Tag: Church & State

White Evangelicals Must Think More Deeply and Engage More Practically

Grayson Gilbert, a regular blogger at Patheos, has written another white evangelical “analysis” of the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd. He repeats the shallow message of evangelical individualism that I recently criticized here.

As I read more and more examples of this gospel of American individualism (and become increasingly aggravated by their frequency and continuity) posted on Facebook, blogs, and chat boards, I decided to offer a more detailed critique of this white, evangelical gospel, using Mr. Gilbert’s piece to illustrate my points.

Below is an excerpt from his Patheos post to give you an idea of what he says. Or you can read the entire post here, but please come back to digest my criticisms and reflect on what the church needs to do differently.

Unfortunately, Mr. Gilbert expresses many of the theological and practical failures endemic to white evangelicalism in this country.

As a result, he also sadly illustrates why white evangelicalism has so little to offer in the way of practical solutions to many of America’s deepest problems.

A good deal of my thinking on these subjects is also explained in my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America. I wish Mr. Gilbert and others would read it. I certainly encourage you to do so, if you haven’t already.

Here is the excerpt:

“…This leads me to perhaps the most important point that I can make: if you want to see what needs to change, take a look in the mirror. It is not a system that needs to repent or be overthrown by human hands. It is not a single people group. It is not a minority or a majority ethnicity that needs to repent. It’s everyone. Every tongue, tribe, and nation is called to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Every individual on the face of the planet needs to bow before their Maker in repentance and call upon Christ as Lord for the forgiveness of their sins and the simple reason for this is that every man is a sinner.

“Until sin is seen for what it truly is and actually dealt with at the cross; until repentance and sanctification ensues, nothing will change in the heart of men at large. They will do what they do best: sin. Yet on that Final Day, God will do what no man can do: bring about complete and utter justice that is consistent with His covenant. If you’re not in Christ, you don’t want that kind of justice because it’s not good news for you. You want the gospel. And yet many professing Christians seem to think the gospel is incapable of doing anything at all to solve the issue, mainly, because they want results now…”

  • Do more research. Mr. Gilbert appears to limit his news exposure to watching the Fox network. He needs to think more deeply about how he is being manipulated by the corporate media, as I mention here.

Yes, looting, property destruction, and violence have occurred in many places. But Gilbert doesn’t seem to be aware of the many protest leaders who have condemned the looting, condemned the instigators exploiting their demonstrations, and turned out with volunteers to clean up and repair the damage done.

Like so many others, Gilbert paints with a crude, broad brush when he condemns the whole for the sins of a few. This is a standard tactic used by demagogues whose knee-jerk reaction is to defend the status quo rather than to honestly confront the social sickness that needs to be cut out of America’s body politic. I also recently wrote about this issue here.

Over the past several days, I have watched many videos showing (a) the police assaulting peaceful, unarmed demonstrators without provocation, sometimes causing serious injury; and (b) massive, peaceful demonstrations with no apparent mayhem anywhere.

To speak only about the looting while ignoring the core message animating the thousands upon thousands of black, brown, and white citizens marching peacefully through our streets, demanding social justice, is reprehensible.

In this way, Mr. Gilbert displays an obtuse disregard for the black experience in America.

Such willful ignorance typifies the majority of white evangelicals that I know. (Check out John Fea’s survey of Twitter comments from leading, evangelical Trump supporters for more examples of this ignorance parading itself as leadership).

  • Become self-critical. Gilbert is utterly unaware of his personal investment in defending the political powers-that-be. In effect, he writes as a stooge for the establishment status quo. But this is not surprising. It is what a majority of white evangelicals normally do.

The first step in healing this particular blindness requires grasping what it means to be a Christian disciple who lives as a citizen of God’s kingdom first, last, and always. (Again, check out my book!) No Christian’s primary allegiance is ever to American law and order.

Our allegiance is to Jesus Christ. And he does NOT teach us to obey the laws of wickedness.

The second step in overcoming such blindness requires an honest reappraisal of oneself. Mr. Gilbert talks about the need to confess our sins if we want society to change. I agree. Let’s all “look in the mirror,” as he suggests, and confess our need for Jesus and his salvation each and every day.

But that is where Mr. Gilbert abandons us, implying that once you’ve come to Christ, your problems with sin are over. Here is where his theological individualism becomes a trap.

As Mr. Gilbert elaborates his interest in sin and confession, he quickly shifts the responsibility for such confession onto the protesters. When, in fact – in this historical moment – confessing our collective failure to confront systemic racism and the habitual police brutality suffered by our African-American brothers and sisters is what white evangelicals ought to be doing.

Pointing fingers at the looters is an immoral, arrogant evasion of the real issue. As Jesus says, “Take the log out of your own eye before picking at the splinter in your neighbor’s.”

Remember, it was the slave masters who condemned slave revolts. It was the white, evangelical elders and deacons who accused their slaves of ingratitude for failing to appreciate the benefits of the white, Christian slave-owner’s “benevolence.”

How is Mr. Gilbert any different?

  • Confusing the world with the church and the church with the world. Gilbert’s very confused discussion of Micah 6:8 slyly insinuates the common evangelical shibboleth of imagining that America is God’s covenant nation.

But there is one covenant now – the New Covenant — established by Christ with his church. Applying covenant language to anyone else (like the crowds of demonstrators) is not only bad theology, it allows Gilbert to deflect attention away from the real problems of racism and police violence.

Gilbert’s cultural misappropriation of God’s covenant with Israel is the unspoken presumption at the root of white American privilege, not only at home but throughout the world. America habitually abuses, exploits, bombs, invades, occupies, and kills people of color without compunction on an international scale.

Slaughtering illiterate brown people around the world is an American right. Or so we are told.

That is the operative assumption underlying US foreign policy. We shouldn’t be surprised, then, to see increasingly militarized police departments executing similar, draconian values at home.

Gilbert illustrates how bad theology, combined with a lack of critical thinking (I cannot help but notice that he received his master’s degree from Moody Seminary, a Mecca for American fundamentalism), leads to bad public practice and anemic discipleship.

Such tunnel vision can only see “unruly” protesters in need of reproach, blinding the evangelical critic to the all-pervasive American violence unleashed at home and abroad through our infamous military-police-industrial complex.

Yes, I realize that this is too large a mouth-full for any one instance of protest to address, but Gilbert’s narrow individualism, together with his failure to engage the world as a citizen of God’s kingdom, blinds him to the cultural and political issues at stake.

Don’t follow in his footsteps.

  • You can’t tell God’s people to endorse their government’s injustices. Gilbert trots out the predictable evangelical calls for “law and order” by telling his Christian readers that they must “obey the authorities instituted by God.” (Cue the national anthem and America the Beautiful).

Here Gilbert uses another classic, demagogic argument slung about like a blunt ax by unthoughtful people making religious arguments in defense of deeply entrenched injustice.

Such demagogic rationales – based in flawed interpretation, by the way – are intended to demonize the anti-establishment “enemy” while pacifying God’s “law abiding” church-folk into a drowsy acceptance of the unacceptable. THIS is the true opiate of the masses, as Karl Marx would say.

But, of course, in this instance of obedience to the powers-that-be, what Gilbert and his Christian cronies judge to be acceptable and unacceptable has more to do with the color of one’s skin than it does with whether or not anyone is obeying the law.

It is the classic argument drawn from white privilege. Think about it. When was the last time we saw a video of an unarmed white person being choked to death by the police on a public street in broad daylight while politely pleading for relief?

This is the point being raised by the popular upheaval we are witnessing in our streets. Unjust actors, whether they are cops, lawyers, judges, criminal justice systems, or entire governments, are unjust because they do NOT “protect the innocent while punishing the guilty.”

THAT is the problem my evangelical friends fail to grasp.

[By the way, I exegete these New Testament passages in my book, I Pledge Allegiance, and show (conclusively, in my mind) that allegiance to God’s kingdom requires that Christians not obey governments that impose injustice on its citizens.]

I struggle to understand how people like Mr. Gilbert can continually fail to apprehend this dynamic. When citizens protest against unjust policing and systemic injustice in high places, God’s kingdom citizens should be leading the way as the most vocal critics of the status quo and most vehement defenders of the oppressed.

Misapplying scripture, as Mr. Gilbert does, in order to condemn demonstrations against injustice and oppression is merely a continuation of the scriptural arguments deployed by Christian slave- owners defending their ownership and abuse of other human beings.

  • A failure of empathy and critical thinking. Historically, evangelical foreign missions have been in the forefront of finding creative ways to meet human needs. While I don’t entirely agree with the old saying, “You can’t share the gospel with a starving person,” (personally, I think that this way of thinking was a major shortcoming of Mother Teresa’s), it does contain a kernel of truth.

Western missionaries have made major contributions to developing countries everywhere. Often, the earliest literacy programs, schools, health-care initiatives, hospitals, irrigation systems, and more have been developed by evangelical missionaries whose compassion and empathy inspired them to do much, much more than simply “preach the gospel” to the lost.

So, why does Christian compassion and creativity wither and die on the vine when discussing social disruption at home?

No, I am NOT suggesting that evangelicals need to suit up and put on a colonial savior-complex by resurrecting a domestic version of “the white man’s burden.” But I am struck by the absence of both empathy and critical thinking among my white, evangelical brothers and sisters.

Frankly, we need to sit down, shut up, and listen.

We need to hear the stories of our black brothers and sisters. We need to believe them and take them seriously. We need to ask ourselves, “How would I feel if I were in their shoes?” Then, before offering our thoughts on solutions, we need to ask what they think should be done. And we need to listen some more.

We need to ask the Lord Jesus to forgive us for our persistent indifference to the pain and struggle of African-Americans in this country – pain and struggle often inflicted by a system that criminalizes black people for the color of their skin.

I have never been nervous about the threat of being arresting for the crime of “driving while black.” And neither has Mr. Gilbert. Neither of us knows what that is like.

My mother always told me that the policeman was my friend; that he was there to help me.

African-American mothers must educate their children in how to avoid antagonizing a policeman so they won’t get shot.

That is the American reality, a reality that white evangelicals like Mr. Gilbert appear to know nothing about. And they don’t seem to want to know. But if they really don’t know anything about this version of our racial reality, it can only be because they have plugged their ears and closed their eyes to the plight of their fellow human beings.

Such inexcusable ignorance is testament to the strangulation of sympathy within America’s white evangelical churches. And it is inexcusable.

As I have said before, citizenship in God’s kingdom not only requires that we share the gospel of Jesus Christ as widely as possible, it also requires us to think as deeply as possible about how we can contribute to making this world a better place for everyone, equally.

If our missionaries can build schools for boys and girls in countries that frown on educating little girls, then why can’t we also think, plan, and act in ways that will make our society more just, more fair, and less dangerous for its non-white citizens?

Yes, racism is a sin. And sin is rooted in the human heart. Sin can only be uprooted through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. But suggesting, as Mr. Gilbert does, that mass evangelism is the only solution to racial injustice is the lazy pietist’s way of shirking responsibility.

Sure, people may come to Jesus one at a time, and Christian individuals certainly ought to work for truth and justice wherever they find themselves, but changing systemic evil demands systemic solutions. On this front, too many white evangelicals appear to take pride in their ineptitude.

God’s people are called to be “salt and light” to the surrounding society, to exemplify the righteousness, mercy, justice, and equality of God’s kingdom come. We do this, first, among ourselves, as living, breathing examples of God’s new, multi-racial creation here and now.

Then we simultaneously engage our society, working practically to create a reflection, the semblance, an approximation of God’s kingdom in the broken society we now live in.

But that, my friends, is the cross-cultural component of Christian discipleship that white, individualistic, American evangelicalism rarely seems to grasp.

Why Evangelical Pastors Have Little Help to Offer in the Public Square

Apparently, best-selling evangelical author, Max Lucado is writing editorials for Fox News. He recently wrote a piece entitled “What is the Answer to Racism: This profound yet simple promise.”

While I know that his numerous books have been helpful and encouraging to many Christian people, his advice on overcoming racism illustrates why evangelical thinking is a dry well when it comes to promoting the public good in society.

Here is an excerpt. I have a brief analysis at the bottom.

Recent racially charged incidents including the tragic death of George Floyd have stirred ensuing riots and torn open the rawest of wounds – racism. Judging a person according to skin color is an ancient sin. For that reason, God gave this ancient solution.

In the earliest words of Scripture, God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth” (Genesis 1:26).

Embedded in these words is the most wonderful of promises: God made us to reflect his image.

No one is a god except in his or her own delusion. But everyone carries some of the communicable attributes of God. Wisdom. Love. Grace. Kindness. A longing for eternity. We are made in his image.

There you have it in a nutshell. Evangelicalism’s basic problem —  individualism.

And this individualism keeps evangelical leaders speechless on matters of systemic evil, problems that require changes in such things as law, government, and public policy.

Lucado invites his readers to believe in Christ — and I hope many will — as if that is all that needs to happen for the world to be a better place. But calling more individuals to repent and convert offers nothing to relieve the racial distress facing black communities today. Such global transformation won’t happen until Jesus returns.

Besides, a good number of people in the African-American community are already in Christian churches looking for Jesus to come. And they still can’t feel safe in their own neighborhoods when the police drive by.

What does Lucado have to say to them? “Keep praying for the cops to repent so they’ll quit choking your husbands to death”?

I don’t think so.

Revving up the evangelistic engines is great for addressing personal salvation more broadly — something every church should do — but waiting for society to change one soul at a time is a counsel of despair for people suffering beneath a corrupt system of racial discrimination right now.

Besides, a good many of the people who serve the corrupted ends of our corrupted systems of government and policing already profess their Christian faith even as they dutifully play their assigned role in the rotten machine of systemic discrimination.

I wonder how many of the cops who are mistreating demonstrators across this country would tell Mr. Lucado that they have already “asked Jesus into their heart”?  I’d wager a good number of them.

Life is not that simple.

When society needs both/and solutions to its problems, too many evangelicals offer nothing but one-sided answers to complicated questions. And this is our great failure. It is a failure of spiritual maturity, a failure of intellect, a failure of compassion, a failure of cultural acuity, and a pathetic expression of down-right laziness.

 

Now a Word From Our Blasphemer-in-Chief

Not long before this blasphemous photo-op Trump gave a speech in which he expressed his support for every American’s right to protest. (As if the constitution needs any president’s endorsement).

Then, shortly before he spoke on the steps of this well-know church, D.C. police fired tear gas into a nearby group of peaceful protesters, dispersing stragglers by force. I watched the video.

Now, safely rid of those pesky, peaceful demonstrators, the president awkwardly waves a Bible like an unfamiliar talisman and utters the basest expressions of civil religion for the feverish media.

All in all — another disgusting episode from a wicked man who needs to repent, yet is enabled by so-called evangelicals blinded by secularism, self-centeredness, and power politics.

What is So Threatening About the Equality Act?

Last Wednesday, Nancy Pelosi reintroduced the Equality Act for the Congressional Democrats.

The Equality Act is a bill that aims to eliminate discrimination against LGBTQ people in the same way that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination against African-Americans.

Predictably, the Religious Right is up in arms denouncing the bill as another assault upon religious liberty in general, and Christianity in particular.

But is it any such thing?  Personally, I don’t see it.

I am old enough to remember the 1950s and 60s.  A southern block of religious conservatives then described Dr. Martin Luther King as a communist tool of the devil.  They fought to kill any hopes of passing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  Furthermore, they staunchly defended racial segregation as an expression of their Christian faith, just as so many religious conservatives are now condemning the Equality Act as an attack on their Christian views of human sexuality and marriage.

Andrew T. Walker of The Gospel Coalition has an article entitled, “The Equality Act Accelerates Anti-Christian Bias.”  He warns that “the bill represents the most invasive threat to religious liberty ever proposed in America.”

Monica Burke at the Daily Signal writes that the bill will cause “profound harms to Americans from all walks of life” under the heading “7 Reasons Why the Equality Act is Anything But.”

But even if some judicial tweaking is required as our society navigates the social effects of this new legislation, I have yet to see anyone explain away the fundamental parallels between African-Americans in need of the 1964 Civil Tights Act and gay/transgendered Americans in need of similar protections in 2019.

Christianity in America was not destroyed in 1964, despite the explicit warnings of Christian racists.

Neither will American Christianity come to ruin if gay, lesbian and transgendered human beings are granted similar civil rights protections in 2019, despite the apocalyptic warnings coming from the doomsday, propaganda mills of the Religious Right.

Instead, what this debate reveals is something much more dangerous now deeply rooted in the heart of American evangelicalism/fundamentalism: an insistence that the Christian religion (as defined by highly politicized, partisan, social conservatives) deserves preferential treatment in America; indeed, that this politicized, culture-warrior view of Christianity must become normative for acceptable social behavior in the public square.

I discuss this misunderstanding of Christian citizenship at length in my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018). This country’s politicized brand of Christianity is a tangled mess of confusion over what is required from citizens in the kingdom of God living as citizens in a secular society.

Mr. Walker throws out the predictably fawning, meaningless sop intended to distract his critics by saying, “To be clear, Christians reject all forms of invidious discrimination. We believe all persons, including those who identify as LGBT, are made in God’s image and deserve respect, kindness, and neighborliness.”

Well, good for you, Mr. Walker.

But pledges of personal affection are no substitute for legal guarantees.

The entrenched racism of the Jim Crow south also declared, ever so kindly, that they loved their black folks and always treated them with nothing but love and kindness, often insisting that their contented “Negroes” were just fine with the status quo.

Then the Civil Rights movement came along.

Turned out that African-Americans weren’t as contented as the white people imagined.

Unfortunately, the conservative Christian church has lost its ability to speak  with any moral authority on issues of justice and equality, because its pronouncements are generally selfish and self-centered.

The misguided case of the Masterpiece Cake Shop (for more thoughts on that debate, read my “Wedding Cakes, the New Testament and Ethics in the Public Square“) exemplified all the problems of the current Equality Act debate:

  1. Conservative Christians confuse the church with the world and the world with the church – which is odd given their tendencies towards intellectual and social isolation. New Testament morality is directed at kingdom citizens filled with the Holy Spirit, not the world at large, however beneficial its approximation would be. (I discuss this issue at length in I Pledge Allegiance.)
  2. Too many would-be Christians simply do not want to love (not really, not with actual tolerance and loving-kindness in person, face-to-face) the people they don’t like, or don’t agree with, or see as the unclean enemies of their beloved Christian civilization. Let’s get real – many evangelicals are homophobes (though I do not like that term). They don’t want anyone telling them that they must accept gay/transgendered people as equally human with the same dignity as anyone else, whether in the workplace, at school or anywhere else.
  3. They fail to distinguish personal preference from public accommodation. The Equality Act addresses issues concerning “public accommodation.”  Read the entire bill here.  The core of the legislation simply requires equal treatment, saying:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) may bring a civil action if it receives a complaint from an individual who claims to be:

  • denied equal utilization of a public facility owned, operated, or managed by a state (other than public schools or colleges) on account of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity; or
  • denied admission to, or not permitted to continue attending, a public college by reason of sexual orientation or gender identity, thereby expanding DOJ’s existing authority to bring such actions for complaints based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

The bill revises public school desegregation standards to provide for the assignment of students without regard to sexual orientation or gender identity.

The bill prohibits programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance from denying benefits to, or discriminating against, persons based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Most of the protests I have seen are in reaction to the protection of transgender rights and its various implications for public space/accomodation.

On this score, the conservative church must get to grip with two problems.

One, we have to enter the age of modern research science and recognize that many (a majority?) of gay people are born gay.  For them, there is no therapeutic cure. Insisting otherwise discredits us and guarantees that we will never really understand the struggles of our gay friends and neighbors.

Two, there is a good chance that similar genetic issues are in play for people suffering gender dysphoria.  I have no idea how it must feel to spend my life tormented by the sense of being trapped in the wrong body.  I doubt very much if anybody decides or chooses to live such an existence.  There is obviously a great deal yet to be discovered in this arena.  The church needs to stop prejudging such people, their histories, situations and motivations while accepting that transgendered people merit the same legal protections as everyone else.

The Equality Act will not affect the policies or operations of churches and other religious institutions unless those facilities accept federal funding.  The obligatory cries of religious persecution, or the loss of religious freedoms are actually laments about the possible loss of federal dollars.  It’s about the money, folks.

Losing one’s tax exempt status is not anti-religious discrimination.  Actually, I have long believed that the tax exemption for churches is actually discrimination against the surrounding community.  Why should the church’s neighbors be required to pay more for their community services (which is what happens) in the way of a public subsidy for the tax-exempt churches, which most of them don’t attend anyway?

The same logic applies to religious schools, colleges, hospitals, etc.  These types of institutions will only be affected by the Equality Act if they accept federal financial support.  Far too many of these groups want to have their cake and eat it too.  They want to benefit from public money (supplied through our tax dollars) while enforcing their own, private sectarian policies.

That is hypocrisy.

You can’t have it both ways and hope to remain anywhere within the ethical ballpark.  Remember when Bob Jones University went to court because it insisted on collecting federal money while continuing to refuse admission to black applicants? (I don’t know why any African-American would want to go there.  But, to each his own.)

I do.

If a religious institution believes that it cannot abide by the Equality Act, then let them surrender their federal grants, subsidies, or what-have-you.  Yes, this will also mean that students receiving federal scholarships or other tuition assistance will either lose their grants or be required to look for another college.  This is one of those arenas where details would need to be worked out in the courts, perhaps.

Let’s face it.  Way too much of the energy invested in these types of fights by Christian social organizations basically boil down to a fight for comfort and/or money.  Christians want to relax in a culture that accommodates itself to them.  We don’t want inconvenient types, like gays, or lesbians, or transsexuals, the kinds of people who challenge our conservative expectations in the moral, social order to raise questions or challenge the status quo.  A status quo that allows us to remain relaxed and in control.

It is long past time for American politicized Christianity to stop acting as if (a) fighting for a Christianized public square were the same thing as (b) being an faithful citizen of the kingdom of God in public.  The two are not the same thing.  In fact, they are two very, very different things.

Huge Pro-Maduro Rallies Today in Venezuela

Today the streets of Caracas and other Venezuelan cities were filled with huge crowds of pro-Maduro/anti-imperialist rallies.  A site that you will

Massive pro-Maduro/anti-imperialist rallies were held today throughout Venezuela

never see on corporate, mainstream news outlets in this country.

While American talking heads insist that Maduro is an unpopular dictator, the Venezuelan people say otherwise.

I don’t know how to copy video from Twitter, so I have supplied a few of the many links I have found today.  Take a look at the vast crowds of pro-government supporters here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Yes, president Maduro also has many opponents.  So does Donald Trump.  And….?

U.S. officials and their media puppets want the American public to believe that U.S. (military) intervention will rid Venezuela of an unpopular dictator, hated by a majority of his people.

If we all swallow that lie, then we are placated and will remain docile when we subjugate, undoubtedly with bloodshed, another nation for our own selfish, national interests.

In addition, would a real dictator allow anti-government rallies to be led by the upstart, US/CIA backed contender for his presidency?  I don’t think so.  A dictator would have arrested Guaido and his fellow opposition leaders long ago.

In any case, the one thing followers of Jesus Christ may never be is placated and docile in the face of evil, especially when that evil is being committed in our name by our country.

Citizens of God’s kingdom will stand up and say, “No!  This action is wicked and ungodly.  It is completely unacceptable.  We will not condone such evil with our silence.  We will speak and work to stop our government’s unwarranted, illegal use of force.”

Call your elected representatives and tell them, Hands Off Venezuela!

A Biblical Ode to America

A few days ago The Wall Street Journal published an expose revealing the Trump administration’s intention to remake Latin America in its own image, continuing to use the well-worn strategies of assassination, economic sanctions — which commonly lead to widespread starvation — and military intervention.

The headline and opening paragraph read, “U.S. Push to Oust Venezuela’s Maduro Marks First Shot in Plan to Reshape Latin America.”  

Recent assassination attempt against Maduro

“The Trump administration’s attempt to force out the president of Venezuela marked the opening of a new strategy to exert greater U.S. influence over Latin America, according to administration officials.”

Hence, I offer the following New Testament pesher (a contemporary interpretation) from John’s Apocalypse, chapter 18:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.  With a mighty voice he shouted:

The harvest of a US trained Salvadoran death squad

“‘Fallen! Fallen is America the Great!’
    She has become a dwelling for demons
and a haunt for every impure spirit,
    a haunt for every unclean bird,
    a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk
    the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven say:

“‘Come out of her, my people,’
    so that you will not share in her sins,
    so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
for America’s sins are piled up to heaven,
    and God has remembered the crimes of the United States.
Give back to her as she has given;
    pay her back double for what she has done.

    Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torment and grief
    as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts,
    ‘I sit enthroned as queen; I am the sole Super Power.
I am not a widow;
    I will never mourn.’
Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her:
    death, mourning and famine.
She will be consumed by fire,
    for mighty is the Lord God who judges her…

..Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

“With such violence
    the great nation of America will be thrown down,
    never to be found again.
The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters,
    will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade
    will ever be found in you again.
The sound of a millstone
    will never be heard in you again.
The light of a lamp
    will never shine in you again.
The voice of bridegroom and bride
    will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world’s important people.
    By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.
       In America was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people —  who stood to warn you but were few and far between — of ALL who have been slaughtered on the earth by your drones, your assassinations, atomic bombs, cruise missiles, special forces, cluster bombs, stealth fighters, torture programs, death squads, economic sanctions and regime changes.”

When Disobedience is a Virtue, 2 – The Mind of Christ Confronts Propaganda

 

Several recent on-line conversations have reminded me, although I never actually forgot, about the basic tools that make propaganda effective.  Abusive leaders (and there are LOTS of them) speak propaganda not truth.

Propaganda is the repetitious spreading of misinformation and lies in order to manipulate the public into believing falsehoods and behaving in ways that are unjust.  Common methods include:

  • Relying on one and only one source of information
  • Listening only to voices that agree with you and confirm your preexisting bias
  • Repetition; either listening to or repeating the same information over and
    Joseph Goebbels was Minister of Propaganda for Adolf Hitler. He was an expert at his job

    over again

  • Offering only one side of an argument, ignoring any contrary evidence or argumentation

Among conservatives of all stripes today, the principle propaganda outlet is Fox News.  This network, and others like it, are a blight on American society.  It’s product is not journalism but propaganda.  Fox’s blatant role as an outlet for

Republican talking points has been public knowledge for many years (here and here).  Loyal viewers repeat what they hear on Fox News because it’s often the only source they trust.

This repetitious feedback loop is now firmly established.

The Nazis understood the persuasive power of repetition

In one of my recent online debates, a gentleman emphatically repeated the same claims over and over again, regardless of my replies.  I answered him by pointing out the misinformation in his statements and giving reasons for why his argument was incorrect.  Yet, as is typical of folks who only “know” what they hear via propaganda, he simply repeated his false claims and errors more firmly, never adjusting his argument or responding to my points.  In other words, he restated what he had been told to believe.

THIS IS NOT APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR FOR GOD’S PEOPLE.

Here’s today’s excerpt, from pages 105-106 of my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans 2018):

“Persuasive messaging is vital to authority. Whether that message comes in the guise of politics, philosophy, theology, ideology, theory, or propaganda, an authority figure creates legitimacy through the power of a convincing explanation. Effective messaging allows listeners to believe that their obedience is serving a desirable end, no matter how distasteful their obedience to those demands may be. The ends justify the means, at least when the authority’s words are convincing. ‘Control the manner in which a man (sic) interprets his world, and you have gone a long way toward controlling his behavior.’

“If the message is repeated often enough, and the listener becomes convinced enough, the authority’s explanation is eventually assimilated into the person’s understanding of the world. It is no longer questioned; it is assumed and becomes the believer’s default position, so that any new evidence challenging or contradicting the accepted message is automatically dismissed or ignored.  Do you remember your last political debate with someone who only watches the news from one particular television network? How open was that person to new evidence or counter-arguments offered from a different perspective? Once the content of repetitious messaging has been excused from answering questions posed by critical thinking, then it has become indoctrination: that is, a strongly held belief having its own internal logic, self-evident only to believers, hovering above the messy world of counter-evidence and public demonstration.

“But politicians, demagogues, and advertising agencies are not the only ones who use the power of messaging. The Christian church also has a message that requires communication. We first hear this message through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is then elaborated through regular Bible study into a comprehensive way of living, where obeying the Lord Jesus is life’s guiding directive. Christians discover what God asks of them by becoming familiar with the sound of his voice. Recognizing God’s voice is a gift to faithful, long-time students of his word who put the Lord’s directions into practice. This is how a depraved human mind is slowly transformed into the redeemed mind of Christ (Rom. 12:2). It is a process called sanctification, and it is neither easy nor automatic. Our human tendency is to cling to as much of the old, unredeemed mindset as possible, minimizing the amount of Christ-like upside-down transformation occurring and protectively maximizing the old-time, business-as-usual worldview preserved from our pre-Christian attitudes on life. It is a lifelong contest for supremacy.

“In this respect, every disciple resembles the character Gollum in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Gollum is a slobbering, pathetic subterranean creature, clawing and clutching feverishly at his ‘precious’ ring, unwilling to let it go. For Christians, our own ‘precious’ thing is the carnal mindset and consequent immorality that we spent a lifetime inhaling from the materialistic atmosphere swirling around us before we first met Jesus. Allowing these precious, unredeemed preconceptions to be challenged, torn down, and replaced by the new, regenerate mind of Jesus is so difficult that it sometimes never happens. Occasionally, a dramatic historical event will pull back the ecclesiastical curtain to reveal the truth about God’s people and about whose mind is truly precious to them.”

I am convinced that American Christianity is facing one such “dramatic historical event” right now.  It is the rise of Donald Trump and the ethos surrounding him called Trumpism.

Whether Trump’s presidency is a flash in the pan or the permanent entrenchment of all the worst qualities displayed throughout America’s history as an international bully is beside the point.  Conservative

Trump with a few evangelical supporters

Christianity’s gleeful embrace and puppy-dog loyalty to this pathological liar and malignant narcissist is more than enough to reach a verdict.

The conservative church in this country has not only failed the test, it has demonstrated that it never studied for the exam.  It has slept through every class.  Never taken a single note.  Ignored the teacher and burned down the school.

For all its Christian bookstores, Bible study videos, booklets and supposedly expository teaching, the truth of God’s word is a stranger to many, far too many, who say they are God’s people.

The “ecclesiastical curtain” has been torn asunder from top to bottom; the church’s priorities have been exposed.  Many things are precious to American Christianity, but the mind of Christ is not one of them.

When Disobedience is a Virtue, 1 – Every Christian Must Be A Dissident

This is an excerpt from my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans 2018).  “When Disobedience is a Virtue” is the title of chapter 7.  I intend to offer a series of similar posts, all taken from this chapter of my book.

I give my attention to the nature of authority, its abuse and how easy it is – frighteningly easy – for people to fall prey to the most outlandish abuses by

Swastikas cover the altar of a German Christian church

dangerous authority figures.  The classic example, of course, is the German Christian church under the spell of Adolf Hitler.

No. I don’t believe that the US is now comparable to pre-war Germany, though I will refer you in an upcoming post to an American historian who convincingly argues that the two are closer than you might imagine.

What I do believe, however, is that the mindset controlling vast swaths of American Christianity today, especially in its more conservative sectors, reflects many of the same dangerous errors that eventually led the German Christian church to support Hitler.

Trump may not be Hitler.  But widespread Christian enthusiasm for a morally repugnant president who delights in dehumanizing others – reflexively, without inhibition or remorse – who demonstrates all the traits of a sociopath, suggests to me that conservative Christians in this country have managed to lobotomize the mind of Christ – at least within themselves. We have become expert at steeling ourselves against the work of the Holy Spirit, of silencing the Spirit’s voice, ignoring His conviction, and perhaps of expelling Him altogether.

Resistance is the spiritual imperative for every true disciple.  But who, what

Leshia Evans stands against police while standing up for Black Lives Matter

and where do we resist properly?  And how do we resist in a way that pleases our crucified Lord Jesus?

Here is the first excerpt, from page 98:

“…we all regularly face the challenge of knowing when to submit and when to disobey authority. Often the authority is as seemingly benign as public opinion, the status quo, cultural expectations, tradition, or peer pressure.  Yet, for a people who believe they have been called out of darkness into the light, who understand that living by the standards of God’s kingdom will frequently put them at odds with the practices and expectations of a fallen world, defying authority in some way should be common practice. Perhaps it means befriending the outcast shunned by everyone else at school. Or calling friends to account for laughing at a racist remark. Paul’s admonition in Romans 13:5—to act “because of conscience”—is one of the implications he draws from Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (see chapter 4). Learning to defy the patterns of this world by renewing our minds after the model of Jesus and cultivating a genuinely Christian conscience requires learning when, where, and how to disobey any authority, no matter how familiar, issuing wrongful directives, regardless of the consequences. From this perspective, every Christian is called to be a dissident. Discipleship is the life of dissent from this world in the affirmation of Jesus and his kingdom.”

More Whining from the Evangelical Advisory Board Spokesman

CBN News posted the following headline today:

“’This Is an Attempt to Intimidate Certain Voices’: Group Says Meetings Between Trump, Faith Leaders a Violation of Law”

The story concerns a letter (fully documenting its assertions) sent by Americans United for the Separation of Church and State asserting that president Trump’s so-called Evangelical Advisory Board is violating federal law.  Below is the substance of their complaint. I have highlighted the essential clauses:

“…the Advisory Board is subject to, but has failed to comply with, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2. It is clear that the President’s Evangelical Advisory Board is doing substantive work with the Trump Administration behind closed doors—without any sunlight for the public to understand how and why decisions are being made. We respectfully request that the Advisory Board cease meeting and providing advice to the President unless and until it fully complies with FACA, and that you produce to us certain documents relating to the Advisory Board.

 “FACA applies to ‘any committee, board, commission, council, conference, panel, task force, or other similar group, or any subcommittee or other subgroup thereof . . . which is . . . established or utilized by the President . . . in the interest of obtaining advice or recommendations for the President or one or more agencies or officers of the Federal Government.’  The Evangelical Advisory Board’s activities are well within FACA’s scope.”

The gist of CBN’s reporting, particularly in its online interview with Advisory Board spokesman, Johnnie Moore, blatantly misrepresents the

Johnnie Moore, graduate of Liberty University

AUSCS letter.  Describing it as one more secularist attempt to “intimidate” evangelical voices in government, both CBN and Johnnie Moore distort the real complaint beyond recognition.

As anyone who reads the letter can see, the problem is not that Trump hangs out with evangelicals – although given the cataclysmic demise of evangelical integrity these days, they certainly can’t be anything but a corrosive influence on a president in dire need of both spiritual and practical advice.  (I would warn the president about the dangers of associating with “backsliders,” but I don’t think he is familiar with the term.)

The problem is not that Trump converses with evangelicals but that he hangs out with them in lonely back alleys, in the dead of night, where they talk in low whispers, without anyone taking notes or keeping a record of their conversations.  Such behavior would be unremarkable if these paragons of Christian virtue were swearing fealty to The Donald in the crushed velvet, over-stuffed chairs of Trump Towers.  Politically aware followers of Jesus have come to expect such treachery from the mammon-loving leaders of their mega-churches and other televised “ministries” lusting for more TBN airtime.

But the president is a public servant, at least in theory, not merely the crime boss he was before winning the election.

The American people have every right to know, as a matter of public record,

The recent dinner for evangelicals at the White House

with whom the president is meeting, from whom he is taking advice, and whether that advice is affecting the rest of us who pay the president’s salary.

American’s United is simply asking the president and his evangelical bed-fellows to obey the law.  That’s it.

Didn’t the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, cite Romans 13 not very long ago as an ominous reminder of just how law-abiding all Americans were supposed to be?  True evangelicals ought to be jumping at the chance fully “to comply with, the Federal Advisory Committee Act, 5 U.S.C. app. 2.”

Of course, good ‘ole boy Johnnie (any grown man who insists on being called Johnnie has got to be a good ‘ole boy) insists that there is no such thing as an Evangelical Advisory Council. CBN reports,

“’From the very beginning we’ve made it clear that there is no evangelical advisory council at the White House…I don’t know how many times I’ve said that.  I think everybody just needs to recognize that this is an attempt to intimidate certain voices, and voices that will not be intimidated,’ said Moore.

While there is no doubt that Sessions was trying to “intimidate certain

Rev. Paula White opens the evangelical dinner with prayer

voices” with his immigration policy of separating immigrant children from their parents, under the aegis of Romans 13 no less, I confess that the intimidation factor in the American’s United letter escapes me completely.

Johnnie’s bald-faced insistence that there is no such thing as an Evangelical Advisory Council reminds me of the Monty Python “Dead Parrot sketch.”  After his recently purchased parrot dies, the disgruntled customer tries to return his now dead parrot to the pet shop, only to be faced with the recalcitrant owner who insists – contrary to all the evidence – that the bird is not dead, only resting.  Classic Monty Python.

Well, Johnnie Moore.  Monty Python disbanded long ago.  Your attempts to resurrect the group with a new Evangelical Council sketch won’t work.  It’s not funny.

After all, there is a stable collection of “evangelical” church leaders who periodically gather collectively with the president in Washington D.C., providing him with counsel about issues dear to their hearts, urging him to adopt policies favorable to their concerns.  The recent White House dinner for evangelicals was a gathering of the usual suspects.

Johnnie Moore’s denial and complaint is only the latest example of evangelicalism’s pathetic sense of entitlement and bogus victimization.

Paula and Franklin Graham say ‘cheese’ for the White House photographer

You, first, demand special treatment – why do we have to make a public record of our meetings with the president?  It’s not fair! – and then you cry the crocodile tears of “religious discrimination” when a public service organization calls you out for trying to play by your own rules.

Why can’t evangelical leaders willingly abide by the same standards applied to every other lobbying group?  Why the skulduggery, followed by another “stop picking on me” burst of tears?  It’s pathetic.

Sadly, this story, which is paradigmatic of the many reprehensible ills afflicting evangelicalism today, is one layer of dishonesty on top of another, and another, and another…

If you will, allow me to paraphrase the apostle Paul’s lament over mortality as I close.  Paul says, “Oh, my God, who will deliver me from this body-politic of death?”  (Romans 7:24).

What Readers are Saying about My Book I Pledge Allegiance

Not long ago a good friend and former colleague sent me a message with encouraging words about my new book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America (Eerdmans, 2018). 

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.