Political Idolatry

Richard Lemieux is a homeless man in Bremerton, WA. At one time he was an internet business owner with a large house, wife, 2 kids, 2 cars, and a boat. He lost everything during the “dot-com” crash of 2000 and had to live out of an old beat up van he had managed to acquire. He was not a Christian, but knew that churches were probably his best shot at getting some help. One church would let him sleep in his van in their parking lot, the salvation army would feed him breakfast each morning, but when it came to any other meals, money, and a warm place to sleep, he had to search. Word of mouth led him to the pastor of another church in Bremerton. Lemieux sought him out, took a tour of his church, and asked him politely for a little help. The pastor did not appear to listen, instead just started talking politics with him. When they parted ways, the pastor handed Lemieux an envelope. Inside was a “Bush-Cheney” bumper sticker.

I am very concerned about the state of Chrisianity in America today. I see Christians using the name of Jesus not to preach the Gospel, but to instead increase the listeners of their political argument. Jesus is used to preach one party over the next and America over the rest of the world. I once heard a pastor pray “thank you God for making us the greatest country in the world.” This prayer is so close to the parable of the Pharisee in the temple praying “thank you God that I am not like this sinner next to me.” The sinner next to him is praying “God I need you.” Jesus tells us the sinner is the one who walked away justified. It seems Christians are taking Gods blessings and cursing others for not having the same blessings. We are preaching social and political change instead of a need for God that changes hearts.

I grew up a non-believer scared of Christians. I saw Christians as people who wanted to tell me how to live my life. Any time I came in contact with Christians, they were either yelling something against evolution, against liberals, or preaching censorship of my music. Today as a Christian, I am still scared. Scared of what they are doing to the church. Now when I see Christians, they are either yelling against gays, against abortion, against liberals, or preaching anti-Obamaism. The subject matter has changed a little over the years, but still I am not hearing the Jesus of the Gospels preached.

Christians need to be very aware of what is happening to the Gospel in America and how idol worship has reached into the politcal ranks. Tim Keller in his book Counterfeit Gods says it like this:

One of the signs that an object is functioning as an idol is that fear becomes one of the chief characteristics of life. When we center our lives on the idol, we become dependent on it. If our counterfeit god is threatened in any way, our response is complete panic. We do not say, “What a shame, how difficult,” but rather “This is the end! There’s no hope!”

This may be the reason why so many people now respond to U.S. political trends in such an extreme way. When either party wins an election, a certain percentage of the losing side talks openly about leaving the country. They become agitated and fearful for the future. They have put the kind of hope in the their political leaders and policies that once were reserved for God and the work of the gospel. When their political leaders are out of power, they experience a death. They believe that if their policies and people are not in power, everything will fall apart. They refuse to admit how much agreement they actually have with the other party, and instead focus on the points of disagreement. The points of contention overshadow everything else, and a poisonous environment is created.

Another sign of idolatry in our politics is that opponents are not considered to be simply mistaken, but to be evil. The increasing political polarization and bitterness we see in U.S. politics today is a sign that we have made political activism into a form of religion. (Keller, pp. 98-100).

Dick Keyes, in his book Chameleon Christianity furthers the point. In this exerpt, Keyes uses the word “tribal” to refer to the temptation to gravitate to a Christian culture that is surrounded only by other Christians in every area of our lives, (ex: school, work, friends):

Certain tribal scenarios say that things are so far gone and society is so far decayed that we should suspend Jesus’ teaching on love, particularly on love for one’s enemy. To require love at all times is seen as impractical, given the extremity of the battle. If we have located pure and complete evil, we no longer need to treat those who disagree with us with love and humility. Anyone who is unashamed of Christ will join the culture wars with all their energy---and hatred.

It must be said that the rhetoric of holy war can be good for fund-raising within the tribal fortress. But it is not good for those who believe that Jesus’ command to love our enemies still stands, or for those who struggle to put into practice the Christian calling to try to persuade those who disagree---whether the issues be spiritual or political.

Christians have developed a reputation for scorning and ridiculing anyone on the other side of the battle lines of the culture wars, whether they be politicians, academics, or neighbors. This has created an environment of needless hostility where there is already tension aplenty. Too often Christians have walked with all four feet into the secular culture’s stereotype of us as bigoted and unwilling to listen.

The tribal mistake is not that Christians have taken the moral principles into the political arena and fought hard for them. This is our responsibility. Rather the error is that within a tribal attitude of jihad, God’s commandments to love are scorned or forgotten.

In our main forays outside the tribal fortress we are trying to overpower our neighbors politically by fair means and foul, and if we have exempted ourselves from Jesus’ command to love our neighbor and our enemy, what becomes of the mission of the church? How great is our desire to spread the gospel? How believable is our message? (Keyes, p. 48)

As God was continually trying to communicate to Israel through out the Old Testament, when someone comes in contact with God’s people, they should see something attractive and feel blessed. The Israelite’s experience in Egypt should communicate a great deal to us today. They saw the abuse of power in Egypt and the exploitation of people for the purpose of power and profit. It’s Almost as if God was saying: “Now you’ve seen how Egypt (and the world) leads, but I want you to be a different kind of leader in the world. You are to be a nation of compassion, justice, truth, and love. You are to be a blessing to the world.” This is why Israel was geographically located in a place where many people had to pass through it. If we look at America today we see a similar characteristic in that the rest of the world seems to always have an eye on us. The mistake Israel was constantly making was thinking that because they were God’s people, they were superior to all others. Instead of being a blessing to others they became ardent nationalists and looked down upon all who passed through. Christians in America need to be careful of not falling into the same trap.

Today there are a lot of people in the media who claim to be Christians, but speak most loudly a very nationalist and one party agenda. Psalm 35 warns us to watch out for “fierce witnesses.” Fierce witnesses are those who speak very loudly and proudly about the good thing they are, but then in the next breath circulate false reports. Many Christians today get their world view not from a Gospel centered perspective, but from 24 hour news sources. We must be ever cautious of what we hear from organizations whose soul purpose is to spin the news to fit their prescribed narrative.

The Gospel perspective of how we are to see the world and the world of non-believers is well laid out for us by the Apostle Paul. Dick Keyes does a great job of summing it up for us:

To persuade the Gentiles, who did not believe in the Hebrew Scriptures but who worshiped a variety of idols, he (Paul) interacted with their own ideas about nature and human moral and religious experience.

The Apostle Paul had obviously listened carefully to the ideas, fears, and dreams of people with whom he spoke. His strategy of persuasion had a negative aspect, as he sought to disenchant them with the ideas that they might have believed all their lives; but it also had a positive aspect as he showed them that the claims of Christ were true and demanded a response of faith. Paul saw the need and prayed for the work of the Holy Spirit to open people’s eyes, but throughout his life, he still took the trouble to learn about those with whom he was speaking.

Paul did not merely preach a sermon and then go home. Instead he listened to his hearers and interacted with their ideas, beliefs, objections, questions, gripes, doubts, and struggles. He took his hearers seriously, respecting and loving them. (Keyes, pp. 56,57)

Christianity in America has dug itself into a hole. Like the nation of Israel in the book of Exodus, we have escaped powerful empire forces. But also like the nation of Israel, after being given hope and being shown the type of people we are to be, we have tossed it aside and become the next Egypt. In the book of Amos, God judged Israel harshly for becoming like the kingdom of the world. Israel, like Egypt was exploiting and profiting off the poor and the weak. They were developing a large military in order to protect their great wealth. A wealth, that had been acquired through oppressive means. But even in Judgment, God never leaves His people without hope. He promised a King who would one day sit on David’s throne, but his use of power would be becoming of the Kingdom of God. He would be called the Prince of Peace. He would be the all powerful King of the universe, but would be called “servant.” The leaders in America often like to use such Biblical language by calling themselves “public servants,” but when we look at actions, Jesus is the only leader who has ever fit this naming. Like Solomon, others have been given wisdom to rule. But also like Solomon, many have abused their power and have been unfaithful to God. But Jesus will act wisely and as the Prophet Jeremiah tells us, He will “do what is just and right in the land.”(Bell, Golden, p.69)

Though we have dug ourselves into a hole, it should be clear that God never gives up. G.K. Chesterton wrote that as he observed the history of the church, “At least five times the Faith has gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases, it was the dog that died.” Keyes comments: What Chesterton observed here was that throughout its history the church of Christ has shown a moral and spiritual resilience. At times it has sunk to terrible defeat, corruption, and scandal. But the Church has been given the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Where there has been humility and openness to self-criticism there has been repentance and reform, the church has regained its life and the surrounding society has felt the benefit in social transformation. (Keyes, pp. 107,108)

We must be open to self-criticism. Do our words and actions create a darker world for the non-believer, or are we seen as light and good news?

References:

Chameleon Christianity by Dick Keyes, 1999.

Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller, 2009.

Jesus Wants to Save Christians by Rob Bell and Don Golden, 2008.

This Reformation

I am part of a generation that has grown up with much scrutiny. Our music was louder than the previous generation, our dancing more disjointed and our thoughts were either crazy or ridiculous. Our generation, however never saw ourselves as something to be corrected. Rather, we have desired to do the correcting of everyone else.

We have grown up as witnesses to escalating divorce and suicide rates. We see these societal sins as directly correlating with the greed of society. People have increasingly wanted their “stuff” and wanted more of it. Then they have needed to work more to pay for that stuff. Finally relationships and life fall apart.

My generation has grown up knowing only one thing: that we don’t want to be like the previous generation. We have refused the mentoring of our elders and replaced them with books and movies. We have conversed with one another about our philosophies, but putting our philosophies into practice has lead to much depression and anxiety. We have been known to hurt others and ourselves as we have strived to do things on our own. Our parents have worried about us. They have tried everything from kicking us out of the house, to sending us some place to get help, to just letting us be and hoping we figure things out.

Though we have seemed and often felt lost for most of our lives, all of this has also led to Generation X being the first generation in 500 years to be so willing to re-think everything. And just like 500 years ago, this re-thinking has begun another reformation in the church.

Through out the modern era, we saw a continuous game of “bigger and better.” This striving not only dragged the church along with it, but sometimes, the church even took the lead. Amazing things were accomplished in this era. The Americas were discovered, railroads were built, as well as cars, planes and rockets. Buildings, bridges, and boats so beautiful and monstrous were created that we visit them like we visit national parks.

But, in this modern era of “bigger and better,” we have also seen the need to conquer. During the discovery of North America, we conquered the natives and killed them. In South America, instead of killing the natives, the first explorers enslaved them. 500 years later, the native people on both continents are still suffering and are still seen as the lowest form of human.

In North America, while conquering the natives, we were simultaneously conquering some of the natives in Africa. Instead of killing them, we stole them and made them our slaves for the purpose of profit. Our railroads were built primarily by Chinese immigrants who were lied to about a good life and good work in the west. They were treated like dogs and hated even worse.

Then as our country and military grew, we saw more benefit to conquering other lands. Soon, the Middle East became our primary interest. Here was a majority of the world’s oil. A strong military presence not only insured we’d have lots of oil, but that we’d have it cheap. Some people in the Middle East have begun to hate the American government more and more over the years because of this occupation. And they have now become organized enough to begin attacking us on our own land.

Today, though Christians did not take the lead in much of this conquering, we are the first to defend our nation’s acts and the last to apologize. And to make matters worse, the Christians who speak the loudest to the American public, still insist on trying to conquer others. They try to conquer with their morals, they try to conquer with their politics. Christians have spent so much time and effort trying to conquer in the name of Jesus, that less and less people want anything to do with Jesus. They feel judged and awkward around Christians and flat out scared of Christian leaders. No longer do the most oppressed and judged in our society run to Christians for help and support. Instead they run far from us, because we are the ones doing the judging and oppressing. What has happened to the message of Jesus?

However, in the midst of all this, there have always been Christians who have held tight to Jesus’ teachings. They have been able to show the beauty of the Gospel to others. They’ve communicated love instead of hatred. They have not defined people by the differences they have with them, but rather have sought to understand the differences.

These Christians for the first time in my life are beginning to speak out. They have seen that all this conquering is not only not helpful, but is in fact hurting the church and the message of the Gospel. These Generation X, post modern Christians are becoming pastors, writing books, and some even running for office. Those becoming pastors have been ridiculed for not preaching republican candidates from the pulpit or for not circulating political literature and petitions through their congregation. Those writing books are called pacifists because they talk of loving our enemies. Those running for office are quickly labeled as liberals and thus not even considered Christian.

But we are still fighting. Fighting to preserve the church from the elder bothers and the Pharisees. Just like the last reformation, this one has also begun with the leaders of the church needing to be rebuked for so willingly perverting the message of the Gospel. Those leaders and their followers reject this reformation by perverting our message. They say we are soft on sin and just want to sit around and bake cookies for the world. They say we don’t want to defend Christianity. But what they don’t realize is that we are defending Christianity, defending it from them.

They want so bad to defend Christianity from the sins of the prodigal son, that they forget condemnation is not what brought the prodigal son home, neither is it what welcomed him with open arms. And the elder brother, the one who kept all the rules and felt he was the most deserving was the one the father needed to correct. We must also not fail to notice, the father used “love” in dealing with both the prodigal son and the elder brother.

I hear this parable being preached differently by the religious right. I instead see Christian leaders painting a picture of the father and the elder brother standing together saying to the prodigal son: “I hope you learned your lesson. You are going to have to earn this back.” But the Gospel has always spread through weakness. Just look at Jesus’ birth and death. And still, God’s people act as if Jesus came as a militant king who whipped everyone into shape. Which ironically, is how the religious right of Jesus’ day thought the messiah would come.

What would Jesus say today about a Christian culture with so much focus on political power? What would he say about the Christian Defense League? A league of lawyers who aren’t just trying to ensure the rights of Christians, but seem to be working just as hard making sure other religions and life philosophies don’t have the same rights on our free country.

What would Jesus say about Christians who think they have it all figured out? So many of us no longer seek truth, but only the ability to spin facts to support our political leanings. The church is in need of reexamination and in need of being open to self criticism. But it appears we would rather defend the things we have done and said and are still doing and saying, then to think for one moment that non-believers’ observations of the church might be at all valid.

Here is an excerpt about Christians in the Greco-Roman world from Tim Keller’s book The Reason for God (p.20):

The Greco-Roman world’s religious views were open and seemingly tolerant--everyone had his or her own God. The practices of the culture were quite brutal, however. The Greco-Roman world was highly stratified economically, with a huge distance between the rich and the poor. By contrast, Christians insisted that there was only one true God, the dying Savior Jesus Christ. Their lives and practices were, however, remarkably welcoming to those that the culture marginalized. The early Christians mixed people from different races and classes in ways that seemed scandalous to those around them. The Greco-Roman world tended to despise the poor, but Christians gave generously no only to their own poor but to those of other faiths. In broader society, women had very low status, being subjected to high levels of female infanticide, forced marriages, and lack of economic equality. Christians afforded women much greater security and equality than had previously existed in the ancient classical world. During the terrible urban plagues of the first two centuries, Christians cared for all the sick and dying in the city, often at the cost of their lives.

If I were to read this to a non-Christian today and told them this is what a Christian looks like, I wonder what their response would be.

Brave New World

If you have followed national news at all in the last year, you have seen there is a concern in our country about too large of a government. Barrack Obama has begun to be portrayed as a socialist who will put in place some kind of “1984” oppressive government. This essay is not about whether there is any validity to those claims, but rather about our misplaced concerns.

We are concerned about an oppressive government that will take away our freedoms. What we should really be focused on is that our freedoms are already being taken away by the oppressive lifestyles we have acquired and with which we have fallen in love. We are worried about “1984” when we are already apart of a “Brave New World.”

An observation of our own daily lives can be a little depressing, but necessary for the beginnings of change. Each of us it seems look for or crave either constant distraction, constant work, or constant entertainment. How many of us when we wake up, gravitate toward either the t.v., music, or the computer to check on our social networking site. Then we get in our cars and turn the stereo on before we even pull out of the driveway. Then whether you are at work or at home, most of the day is filled with the constant background noise of some piece of media equipment. Then after dinner, the day is finished off either watching t.v., playing video games, or again perusing our social networking site. I’ve noticed even social gatherings seem to have at least 1 or 2 people playing on their I-phones the whole time. I have even witnessed myself and others “multi-slacking” (urban dictionary word), being on both the t.v. and facebook at the same time.

What percentage of the day does all this add up to compared with time spent in real interaction or conversation (testing and instant messaging does not count) with real people? How many of you parents converse or play with your kids, but still with one eye on the t.v. or the computer. How many of you couples take walks together or play a game together without watching t.v. or being on the computer at the same time? I love the new Verizon commercial advertising their new “all in one” Droid phone. The commercial depicts different people in different circumstances, but none of them are paying attention to life. Everyone of them is smiling and playing on their phone. If that is not a picture of falling in love with that which oppresses us, I don’t know what is. The sad thing is Verizon knows that those images help to market their product. If we break it down, that means they are positive people will be watching that commercial and thinking “that’s what I want. I want to be on a romantic horse-back ride on the beach surfing the web instead of living for the moment.” But the most depressing thing about the commercial is it is not that much of an exaggeration. All of us multiple times in a day trade in real life for media distraction. I want to be clear and say that I am not saying all these things in and of themselves are bad. I see great benefits from t.v., the computer, and especially music. But our society has evolved in such a way that our days are almost completely filled with the artificial.

I have been trying little experiments in my daily routine to try and remedy some of this problem in my own life. These experiments have been difficult, but in the end have been very freeing. When I first wake up in the morning (if up before my kids), instead of sitting at the table with my breakfast and my laptop, I bring my bowl of cereal to the couch and enjoy the scenery out our big picture window. As it starts warming up, I plan on eating out on the deck. When I get in the car, I resist the urge to turn on the stereo, and instead roll down my window. The latter experiment has been more refreshing than I thought it would be. Having the stereo off has made thinking and reflecting on life much easier. And I love the feeling of hearing and feeling the wind whip past me with the window rolled down.

Another problem I have had in my life is being too focused on what I am doing and where I am going. I rarely notice the world around me. Now with the short journey from house to car, I try to look up at the sky. This may sound a little silly, maybe even cheesy, but this simple act has helped bring wonder at God’s creation into my daily life. I have even introduced this habit to my children. Now one of my daughters favorite things to do besides climb trees with me, is lie on our grass and look at cloud shapes. To think, I use to sit inside on the computer just watching her out the window. I have also implemented a few other changes in our family life. When eating a meal or just playing with my kids in the living room, I try to have a majority of the day without music in the background. The first day I tried this, within the first 20 minutes, my daughter turned to me and asked “why is it so quiet?” I simply answered “because there’s no music on, it’s nice huh?” She delightfully answered “yes.” We still like to blast the music and have a dance party with our kids every once in a while, but there is something very special about the only noise in the house being that of us playing with our children.

A lot of my generation grew up as “latch key children.” Our parents worked a lot and got home late. This helped to contribute to a generation of kids and their parents who didn’t talk and process life together. The current generation is growing up much the same way, but maybe worse. Those days, t.v. was a major boundary between kids and parents even when they were home at the same time. Today, t.v. watching has increased and testing and the internet have been added to it. We must learn to strive against the constant wave of media inventions. Use them, benefit from them, but don’t let them replace real life. Don’t become that Verizon commercial and replace real human interaction with a digital screen. Fight against the brave new world.

I recently watched a documentary called “Disconnected.” It is about 3 college students who tried to quit using computers for 3 weeks. One of them cheated only once. However, they all seemed to have a very loose definition of what a computer was and still played video games at the arcade. One of them also tried to justify having someone else use the computer for them as they just stood behind them giving them instructions. But all of them, a vast majority of the time, were not on computers which for these generation “Y” kids was very impressive. Typically computer usage fills up about 90% of these college students day. They do homework, they socialize there and they entertain themselves there with downloaded shows and movies.

Throughout the film you find admissions every once in a while that because they are not on the computer they were able to do things they don’t normally do. One young man talked about how much he was enjoying being outside and going for walks. Another even learned how to play a musical instrument. In one scene we get to watch a young man call his mom on the phone instead of e-mailing her. When he is off the phone, he admits to the camera how awkwardly intimate it felt to be talking voice to voice with his mom. One girl found it hard to put in to words the benefits she has found by not being on the computer so much. She put it like this: “It’s weird, I’ve found myself… thinking.”

These students then tried to get others on campus to just try and go one day without using the computer. When students asked “why”, the best reason they could give was “just to see if you can do it.” I found myself baffled that these students who had been going for walks, learning to play a musical instrument and “thinking” could not put into words why others should try this experiment.

Finally, once these 3 students were able to get back on their computers we got some insight. One guy got on and binged for most the day in order to catch up on his 300 some emails, his face book, and his bog. Another guy, the one who cheated the most, felt like he did not enjoy the experiment. Even though, the experiment was his idea, he is the only one of the three who never really committed to it.

But, the one girl, got on her e-mail of which she had around 320 new messages and soon burned out. In 30 minutes she was able to go through about half of them. She commented that most of the e-mails were not necessary and freely admitted that e-mail would be the easiest thing to do without, because “people could just call you.” Three weeks had showed her how much time she wastes on the computer thinking everything on it was essential for life. The movie ends with her closing her laptop after 30 minutes and saying: “I don’t need to do anymore right now, I think I’ll go do laundry.”