No Apology Needed
https://godentranced.com/2021/01/12/an-evangelical-apology
A friend posted this article, and I’m sharing it here. Since I am often the dissenting voice on pieces like this, better to have the flak on my wall instead of theirs. Straightaway, the author lost me with the title. As we watch the steamy compost pile of incivility and disinformation unapologetically grow before our eyes, the last thing we need are apologies like this on behalf of a faceless aggregate. In this case, the faceless aggregate is the church — the same church both I and the author love. Which is to say, it disheartens me to hear far too many apologies from those who have done no wrong on behalf of a group who have also done no wrong.
This is the ruinous nature of identitarian collectivism: We no longer distinguish individuals responsible for their actions but instead, treat the entire group as homogenous. One virtuous, all virtuous. One guilty, all guilty.
Next, he lost me with his use of Common Era, instead of A.D. Why would a pastor, of all people, hop on the revisionist train and sneakily avoid the historic fact that the fulcrum of human history is the life and death of Christ? To remove Christ as the centerpiece of recorded time may provide a glimpse into the centrality of Christ in this particular pastor's ethos? I’ll assume not.
And my last introductory nit; we are not a democracy, despite what is continually stated in both the chambers of Congress and the media. We are a republic, and that is an indispensable distinction. The brilliance of the Founders’ formation of a representative republic precisely protects us from the mob getting its way. And speaking of mobs….
This pastor expresses his appropriate disgust and sorrow for the rioting in the Capitol last week. Anyone who cheered for this battalion of buffoons is to have cheered for miscreants and criminals. I don’t care to hear a thing from any of them. However, the author identifies there were, “Christian rioters” in this mob based on the fact they were carrying certain flags and banners. And based on those few images, he throws the entire church under the bus. Better said; he throws the entire church inside the Rotunda proper.
“We were insurrectionists. ” “We were marauders. ” “We rioted with hate groups, broke the peace and people died. ” In this new, barely ink-dried, post-modern screenplay where pronouns possess primacy: Exactly who is, “We”?
This is not just a ludicrous proposition, it is a dangerous proposition. And worse, for a pastor to lay stake to this claim on behalf of the entire church is entirely maddening and antithetical to the Light that is the Good News. The author must know that one of the goals of progressive identity politics is to relegate individuals into their respective groups, and then bestow either honor or disdain upon each group. I have gay friends who do not want to be equated with the LGBTQ+ Community and I have black friends who do not want to be included with the BLM movement. Likewise, I do not claim fellowship with Rotunda rioters who carried a “Jesus is my Savior - Trump is my President” banner.
I can hear President-elect Biden in my head right now, “C’mon man!”
The author then journeys into all the ways “We” have failed as a church. And while he makes some excellent points, such as the Christians’ inability to discern truth from lies and the allowance of the political spirit to enter the church, (my phrasing, not his), he speaks in an entirely imprecise, collective mist which does nothing to identify the real problem and, prescribes no remedy.
He proposes one major shortcoming is that pastors are not teaching clearly enough that this earth is not our home. Is that to say, if we get people to detach more from this world and hope for the world to come, that will solve these problems? I have a sneaking suspicion our responsibility remains the same as it first did in the Garden; to order and subdue our environment so that we multiply and bear much fruit here and now.
He also states, “…the constitution of Christs kingdom, Jesus’ sermon on the mount…” forbids people from fighting for their own rights or storming the seat of government. While I generally agree, it’s a strange corollary. I have been personally lambasted for commingling faith with nationhood, a thing I am not aware I have ever actually done. That said, wouldn’t the sermon on the mount be more of a Bill of Rights than a Constitution?
Dr. Jordan Peterson famously said, “Best to get your home life in order before you head out to rearrange the world.”
So while this pastor apologizes to the world on behalf of all Evangelicals, (of which I do not identify), I would want to ask a few questions.
Instead of singly indicting the entire evangelical church as the perpetrator, tell me first about your home. What banner or flag is unfurled in your home today specific to Christ’s love, rule and reign? Does your household know how to discern truth from lies? Are they more excited to leave earth to go to heaven or, bring heaven to earth? Tell us about how you love and care for the neighbors bordering your yard?
And to your church; what does the nutritional label on your pulpit read for these past eight years? Have your people been rightly discipled in both the Bible and the mind of Christ in order to discern the lies of today, renounce the political spirit and knowingly dispense the leaven of the Kingdom?
More importanly, what is the climate in your Prayer Room? Is the barometric pressure rising or falling as your people gather to worship and cry out to the Lord? If we were to ask your neighborhood and the city in which you reside; what impact and transformational power has your church brought, what might they say? And lastly, tell me about the miracles you’ve seen in your community?
I know firsthand what it feels like to express and write thoughtfulness on paper. And I know my expression of thought here will rattle some cages — to which I might ask, please describe your cage? But when an author intentionally writes a piece which lumps the entire Body of Christ into a collective deemed, “Guilty”, I have to speak up because it smells more of the world than the Kingdom.
