Baptist News Global: Speaking Truth to Power Means Denouncing Lying Politicians and Their Preachers
The intrusion of secular, extremist, right wing politics into some of America's Christian churches has caused apostasy. That's exactly right, many conservative churches are apostate, because they've allowed right wing politics to change the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they've thrown Jesus under the bus. They no longer preach and teach a gospel of redemption by grace through faith in Christ, they teach redemption by voting for the person they've declared to be right.
The traveling band wagon called "Re-awaken America Tour" is making a mockery of conservative Christianity. It appears intended to do so. The involvement of both Eric Trump and Don Jr., who spend their time trying to convince Christians that all of this "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies" stuff preached by Jesus won't get you any worldly benefits, makes the whole think a big tragedy. Tragic, because Christians actually show up for this clown show and believe the lies it is spreading.
But this is really an epidemic that is doing great damage to the testimony of the churches and pastors who are involved in it. There was a ten minute discussion on Scarborough Country on MSNBC this morning about how those Christians who are aligned with extremist right wing politics have lost their identity as Christians, the virtues spoken of in the scripture are no longer visible in their actions. Joe Scarborough brings to the table a background of experience in the Baptist faith tradition as an Evangelical himself, from a religious perspective, anyway.
Bringing up Lauren Boebert's remark that if Jesus had an AK-15, he wouldn't have been crucified as an extreme example of this slide into worldly oblivion--and that's not an exaggeration, by the way--says that people are noticing and that Christian churches and leaders are losing their testimony over politics. Boebert is an extreme example, a woman who demonstrates sheer ignorance of both constitutional history in her failure to recognize that Jefferson and Madison wrote separation of church and state into the constitution deliberately, with clear rationale and reason, and failure to understand that, even if she were "joking," if Jesus hadn't been crucified, there would be no Christian faith because his sacrificial death is the foundational principle on which Christianity rests. The only reason she gets votes is because of pathetic loyalty and profound ignorance among those who vote for her. Christians who do so deserve double blame for the apostasy they have caused.
I never belonged to one of those "liberal woke" mainline Protestant churches before, but what I'm seeing now tells me a whole lot about what appears to be some major differences. Differences which are distinguishing them as a much truer, complete, accurate representation of Christ's body than the Evangelical branch is showing. Conservative Evangelicals make a huge deal out of testing the sincerity of others by requiring adherence to belief in the Bible's inerrancy and infallibility. However, when it comes to practicing its principles or testifying to its truthfulness, their actions deny that they believe a word of it. On the other hand, mainline Protestants don't require strict adherence to a doctrinal position on the scripture, but in this political hothouse, they elevate loyalty to Christ and glorifying God over who they support at the ballot box.
As was noted on Scarborough Country this morning, Evangelical Christians can't seem to avoid a victim mentality. They are always the victim, there's always someone out to get them, an enemy that must be fought to give them legitimacy. Well, of course, there's their belief in the spiritual existence of evil, in the person of "Satan" who, in Christian tradition is a fallen angel, and to some, the personification of evil in the world. But their use of his person in any modern context is relative to the moment. The Bible's writers provide a consistent definition of evil, and in several places, they warn the early Christians about its intrusion into their churches. And yet, in spite of their verbal adherence to "Biblical fidelity" they are blind to this intrusion of it that even the liberal, secular news media recognizes.
It's been very strange to see an institution in which I once had complete trust, become so unstable and untrustworthy. I was always taught that a Christian didn't have to say that they were to be recognized as such, but now, politicians and church leaders who identify themselves as Christians can't be identified by their neighbors as abiding in God by their love (I John 4). That's what happens when you abandon the gospel and throw Jesus under the bus to be loyal to a political perspective that only uses and never gives back.
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