She unexpectedly bumped into another friend while they both were marching in a local protest demonstrating against president Trump’s immigration policies.
She passed along these kind remarks:
“…(my friend) mentioned that the men’s book club had finished reading I Pledge Allegiance this morning, and found it really good and deeply challenging in all the right ways – and also that he had been in touch with you to say how superb he finds the book. I’m really glad that he took the initiative to contact you!! He and I have been talking a lot about it recently, and how we need to keep it close by to help us to navigate the insanity.”
I could not be more pleased. She describes everything I hope would happen when disciples wrestle with God’s word while considering the arguments found in my book.
I am pleased as punch.
If you haven’t yet read I Pledge Allegiance, please join the crowd of those who have and ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to be doing for the kingdom of God in this world right now.
I am sorry, but I can’t abide the heaping shovels-full of shamelessly fawning bromides being spewed out by the corporate media in their oh-so UN-journalistic obituaries of John McCain.
Apparently, patriot and patriotism are the civil-religion mantras of choice at the moment, intended to numb our critical faculties and mesmerize us into another dreamscape of American greatness and war-hero sainthood.
Don’t fall for it. We need to resist.
You see, John McCain never met an American war that he didn’t like and wish to expand. He was a rabid hawk who seemed incapable of feeling anything like empathy for the untold masses of people killed, maimed and displaced by American military adventurism around the world.
It is one thing to believe the mythology of noble America’s military virtue as a little child, but to leverage those nationalistic lies over and over again from Capitol Hill in the merciless mission of immolating country after country (e.g. Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, to list only a few of McCain’s wars of choice) upon the altar of American hegemony is an unconscionable evil perpetrated against God and the divine image placed within every human being.
As citizens of God’s kingdom first and foremost, who view this world and its shenanigans through the lens Jesus’ kingdom ethics, nostalgically memorializing McCain’s political career is the last thing any follower of Jesus should be doing.
I don’t know anything about McCain’s religious convictions. I hope that he confessed his sins and surrendered to the Lord Jesus while he still had the opportunity.
For an unvarnished, historically accurate appraisal of Senator McCain’s political career, please watch this clip (22 minutes) from Democracy Now. Amy Goodman interviews Norman Solomon, Medea Benjamin and Mehdi Hasan who remind us of the many unsavory facts about McCain’s politics that the corporate media deliberately omits from its obits.
Besides being a brilliant author and humorist, Mark Twain was a man of deep conscience. But that won’t surprise anyone who has read his books.
From 1899 to 1902, the United States was embroiled in another of its imperialist wars. This time in the Philippines. Twain was a staunch opponent of American empire and publicly protested against the Philippine-American war.
His short story, “The War Prayer,” was submitted to the magazine Harper’s Bazaar in March, 1905. The editor’s rejected it. Because Twain was under contract, he couldn’t submit it to anyone else. He wrote to a friend lamenting,
“I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.”
The Prayer was finally published in 1923, thirteen years after Twain’s death. When I was teaching, I made it a regular practice to read Twain’s story to my students. It is as relevant for us today as it was in 1905.
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory with stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener.
It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety’s sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came — next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams — visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender!
Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation:
God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest, Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!
Then came the “long” prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory —
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher’s side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, “Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord and God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!”
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside — which the startled minister did — and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
“I come from the Throne — bearing a message from Almighty God!” The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. “He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import — that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of — except he pause and think. “God’s servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two — one uttered, and the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this — keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon your neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain on your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse on some neighbor’s crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
“You have heard your servant’s prayer — the uttered part of it. I am commissioned by God to put into words the other part of it — that part which the pastor — and also you in your hearts — fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard the words ‘Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!’ That is sufficient. The whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory — must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
“Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth into battle — be Thou near them! With them — in spirit — we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended in the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames in summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it —
For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimmage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(After a pause.) “Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits.”
—
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
Yep, recent reports reveal that as the US continues to supply Saudi Arabia with armaments and other military assistance for its genocide in Yemen, we are also funding al Quaeda linked militias there.
How many Americans understand that our government has been cooperating for years with al Quaeda networks in both Yemen and Syria (here and here)? Not many.
Welcome to the completely immoral, conscience-free world of warfare American style.
Sadly, Senator Chris Murphy’s proposed amendment to the new Pentagon appropriations bill (itself a moral travesty we will discuss another day), which would have ended US support for Saudi atrocities, went down to defeat. Take a moment to watch the Senator’s defense of the amendment, complete with details about our involvement in Saudi war crimes.
Let’s all continue to pray for an end to this war and for a peaceful settlement determined by the Yemeni people, not by the US, Saudi Arabia or Iran.
In fact, while we are praying for peace, let’s not forget that American troops continue to fight, die and kill others in many other countries world-wide.
US troops killed while “fighting terrorism” in Niger
The latest official war report from the White House, called the “Report on the Legal and Policy Frameworks Guiding the United States’ Military Force and Related National Security Operations,” admits to active military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Niger — 7 countries!
And those are only the unclassified wars. Who knows how many other places there may be around the globe where US troops are fighting, dying and killing innocent civilians.
According to DefenseOne, America’s global war on terrorism now involves 39% of the world’s countries! Check out the map of global US military activity here.
Under president Trump, the number of US troops deployed in war zones around the world has only increased.
And do I need to repeat the often noted insanity displayed by declaring war against a tactic, i.e. terrorism?!
By such ridiculousness is the American public manipulated. For this absurd mantra — the war against terror — has never been anything more, or less,
My Lai, only one of many Vietnam massacres committed by US troops
than a big, fat, blank check for the arrogance and cruelty of American empire. Let’s not be so naive as to believe the official propaganda insisting that America only fights to bring other people freedom. Such blind patriotism demonstrates a profound ignorance of history.
Every right-thinking Christian is bound to abhor and to condemn all these features of US foreign policy.
My goodness, there is a LOT for all of us to add to our prayer lists.
Recently a good friend sent me a selection of articles from past issues of the Christian Century. They all deal with Christianity and gun control. More specifically, they contain stories about the ways various churches are dealing with concealed carry laws in their states and whether they allow guns in church. (You can read my previous posts about gun control and guns in church here, and here.)
I may revisit other articles in the future, but for now, I was especially struck by an article from pastor Kyle Childress entitled, “In Texas, Even the Pastors are Carrying Guns in the Pulpit” (3/7/16 in print, 3/16/16 online).
Several years ago I attended a public meeting sponsored by a cadre of local churches. Several hundred people showed up at the local Hilton Hotel conference room. At the end of his anti-Muslim rant, the visiting pastor/speaker boasted about the fact that he and all his church elders carried their guns to every church activity, both inside and out of the church building, in order “to protect their flock.”
Contrast that man’s view of Christian faith with the following story excerpted from pastor Childress’s article:
“The rationale of gun-carrying church members is that they want to be ready to protect themselves and their families if an armed intruder enters the church. But with the new [concealed carry] law in place, who will know if the person is an armed intruder or an armed visitor?…All visitors are now scrutinized, with every visitor being a potential threat. At the same time, to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the new law, some churches are posting signs that say — as an act of outreach — ‘Guns Welcome Here.’
“I’ve been astonished at the level of fear associated with perceived threats that are just outside our doors ready to get us…I keep asking myself where the witness of Christ is in all of this. Many of the pastors who are carrying guns teach and preach a version of the gospel that’s different from what I know. It is a gospel of everyone looking out for himself or herself, a gospel that says, ‘It’s a dangerous world, so get them before they get you…’
“One of my deacons, the dean of a nearby college, was in a faculty meeting listening to faculty members discuss how they were all getting guns. The dean said she refused to carry a gun. It got quiet in the room, then someone asked why. She said she was not prepared to shoot and perhaps kill someone. There
Jesus arrested on trumped up charges. Maybe if he had carried a gun…?
was a long pause and then ‘What would you do if someone threatening came into the classroom?’ The dean said, ‘I’d tell them about Jesus and try to show them the love of Jesus.’
“‘You could hear a pin drop,’ she told me later. ‘Everyone looked at the floor, and someone changed the subject.’
“During a sermon on baptism a few weeks ago, I explained why I would not be carrying a gun in the pulpit or anywhere else. ‘It has to do with baptism,’ I said. ‘When I went down into the waters of baptism, I did not come out to strap on a gun. I came out entering into the life of the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ.’ I went on, ‘In baptism our lives are no longer our own. We belong to Christ.’ I could see and hear some crying in the congregation…”
Our lives are no longer our own.
We belong wholly and completely belong to Jesus Christ to do with as He pleases.
If your pastor is packing heat, I am afraid that he doesn’t have wisdom enough to lead a conga line, much less the people of God.
I believe in miracles. More precisely, I believe that God works miracles today because I have experienced them in my life.
Peter follows Jesus onto the water
Miracles pose a problem for comfortable Christianity. They require faith. Faith in the sense of taking a risk. Faith in the sense of pushing off into the unknown, realizing that if God does not come through for you, then you are sunk, done, in trouble.
Those who have seen God perform such miracles know two things.
First, you venture out in faith because you know it is the only way for you to obey Jesus, not because it sounds cool or would give you a neat story to tell others. Rather, you are convinced that not venturing out into the unknown would be disobedient. Somehow or another you simply know that the Lord has told you, “Get going.”
Second, since faith is always a risk – if nothing is ever put at risk, then I am not living by faith – miracles arise from acts of self-denial. The faithful disciple walks a sometimes crazy-looking path that frequently turns us
Jesus heals a man in the synagogue on the Sabbath
away from security, away from safety, away from comfort, away from things we have always wanted. Miracles can only happen for those willing to embrace insecurity, discomfort, loss, and sometimes danger in the cause of following Jesus.
So, I have decided to continue my autobiographical account of self-denial by sharing a few miracle stories. By sharing these stories, I hope to praise God for the great things He has done in my life. I also hope to enlist my readers in praising the Lord by venturing out yourselves, taking faithful risks through your own obedient acts of self-denial, acts that will demonstrate God’s faithfulness in your lives, too.
Towards the end of my studies at Regent College (check out my earlier posts here and here that bring us to this point) I arrived at the conviction that
King’s College, University of Aberdeen
Jesus was calling me to study for my Ph.D. at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. (I will tell that story another day.)
The main obstacle to this plan was our complete lack of money. Graduate studies overseas would be expensive. What to do? Reason told us drop the idea like a hot potato because it was simply ridiculous. You can’t shove a square peg into a round hole, and you can’t do expensive things without money.
Fortunately, I have never been particularly fond of the idea of limiting myself to a “realistic life.” In fact, for many years I have regularly recited to myself a little mantra that I came up with – I will only deal with what is real in order to strive for God’s ideal. (Yes, I wish I had more opportunities to preach in African-American churches.)
King’s College interior courtyard
So, Terry and I began to pray, asking for guidance in two areas. One, did the Lord really want us to go to Scotland, or was it just my own idea? Two, if we were supposed to go to Scotland, how would we get there? We didn’t have any savings and getting enough money in loans was impossible for us back then. What were we to do?
Terry and I decided to set out a “fleece,” not unlike the Old Testament story of Gideon in Judges 6:36-40. (Whenever I tell this story to young people, I always insist that they not make this a common practice. It is not a normative way to pray, but it worked for me, so it is part of my Christian story.)
We began to pray for the money we needed. Except, we were always praying for money, money to pay the bills, to buy groceries, you name it. How would Scotland money look any different from our regular money miracles? We finally decided to pray for lots of money in a short period of time. We looked into the cost of airline tickets for our family of 4 and decided to ask God for enough cash to buy them. That would get the ball rolling. As I recall, 4 tickets were about $2,000 in those days.
We further decided that we would not share this particular prayer request with anybody, not with friends, our Bible study group or church. It was between us and the Lord. So, we prayed daily that if this cockamamie idea was, in fact, God’s will for our lives, then He would give us $2,000 dollars in big donations within 4 weeks. If this didn’t happen, then we knew it was not God’s plan for us, and we would pursue something else.
Before the first week was over, I opened our post office box in downtown Blaine, Washington one afternoon and saw a large, white envelope looking as pregnant as a white envelope could possibly look. I opened it up to find $1,000 in cash. To this day, we do not know the identity of our generous benefactor. But that’s OK because the Lord Jesus knows exactly who it is, and their reward is waiting from them in heaven.
I ran home, showed the envelope to Terry, and we thanked the Lord for His wonderful generosity. It was a large donation in a short period of time, no doubt. But I also reminded Jesus that if he wanted us to go to Aberdeen, he had only answered half our prayer. We still needed an additional $1,000 within the next 3 weeks.
We continued to pray for guidance.
To make a long story short, before the month was over we received 2 additional, large gifts from out-of-state friends that brought the total amount to $2,500. It certainly appeared to be a clear answer to our prayers. So, the decision was made. We were moving to Scotland!
But we only had enough money to buy the airline tickets, which we promptly did. We also needed money for tuition, living expenses once we arrived and, first of all, a student visa.
If there is one thing I have learned about following the Lord, it is to take the journey one step at a time. Rather than worry about tuition and living expenses, I tackled the visa issue first.
I sent a letter to the British embassy applying for my student visa. At that time, student visa applications required documentary proof of adequate funds for at least one year’s living expenses and tuition. We had no money at all. We hadn’t prayed for that much money yet. But, I figured since God was leading me to Scotland that I would mail in my application anyway.
Imagine my disappointment when my visa application was denied. How could that be?
There was only one thing to do. I needed to explain to the ambassador what was at stake. So, I sat down and wrote a letter to the embassy. I wish I had kept a copy for myself. Let me give you the gist of what I said. It went something like this: “Dear Mr. Ambassador, I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus is calling me to study in Scotland. I may not have all the necessary funds now, but I know that the Lord will not ask me to do something that He will not also finance. Don’t worry, the money will come as needed. If you continue to deny me the visa that I require, you will be standing in the way of God’s will for my life. I don’t think you want to do that. It never turns out well. Sincerely, David Crump”
Voila. Guess what. My next letter from the British embassy contained a student visa! Don’t tell me God doesn’t work miracles.
I could go on and on. For the next 3+ years we watched God perform one big miracle extravaganza. There are too many stories to tell here. I will only say that I was annually required to meet with British immigration officials when I applied for next year’s visa. I never had sufficient funds to meet their requirements. I never had a year’s worth of living expenses to prove that I would not be working illegally. With the exception of one year when I was awarded a national fellowship, I never possessed a year’s worth of tuition. All I could do was enter every interview believing that Jesus was giving me another opportunity to share the gospel with someone in the British immigration service. I would praise my Savior by sharing the latest miracle stories describing how the Lord Jesus continued to meet our needs.
For the next 3 years my interviews all went something like this:
Agent: Show me your papers, bank statements, etc. please.
Me: I put my papers on the table, such as they were.
Agent: Is this all?
Me: Yes. That’s all.
Agent: You don’t have enough money to live here for another year. What are you doing? What’s your plan? How will you survive?
Me: I am a Christian, and the Lord Jesus takes care of my family. We pray for what we need, and he gives it to us. I would then tell him a few of our most recent miracle stories to illustrate my case – and to praise the Lord.
At this point, the agent had every reason to withhold my visa, tell me that my time of study was over and then evict us from the country. But that never happened. Year after year I listened to an immigration official say something like this: “I have never heard anything like this before. But whatever you are doing seems to be working for you.”
He would then hand me my new visa and call for the next student.
Yes, I earned my Ph.D. from King’s College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland. We enjoyed life in Scotland for slightly more than 3 years. The Lord kept all of his promises to us. I wish I could say that Terry and I floated from one miracle cloud to the next while living carefree, blissful lives. But I would be lying.
At times, those years also felt like God was putting us through a faith-meat-grinder. I am not a perfectly faithful person. We experienced some of the most stressful, worrying, difficult periods of our lives, times where we lived with tears, anxiety and headaches (literally). Our faith was tested in ways we never anticipated.
We learned firsthand that hardship is also a common feature of miracle stories. Since tests are an essential ingredient of God’s strategy for strengthening faith (James 1:2-8; Hebrews 12:7-11), and faithful risk-taking is essential to the appearance of miracles, few if any miracles will ever occur that fail to stretch our faith, seemingly to the breaking point.
Praying for miracles is not for the faint of heart. Obedient discipleship is not always a bed of roses. But oh, my goodness…nothing in this world could ever tempt me to trade in my front row seat to witnessing the awesome, unbelievable work of God, the overwhelming measure of His loving kindness, and His perfect faithfulness to someone like me.
P.S. Which also reminds me of this important lesson: faith has more to do with the decisions we make and how we act than it does with the way we feel.
This morning I came across an interesting online review in Christian Century discussing Jamie Smith’s book Awaiting the King. (You can read my review of Jamie’s book here.)
I was particularly struck by the author’s observations on the depth of political polarity within the American church. His explanation of this destructive division is the simple sociological observation that people, including Christian people, naturally hang out with others like themselves. If you are familiar with church-growth literature, you will recognize this as a simple application of the “homogeneous principle.”
Here is the most relevant paragraph:
“People select churches based on the convictions in which the culture has already formed them. Those formed primarily by the liturgy of the flag will choose a Southern Baptist church where they know their values will be mirrored, while those formed primarily by the liturgy of individualism will opt for a mainline church where they know inclusiveness will be a shared value. We choose churches the same way we choose political parties. This is why so many Christians know so few Christians who disagree with them. It’s why our ecclesial culture so neatly replicates the polarization in our wider culture. And it’s why so few mainline pastors thought it odd that, when the Festival of Homiletics was held in D.C. this year, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker spoke but no Republican politicians did.”
Of course, the author is absolutely correct. Sadly, he is also making an observation that reveals the immaturity of so many American Christians. After all, the point of Christianity is not to remain who we are naturally. Nor is the goal to be comfortable.
Even more sadly, this selection process not only works for individuals selecting a new church, but also for congregations selecting whom they choose to welcome and embrace. Not only do insiders look for insider churches, but outsiders are regularly rejected by insider congregations.
When Terry and I retired and moved back to Montana we knew that we were immersing ourselves into a rural culture that, by and large, embraced values very different from our own. I am not a bit surprised to see over-sized pick-up trucks rolling down the street sporting bumper stickers proclaiming “God, Guns and Guts Made America Great! Let’s Keep It That Way” Montana voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, the candidate who often encouraged his supporters to punch his nay-sayers in the face, then promising to pay their court fees.
If we were average church-goers we might have prioritized finding a church — probably a very tiny church meeting in someone’s basement after dark (I am joking) — filled with others like us, politically avant-guarde with a progressive social conscience, where we could be socially comfortable.
But this not what we did, not because finding a comfortable church may have been difficult, but because it would have been wrong.
A preacher/teacher who taught from the Scriptures, both practically and authoritatively, as God’s Word for us today.
A church where the leaders and the congregation were outwardly rather than inwardly focused, where the emphasis was on helping those who are hurting and reaching out to the lost with the good news of Jesus Christ.
A church that was primarily growing because new people were coming into new relationships with Jesus, not because disgruntled church-goers were transferring from neighboring congregations.
A place where we could be involved, use our gifts and make a contribution.
A place where we could confidently bring our friends trusting that they would encounter the Holy Spirit.
We set out in this search knowing full well that we would probably find ourselves surrounded by folks who would not agree with our politics…and with whom we, too, would seriously disagree. (Of course, there are necessary limits to such tolerance. I would never attend a church where I judged the teaching to be an idolatrous Christian nationalism, or racist, or rabidly Zionist.)
In fact, that is exactly how it has worked out. Thus far, I have disagreed with the politics of almost everyone who has shared their political positions
Members of the community join hands during a Black Lives Matter prayer vigil in front of the First Baptist Church, a predominantly African-American congregation, in Macon, Ga., on Monday, July 11, 2016. The pastors of both First Baptist Churches in Macon are trying to bridge the stubborn divide of race against a painful and tumultuous backdrop: the 2015 massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina; the much-publicized deaths of blacks at the hands of law enforcement; the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the sniper killing of white Dallas police officers. (AP Photo/Branden Camp)
with me. And, unfortunately, a few of them have made it clear that they aren’t especially interested in getting to know more about us after hearing my own thoughts on the issues of the day. (I have only had one true confrontation when I had to challenge a new friend on his blatant anti-Semitism.)
Yes, I do believe that my fellow worshipers are wrong, and that I am right on these things. But hanging out with fellow “X” (replace the X with whatever political party you like) is not why I go to church. The purpose of the Body of Christ is not to provide a safe place (oh…how I have come to dislike those two words) where I will be coddled in my own preconceptions.
The purpose of Christian community, rather, is that we all become transformed into the image of Christ. And there is one thing I know for certain about Christ’s image — no one on this earth looks exactly like Him yet, including me.
The all-to-common failure to recognize these important distinctions is further evidence of the spiritual immaturity endemic to American Christianity, including evangelicalism.
So, here is the challenge — take a step or two to change this situation in your sphere of influence today.
One of the bloggers I always enjoy reading (while not always agreeing with her) is the freelance journalist Caitlin Johnston. Caitlin recently wrote a post reflecting on a tweet from Tim Black, host of the YouTube program, Tim Black at Night.
Here is an excerpt from Caitlin’s blog:
“Last night, one of my callers said we needed journalists and commentators willing to die for the truth,” Black tweeted. ‘I disagreed. We need journalists and commentators willing to give up their status, quit their jobs and make less money telling truth and sadly to most that’s the same as dying.’
“There’s so much truth in that I just want to unpack it a bit and riff on its implications from my own perspective. What would happen if a significant percentage of journalists got fed up with spoon feeding lies to a trusting populace and decided to place truth and authenticity before income and prestige? Or, perhaps more realistically, what if people who are interested in reporting and political analysis ceased pursuing positions in the plutocrat-owned mass media and pursued alternate paths to getting the word out instead?…
“…as Tim Black said, once you’ve set your sights on climbing to the top of the establishment media ladder, abandoning it can feel like death. And indeed, it is a kind of death: a death of the identity one builds up around the possession and pursuit of the power, prestige and wealth that comes with the realization of that goal. It’s a death of an egoic structure, one that a whole lot of energy has gone into upholding. Serving power has been both financially and socially rewarding for as long as there have been governments.”
Now, reread Caitlin’s post and replace the references to journalists, reporters and political analysts with words like pastors, Christians, and church leaders. Notice what happens? We end up with a perfect description of Jesus’ call to Christian discipleship – people who are willing to suffer and die for living a life of faithfulness to the Truth – and his warnings about the many temptations waiting to sidetrack his people – selling your conscience for the sake of ego, wealth, prestige, power and fame.
I am reminded of the message I heard this Sunday at my church. The concluding text was Matthew 16:24-26. Jesus says to journalists, reporters, Christian journalists, and Christian reporters of all stripes, as well as butchers, bakers and candlestick makers:
“If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it do for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeits their soul?”
The church in this country is well and truly lost until it swells with genuine kingdom citizens who have so completely “died to themselves” that the prospects of physical suffering, professional loss, private shunning and even death for the kingdom teaching of Jesus Christ is not only considered inevitable, but is eagerly embraced because we know that then and only then have we fully experienced “the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him [Jesus] in his death” (Philippians 3:10).
Good journalists and faithful disciples are like kissin’ cousins. They both devote their lives to honestly reporting the truth regardless of the cost.
This was the goal of Paul’s life. It ought to be ours, too.
Yes, there have been a few pinpricks of light recently in the corporate media’s blackout on coverage of the war in Yemen. The monolithic wall of silence was breached by Chris Hayes on MSNBC after a year of silence. Several days ago Ali Soufan visited MSNBC to participate in another report. Although the moderator provides a rather skewed overview of the conflict’s history, the segment does present a survey of Yemen’s ongoing humanitarian catastrophe, America’s war crimes there and US responsibility for perpetuating the conflict.
Yemeni school bus hit by Saudi Arabia with laser-guided bomb made by Lockheed Martin
Our corporate media’s grotesque negligence in failing to report on the American fueled war in Yemen is more evidence of how deeply rooted and all pervasive the “military-industrial complex” (to quote president
Eisenhower again) remains in this country. Media corporations are always hesitant to tell stories that may directly or indirectly hurt them on Wall Street.
How many average Americans have heard about the recent bombing of a school bus that killed 40 Yemen children? Not many. Bomb fragments, which you can see in a video here, show the bomb to have been “a 500-pound (227 kilogram) laser-guided MK 82 bomb made by Lockheed-
A handout video grab photo made available by the Houthi Movement showing wounded Yemeni children lying on beds receiving treatment at a hospital after being injured in an alleged Saudi-led airstrike in the northern province of Saada, Yemen, 09 August 2018. According to reports, an alleged Saudi-led airstrike hit a bus carrying children in a market in the northern Yemeni province of Saada, killing at least 43 people, including children, and wounding 63 others.
Martin.” But this is only one tragedy among many others that have never been reported in the US. In fact, Human Rights Watch reports that this was only 1 0f 50 strikes on civilian vehicles this year alone.
According to USAToday, Lockheed Martin is one of the top ten companies profiting most richly from American war-making and arms sales, enjoying “$36.3 billion in sales in 2011, slightly higher than the $35.7 billion the company sold in 2010.”
Thankfully, Senator Chris Murphy continues the fight in Congress to end this senseless slaughter of innocent people in Yemen. Below I have copied
Yemenis dig graves for children, who where killed when their bus was hit during a Saudi-led coalition air strike, that targeted the Dahyan market the previous day in the Huthi rebels’ stronghold province of Saada on August 10, 2018.
the latest notice from Just Foreign Policy explaining Murphy’s recent amendment to the Pentagon’s appropriations that would enforce a ceasefire and terminate US funding and military support for Saudi Arabia.
Please take a moment to help. Call your senators and sign the petition.
“On August 9, an airstrike by the Saudi-UAE-U.S. coalition bombing Yemen struck a bus packed with children in the northern village of Dahyan, killing at least 51 people, including 40 children, according to the Red Cross. Saudi regime spokesmen have defended this horrific massacre, calling the bus a “legitimate military target.”
“When journalists asked a senior U.S. official if the U.S. supplied the bomb the Saudis used to blow up the bus full of kids and refueled the Saudi warplane that dropped the bomb on the bus full of kids, he responded: “Well, what difference does that make? We are providing the refueling and support to Saudi aircraft. We are also selling them munitions that are being used … We are not denying that.”
“CNN has established that the bomb that the Saudi regime used to blow up the bus full of kids was made by Pentagon contractor Lockheed Martin; transfer of the bomb to the Saudi regime was approved by the U.S. State Department.
“The Washington Post editorial board says: “It is long past time to end U.S. support for this misbegotten and unwinnable war. There is a clear path out: A U.N. mediator has called the various parties to Geneva early next month to discuss a peace process. Among the first steps would be a cease-fire… U.N. sources say the Houthis…are ready to strike these accords, but the Saudi and UAE regimes have been resistant…[the Saudi and UAE regimes] will accept a peace process only if it is clear that they will not have Washington’s support for more war.”
“Senator Chris Murphy has introduced an amendment to the Pentagon appropriation that would cut off U.S. tax dollars for this unconstitutional war – the war was never authorized by Congress, every day the war continues it violates Article I of the Constitution – unless Secretary of Defense Mattis certifies that the U.S.-enabled Saudi airstrike on the bus full of kids complied with international law and U.S. policy, something Mattis could never do unless he wants to be known as a shameless liar.
“52 Senators have voted against the war in a floor vote, either in June 2017 or in March 2018 on the Sanders-Lee-Murphy bill invoking the War Powers Resolution. Among Senate Democrats, only Joe Donnelly, Joe Manchin, and Bill Nelson have never voted against the war in a floor vote.
Urge Senators to speak out for and vote for the Murphy amendment to cut off U.S. tax dollars for the kid-killing Saudi war in Yemen by signing our petition.
Certain sectors of American evangelicalism are devoted to the study of apologetics, that is the defense of the Christian faith and the relieving of doubts. Some seminaries even offer doctoral programs in apologetics, as if an advanced degree will make anyone a better evangelist, or a more successful resolver of doubts.
Don’t misunderstand me. I am not opposed to advanced education. But I am leery of the American penchant for professionalizing normal aspects of the Christian life with advanced degrees and curriculae.
What’s next? A Ph.D. in spiritual direction? I am afraid to look, but I fear that somewhere, someplace, someone is already offering degrees in spirituality.
Alas…
In 1851 Sǿren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) published For Self-Examination: Recommended to the Present Age and Judge for Yourself!: For Self-ExaminationRecommended to the Present Age. These books continue his investigations into genuine Christian discipleship and what true believers must look like in a society where Christianity has degenerated into either a passé, cultural artifact, a mere act of mental assent or an emotional high.
Is the problem that such cultures need more or better apologists to alleviate people’s doubts about Christ?
In Judge for Yourself!, Kierkegaard insists that the best answer to anyone’s doubts about Christianity is an authentic Christian life lived in front of them, a life of obedient discipleship devoted to the imitation of Christ.
He writes:
“Imitation, which corresponds to Christ as the prototype, must…be affirmed again…Without introducing imitation it is impossible to gain mastery over doubts. Therefore, the state of things in Christendom is such that doubt has replaced faith. And then they want to stop doubt with — reasons…They still have not learned that it is wasted effort — indeed, that it feeds doubt, gives it a basis for continuing. They are still not aware that imitation is the only force that can break up the mob of doubts and clear the area and compel one, if one does not want to be an imitator, at least to go home and hold one’s tongue.
“Imitation, which corresponds to Christ as prototype, must be advanced, be affirmed, be called to our attention.
“…The Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, did not come to the world in order to bring a doctrine…he did not try by way of reasons to prevail upon anyone…His teaching was really his life, his existence. If someone wanted to be his follower, his approach, as seen in the Gospel, was different from lecturing. To such a person he said something like this: Venture a decisive act; then we can begin.
“Venture a decisive act [Jesus says to us]; the proof does not precede but follows, is in and with the imitation that follows Christ. That is, when you have ventured the decisive act, you become heterogeneous with [i.e. contrary to, standing against] the life of this world, cannot have your life in it, come into collision with it. Then you will gradually be brought into such tension that you will be able to become aware of what I am talking about. The tension will also have the effect upon you that you understand that you cannot endure it without having recourse to me [Jesus] — then we can begin. Could one expect anything else from the truth?“
Faith in Jesus is the decisive venture, the ultimate risk, the act of obedience compelling us to live an upside-down, counter-cultural life in a fallen world simply because our Savior tells us to.
expand. He was a rabid hawk who seemed incapable of feeling anything like empathy for the untold masses of people killed, maimed and displaced by American military adventurism around the world.
deep conscience. But that won’t surprise anyone who has read his books.
are also 
appropriations bill (itself a moral travesty we will discuss another day), which would have ended US support for Saudi atrocities, went down to defeat. Take a moment to watch the Senator’s 
specifically, they contain stories about the ways various churches are dealing with concealed carry laws in their states and whether they allow guns in church. (You can read my previous posts about gun control and guns in church 
conference room. At the end of his anti-Muslim rant, the visiting pastor/speaker boasted about the fact that he and all his church elders carried their guns to every church activity, both inside and out of the church building, in order “to protect their flock.”
protect themselves and their families if an armed intruder enters the church. But with the new [concealed carry] law in place, who will know if the person is an armed intruder or an armed visitor?…All visitors are now scrutinized, with every visitor being a potential threat. At the same time, to demonstrate their enthusiasm for the new law, some churches are posting signs that say — as an act of outreach — ‘Guns Welcome Here.’
including Christian people, naturally hang out with others like themselves. If you are familiar with church-growth literature, you will recognize this as a simple application of the “homogeneous principle.”
very different from our own. I am not a bit surprised to see over-sized pick-up trucks rolling down the street sporting bumper stickers proclaiming “God, Guns and Guts Made America Great! Let’s Keep It That Way” Montana voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump, the candidate who often encouraged his supporters to 
post reflecting on a tweet from Tim Black, host of the YouTube program, 
Recommended to the Present Age. These books continue his investigations into genuine Christian discipleship and what true believers must look like in a society where Christianity has degenerated into either a passé, cultural artifact, a mere act of mental assent or an emotional high.