Wisdom, well-stated

"All Things Considered" today read a letter from a listener who enjoyed a recent news-story.

The writer said he was a gun-owning Libertarian, but praised N.P.R. for its thorough and intelligent coverage of news. He admitted he often disagreed with what he called N.P.R.'s "editorial policies:" but, he ended, "nobody learns anything in an echo-chamber."

Ayn Rand again

I've talked before about the demonic "philosophy" of Ayn Rand, and her pervasive influence on the "conservative" movement.

It seems a movie of one of her books was released...during Holy Week !!...and someone sent me a review. The reviewer considers the movie pretty awful. He attributes that to the fact that it (like the book it's based on) is little more than a screed for Rand's "philosophy:" which makes it fair game for his comments.

Keep in mind, these are excerpts from a secular movie-review, in what some like to call "the liberal media." Kudos to Michael Gerson, of the Washington Post.

"None of the characters expresses a hint of sympathetic human emotion -- which is precisely the point. Rand's novels are vehicles for a system of thought known as Objectivism. Rand developed this philosophy at the length of Tolstoy, with the intellectual pretensions of Hegel, but it can be summarized on a napkin.

Reason is everything. Religion is a fraud. Selfishness is a virtue. Altruism is a crime against human excellence. Self-sacrifice is weakness. Weakness is contemptible.

'The Objectivist ethics, in essence,' said Rand, 'hold that man exists for his own sake, that the pursuit of his own happiness is his highest moral purpose, that he must not sacrifice himself to others, nor sacrifice others to himself.'...

Rand cherished a particular disdain for Christianity. The cross, she said, is 'the symbol of the sacrifice of the ideal to the nonideal. ... It is in the name of that symbol that men are asked to sacrifice themselves for their inferiors. That is precisely how the symbolism is used. That is torture.'...

Reaction to Rand draws a line in political theory. Some believe with Rand that all government is coercion and theft — the tearing down of the strong for the benefit of the undeserving. Others believe that government has a limited but noble role in helping the most vulnerable in society — not motivated by egalitarianism, which is destructive, but by compassion, which is human. And some root this duty in God’s particular concern for the vulnerable and undeserving, which eventually includes us all. This is the message of Easter, and it is inconsistent with the gospel of Rand."

I'm convinced again that reality (in a sense, God's Maker's-mark on creation) doesn't conform to our prejudices. A secular movie-review, in the so-called "liberal media," propounds the gospel. And Christians continue to ally themselves with those who follow "doctrines of demons."

Jesus warned us to "...be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16) Maybe He was hinting that reality seldom operates in accordance with our caricature worldviews.

Same Spirit

It was announced last night that Osama Bin Laden has been killed by American military forces.

The news this morning showed jubilant crowds in downtown Manhattan, outside the White House, and even in towns near me, cheering, chanting "U.S.A., U.S.A.," and singing the national anthem.

I remember the appalling scenes of Islamic crowds on 9/11 cheering and burning American flags at the news that thousands had been killed in the World Trade Center's destruction. But of course, we all know that satan's spirit of murder and revenge are operative in Islam.

So what do we say at our supposedly-"Christian" nation's celebrations today ? Jesus says our Father "is not willing that any...should perish." (Matthew 18:14) Are American celebrants at Ground Zero today manifesting God's Spirit; or are their hearts led by the same spirit as Moslem celebrants on 9/11 ?

May God forgive us !! May our country repent and follow God !!

salvationism

I can't remember what book it was: some Christian best-seller the class had decided to study: and I admit I was a reluctant participant. I prefer a Sunday School class that studies the Bible, but try not to be unpleasant about it.

But God hit me when I read the first sentence: "It's not all about you." I don't remember the title of the book, its author, or anything else the book said. But that sentence was exactly what God wanted me to hear: it remains written on my heart.

The lesson I took from that is that it's all about God. Christianity that's about me is no Christianity at all.

One place I notice it sharply is in our Sunday hymns. So many of the Nineteenth Century hymns are about my need, my joy at finding God, my struggles with faith, my trials in this world. Wallowing in my own sentimental self-centeredness I find contrary to the spirit of WORSHIP. When God's merely an adjunct of my emotional life, it's really all about me.

I grew up in a church that emphasized above all else salvationism...that the first priority of Christianity is our "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." We sang the dreadful same Nineteenth Century hymns every week, and there was an altar-call after every sermon. Its centerpiece was that one-time experience of going forward, then being baptized. The pressure to "be saved" was relentless, so I gave in.

After that, living the Christian life was primarily being in the pews for all the following weekly sermons on the need to be saved. Now that I was, it seemed Christianity had nothing further worth hearing: I abandoned (what I thought was) Christianity to try some things that were more interesting.

God was gracious to call me back, and showed me Christianity is vastly MORE than "being saved." Nobody starts this (I'd have to call it) adventure with Him unless they take the first step...but it is a first step, only a beginning. My experience is that we can't go any farther (and I'd question whether even that first step is meaningful) in the mindset that "it's all about me."

Salvationism can very much tend to that thinking. I'm especially suspicious when "being saved" is the first priority of a church, because that's not God's first priority. His purpose in all creation is that He rule, and that He be glorified. He's gracious to make those who love Him part of His rule and glory: to make us even HEIRS with His Own Son. We miss it all...God, His purpose, His rule, His grace, His glory...if we continue in the thinking that "it's all about me."

Let us repent not just our sins, but our self-centeredness. Let us cast that idol out of the temple and destroy it completely, "that the King of Glory may come in." (Psalms 24:7)

Root Causes

It always takes me a while to work through problems, to their root. This one has taken even longer than usual; but I may have reached some kind of "ultimate cause" for the Church' waywardness. Perhaps our foolish assumptions have made us prey to deceivers.

Politicians are not our friends. Their purpose is not the Church' purpose, and their methods are not our methods. Their criteria is not our criteria, and their kingdom is not God's Kingdom. If politicians pretend to to be on our "side," it is to use us to their purposes.

This is the way of politicians in every age, in every nation. This is most dangerously true of politicians who profess to be one of us, and style themselves the "party of God." Let the American Church therefore be wise, and beware. Let the American Church follow her Head more closely, and shun the deceivers.

No Celebration

On this day 150 years ago, the Civil War began when secessionists fired on a U.S. Army fort. When it was over, 25% of southern men were dead, southern farms, mansions, and major cities were burned to the ground, and the south's economy was wrecked.

The Union lost more dead than the south: the wounded, maimed, orphaned and widowed on both sides probably totalled in the millions. The war changed America in profound ways, and repercussions of the human costs continue to this day in many of our family stories.

It would be blindly foolish to "celebrate" the day: but history's value is that we remember, and learn from past mistakes. Today I remember that the violent spirit of rebellion, of divisiveness, partisanship, and faction is still among us: that "those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21): and that the consequences of operating in that spirit are disastrous even in this world.

A Test

God's tests are always a chance: rather, a mandate: to test ourselves...whosoever will. His test this week is even clearer than usual in letting us...even more, Him...see where our hearts are.

The tea-partiers held a demonstration against Congress, for more budget-cuts.

Jim Wallis and others are praying and fasting that Congress' budget-cuts would protect the poor, rather than military expenditures and corporations' tax-breaks (such as those the New York Times just reported let GE pay no taxes on $5.1 billion profits last year).

I doubt the contrast could be more sharply-drawn, or the decision clearer, as to which is God's purpose, and God's way of working His will. But even being able to see the test is God's grace.

God's grace too that we can make that choice.

Not in Me

Earlier this week, while I was frantically trying to finish my work and leave for a meeting I was already late for, our lawyer-neighbor came up the driveway. I was thinking "I don't really have time for this," but I went out to greet her.

The first words out of her mouth were, "If your f---ing dogs come in my yard again, I'll kill them !!"

It blindsided me. Being blindsided with anger has often shown me some dark depths I didn't know were in me. This time, however, absolutely no answer-in-kind flared up in my spirit. The kids were there, so I wouldn't have answered her with angry cursing anyway: but what surprised me was that that filth was not IN me whatever. That surprised me, and I praised God for what He's done !

But she obviously wasn't in a mood to talk about the problem: so I waved at her and went back in the house, and sent the kids to get the dogs. (Only later did I think it might not have been the best course to send them out where an angry lawyer was screaming threats: but they said she didn't talk to them.)

That night I also talked to the kids about the other thought the experience raised: that a lot of people think the best solution to problems is to kill something (or someone). I advised them to stay away from such people.

A Christian View of Ronald Reagan

I don't usually bother to be for or against politicians. It's a mindless substitute for thinking through political issues, or having political principles. And in the nature of things, politicians have a short shelf-life. Today, however, NPR's "Talk of the Nation" was about Ronald Reagan, in honor of his upcoming 100th birthday, and I was reminded that politicians' impact can be lasting.

The talk was, of course, almost entirely laudatory: what a great President Reagan was, and what important things he accomplished. Even I weren't a Christian, I doubt I'd view any human, human event, or human idea as wholly praise-worthy. All things human necessarily include mistakes and failings. Not taking those into account is neither honest nor thorough. Nor does it allow us to be realistic in our assessment. Ronald Reagan is a good example.

Reagan based his political career on anti-communism. He often pronounced communism the source of all evil. It's a shallow understanding of evil: and not a Christian understanding, though it doubtless relates to communism's failure. We often hear that "Reagan defeated communism." More causative may be that God sets his face against evil.

We were also continually told communism was an unworkable economic and social theory. It seems wrong-headed to praise Reagan for stopping what can't work. To the extent that anti-communists' efforts had a part in defeating communism, some credit may be due the 12 Presidents who preceded Reagan. The most that can truthfully be said of Reagan is that he happened to be riding in our cab when the other guy's locomotive fell apart.

We hear that Reagan "restored America's honor." We should probably understand that, as he did, in terms of military power. But that too is not a Christian understanding. In fact, scripture pronounces a curse on those who put their trust in their armed might.

In mundane terms, his military expenditures produced our first trillion-dollar budget. For that money, American troops conquered Grenada, a nation the size and population of the rural county I live in. U.S. bombers once struck Libya in retaliation for a nightclub bombing. U.S. peace-keepers were sent to Lebanon, and withdrawn after 231 were killed by a truck-bomber. It's hard to see how, on his own terms of projecting invincible military power, Reagan's actions "restored honor to America."

Reagan's administration also took a tough stand against Iran, designating it a sponsor of international terrorism. That designation was justified. Its effect on Iran was probably undercut by the fact the we were secretly selling them arms at the same time (arms they needed to continue their war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, whom we were also arming). The Reagan administration, on their part, needed off-the-books money to fund Central American contras, which was against U.S. law. In both directions, Reagan's policy was run by evil men: law-breakers who delighted in stirring up war, and who (by Oliver North's own testimony) were proud to lie when caught.

Reagan's most famous dictum was that "government is the problem." It seems an illogical and disingenuous reason for wanting to head the government. Once in office, his anti-government belief was embodied in the policy of deregulation. We still live with the consequences, from airline and food safety, to the economic consequences of Wall Street's unrestrained greed, to the Murdochization of American media. On that operative spirit, Reagan also claimed he knew nothing (and did nothing) about the illegal war-mongering of Col. North and others in America's name.

Again, "de-regulation" is not a Christian idea. Restraining lawlessness is in fact exactly what scripture says is God's purpose for human government (Romans 13:4, I Peter 2:14).

America suffered, and suffers, additional harm from Reaganism. His ridicule of climate-science put us 30 years behind on dealing with the matter...or even thinking about it except as a POLITICAL issue. Reagan's myopia remains the operative mindset of his faction.

But his greatest harm was to the Church. He taught the Church to believe unscriptural ideas: that military might exalts a nation, that government is the problem, that evil is primarily political. On the latter premise, he taught the Church that political factionalism and its bitterness are "Christian;" contrary to Galatians 5:20, which teaches they are works of the flesh, and not of the Spirit's leading.

More than individual unChristian ideas, Reagan co-opted the Church' identity for his political purposes, persuading Christians that they were "conservatives" and should vote for "conservatives." (Not that Christians should vote for Christians, note: in that case he might have been at a great disadvantage against the strongly-evangelical Jimmy Carter.) It's an untrue characterization of the Body of Christ, and of Christ, taught nowhere in scripture. It's a self-concept which has misled the Church to do itself, and the country, irremediable harm. Worse, the Church continues to think of itself in Reagan's terms.

That the Church foolishly takes its identity from a politician, rather than its Head, doesn't absolve the deceitful politicians. God will judge both. Perhaps Ronald Reagan repented of misleading Christians. But my concern is that the Church turn back from following deceptions, and be and do what God created it for. May the Church be the Body of Christ, God's light in a dark world. To every extent we've made ourselves a sub-demographic of Reagan's political faction, may the Church REPENT its gross spiritual foolishness !!

Attacking the Church

It's well-known that persecution makes the Church stronger. We don't currently perceive that the American Church is under persecution (and often hear that perhaps we'd be a better Church if we were). But we need to realize the enemy has more than one way to attack us.

We are messengers, and more importantly, demonstration of the Kingdom of God in this world. Kingdoms of men, through whom the usurper prince of this world works, rightly perceive our message and our presence as a challenge to their rule. Satan's first attack against God's Kingdom is always what it was against the King, violence and murder.

The rulers of the Jews accused Jesus to Pilate for "...saying that He Himself is Christ, a King." (Luke 23:2) Roman soldiers to whom He was sent for flogging mocked Him as King of the Jews.

But Pilate was reluctant to sentence Jesus to death. The Jewish rulers egged him on, saying "If you release this Man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar." (John 19:12)

When Pilate then took Jesus before the crowd and they shouted for his crucifixion, he asked, "Shall I crucify your King ?" The crowd shouted back, "We have no king but Caesar !!" (John 19:15) In the end, Jesus was crucified under a sign proclaiming Him "King of the Jews."

The One we follow was judged and executed entirely on the question whether God or man (and through him, Satan) is the ultimate sovereign. The world's rulers and people, even God's Own people, rejected Jesus as King with violence and murder. Satan himself must have believed those tactics had thwarted God's rule. Instead, God's sovereign power and wisdom worked victory from the enemy's scheme, and confirmed Jesus as King forever.

But Satan and his minions continued to oppose God's rule. Rome persecuted the Church throughout its first centuries. Under that attack, the Church continued to grow, and grew stronger. In the end, the emperor Constantine (either because he himself became a believer in Christ, or as a political ploy to enlist Christians in his cause) made Christianity the religion of the empire. Caesar's purposes were thereafter officially deemed to be identical with those of the Kingdom of God. The slippery question of Church-state relations has continued every since.

Since Constantine, kingdoms of men have often made God an adjunct to their purposes and actions. Christian rulers notoriously enlist God in their wars, even against other Christians. Germany's army-issue belt-buckle in World War I, for one example, boasted "Gott Mit Uns" (God Is With Us). German troops wore it into battle against Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans whose leaders likewise vehemently assured them God was on their side.

Abraham Lincoln was one of the few human leaders who understood the spiritual issue for rulers and nations of men. A group of clergymen assured him the Union cause would triumph because "The Lord is on our side." Lincoln replied, "I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

The enemy isn't, at the moment, persecuting the American Church. His tactics are more subtle, and more successful. He instead co-opts the Church to the operative idea that America's national purposes are God's purposes. Most American Christians in our time are doubly co-opted, operating also by the unexamined idea that one political faction's purposes are America's hope, and thereby God's purposes.

When the Church' operative thinking is co-opted by the enemy, the result is co-operation in his opposition to God's Kingdom. Satan is no fool: he realizes that persecution, at best, produces only reluctant compliance, and will ultimately strengthen the Kingdom he seeks to overthrow. But a Church which will think as he wishes, and acts according to its co-opted mind, will do as he wishes, of their own will.

May God open the eyes of the American Church and send His Spirit of repentance on us !!