The Plain Thing Is The Main Thing
Justice is a joy to the godly, but it terrifies evildoers (Proverbs 21:15 NLT)
The LORD spoke to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people: Don’t call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy. Don’t fear what they fear, and don’t be terrified. It is the LORD of heavenly forces whom you should hold sacred, whom you should fear, and whom you should hold in awe. (Is 8:11-13 CEB)
"Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions." (Mt 7:20 NLT)
I was recently speaking with a leader in the denomination that I am part, and the leader, who I greatly respect, shared his ongoing concern and shock at the continued justification of violent and brutal behavior by Christian leaders. He was correctly identifying the disconnect between civil religion, or nominal Christianity (those who identify as Christian but deny, deprioritize, and diminish the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus) and those who are guided by Jesus' life-giving, loving and liberating mission. This disconnect is so prevalent that many non-Christians perceive the church as largely hypocritical.
The Church, the multicultural, multiethnic, socially diverse group who identify as followers of Jesus is designed to be credible witnesses to God's loving, liberating and life-giving presence among them. US public opinion of the Church and its local expressions (church) is at an all-time low. Conflicting with the views on Jesus, where public opinion remains very favorable. There has been a disconnect that has been going on for generations, that everyone seems to see, except churches.
As I am typing, article upon article is written opining on the verdict of former President Trump in the hush money trial. The political environment of the United States is incredibly polarized, so as expected, a wide variety of opinions were written, some expressing joy that justice was served, and some ignoring the crimes, and simply attacking the justice system or labeling the verdict as part of a larger conspiracy that began with the unproven claim of an improper election in 2020.
In first-century Palestine, Jesus was accustomed to political factions and the desire for political factions to attempt to co-opt religious systems to secure political, economic, and cultural power. While in the ancient world, governments often co-opted faith movements violently, contemporary partisan politics often seek to reframe the narratives that give identity and purpose. It is often a complete paradigm shift that changes the lens from which we evaluate the past, understand the present, and imagine a preferred future. Theologian Wes Howard-Brook in talking about the same narrative shaping process in Jesus's day states:
" Jesus is repetitive, and his Judean hearers do not get the message because of the power of the dominant myth to exclude other possible truths." (Becoming Children of God, 2003)
Our interpretation of the meaning of everything is based upon our social location. Social location is a term used by social scientist to speak of the incredibly intricate combination of attributes, experiences, and capacities through which we understand reality. The fact that I am a Christian, African American heterosexual male, born during the civil rights struggle, in a racially divided midwestern small city, with wide educational experiences, impacts how I understand and experience events. It doesn't mean that the meaning I give to events is the only, or even the best explanation, but that I understand, with a deep sense of humility, that each person's social location informs how all process truth. Researchers have found that our social location is often understood in a series of overlapping narratives (stories) that are told to give us meaning and purpose. For example, I currently live in the state of Texas. Texas residents often rehearse a portion of Texas history toward independence in the nineteenth century that highlights their independent spirit and rugged individualism. It creates a sense of pride and highly protects the concept of private property. However, a more complete history would include the influence of the desire to continue the institution of slavery. This is rarely included as it disturbs the preferred narrative. In fact, scholarly attempts to provide a fuller explanation of the history is often met with not only dismissal but rage (See Dr. Annette Gordon-Reed's "Juneteenth", 2021) When a narrative becomes a myth whose aim is preserving existing power dynamics through fear, a conspiracy is developed.
I have previously written on the power of conspiracies, and even more frightening, the trap of conspiracy thinking. Conspiracies are an effort explain some event, process or practice by referring to the secretive doings of super-powerful people/organizations/networks who have concealed their role. Sometimes, particularly among marginalized communities, conspiracies are more truth than conjecture such as well-known conspiracies like the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment where Black men were diagnosed with syphilis and never treated, and simply observed by the US government over 40 years. However, the vast majority of conspiracies are designed to protect a particular partisan narrative.
The problem is that conspiracy theories do not need evidence to be accepted by conspiracy susceptible populations. In the "Stop the Steal" conspiracy following the 2020 presidential election and leading to the only insurrection attempt in American history, no evidence of election fraud was found despite bi-partisan thorough investigations. The lack of evidence does not stop "Stop the Steal" adherents from strongly believing the conspiracy. Conspiracies become dangerous when they mobilize people to act on behalf of the conspiracy, particularly when they promote violent and destructive behavior, like the January 6th, insurrection.
Studies have shown that people are most susceptible to conspiracy thinking if:
1. They have narrowed epistemologies. This means they get all of their news/information from sources that share the same ideological framework. Conspiracies derive from fear, both rational and irrational. Fear is the fuel that propels conspiracy theories. The narrowness of one's information ideologically, can greatly contribute to radicalism and extremism.
2. They are part of a community or family where conspiracy theories abound. One study showed that the greatest risk to uncritically accepting a conspiracy theory is currently holding conspiracy theories. In that study, they found that people where likely to accept a conspiracy as true, even if it conflicts with a currently held conspiracy. For example, people who believe the Osama Bin Ladin is still alive are also more likely to believe that he also never actually existed. (Conspiracy Theories and Other Dangerous Ideas, Sunstein, 2014)
3. They are often withdrawn from participation for community-based advocacy groups and movements. Conspiracies thrive on distance. Proximity is a conspiracy killer. For instance, several well-known politicians have described the US-Mexican border as crisis of murders, rapists, drug cartels, etc. seeking to "invade the nation" to support an anti-law and order agenda. However, those who are on the border, regardless of partisan affiliation, describe throngs of displaced families, fleeing all kinds of violence. Conspiracies literally force an ideological framework on reality, that makes it almost impossible to overcome. A recent article from the NY Times recently revealed how charities on the US Southern border are constantly being attacked and threated by conspiracy minded groups.
No one is mobilized to violence because they suspect that Bigfoot is real. There are plenty of harmless conspiracy theories. Yet the use of conspiracy theories as a means to deflect away from the main thing and promote destructive action has increasingly become the order of the day.
Political conspiracy theories that inform religious systems is not new. In 6th Century BCE, God speaks to one of Israel's prophets regarding his own people and warns him against believing the conspiracies that they believe in, or fearing what the conspiracists say to fear, but to focus on God. In that same vein, Jesus warns his followers to look at the behavior of people and decide upon their goodness, based upon those behaviors only.
In light of that, Christian leaders should spend more time on considering whether the former President did violate election law in trying to cover up a relationship with an adult film star. Rather than deflecting on the judge, the jury, the prosecutors, the state of New York, Jesus would say can we look at the fruit of his actions.
In the trial which featured hundreds of witnesses over 5 weeks, thousands of pages of documents, and a rigorous jury selection process (in which the defense had the power to remove bias jurors) repeatedly demonstrated that the former president broke the law. The former President's response as well as partisan politicians who support him, names the trial as "rigged" and promises partisan based retaliation. I have not seen any of his prominent supporters acknowledge that he broke the law and is subject to its justice.
Let us not forget, that the former President also has over 50 other felony charges against him that he has delayed facing. Could it be that a mysterious organization with unlimited resources has chosen to control the voters, the courts, and the justice departments? More likely, we see a man with a long history of questionable business ethics, persistent immorality, and a xenophobic vision, held to a standard of justice. It is not coincidence that nearly 15 of his closest advisors have been convicted in various felonies or that he was impeached twice and convicted of rape.
The failure of Christian supporters of the former President (or supporters of any president) to hold him accountable and committing to support a candidate regardless of behavior and speech is a demonstration of having a partisan faith, and not faith-formed political involvement. In fact, cultic behavior is defined by uncritical devotion and veneration of a person. Once a cultic mindset is developed, the object of veneration becomes sacralized. Hence it is not surprising to see social media posts comparing the former President to Jesus or calling him messianic terms.
I hope that you can see how we go from fear-based conspiracy theories to cultic behavior very quickly when there is an unwillingness to demand accountability for our leaders. I have not only seen this in governments, but even in churches where celebrity pastors are literally worshipped. This is because some pastors, and unfortunately most politicians, begin to wield "power over", instead of "power to" their constituents. Former editor of Christianity Today Kately Beaty states:
"Even still, Jesus could imagine what Caesar's type of power could do--how it might even be wielded for godly purposes. That's one of the great temptations of power: to think that it can be used as a tool without it shaping and eventually disfiguring us in the process." (Celebrities For Jesus, 2022)
Unfortunately, in the US, evangelical Christian leaders have largely supported the Former President in what is perceived as gaining political influence. Jesus warned his followers that we should reflect upon what it means to gain the world (and influence in the world) but lose our souls (Mk 8:36). Christian author Constantine Campbell observes succinctly that:
"By fighting for political influence no matter the cost, evangelicals are no longer viewed as trustworthy arbiters of spiritual truth. They are seen not as Jesus' representatives in the world but as power-hungry, self-interested hypocrites." (Jesus V. Evangelicals, 2023)
Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez writes a masterful book that journeys the evangelical church's struggle for political power and our current reality which has been developing for the past 70 years:
"Despite evangelicals' frequent claims that the Bible is the source of their social and political commitments, evangelicalism must be seen as a cultural and political movement rather than as a community defined chiefly by its theology. Evangelical views on any given issue are facets of this larger cultural identity, and no number of Bible verses will dislodge the great truths at the heart of it." (Jesus and John Wayne, 2020)
Kobes Du Mez returns us back to the idea of our social location and their many preferred narratives as cultural informers and political directors, over and often at odds with theological principles found in Scripture and reflected in Jesus. Jesus could have organized his followers to overrun Palestine, but he instead chose to develop an alternative political narrative that he called the Kingdom of God, where those in it have a new identity, new allegiances, and new ethics. All of which, made the Jesus movement a threat to the powerful. The kingdom of God was rarely a tool to be wielded by empire, but a constant prophetic challenge to the world that pointed to the true seat of authority, the triune God. The Kingdom spread exponentially by love, service, and sacrifice. In the kingdom, there is love, justice and righteousness and the people of God are to embody that, and advocate for this, for the promotion of shalom, or the state of human flourishing. Any support of anyone and anything that conflicts with kingdom ethics is not of Jesus, nor should his name, his church, or his mission be connected to that which is unloving and (it should go without saying), cruel and brutal.
The plain thing is the main thing! It is time that you interrogate all of the assumptions and the fears that are being flamed seeking to justify support and personal attachments to a leader who clearly has a history of criminal behavior and was convicted of 34 felonies with many other charges pending.
It's time to stop the Demonization: The elite/left/antifa/democrats/POTUS did not make him commit crimes, but he sought illegal and unfair advantages through his crimes.
It's time to stop the Demoralizing: Everyone does NOT commit felonies in office.
It's time to stop the Deification: Former President Trump has no anointing or blessing which places him above justice and the rule of law.
Above all, it's time to repent (Greek word metanoia). Christian leaders in particular, it's time that you step back and allow the light of Scripture shine on your uncritical devotion to any candidate or party. This includes silence in the face or wrongdoing. Pastor Willie Francois reminds us that "Silence is cowardice that punctures the spirit.", echoing what Martin Luther King Jr wrote from a Birmingham Jail in 1963:
"The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are."
To repent is more than expressing remorse. It is changing one's mind, expanding one's theological imagination in order to envision and express new and redemptive ways of living. Remorse may be an affective aspect of repentance, but authentic repentance is transformative in thought and deed. John the Baptist called people to show the fruit or evidence of their repentance through actions (MT 3:8). So, I end with this challenge from Missiologist Alan Hirsch and Rob Kelly that we understand the continuous and transformative process of repentance, and that we have the courage to call all of our civic leaders, particularly those who identify as followers of Jesus, to the standards of moral exemplars that comes with the privilege of leadership.
"As humans, we have the propensity to be bound by ideologies (reduced truth that claims to be the only defining truth) and by idolatries (reductions in our understanding of God, of making God small) that claim our allegiance. The only way to be released from such ideologies and idolatries is to reevaluate them in light of a greater truth. Metanoia involves a transformational cleansing of perception, which enables a new, expansive way of viewing the world."
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