Constantine declared Rome to be a Christian empire and did a mighty disservice to true Christianity. Some who practice Islam wish to see the world bowed under their dominion, and Jews and Christians subjugated or eradicated. Fascist leaders arrogantly presumed to replace religion with dutiful servitude to the state. Egyptian and Asian kings declared themselves living gods and still found themselves underground when the vessel expired. Many of these men set themselves in opposition to our Lord and still His work goes on, and still His love is reflected in all corners, and still lost sheep flock to His fold. Shall I go on, or have I made my point?
We can’t reasonably expect all of our leaders to follow our faith.
Benjamin Franklin stated:
When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one…
We all know we are creatures made to worship. Men are subconsciously predisposed to reveal what they worship in a timely manner. We Christians are meant to worship our Lord above our political devices while simultaneously allowing for and loving those who do worship said devices. We do not use the structures of man to ensnare and bring to heel the will of these. We must live with them, trade with them, work with them, converse with them, share with them, and show charity toward them even when they step on our sensibilities, either mistakenly or purposefully.
We kid ourselves when we say this is a Christian nation. The Puritans, in their quest to escape persecution, came and settled on these shores, A concept lost among the “white people are the most evil sons of man” crowd is that these selfsame Puritans conducted themselves peacefully and lovingly among the natives. It wasn’t until the empires of Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal, often guided by papal edicts, that insatiable trouble brewed. Empirical expansion sanctioned by whom one believes is the human voice of God is bound to work mischief. And so the Puritans and Quakers once again faced persecution and relegation. What were they to do? Their conservative and pacifist ways naturally gave way to the aggressive and opportunistic.
The founding fathers, once free of monarchical rule, were not as sacred as we imagine them to be. Were we Christians to say they all were Christians would immediately invoke justifiable vehemence in opposing debate. It would also discredit our faith in the minds of those just waiting for the chance. The founders spoke rightly when they said all men are created equal but did not fully practice this righteous mantra. They were all aware of the Christian ethic but the more liberal among them only held a practical appreciation of it, knowing that honest and hardworking men shall see the increase. Franklin knew he worked alongside Christians but valued his own thirteen virtues and personal wealth more than the things of God. Jefferson set surgical knife to page and removed passages from his personal Bible when they disagreed with his secular views. Well documented are his taking the privileges of a husband upon an African slave. Reasonable people call this rape. Are these and other fallible men to remain untouched by criticism? Through painstaking debate, revision, and effort, they engineered the greatest form of government to bring justice, equality, and prosperity, then hamstringed its ability to impede religious practice. The sin of enslaving others does not entirely discredit their accomplishments, nor do their accomplishments make them entirely beyond reproach. We all hope to be judged by our small inventory of righteous deeds and not by the larger inventory of unrighteous deeds. Let us cautiously celebrate that which they accomplished for the greater good.
What a blessing we are bestowed to be born here. We Christians were given the chance to lead this great land but became enamored of wealth, land, power, fame, and influence. In doing so, we turned over the reigns to those even more enamored but unencumbered by religious thought. We were a wayward child, who through abuse and neglect of the intricate and movable parts, broke the most wonderful toy ever devised. And now we want it back under full and total control? No, dear reader. That ship has sailed. And yet we press on, free to move this way and that, free to think this way and that, free to adopt or reject, free to order and believe and pray, and then pray, and then pray again. Be thankful. Were we to regain control, would we not bungle and confuse matters again?
Barring leaders of a certain religion cannot stop just there. Man invariably suffers from take-things-too-far disease. Leaders of secular, materialistic, and atheist bent must needs also suffer under such a malady. We must obey those who have authority over us, knowing that their administrative power does not invade and expose for the ordering all corners of our lives. We must also obey, knowing that we can disobey on the rare occasion they compel us to violate our faith. Should we feel the sting of our disobedience as applied by the law, we have the recourse of appeal. Did our founders not paint a masterpiece of government in so doing, one that brooks no rival? Replace the constant reproaches with thanksgiving and see if your perspective is not shifted, your spirit lightened, and your brow un-furrowed.
Besides, such a proposition ultimately fails when taken to its logical ends. We elect Christian pastors to lead our churches, but this practice can’t be unfailingly applied across the board. Do we only work for Christian employers? Do we only obey Christian supervisors? Do we only heed Christian teachers? Do we only serve Christian customers? The suggestion is made by ludicrous by its impracticality. Nowhere is it to be found in the Bible either. We are in the world but not of it, yes. But we must dance with many partners in order to see success in our endeavors.
Christians must be politically active? Yes, but as an all-encompassing life mission? I say no. We must say our peace when it is time and reserve our peace when overruled. We know that in the end, every knee shall bow. Remind yourself of that comforting thought when, mired in pride, you are inclined to make the sinner bow under your political power or lend his wealth to our cause.
I repeat for effect the insightful and applicable words of Jefferson to conclude this section:
“That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical;”
Our faith allows us to be clubbed and oppressed.
First, the clubbing. Some among us are inclined to anger when a non-believer uses our faith against us. That is, when one makes a bad showing of being a Christian, the unsaved point out their shortcoming when compared to the immovable doctrines and commandments. Rejection of our faith but using it as an argument is in no way hypocrisy, in the normal tradition of the word. Hypocrites, in the sense from the book of Hebrews, are those who make a show of adopting our faith for personal gain but reject it in their heart. Indeed, we should be held to the standards of our faith. I am reminded of a conflict with a coworker in which both of us were sinking in the quicksand of our pride. Hours passed and his anger cooled as mine was still smoldering. He approached me, apologized, and asked forgiveness for his part of the argument. I challenge a man to find a more shameful feeling than when an unbeliever outpaces us in our own practices. Whether or not those holding us to it claim or abide by the same principles is immaterial. The book of James tells us teachers will be judged the more strictly, and that to him who knows to do good but does it not, it is sin.
This is not to say there aren’t the occasional taking passages out of context. The Word says that a wise man judges all things. It also says to judge not, lest ye be judged. A wise man knows he differentiates between judging the actions and thoughts of himself and others and actually condemning others. Outsiders though, only seeing these passages on the surface, see them as contradictory. Those instances can, and should be handled in a loving manner. Aforementioned outsiders already have a view of Christians as being hateful. There are some who claim the name of Christ who have tragically been more than obliging to vindicate this view.
Now, the oppression. Surely, this is a hard pill to swallow, but not impossible. Some faiths holding sway in the histories of man are political ideologies and systems of governance on top of religious belief. Certainly the papacy is one of these. Islam is another. Some religions of lesser contemporary influence also. The pantheons of the Greeks, Romans, and Nordic peoples had a measure of time in the sun. They don’t accept governance alongside their faith, rather their faith demands political governance as a necessary measure to the furtherance of their beliefs. Not so with we followers of Christ. We are told, and must remind ourselves over and over, that our weapons of warfare are not carnal. Instruments of violence are not the only example of carnal weaponry. Symbolic speech, political rhetoric, and governmental pressure all can be labeled thus. We know the body of God’s adopted is not grown by encumbering the ears of others with a multitude of arguments and legal proclamations so as to drown out the voice of others. Rather, it is grown by showing the love and life-changing process (independent of temporal forces) a believer experiences through the mighty hand of the living God.
Indeed, taken to the other extreme, we can silently abide oppression from a government run amok in peace, pacifism, and dignity. Were said government to make us its enemy and subjugate on grounds of our faith, we can still be silent and carry on, loving those who oppress us and blessing those who spitefully use us. Tibetan Buddhists and those of Jewish Orthodoxy have been enslaved by twisted governments who hate for hatred’s sake. We Western Christians may feel as though we are only stemming the tide, but we must be ready for a hateful and evil government to crash down like a thunderous wave. What’s more, we must not return hate for hate nor violence for violence. Were a man to enter my house to rob and harm me for material gain, I would oppose by all means in my disposal. Were a man to threaten running me through if I did not denounce my faith, I would like to think I’d abide the skewering in faith and silent courage. Taking or protecting our world by force is neither our calling nor our mission.
Tolerance is a two-way street.
This is a true saying, even when one way is blocked for unending and incompetent instruction. We know the radical left is intolerant. They have brazenly set themselves in opposition to religious propositions. Many among them wish to take our quaint little “superstitions” away from us. I would ask, is the radical right very much guiltless in this regard? Can we enjoy the luxury of labeling all those in political opposition and expect them not to apply to us the same pejorative labeling?
Tolerance is not acceptance, as the left wishes it to be. It is civil recognition and benefaction in spite of disagreement. Just because there are those who would stamp out the fires of religious thought does not mean we must respond in kind. Rather, it would betray our faith were we to do so. Moreover, it would deny the benefit of having a heart and mind only the individual man and a sovereign God can change. Cast as many words to the wind as you will, you’ll never alter the bearer of the seared conscience for all your eloquent disputations. Pray for them and leave it in the hands of He who created and holds all things.
Try this the next time debate over that wicked practice; abortion, is on the tongue of those around you. You know your Creator formed you in the womb. They who allow for abortion often disbelieve such a fact. Ask if you can show them the basic tenets of your faith and what God has done for you. If they entertain you for even a few moments, you have done all that is required but for the final step of praying. Their possible future adoption into God’s fold will take care of their changed and sacred view of life. It’s your job to cast the seeds in fertile ground. It is God’s job attending to the increase. He and His might are infinitely more efficacious than the soundest dissertation our meager intellects could ever marshal.
Trust in Him. All will be as it should be.
