Tag: Christian Ethics

Sorry, I Don’t Need Government Sanction for My Prayer Life

The loss of special privilege is not persecution.

Let me say it again: The loss of special privilege is not persecution.

Furthermore, the loss of religious privilege is neither religious persecution nor an infringement of religious liberty.  Rather, it is an honoring of the American ideal that no religion will receive special government patronage.

Unfortunately, this failure of basic logic is a major source for confusion and poor political posturing among the conservative block of America Christianity.

It also is symptomatic of the way in which too many Christian leaders hunger for dominance over our public life, believe that they know what’s best for everyone, and don’t really trust the Holy Spirit’s ability to hold his own on a level playing field.

All of these political, spiritual, and logical shenanigans were on full-blown, gory display in the Rose Garden on Thursday when president Trump read his Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer and then signed his Executive Order on the Establishment of a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

According to the Religious News Service, Trump’s executive order “aims to give faith groups a stronger voice within the federal government and serve as a watchdog for government overreach on religious liberty issues.” 

What’s wrong with that? Well, a number of things:

First, let’s recall that we have traveled this road several times before, and it has never turned out well.  Required reading for all of today’s faith-based enthusiasts should be David Kuo’s book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.  Kuo was the Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush.  He offers a moving confession of political seduction and “a heartfelt plea for a Christian reexamination of political and spiritual priorities.”

Washington D. C. has not changed, and I very much doubt if anyone in the Rose Garden last Thursday either remembers David Kuo or has read his book of confessions.

Furthermore, the current crop of evangelical advisers — the “court evangelicals,” as Professor John Fea aptly labels them — appear even more eager than their predecessors (if that were possible) to sell their ever-lovin’ souls for that much coveted “access” to the devil’s own hallowed halls of power.

Get ready to watch history repeat itself and the Christian church be publicly shamed again and again.

Second, if you have read Trump’s Proclamation, or if you listened to his speech, I hope you noticed that it had as much to do with Jesus Christ, the gospel message, or the kingdom of God as a tea-teetotaler at an Irish wake.

There was absolutely nothing particularly Christian about any of the glad-handing, obsequious antics going on at that pompous affair.  A sure sign of things to come.

In fact, it was a full-out, no-holds-barred display of America’s false gospel of civil religion, pure and simple.  Followers of Jesus Christ have no business signing on to such spiritual quackery, much less “praising the Lord” and polluting the Body of Christ with its deceitful promises. (I unpack all of this anti-Christian messaging in my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America).

Of course, I recognize that the best way to safeguard any religious expression in America is to protect all religious expression in America.  So such Executive Orders must be generic.  I enthusiastically applaud religious freedom for everyone — including those who choose not to believe — in our country.

But that is not my problem.  My objection is two-fold.

First, I believe that evangelical lament about religious persecution is a Trojan Horse being used to promote their agenda of evangelical superiority and control over  public policy (more on this in a future post).

Second, as a Christian, and an evangelical one at that, I believe that the public embrace — which is a public endorsement! — of civil religion is a form of idolatry.  It is a betrayal of the good news of Jesus Christ.

As an American, I applaud the reaffirmation of religious liberty for all religious groups in this country.

But, as a citizen of God’s kingdom, I have no interest in confirming others in the validity of their prayers to a deity other than the heavenly Father of our crucified, resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus.

THIS is what followers of Jesus Christ ought to care about most deeply!

Neither Trump’s Proclamation nor his Executive Order will provide a diddly-damn’s worth of influence towards advancing the kingdom of God in this world.

So why are “Christian” leaders applauding presidential edicts sanctioning policies and actions that could deceive the very people who may actually be  searching for the answers that only Jesus Christ can provide?

Power and privilege.  It is all about the acquisition of power and privilege.

Finally, we return to where I started — the disentangling of religious privilege and the perceived threat of religious persecution.

Christian radio and television have managed to brainwash many evangelicals into thinking that if Christianity is not sitting at the head of a government table, then their religious freedom will be violated.  (Read my earlier post on this subject).

For instance, take the long-standing debate about prayer in our public schools.  Evangelicals have long insisted that, unless there is a specific law sanctioning their prayers in public schools, then they are experiencing oppression at the hands of government.

We might call this the cry-baby approach to religious liberty in America.

I grew up in public schools, and no one ever stopped me from praying inside the building whenever I chose to. In fact, I have never needed a law specifically sanctioning my approach to personal spirituality anywhere in public. (My children also attended school in a nation with mandatory religious instruction.  I had to deprogram them after each indoctrination session).

But, then, religious freedom is not really the point of the prayer debate.

The real point is that evangelicals want a bigger piece of the public policy pie, which they will use to wield greater power over what is acceptable and unacceptable in public discourse.

President Donald Trump, surrounded my members of the clergy, signed the Executive Order on Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty, in the Rose Garden of the White House, On Thursday, May 4, 2017. (Photo by Cheriss May/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

I fear that this is the motivation behind a portion of Trump’s Executive Order which says its purpose is “to reduce…burdens on the exercise of religious convictions and legislative, regulatory, and other barriers to the full and active engagement of faith-based and community organizations in Government-funded or Government-conducted activities and programs.”

In other words, the point, in

CHICAGO, IL – JUNE 30: Sister Caroline attends a rally with other supporters of religious freedom to praise the Supreme Court’s decision in the Hobby Lobby, contraception coverage requirement case on June 30, 2014 in Chicago. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

part, is to make it easier for future Hobbie Lobby-type companies to force their employees into abiding by the employer’s religious convictions.  In the case of Hobby Lobby, it was to deny female employees the sort of health care coverage that would pay for their choice of contraception, despite the fact that these employees are not necessarily Roman Catholic.

Folks, it is all about power and privilege.  Power and Privilege.

Other illustrations could be listed, but this one must suffice.  (I also suspect that this new Executive Order is another feature of the long-term Republican strategy to dismantle the New Deal by starving public programs like Social Security, Medicare, affordable public housing, and more.  But that argument must wait for another day).

Honestly, I felt a bit depressed last Thursday after watching men and women who should have known better, so-called Christian leaders accountable to the Church, scurrying around the Rose Garden like a gaggle of glad-handing geese gobbling up the stale crumbs of white bread thrown to them by the White House.

There is an old saying (that I just made up) which goes — when the monks come calling be sure to hide the wine.

Well, look out public policy!  The Religious Right is coming. And they ain’t necessarily working for you.

The Church Fights for a Seat at the Head of the Table, An Excerpt from “I Pledge Allegiance”

Jesus warns his followers that when they live as he lived and invite others to inhabit the kingdom of God as he did, they would experience opposition.  In the Sermon on the Mount, he encourages them by saying, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

American Christianity has horribly twisted Jesus’ teaching.

White evangelicals regularly complain about the persecution they face because of their Christian faith.  This perception of anti-Christian hostility was a large piece of the cultural backdrop to last Thursday’s Rose Garden ceremony where president Trump issued a Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer and then signed his Executive Order on the Establishment of a White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

The church leaders standing beside the president actually thought that he was doing something to relieve the Christian church of religious oppression in America.  Many of these people actually believe that Christians suffer more discrimination than black people in the USA.  White evangelicals are “more likely to see discrimination against themselves than against minority groups, [saying] oh, no, we’re the ones being persecuted”(emphasis mine).

Such is the power of spiritual delusion, of suffering with the blindness of white privilege, of embracing the liturgies of American civil religion, and of investing more energy into protecting oneself than into actually living like Jesus.

This white evangelical pity-party might be laughable were it not so spiritually crippling.

 I confront this spider web of problems in the following excerpt from chapter 11 of my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America. The chapter title, “Blessed Are Those Who Are Persecuted Because of Me,” is lifted from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:11).

“When it comes to the prospects of suffering for the gospel, the American church commits two mistakes that distort a proper understanding of its role in this world: first, Christians wish to occupy a privileged place in society; second,Christians want to live ‘triumphantly’ here and now, immediately possessing all the power and authority exhibited in Christ’s resurrection.

“The first error is most clearly seen in the so-called culture wars supposedly waged between what passes for a Christian worldview and secular humanism. What this obsession with spiritual warfare reveals, however, is not secularism’s efforts to extinguish Christianity, but the church’s assumption that Christianity has a right to unchallenged preeminence in the public square. This cultural conflict is not evidence of a cosmic struggle between light and darkness as the televangelists proclaim. Its roots are much more mundane and secular, for this so-called culture war is actually the last gasp of an antiquated confusion between church and state once referred to as Christendom, that is, the merging of Christianity with a nation’s social, political, and cultural life such that the church and its teachings dominate public affairs, confusing Christian discipleship
with state citizenship. The current cultural combat is not concerned with
a genuine defense of Christian faith, but is fomented by the church’s misplaced desire to assert social and political dominance over society at large. Personally,I cannot blame nonbelievers for resisting these efforts.

“How curious it is, then, to observe that neither Jesus nor Paul (or any of
the other New Testament writers, for that matter) ever expresses the least bit of concern about seeing the church assert control over the social, cultural, or political landscape in their own day and age. The apostle Paul was surrounded by an utterly pagan Greco-Roman society awash in idolatry, immorality, and bloodthirsty political maneuvering; yet he never so much as hints at the need for his communities to devise a strategy for taking over Rome’s politics, social customs, arts, or mores. In this respect, Paul was following his master, for as Christopher Bryan correctly notes, Jesus did not show any interest in changing, much less controlling, the temporal forms of political power in his day either. Instead, Jesus and Paul focused on creating a new, alternative community that would shine as a light to the world, showing the spiritually curious where they might discover the kingdom of God in the midst of this world’s corruption.

“In a pluralistic society such as America’s, why should Christian prayers,
holidays, and ceremonies be prioritized above those of other religions? Why
should displays of the Ten Commandments, crucifixes, and nativity scenes
receive pride of place on state lands and facilities without equal representation from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu symbols? The honest answer is that there is no reason for Christian ceremonies or insignia to receive any state-sponsored preferential treatment. And being denied such prioritized benefits does not constitute discrimination, much less persecution. The fact that many Americans believe otherwise, and are willing to fight tooth and nail over small-minded concerns like manger scenes and Christian prayer in public schools, merely demonstrates how the American church is still trying to capitalize on the historical momentum generated by past centuries of Western Christendom, even as that momentum grinds to a halt. This explains the oddity of a country like the United States, which has never had an established state church and hence never officially participated in Christendom, nevertheless experiencing a culture war where Christian people assume that they are justified in imposing their religiously based moral code, spiritual sensibilities, and religious symbols on the rest of the nation.

“We should not be the least bit surprised when non-Christian people resist the church’s efforts to exercise such power over them. Unfortunately, when the predictable resistance appears, the church typically responds by crying “persecution,” “discrimination,” and “anti-Christian bias” when, in fact, prejudice and suppression are working the other way around. The church frequently behaves like the worst sort of petulant child, crying “foul!” when Christians are the ones kicking every other player in the shins…

“…In fact, the truth of the gospel and the upside-downness of Jesus’s kingdom values appear to have nothing at all to do with the high level of hostility many Americans feel toward the Christian faith. The monumental national and ecclesial tragedy crying out for recognition is that the Religious Right has managed to obscure the central message of the crucified, resurrected Jesus beneath a never-ending soundtrack of over-heated partisan rhetoric lamenting the dangers of “secular humanism” and “liberal politics.” They have pursued a no-holds-barred strategy to reach their partisan goals and have successfully accomplished what can only be described as a demonic victory. They have blacked out the good news of God’s kingdom from public perception like a hellish eclipse of the Son. Such betrayers of God’s kingdom have no business complaining about their bogus ‘persecution.’”

Trump’s Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer, 2018 Was an Exercise in Idolatry and Faithlessness, as It Has Always Been

Rarely have I seen such a sorry sight as the rows of obsequious, evangelical sycophants lined up on either side of president Trump in the Rose Garden last Thursday.  Basking in the bogus allure of Oval Office access, partisan grins stretched from cheek to cheek, they all had deceived themselves into believed they were actually doing something for the kingdom of God.

Such is the delusion of the American, conservative church today.

Trump’s 2018 Proclamation for the National Day of Prayer is a typically bland pronouncement of nationalistic, idolatrous platitudes.  It is a tasteless porridge perfectly pronouncing the half-baked ideologies of American exceptionalism, nationalism, patriotism and civil religion that erects a spiritual wall of partition, separating so many from the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel of American greatness is a false gospel. Its monuments are pagan altars where U.S. soldiers are sacrificed to the American Baal.  Watching the mindless smiles of these evangelical “leaders,” betraying their gospel responsibilities, fawning shamelessly over the man we call “president” reminded me of the apostate people described in Daniel 11:32:

“With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him.”

How much more corrupted can people like Paula White, Pat Robertson, Robert Jeffress, Johnnie Moore and James Dobson become as they continue to violate the new covenant morality of God’s kingdom exemplified by the Lord Jesus?

When did Jesus ever loosen his grip on his Father’s scruples in exchange for political privilege?  Recall that Jesus faced this very offer as a demonic temptation. Yet, Jesus scorned the Oval Office, saying,

“Away from me Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

For too much of the world “making America great again” translates into “keeping them oppressed again,” oppressed by right wing dictatorships propped up by U.S. dollars; oppressed by American-made bombs killing poor, innocent civilians living in poor, desolate countries; oppressed by resource exploitation and environmental pollution at the hands of insatiable American corporations; and oppressed by heartless, economic manipulation as entire nations wriggle under the thumb of more World Bank “austerity measures.”

America has become the Whore of Babylon to much of the world and should be seen this way by all right-thinking disciples.  We are the

“…woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls.  She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.  This title was written on her forehead:

MYSTERY

BABYLON THE GREAT

THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES

AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

(Revelation 17:3-5)

The Meaning of Holiness, Part 2B

OK, so, I lied. I originally said that this would be a 3-part series on the biblical concept of holiness. But, as happens with much of my writing, it has grown into at least a 4-part, maybe even a 5-part, series.  This is the 3rd installment.

In part 1 I explained how a proper understanding of holiness is rooted in God’s nature, God’s being.  Our Creator is the one and only God, an incomparable God who is utterly unique in every way.

Part 2 then looked at the extension of God’s holiness to others through personal contact and continuing relationship.  Persons, places and things may become holy when God makes contact, particularly by establishing a personal relationship with select individuals, like Abraham and Moses, or with groups of people, such as Israel.

In part 2 we also discovered how God’s extension of holiness is a one-way-street.  Holiness “travels” in one direction only, from God to others.  Furthermore, that holiness is maintained by following God’s directions.  Violating the Holy One’s instructions can lead to immediate punishment and destruction.

However, my description raises a number of questions.  Such as:

What about God’s numerous personal encounters with folks like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the book of Genesis?  Abraham enjoyed several intimate encounters with Yahweh (Genesis 12:1-7; 13:14-17; 15:1-20;  17:1-8; 22;1-18), yet he was never warned, as Moses was, about the dangers of “standing on holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).  The patriarchs were never ordered to “step back” or be killed, as were the people of Israel standing at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  Why?  What changed between Genesis and Exodus?

Similar questions are especially pressing for Christians when reading the New Testament gospel stories about the life of Jesus.

Historic, orthodox Christian theology has always insisted – because it is the consistent message of the New Testament – that the human being named Jesus of Nazareth was both fully human and fully divine.  That belief is at the heart of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation – the eternal God becoming an historic, individual human being named Jesus.

How does divine holiness fit into all this?  For instance:

How can an intrinsically holy God take on inherently unholy humanity such that the two (divinity and humanity) coexist for a lifetime as the single individual, Jesus of Nazareth?

Various theologians have offered a variety of thoughts on that question, but I must pass over them here. I will only note that my friend, Sǿren Kierkegaard, referred to this incarnational mystery as the primary stumbling-block, THE principal “offense” requiring the famous “leap of faith,” confronting anyone who wants to follow Jesus.  (You might want to read more about the offensiveness of Christian faith and the need for a leap of faith in my book Encountering Jesus, Encountering Scripture).

Furthermore, if (a) Jesus is God and (b) God is holy and (c) those approaching the Holy One must do so very carefully, in exactly the way prescribed by God if they hope to survive, then (d) how could Jesus be as open, accepting and approachable as he is in the gospel accounts?

What happened to the necessary limits, the barriers, the warnings and prohibitions – and most of all, the dire Old Testament consequences! – that always circumscribe the Holy One?

How can this particular “holy one of God” (Mark 1:24) remain so flagrantly cavalier about mixing and mingling with society’s outcasts, who remain outcasts precisely because they do not obey God’s instructions?

How can he crash through every social barrier while freely touching and being touched by despised untouchables?

How does he eat and drink with sinners, using the very same bowls, plates and cups as they?

How did he tolerate the wicked, unholy abuses of human depravity that were heaped upon him at the cross?

MOST OF ALL, how can any of these (apparently unacceptable) encounters – at least, from an Old Testament perspective – occur without every one of these abhorrent, disobedient sinners (and this is what we all are!) being fried by lightning into charcoaled, crispy critters like the flippant sons of Aaron in Leviticus 10:1-3?

I believe that the only answer can be God’s grace.

It was only by God’s grace that Abraham became the friend of God.  After all, it was Yahweh who came to Abraham and initiated their kick-off to salvation-history (Genesis 12:1-7).  It certainly wasn’t Abraham’s idea.  Until that conversation, he was still bowing down to the gods of Ur!

God is not an automaton.  He does not execute His programming.

God is a divine person with a divine will, and scripture teaches us that God wills to be loving, gracious and merciful. So, even Moses required protection from the revelation of Yahweh’s glory, but both the revelation and the protections making it a survivable experience were acts of divine grace (Exodus 33:18-34:7).

I think that we must assume that the same gracious decision-making explains the preexistent Son’s life on earth.  As the gospel of John says,

“The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14)

The gospel writer provides a New Testament commentary on Moses’ experience described in Exodus 33-34.  The second Person of the Triune God traversed time and space, so that Jesus’ entire life could become both the ultimate revelation of God’s glory AND the final protection for sinners seeking God’s face.

To revisit my parable from part 1 – Mr. Ball entered into Flatland and became Mr. Circle so that Madame Triangle, Mr. Line and Miss Square might all be elevated into the 3rd dimension with Him.

The Poor Go to Prison First and Stay the Longest

I have almost finished reading the amazing book, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson.  Mr. Stevenson is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, located in Montgomery, Alabama.

The EJI is a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to poor people, especially those sitting on death row, many of whom have never had the benefit of being represented by a competent lawyer.

The next time you hear someone say that America no longer discriminates against people of color, that racism has been eliminated in this country, that our court system works equally well for everyone, that justice is blind, that only criminals need to worry about law enforcement policies aimed at “getting tough on crime,” hand them a copy of this book, get out your day-planner and set up a meeting to discuss it.

BE WARNED:  Reading Just Mercy will probably induce long episodes of heartbreak, fury, shock and tears.

America’s evangelical Christians have a special need for such intervention.

The vast majority of evangelicals are conservatives who typically vote Republican.

Republicans have long been the proud party of tougher sentencing laws like “three strikes you’re out,” lengthy minimum sentences and tougher laws for minor drug offenses like marijuana possession.

Conservatives are also the loudest defenders of the death penalty.  An abhorrent position that no Christian should touch with a ten-foot pole.

We have no idea how many innocent people have been tortured to death by state-sanctioned execution (often mishandled) in this country.  The Death Penalty Information Project offers easy access to the long list of innocent people, mostly African American men, wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit.

Republicans are also the privatization party (although Democrats have jumped onto this bandwagon, too).  Viewing every area of life through capitalism’s money-making tunnel-vision has led to the rapid expansion of America’s private prison system.

The system includes a growing hoard of prison lobbyists – like sucker fish clinging to a prison-shark’s soft underbelly – urging harsher laws and lengthier punishments, all aimed at keeping more and more people in prison for longer and longer periods of time.

All for the love money – the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).

Hear are the final two paragraphs from the introduction of Just Mercy:

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice. Finally, I’ve come to believe that the true measure of our commitment to justice, the character of our society, our commitment to the rule of law, fairness, and equality cannot be measured by how we treat the rich, the powerful, the privileged, and the respected among us.  The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.

 “We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it’s necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and – perhaps – we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”

Sounds a lot like Jesus, doesn’t he?

Practice in Christianity, with Sǿren Kierkegaard #kierkegaard

In my opinion, Sǿren Kierkegaard’s book Practice in Christianity is one of the best handbooks on Christian discipleship ever written.  Personally, I far prefer Kierkegaard over Bonhöffer’s Cost of Discipleship.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Kierkegaard lived in Christendom. He knew very well what it meant for people to define their “Christianity” in terms of nationality and earthly citizenship.  Loyalty to one’s homeland, patriotism, military service, church attendance, mourning over the redemptive deaths of Danish soldiers, these were the liturgies and sacraments that defined a good Christian life in his world.

But Kierkegaard had the spiritual maturity and insight, not only to realize how corrupting the Christendom counterfeit could be, he also had the prophetic fortitude to loudly warn his compatriots of Christendom’s fiendish ability to snuff out authentic Christian witness.

For everyone who believes that society ought to be more hospitable and welcoming to Christianity, so that the church can enjoy greater privilege (and maintain its tax-exempt status); for all who imagine that the legislature and the courts can advance the kingdom of God, or that the rules of church discipline ought to be imposed on everyone in the public square, Kierkegaard observes:

 “As long as this world lasts and the Christian church in it, it is a militant church; yet it has the promise that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  But woe, woe to the Christian church when it will be victorious in this world, for then it is not the church that has been victorious but the world. Then the heterogeneity [the contrast] between Christianity and the world has vanished, the world has won, and Christianity has lost.”

The church militant is the body of Christ that understands this world is not home.  If we become too comfortable, we have forgotten our mission. Authentic discipleship always faces opposition.

Suffering with and for Jesus is the defining characteristic of genuine Christian living in this fallen world.  The true church, which is always the militant church, never forgets these things.

The Meaning of Holiness, Part 2

Andromeda galazy

We discovered in Part 1 that the entire notion of holiness begins with the understanding of God as being entirely distinctive and unique because he is the one and only God.  Now in Part 2 I will explain how holiness as a description of God’s nature expands into holiness as a description of personal relationship.

As the Holy One, God can make things holy by bringing them into relationship with himself.  God is able graciously to bridge the chasm separating the fallen creation from himself and share his holiness with others.  People and places may become holy when God draws near.

For example, the famous burning bush that confronts Moses makes “the ground holy” because Yahweh is there (Exodus 3:5).  The land of Canaan

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becomes “the holy land” because Yahweh chooses to live there with his people, Israel (Psalm 78:54; Ezekiel 45:1; Zechariah 2:12).  Mt. Zion becomes a “holy mountain” because God dwells there in his temple (Psalm 2:6; 3:4; 15:1; Isaiah 57:13; Ezekiel 20:40; Joel 2:1).

The descendants of Abraham become Yahweh’s “holy people” simply because Yahweh chooses to bring them into an intimate, covenant relationship.  Yahweh repeatedly says such things to Israel as, “I am Yahweh who makes you holy” (Exodus 31: 13; Leviticus 20:8; 21:8, 15, 23; 22:9, 16, 32).

If you recall the Old Testament storyline, Israel’s holiness certainly did not consist in their being an especially obedient, law-abiding people (cf. Deuteronomy 7:7).  Quite the opposite.  Israel became holy for one reason and one reason only.  The LORD had decided that they and they alone would become his “treasured possession…a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5-6).

So, first, holiness is God’s alone by nature.  But, second, holiness becomes a relational term describing those whom God “sets apart” by making them his own.

In this regard, holiness is a gift of God’s grace, and he alone can decide how people come into and then maintain a relationship with him.  No one is free to waltz up to the Creator and say, “Hey, God.  I like the way I happen to think about you.  I have decided that we will become chums.”

Scripture tells us that such hubris is the road to ruin.  When people invent their own ways to approach God, disaster always follows.  Remember the crowds of Israelites watching at the base of Mt. Sinai, waiting for Yahweh to speak with Moses?  Moses was warned to erect boundary markers to keep the people safe – safe from the dangers of divine holiness.

“Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it.  Whoever touches the mountain will surely be put to death…warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the LORD and many of them perish” (Exodus 19:12, 21).

Even when the Holy One reaches out to make contact with sinners like us, God alone decides how that relationship will work.  When, where and how may we come close?  Only God makes those crucial decisions.

No one approaches God willy-nilly, as they see fit.  And anyone who does not follow the Holy One’s instructions for that encounter will pay the price.  Remember Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, who decided to get creative one day and mix it up in the way they offered the LORD incense (Leviticus 10:1-3).

They were immediately struck dead, and the LORD reminded everyone watching, “Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.”

Destroying Aaron’s sons was not an act of whimsy or spite on God’s part.  Do I blame the fire for burning my hand when I stick it into the flames?  God is holy.  We may become holy only by answering the call to live with him and following his directions.  But he is the only One to decide how, when and where we can get close.

The possibility of relationship with God is his gift to give.  It is a gift of grace and mercy.  We can only receive it.  We cannot bargain over it, reshape it or negotiate new terms.

Thus, Jesus’ words are in lock-step with the graciousness of the Holy One when he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).  This has always been a hallmark of the Christian gospel.  The heavenly Father adopts as his child anyone who surrenders to Jesus Christ, and to him alone, as Lord and Savior.  There is no other way available.

This is also why the apostle Paul repeatedly calls the members of his churches, no matter how stubborn and rebellious they may be, “holy ones” or “saints” (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1 for a selection).  Today’s “holy nation and kingdom of priests” is the universal church of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9-10).

“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  Or who has been his counselor?  Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?  For from him and through him and to him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)

Israeli Sniper Films Target Practice on Young Palestinian

The short video speaks for itself.

Military training typically indoctrinates soldiers into dehumanizing the “enemy.”  Yet, even if that could be justified (which a Christian conscience forbids), what is happening now in Gaza is not a military conflict.

The target is an unarmed young man posing no threat whatsoever to the soldiers.  He carries no weapon, not even a raised fist.  This is not a battle; it is an execution.

The victim’s only crime was being Palestinian.  For that infraction, he had been tried, convicted and sentenced long ago.

His only provocation was objecting to an insufferable occupation that has denied him of every human right.  Yet, his presence at the Gazan protests demonstrates that he had not surrendered himself to Israel’s dehumanizing demands.

So Israel terminated  him for insubordination.  Holding one’s head up is an act of terrorism in Israel, if you are a Palestinian.

Israel’s Zionist policies had worked at dehumanizing this young man all of his life.  He was defined as Israel’s enemy the day he was born, not by his parents, mind you, but by Israel itself.

The sniper’s outburst of joy and laughter demonstrates who has truly been dehumanized by a lifetime of Zionist indoctrination.

What further proof is necessary to show that the American, evangelical love affair with modern Israel is a twisted relationship that must end?  If pious Bible-believers do not see this execution and recoil with shame, then how hard have out hearts become?

Persistently saying, No, to the Holy Spirit leads us into an ever-darker place where conscience eventually dies, “as if it were seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:2).

A Review of Scot McKnight’s Kingdom Conspiracy

I recently read Scot McKnight’s very fine book, Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church (Brazos, 2014), in which he discusses the New Testament’s presentation of the kingdom of God and its relevance for the church today.  In doing this, McKnight provides an especially important description of the missionary dimension of God’s kingdom.

McKnight argues, correctly in my view, that “kingdom work” (as many are prone to say nowadays) is always centered within the Christian church.  Then, from within the body of Christ, kingdom ministry radiates outward into the surrounding society and the rest of the world (see especially chapter 7, “Kingdom Mission is Church Mission”).

But, he warns, if Christian social activism is not an extension of the local church’s gospel teaching, fellowship, ministry and shared experience, then it is not kingdom work.  It may be laudable social and political work, but it has nothing to do with the kingdom of God.  “This means all true kingdom mission is church mission” (96).

McKnight’s church-centered understanding of God’s kingdom is pivotal to his argument.  On this point, Prof. McKnight and I are in agreement.

But McKnight’s laser-like focus on the local church also accounts for the book’s central mistake.  For he defines the kingdom and the church as synonymous with each other.  The kingdom of God IS the church, and the church IS the kingdom of God. (Beginning with chapter 5, “Kingdom is People” and passim).

This is where Prof. McKnight and I must part company.

Anyone who has read my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st-Century America, will observe the similarity between McKnight’s emphasis on the missional dimension of God’s kingdom and my own.  But my readers will also recall my insistence that the church is best understood as the citizenry of God’s kingdom, not the kingdom itself.

 

It is unfortunate that Prof. McKnight’s concern for tightening the connection between church and kingdom leads him to such an extreme. I say “unfortunate” because I don’t believe that he is any more comfortable with his identification of church with kingdom than I am.

There are numerous places throughout Kingdom Conspiracy where McKnight slips alternative definitions into the mix without acknowledging that he has just changed the terms of his discussion.  In other words, he masks the limitations of his explicit definition of kingdom by implicitly expanding that definition when his argument demands it.

For example, he sometimes notes that a kingdom “implies a king, a rule, a people, a land, and a law” (76, 159, 205).  So, the kingdom is not synonymous with people alone, after all.  It is more complex.

He also teasingly refers to “the important overlap of kingdom and church” (95), without noting that an overlap is not the same as an identity.  We are left with a suggestion that God’s kingdom overlaps with something more than people.

At one point, he resorts to the very language that he had previously criticized and rejected, referring to “the kingdom as the realm of redemption” (114).  Elsewhere he repeats that the word kingdom asserts “God’s dynamic rule” (126), the more widely held view that I endorse.

McKnight also notes that God’s kingdom brings redemption, and this redemption is “cosmic” in scope (151-52, 156, 159); that is, it includes a great deal in addition to human beings.  The kingdom of God also involves Christ’s subjugation of “principalities and powers” as well as the imminent redemption of all creation.

Finally, Prof. McKnight frequently lapses into my preferred terminology:  Christians are described as the citizens of God’s kingdom (75, 76, 99, 111, 155, 157, 164, 207).  Which, in my view, is the proper way to explain the New Testament’s perspective on God’s kingdom rule and its relationship to the people of God.

Think for a moment of what it means to live in the United States.  We the people are not synonymous with all that is America.  We are citizens of this country, but the people and the nation are not identical or coextensive.  America is as much (if not more) an idea; an idea about liberty with a specific history; a projection of power and influence as much as it is a particular population.

McKnight is forced into using this rhetorical sleight of hand because his preferred definition, identifying the kingdom exclusively with the church, simply does not comport with the full spectrum of Biblical evidence.

Am I quibbling over a minor issue?  I don’t think so.

Both Prof. McKnight and I would agree that it is important to understand the answers to Biblical questions accurately.  Thus, it is also important to understand that God’s kingdom rule is not confined only to the church.

God’s reign is working its way throughout all of history, although we may not always be able to explain exactly where and how that is happening. God’s ways are rarely self-evident.  Although church work certainly lies at the heart of kingdom work, for redeeming sinful folks like us is at the heart of Jesus’ mission, God’s kingdom is much bigger than any of us.

God rules victoriously and will one day be glorified, not only by the church, but by angels, demons, principalities, powers, and all things above the earth and below.  These spiritual powers now tremble at the knowledge of their ultimate defeat.

The kingdom of God is our heavenly Father’s redemptive reign, His saving sovereignty, now being established over all creation.  Believers are privileged to become citizens of that victorious kingdom, but our citizenship is evidence and a partial product (central and vital, but not the whole) of Christ’s reign.

I suspect that the heavenly host of innumerable cherubim and seraphim, the legions of fallen angels, as well as the new heavens and the new earth, including the redeemed supernovae, unseen galaxies, black holes and dark matter will one day loudly object to the ecclesiastical hubris which suggests that God’s kingdom involves only the church.

Gaza Is the Latest Evidence of Christian Zionism’s Inhumanity #christianzionism

The killing of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza continues unabated.

As of today, the death toll has risen to 31, including at least 1 journalist wearing a vest emblazoned with the word “PRESS.”  6 journalists in all have been shot. The numbers of people wounded by live ammunition is now in the thousands.

Children are counted among the dead.

Reporting on the journalist’s death, today’s AP says:

 “Witnesses said Murtaja was over 100 meters (yards) from the border, wearing a flak jacket marked “press” and holding his camera when he was shot in an exposed area just below the armpit.

 “The Israeli military has said it fired only at ‘instigators’ involved in attacks on soldiers and was investigating Murtaja’s death amid a very hectic environment.”

A reporter armed only with a video camera “instigating attacks” on soldiers safely sequestered behind barriers and a fence 100 yards away?

The journalist Glenn Greenwald puts it best (watch the interview here):

“I think it’s just time to acknowledge and accept the reality of what Israel is…And even people who once believed that [Israel was a democracy] are now starting to come and see that Israel is an apartheid, rogue, terrorist state.”

Israel long ago slipped down the rabbit hole with Alice and the Mad Hatter.  Now Israel wants the rest of the watching world to follow suit.  Eat Israel’s magic mushroom, listen only to the official press releases and repeat Israeli propaganda.

All Palestinians are, by definition, terrorists.  As Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said:

“There are no innocent people in the Gaza strip.”

“From the standpoint of the Israeli soldiers, they did what had to be done. I think that all of our troops deserve a commendation…”

American politicians and the mainstream media all remain silent, or nonchalantly mimic Israeli press releases.  Bernie Sanders is still the only member of Congress to speak out and condemn the mass slaughter now occurring (here, here and elsewhere).

US news outlets are obsessed with Stormy Daniels but have nothing to say about Gaza.

Our government has expelled 60+ Russian diplomats, on the flimsiest of evidence, but refuses to criticize Israel’s crimes against humanity in Gaza.

And where is the Christian church in this mix?  Where is the so-called pro-life movement?  Where is the voice of Christian conscience?

The church is nowhere to be found.  We have eaten too many of Israel’s magic mushrooms.

Evangelicalism remains silent, too busy groveling at the feet of its Republican idols to look up and notice the criminality of America’s tacit complicity in Israel’s crimes.

But the most powerful force behind this evangelical silence is not politics, not even politics veiled beneath religious conviction.  No.  The grotesque force holding its hand over the mouth of most evangelicals is the depraved theology of Christian Zionism.

A theology of Israeli privilege that overshadows and negates all competing ethical concerns.  A theology that baptizes genocide as the approved work of God.  A theology – that is really an IDEOLOGY – as effectively racist towards Palestinians as the political Zionism animating the monstrously perverse Middle Eastern beast once known as Israel.

American evangelicalism will one day be held to account.

Just as the largest part of the American church will be held to account for approving slavery, the slaughter of Native Americans, Jim Crow and its indifference to the poor, so too will our Eternal Judge ask us all, “Why did you not lament, and work to change, the fate of your Palestinian brothers and sisters?”

I encourage everyone to call one of Bernie Sanders’ office numbers.  Thank him for protesting the killings in Gaza.  Ask him to remain vigilant, not to give up, to enlist others to his cause, and to continue to speak up for Palestinian lives.