Christianity is divided; divided in its opinion on Trump-Era politics, divided in its views on race and justice, divided in how this country should operate. The last time we were this divided was during the Civil Rights Movement. Before that, abolition. In these moments, as history has shown us, one side was right, the other side was clearly in the wrong.

That’ll be true for every moment where we find ourselves so divided.

Currently, whichever side is wrong will never see it, acknowledge it, admit it. We will continue in our error, clinging desperately to the voices and politicians who, for whatever reason and under whatever motivation, will tell us that we’re on the right side.

Fortunately/unfortunately, we can look back on history’s binary moments and mine a few truths about how the wrong side tends to operate. So, following are my reflections on a couple of things that seem to always show up in America’s wrongest moments, especially as they pertain to American Christianity. In addition, I’ll offer an armchair theological thought on how God postures himself towards God-followers who have gotten it wrong.

In Defense of the Status Quo

Anti-abolition antebellum Christianity saw few problems with slavery. Robert E. Lee himself, a devout Christian by our standards, believed that blacks were in need of “painful discipline,” as he put it. He wasn’t a fan of chattel slavery, but believed, ironically, that it was just what the doctor ordered if Blacks were to succeed in America.

In the opinion of many other devout Americans of that era, we were doing just fine, surging ahead; a world power that depended on slavery for future prosperity.

Abolitionists were seen as a threat to all of this, and as such, a threat to our country. So, we went to war, one side fighting for the rights and freedom of Black Americans, the other side defending the status quo.

One side right, one side wrong.

Today, we’re having a similar conversation, one side claiming that there are systems rigged against the same population, the other claiming that there’s not a problem. One side wants drastice change, citing a need for freedom and equity, the other, once again, stands in defense of the status quo.

“We’re fine just the way we are” has been the battle cry of Christians on the wrong side of every significant move towards racial justice in America. Every time that American Christianity has been divided as it is now, the status quo warriors were on the wrong side.

“Faith in God’s revelation has nothing to do with an ideology which glorifies the status quo.” — Karl Barth

Right Zeal, Wrong Zeal

Jesus was a divisive figure. In one episode, he fashioned a whip and cleared out Jerusalem’s temple; a public arena swarming with people. But he claimed to have a right to this “house,” as it belonged to his father, and he was upset that the leaders of his day had turned it into a place where cheating and stealing had become more important than God himself. You couldn’t enter the temple without paying a tribute, and you couldn’t offer your sacrifice without coughing up even more.

In an Old Testament passage that scholars and theologians have historicaly linked to this episode, it is said that a “zeal” for his father’s house is what drove Jesus’ violent tirade. He loved the temple. He loved the fact that it was a place of worship for anyone and everyone who wanted to enter. When his fellow believers placed barriers in front of the most inclusive religious center the world had ever known, it made him angry.

In this current moment, one side has a similar zeal for all things America. If Jesus can have such a zeal for the temple that he would physically assault people to protect it, can’t we have a similar passion for our country?

Jesus didn’t.

His country was occupied by the Roman Empire. Herod himself, the very king of Israel, was little more than a puppet. Rest assured that Jesus’ country was in worse shape than ours. And as you might imagine, there were devout God-followers who believed that their country was in need of defense, just as we do today.

Jesus invited that crowd to stand down because something much more valuable was “at hand.”

Christendom’s greatest dividers, and her most famous heroes — St. Paul, Jesus, Martin Luther, MLK, et al. — never advocated nationalism or the preservation/protection of their homeland. They rarely spoke against it, but to them, there were bigger fish to fry.

In our current division, one side is decidedly more nationalistic than the other, with a zeal for America that rivals Jesus’ zeal for the Jewish temple. I’m not suggesting that such zeal is a sin — I love my country as much as anyone else —but for some reason it’s always at the core of the wrong side’s agenda, always supplanting the deeper things of scripture.

The non-nationalist side, the one that sees social justice as a bigger problem than America’s prosperity, is seen as a threat to America’s prosperity. That holds true for American Christianity’s other sorely divided moments as well. Christian nationalism always finds itself defending the wrong things.

“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century.” — Arundhati Roy

Losing Your Voice

The New Testament book of Revelation tells the story of a “lampstand,” a metaphor for “voice’ and “influence” that is about to be removed because a group of people have forgotten the primacy of love.

Throughout the Bible it is either implied or strongly stated that Christian influence comes primarily through the will of God, i.e., if you’re a person of faith, and you have a following, God gave it to you.

Implied in the Revelation passage is that this same influence will be removed if it is not used with the right intent.

The Bible also speaks of an “anti” Christ, one who comes to destroy, divide, set up his/her own shop, and lead “the many” astray, solely for his/her own purposes. Us Christians read these passages and translate “the many” as infidels, the unbelievers. We’re Christians. We’re too smart to fall for the devil’s schemes.

When I look at “the many” throughout history who’ve been led astray by “bad” influence, I wonder how God could sit back and let this happen, but I also can’t help but think about a spirit that lives in all of us, one that runs counter to everything that Jesus taught us, one that, sometimes, especially when we’re angry and afraid, only requires a little nudge.

Either way, when I see a very large group of Christians lose their influence faster than a boat with a boat-sized hole in it, especially when that group of people has been commissioned by God with a specific agenda, I see the hand of God being applied against them.

When Trump was elected into office, we weren’t doing well here. By the end of the ordeal, our voice has been all but buried. If you are a Trump-supporting, white, conservative Evangelical, you can’t argue that the only people who want to listen to you are Trump-supporting, white, conservative Evangelicals. You now have nigh unto 0% of a voice with everyone else, the people God has called you to reach with his words of life, hope, and peace. That opportunity is forfeit, especially where I live. If you’re wondering why that is, the book of Revelation has some clarifying instructions on how to turn your game around.

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” — Rev 2:4-5

In all of these facets of right and wrongness, I realize that I’ve placed myself, conveniently, on the “right” side, and how all of this must read if you’re not on the same side I am. It feels good to feel like I’m more right than you are, and it hurts to consider the idea that I might need to rethink my life.

Much easier, and for more entertaining, to point fingers, yeah?

But if I’m right: if our division is a signal that one side is righteous and the other has gotten things horribly wrong, we would do well to study history’s copious examples of large groups of Christians who were on the wrong side. What do we have in common with them? Are we thinking and talking like they did? Are we rallying around the same issues? Are we as frightened and finger-pointy as they were, fighting for a status quo that wasn’t worth fighting for? Have we isolated ourselves politically, ethnically, and technogically from the voices that might challenge us?

More importantly, has God taken away our voice?

All good questions I think, but for those of us, myself included, who struggle to know the difference between rightness and righteousness, those are difficult questions to ask.

There’s a continuum.

On one extreme of it are people who’ve completely locked themselves down, refusing to go anywhere or do anything until COVID-19 is declared dead and buried. On the other extreme are people who have decided that this current pandemic is little more than the common cold.

The rest of us lie somewhere between the two extremes, but few occupy the middle. That’s not because there’s something wrong with us, it’s simply hard to find balance when things get complicated. And scary.

And so there are many who lean towards the “this is real” side of the continuum, and a lot who lean in the other direction. To the former, mask mandates, social distancing, etc. are a good thing, and to the latter, they’re unneccessary, overreaching, and little more than a product of fear mongering.

Last week, a friend posted about an encounter she had with a masked woman in a grocery store. My friend was walking along one of the isles while the woman, travelling in the opposite direction, went out of her way to create as much space as possible as they silently passed.

“Why live in so much fear?” my friend asked on Facebook.

It should interest us that liberals flock towards one side of this continuum while conservatives tend to occupy the other. Complaints about mask mandates, lockdowns, vaccines, hoaxes, and government overreach are much more common from right leaning folk, while those begging us to take things seriously, pushing for lockdown, etc. come from the other side of the fence.

So it’s no surprise that complaints about “fear mongering” tend to come from the conservative world, aimed specifically at liberals. Conservative media outlets like The Federalist, The New York Post, Fox News and others have plenty to say about liberal America’s attempt to leverage COVID fears for things like political gain, getting rid of Trump, etc.

As a liberal leaning Christian, I prefer that nobody live in fear, but I think we’d all agree that fear is sometimes necessary, and healthy.

My kids and I wear seatbelts when we get in the car. We drive the speed limit. I don’t smoke. I limit my alcohol intake. During a walk in City Park with my wife the other day, some rando on a bike screamed an insult at me. I didn’t respond.

Years ago, the president of a skydiving club asked me to be their jump pilot. I went to inspect their plane but the mechanic who certified it for operation told me that it was dangerous. “But you passed it,” I retorted (I really wanted to log some extra time). “Don’t fly that plane” was the only response I could get out of him, so I passed.

I make a ton of decisions out of a desire to be as safe as I possibly can. When asked, I advise others to do the same, sometimes not when asked.

Is that fear mongering?

If you say, “My speed limit is my business, you drive yours, I’ll drive mine,” I’d have some concerns about your respect for public safety. I certainly wouldn’t want to occupy the same highway as you.

Is that because I’m paralyzed by fear?

It’s the same with smoking in public, indoor spaces. While our country had a difficult conversation here, we decided that smoking in public is not a “personal” thing; it involves everyone who’s exposed to second-hand smoke. As you can imagine, the American smoking community was livid. We used to allow smoking in airplanes for crying out loud, now it’s banned in 99% of indoor spaces.

What aided in these much-needed transitions was data. We had compiled some numbers about the risks of smoking, and there seemed to be some compelling correlations between driving too fast and traffic accidents, so we made some laws intended to give everyone as much freedom, and safety, as possible.

That’s what laws do. We are not a nation of laws, we are a nation of freedom, and freedom requires healthy restrictions, and none of our restrictions will be healthy apart from access to comprehensive data.

Our problem is not fear, or government overreach, or even politics. It’s data, or more specifically, our posture towards what’s available. Nobody’s contesting smoking or speed limit data (anymore), so we’re not having any(more) discussions about the veracity of their associated laws.

Coronavirus, however…

Folks on the left tend to see the CDC infection/death numbers as legitimate, while folks on the right tend to have an opposing perspective and can, understandably, question any effort at mitigation. Why go through all of this trouble if Coronavirus is better battled by going back to business as usual?

I have no problem understanding why a southern, conservative evangelical in a supermarket would feel that her fellow shopper is overracting by giving her some space. Her tribe has decided a) the data is flawed, which leads to b) there’s no need to panic, and finally c) people who don’t think like she does are simply paralyzed by fear.

And fear can be dangerous.

Change her posture towards the data and everything else changes. Speed limits have nothing to do with fear mongering because we have hard data to back up the idea that fast driving causes accidents. And smoking? White conservative evangelicals don’t smoke.

But let’s say, just for a brief moment, for the sake of argument, that liberals are guilty of fear mongering, of perpetrating a narrative that’s intended solely to keep the nation gripped in anxiety.

Liberals aren’t the only ones doing that.

Perhaps you’ve heard:

“They’re coming for your guns.”
“An election was stolen.”
If you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of reading 20 or so Donald Trump speeches, “Liberals are trying to destroy America.”

This isn’t fear mongering?

Rest assured that all of these are backed up by some data — these claims are not without evidence. But because my conservative friends consider data differently than I do, they land on a different planet when it comes to guns, conspiracy, COVID-19, and who it is that doesn’t give a rat’s ass about our country.

Who’s right? Who has the correct posture towards the mountain of data that’s out there?

With regards to Coronavirus, again, the vast, vast majority of world epidemioligists, virologists, and public health experts are in general agreement about the steps we’re taking to mitigate death/infection rates. Sure, we’re figuring out some things along the way, like maybe it’s ok to mask up indoors, or go completely maskless outside, but there are very few exceptions to the idea that science has declared the pandemic to be real. Meanwhile, conservative America shakes its head, sometimes taking offense when a Burger King employee asks them to put their mask on.

With regards to guns, conservatives tend to believe that there is an anti-gun movement among liberals and that the government is on a gun-free trajectory. That’s been on the table for years now, by the way, but somehow the right to bear arms has been stripped from nobody. Assault rifles are a different story, but that’s not because liberals want to take them away so they can have more power over the unarmed, it’s because people are abusing their right to own assault-type rifles, many times at risk to the life and safety of others. When that happens — boom — laws. Every time.

The same thing happened with speed restrictions. People abused their right to drive as fast as they wanted, many times at risk to the lives and safety of others, so we made some laws. That’s also where smoking laws came from.

But the fear mongering argument states that assault rifles and background checks will merely open the door to further restrictions. Referencing current proposed background-check legislation, The Federalist calls this an “opening salvo” against gun rights. According to this narrative, any and all gun control ends up with an unarmed America. “Then they’ll come for us,” they say.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this on my Facebook feed.

No fear there.

With regards to election integrity, I’m aware of the data that supports the idea of a stolen election, and I’m aware that, if you’re a conservative, you’re 1,000 times more likely to believe that Trump was cheated out of office. I’m also aware of the data that supports the idea that the election — no more tainted by fraud than any other election — was fair.

What strikes me is the phenomenon that occurred to 147 conservative lawmakers who, in January, voted to overtune Trump’s election loss. Now, according to Reuters, 133 of those folk, for whatever reason, will neither endorse nor repudiate Trump’s insistence that the election was stolen.

You’ll have to forgive me on this one, none of my favorite media/data/info outlets — Time, Reuters, The LA Times, The New York Times, USA Today, Christianity Today, The Boston Globe, NPR, etc. — have any support whatsoever for the claim that Donald Trump is America’s rightful heir to the throne. I have a hard time heading over to Brietbart or Fox News (though I’ve done so many times) for a counter-perspective when the world’s leading media outlets are calling this whole thing a farce.

Christianity Today is the most influential evangelical Christian media outlet in the world, calling for its readers to accept the truth, get over it, and move on. That’s big, folks.

With regards to data in general, it’s a bit like the Bible, confusing and complicated enough to read anything you want into it. If you want to find Biblical support for slavery, for example, and are willing to cherry pick the stuff that supports your perspective while ignoring the passages that don’t, it’s in there. If you want to view the non-Christian world as some kind of a threat, or that you’re more holy than someone who doesn’t believe like you do, boom, that’s in there too.

Data is an all-or-nothing proposition. If we’re going to cherry pick, as I’ve done so many times and will most likely continue to do, we’re going to end up with the wrong perspective. And the wrong perspective, especially now, ends up with the bearer being afraid of the wrong things.

I don’t think that I’m ever going to be able to rid my life of fear, although Jesus invited me to reconsider. But, if I’m going to be afraid, I’d like to be afraid of the right things. As a twice-vaccinated-said-to-be-fully-immune American, I’m afraid of Coronavirus. I’m watching as it rips India to shreds, for example, while some of my conservative friends still question the veracity of infection/death counts.

Still.

People who so posture themselves towards the available data frighten me.

What’s more, Christians, who’ve forgotten that the success and failure of a country hang on the Almighty’s whim and nothing else, are frightening to me. They are fighting to be heard, fighting to be right, fighting for a seat at the table, fight, fight, fight.

Jesus addressed this crowd on a few different occasions, inviting them to repent, or “turn” to an alternate understanding of their world, one that invites us all to relax, to do the work that Jesus called us to, and leave the fighting to Him.

In this, the data that threatens to call us “wrong” is no longer something to be feared. And the fear mongering that comes from being afraid of the wrong things is laid to rest.

I’ll let you know when I get there.  😀

 

Photo courtesy of Kristine Wook at Unsplash

Alvin Bamburg got up early one morning in late December of last year to go deer hunting on a piece of land near Shreveport, Louisiana. On his outing, he noticed a ballon stuck in a tree and, because he felt like God was speaking to him, climbed up to get what would otherwise have been garbage to him.

There was a note attached to the balloon, a Christmas list penned by two four year olds, 600 miles away. In Kansas.

It had been a tough year for the girls, and mom, Leticia Flores, wanted to make Christmas as special as she could. So, they grabbed some card stock and penned their deepest wishes — candy, dolls, some My Little Pony stuff, and a puppy — and sent them into the stratosphere. It was truly a special moment for the girls, but mom knew the ballons wouldn’t make it far. And because their note was for Santa’s eyes only, the kids didn’t include their address.

Bamburg and his wife posted pictures of the cards on social media and asked their friends to share as far as they could. Somehow, word made it back to Leticia, who connected with the Bamburgs, who sent a very special care package full of everything the girls had wished for, except for the puppy. That was delivered in person as the Bamburg’s made a very long drive to meet the girls, complete the deal, and become forever friends.

Here’s another story:

A Jeweler from New York arrived home one evening after a long day of work, but couldn’t find his two jewelry portfolios —36 rings totalling $100,000 — that he thought had come home with him. “I started searching the house, I thought I brought it home. I started retracing my steps and remembered I left it on the train,” he told a local news station.

In horror, he picked up the phone to call the Long Island Railway help line, but knew that his merchandise was gone. Nobody in their right mind would hand over a bag full of diamonds.

But that’s exactly what happened. The conductor for that evening, Jonathan Yellowday, found the bag, looked inside, maybe thought, as I would have, about buying a sweet new ride, then turned the merchandise over to the proper authorities. The owner was quickly reunited with his property, and I’m reminded that things are not as bad as my news diet seems to suggest.

One of the most interesting facets of American culture is our love for bad news. Nowadays there’s a market for it, and we’re drawn to it like flies to honey. But it’s not the news or social media outlets that are at fault here, the problem is us. We’re the consumers. We create the demand. We love dirty laundry, shocking stories, the failures of others. As it turns out, there are folks who’d like to make a little $$ off of this and are more than happy to oblige our cravings. And so, thanx to us, our news feeds and social media platforms are full of stories that leave us feeling like the entire universe is rotten.

There are plenty of good stories, like the ones above, but the market for them is not nearly as hot, so they get missed, lost in the shuffle, along with hope. And, as king Solomon once wrote, “without hope, our hearts become sick.”

I know that many of my readers aren’t religious, and certainly not interested in the spiritual ramblings of a somewhat evangelical, cajun, middle-aged at-home-parent. But, if you’ll allow, I’d like to share just a bit about the effect that Jesus has had on my sense of hope.

I’m also hoping that you’ll make room for some cheeze this morning.

Years ago, in seminary, I sat in chapel and listened to the news that one of my fellow students and his wife had just suffered a miscarriage. I didn’t know him, and as a young, single guy I had little understanding of what he and his wife were going through. But for some reason I was heartbroken, and went straight back to my tiny apartment to write a song.

I know, cheezy. But everything that I was feeling about faith, loss, and hope came out in that short moment. I’ll share the song below, but can’t vouch for the quality of verse. What follows is the best way I can articulate what it’s been like to have an unconditional, unearned, limited-only-by-me relationship with a deity who seems to want me to be a version of myself that, apart from hope, is utterly impossible. Also, it’s never really been edited. It came out rough, and I’ve left it that way.

I don’t know what I want to say
It may be best to leave the words alone
But you live inside my heart, you walk about, you poke around
And I don’t hear a sound

Then you shake them from my head and lay them deep inside my heart
Your words of life and truth go coursing through my veins, into my soul
Now I’m a man I never should have been
And though my eyes are open wide
I only see enough to know I need you more

I’m alive

My fear will not prevail against a lion
My bullshit catches fire in the presence of this king
My hardened heart will not survive
Within the clutches of a lamb
My death has breathed its last
It hung there lifelessly upon a cross

Amazing love
How can it be?
That thou, my god, should die for me?

I’m alive

 

Photo Credit: Ahmed Zid at Unsplash