Arizona Mirror: Lawmaker Calls the US "Unrighteous" Because of LGBTQ People and Non-Christians
Arizona State Representative Lupe Diaz, leading a "prayer" to open a session of the state legislature in Arizona, instead took the opening to preach a sermon. That happens sometimes. Diaz is also the pastor of a church in a small town and there are times when I've heard pastors, who have been invited to pray at public events, take the opportunity to preach a sermon instead.
The content of Diaz' sermonette prayer provides some insight into the theological and doctrinal errors now being made by many Evangelical Christians affected by far right wing politics, leading toward a heresy known as Christian nationalism. Christian nationalism includes the idea, completely unsupported by any scripture reference from the Bible, that God has engaged in a covenant relationship with the United States in the same way he did with Israel in the Old Testament, and that God will judge America as a "nation" if it does not make Christianity the primary influence over its government and society.
There is no place anywhere in the Biblical record where God promises nations that the more Christians have control over their government, the more they will be blessed. Nor is there any place where God promises any nation or country or political unit, some kind of blessing of special protection for using their government to enforce Christian morality, values and virtues. And there is no place where he indicates that the presence of sinful behaviors among the population of a nation will lead to his withholding his blessing, or bringing some kind of disaster upon them in the same way he did with ancient Israel.
Ancient Israel did believe they had a covenant relationship with God, and the historical record of that covenant, complete with prophetic warnings of their disobedience, and coming disaster as a result of their failure to hold up their end of that covenant, which required them to reveal the presence of God to the pagan world around them, is the Old Testament. But, Jesus was the Messiah, and his coming was the fulfillment of the covenant that God had with Israel. He even says so himself, in Matthew 5:17, a claim for which he would eventually be condemned by the religious leaders and crucified.
Where Diaz, and many other Evangelicals who lean toward Christian nationalism, miss the boat is ignoring the context and the words of Jesus himself, which constitute the interpretive criteria for all of the rest of the Bible.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good , and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:43-48, NRSV
Jesus didn't offer a covenant to any country or nation. He offered his covenant, salvation by grace through faith in himself as the promised Messiah, to everyone. And the blessings attached to this covenant are individual blessings. They are not given for individual righteousness, as can be seen from his illustration here, noting that rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous, and the sun rises on the good and the evil. So in terms of the physical world, God doesn't bless Christians by letting it rain on their field during a drought, but not on a non-Christian's field as a punishment for their unbelief. Blessings in the Christian gospel are spiritual benefits, not physical or financial, lest we get to thinking that prosperity is always a sign of God's favor. In the Christian gospel, it isn't a sign of anything spiritual.
Jesus reserved the kind of condemning, critical language Diaz applied to transgender persons, including all LGBTQ, and the "unrighteous" non-Christians, for the religious leaders of his day, mainly the Pharisees, but also the Sadducees, who made up the ruling council of the Sanhedrin. When it came to the "unrighteous", those whom the Bible calls "tax collectors and sinners," because tax collectors were seen as traitors to their faith and their race, and even more unrighteous than other kinds of sinners, Jesus invited them to dinner, talked to them, encouraged them, prayed for them, hung out with them and loved them enough to give them the opportunity for redemption and reconciliation to God through the experience of conviction and acceptance of his gospel message.
The Pharisees asked his disciples why he did this. He responded, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners. [emphasis mine]
Looking at who Jesus spent his time with, and the content of his ministry and his preaching, it's pretty clear he would take the exact opposite position from the one Diaz expressed in his prayer, er, sermonette. I wonder how Diaz plans to carry out a ministry of evangelism among people he has judged as being dark, unrigheous and evil. As a minister and pastor, his forgetfulness of what scripture actually says about the nature of humanity is inexcuseably lacking in wisdom and discernment, and in the mercy and grace that he offers.
"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." Romans 3:10-12, ESV
"For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23, ESV
"None, no not one" and "all", includes Diaz, and the rest of the judgmental Republican hypocrites in the Arizona legislature. The only difference between Diaz, and the LGBTQ people he condemns, is that he, as a Christian, claims to be a forgiven sinner, and he believes they are not forgiven. But make no mistake here, doctrinally, what they have in common is that they are all sinners, at least, as far as this particular apostolic statement is concerned. And nowhere in the Christian gospel, or in the words of the church's apostles recorded in the Bible is there authorization for those who claim forgiveness to condemn those who don't. It's not there. You'd think a pastor would know this.
Nor did Diaz come to forgiveness based on his own righteousness. He is in the same boat with everyone else, his own character being that of an unrighteous sinner. In order to be righteous and justified before God, he had to borrow someone else's righteousness, because that is not something he could come up with on his own. And needing the righteousness of Jesus in order to be forgiven leaves absolutely no room for those who claim this to judge anyone else. Jesus makes that very clear.
"Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" Matthew 7:1-3, ESV
Diaz' responsibility, and that of other Christians who claim to be forgiven sinners and believers in Jesus, is not to condemn at all. It is to evangelize, to set a visible example of what living according to the Christian gospel looks like, and testifying to their own conviction of sin, repentance and forgiveness leading to their own conversion. After hearing Diaz' disparaging, condemning remarks, what LGBTQ person would be able to discern spiritual conviction, or even want to consider Christianity? The manner in which many Christians vilify, condemn, criticize and hate those who are not Christians, makes it difficult to see how they could convert anyone, or why anyone would want to convert.
From the words of Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament, that kind of attitude was one of the things Jesus set out to change. The sermon on the mount is full of Jesus' saying, "You have heard that it was said...but I say to you..." Jesus dined with and fellowshipped with tax collectors and sinners. He promoted racial and ethnic reconciliation, emphasizing his intention with multiple examples in which the Samaritans figure prominently. He rescued a woman about to be stoned for adultery, and then offered her redemption and reconciliation. He confronted self-righteous political and religious leadership by pointing out their hypocrisy and their theological error, and their resentment of his ministry to the common people.
The Bible does not teach that nations are judged and condemned when Christians don't outnumber non-Christians and don't dictate or control the government. Nor does it teach that Christians, by being more numerous and by using the government to control the behavior of those they consider evil and unrighteous, determine, in any way, whether God views the country as "righteous" or "unrighteous." A country cannot be collectively redeemed, only individual people can experience spiritual conviction, repent of their sin, and receive the grace of God that forgives their sin with the sacrifice of Jesus.
Perhaps if Pastor Lupe Diaz would follow the example of Jesus, love the people he now condemns and hates, treat them with gentleness and respect, and sit down for a meal and a conversation, he would at least be being obedient to the faith he claims to believe in and follow. And something might actually come of that. Even if it doesn't and they part company, hatred and condemnation aren't part of the relationship.
"If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." I John 4:20-21 ESV
Christians in this country are as free as they have ever been to practice their faith, preach their gospel, go about their ministry and do whatever they think is necessary to win converts to the faith. No one can point to any kind of persecution or restriction on the practice of Christianity in America that even resembles persecution. No one in this country is being jailed for preaching the gospel, or whatever version or interpretation of it that they choose, or for attending a church service. Being a member of a church does not subject one to status of a second class citizen. If anything, Christians in America today experience far less persecution for their faith than the adherents of any other religion in this country. There is religious persecution here, but Christians have never been subject to it, and are not now subject to it. There is no argument or evidence to support any other contention.
But people are leaving Christianity behind in this country, in significant enough numbers to cause some alarm. How can that be, if there is complete freedom and no real persecution? It's because of attitudes like this one, exhibited in public by a Christian pastor who also serves as a state Representative, on the floor of the state legislature. Hatred and contempt, and singling out a small minority on which to blame the "ills of society" is not how Jesus intended his church to win converts. And that has come about by ideology that has intruded into churches via far right wing politics and the cult surrounding Trump. Evangelical churches aren't declining because of persecution, they are declining because of heresy that is causing them to become apostate. I suggest reading through the book of Jude to get a good idea of what this looks like from a Biblical perspective.
This is an egregious example of what is transpiring as Evangelicals abandon orthodoxy in favor of right wing politics.
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