Trump: Dividing the church

I’ve been privileged to attend a church for over 20 years that is nationally-renowned for maintaining unity in the midst of diversity, whether racial, cultural or generational. But, perhaps in my naïveté, I didn’t foresee just how much Donald Trump would affect even it.

During our missions emphasis month in 2016, which coincided with the end of the presidential campaign that year, the missions committee adopted the slogan “Welcome the Stranger” — an Old Testament command — and hundreds of white members left the church in protest, believing that the slogan was a shot at then-candidate Donald Trump’s stance on illegal immigration. What’s worse, I later learned, that some of the folks who left were spouting racial slurs on the way out, which tells me that they never fully embraced God’s Gospel of reconciliation.

And this is perhaps why the Christian faith, at least in this country, has been compromised. Frankly, part of me wants to give into despair.

Some months ago I wrote a letter to a church in my immediate area that, I learned through an email, was sponsoring a talk at a school board meeting from a black pastor in opposition of “critical race theory” being taught in district schools. The problem is that the district is racially and culturally diverse, with numerous black students and parents as part of it and likely aware of that history that I see the church as trying to suppress. In my letter I wrote that the church was in danger of causing further division by focusing upon such items but not the injustice that spawned the legal doctrine. (I never got a response.)

The bigger issue, however, is that a lot of “Christians” don’t want or intend to make room for those who don’t agree with the right-wing worldview, which is — indeed, always has been and, frankly, intended to be — offensive to many believers “of color.” You see, because of our unique history, we read the Scripture differently and even look to those books and passages, most notably in the Prophets, that most white evangelicals skip over. And it’s that refusal to understand things from another perspective that has kept believers divided over the decades.

Despite the loss of members and the money that they contributed over the years, my church has embarked on a building campaign to unify all the areas — children’s ministry, adult ministry, sanctuary — on its campus. (Culturally, we have generally refrained from building edifices on our two-acre campus, preferring to put any increase into ministry.)

I see this nation now more than ever as trying to keep “different” people out. I hope to God that the church doesn’t succumb to that temptation.

Someday …

Over the past few decades those studying eschatology — the study of things to come — have focused on the phrase “in the last days” and trying to determine what will happen and when.

I think those folks have missed something significant. One thing not often understood about Middle Eastern society and culture is that those who live there don’t have the same relationship to time that we Westerners do; thus, “in the last days” isn’t referring to some kind of specific timeline.

Rather, it’s probably better understood as “Someday…” and refers to more of a wish, although one with the caveat “By God” (and I mean that literally), “this will happen.”

And if you understand that, you might understand God’s intent.

Remember at the beginning at the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, when one of the disciples asked Jesus, “Are you now going to establish Israel again?” His response, in effect, “None of your business.” Most of Israel, still wanting to be free from Roman rule (because the church at the time was primarily Jewish, its members also had that hope), had misinterpreted the prophecy of the Messiah to mean that he would destroy Rome.

There’s also the Revelation of Jesus Christ, a vision given to the Apostle John, in exile on the Greek island of Patmos and by this time the only Apostle left (the rest, including Paul, had met violent premature deaths). Its purpose was to encourage other Jewish believers undergoing persecution, and his audience would have understood the symbolism chock full of it.

And indeed, the very intent of “prophecy” is only secondarily about telling the future and primarily about declaring the heart, mind and will of God. That’s why we see false prophets get some things right but not others — in their desire to gain an audience, they missed God.

That’s why it’s important that the Word says, when it comes to Jesus’ bodily return, just to keep an eye peeled. (When He was asked straight-out when that would be He responded, “Only the Father knows” — which meant that He Himself didn’t know.)

For this reason, trying to determine the identity of the Antichrist, the “beast” and the “false prophet” are a fool’s errand distracting from His commands, to, using a football analogy, “play until the whistle blows.” Middle Eastern culture understands that the future will take care of itself — and, as a result, so should we in the West.

‘Get over yourselves’ — the REAL meaning of Romans 13

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 

Over the past few years numerous Christians have tried to discern the meaning of the passage in Romans 13, depending on the party in power. Can we rebel against the powers that be or do we simply accept their authority without question?

Well, one thing to consider is that, at the dawn of the church, the Jewish people (and by extension, the early Christians) harbored a deep resentment toward Rome, which had begun occupying Israel about two centuries earlier. Indeed, the prophecy of the Messiah held, wrongly as things turned out, that he would kick out the Romans; when Jesus, who confessed that He was the true Messiah but only after being prodded, didn’t do so that created some disillusionment.  Even after His resurrection some folks still harbored that hope.

It’s also in that context that Paul wrote Romans 12:2, the passage about “renewing your mind.” Basically, he’s telling people to trust in the LORD regardless of who’s in power.

And I’m not simply saying this to folks who despised Presidents Clinton and Obama — I took the very same tack with more liberal Christian friends after George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, saying to them, in effect, “God’s still in control.”

This is not to say that we can’t say that our government is doing wrong, even though it might be, and in Western democracies we have the power to change our leadership and Christians can be a part of that process. The ultimate point is that God is still on the throne and leaders are raised up and brought down only according to His permissive will. And that should keep our faith in Him, not in political leaders.

The big lie that led to the Big Lie

It’s no secret that supporters of now-former president Donald Trump are subscribing to the nonsensical notion that he lost the 2020 race for president on the grounds that the Democratic Party committed fraud. Given that no solid proof has ever been offered — his campaign filed some 60 lawsuits, all but one dismissed and that one here in Pennsylvania allowed to stand only on a technicality — it may seem like a mystery.

Well, it isn’t a mystery if you go back several decades. You see, this didn’t start with Trump.

It actually goes back to Newt Gingrich’s arrival in Washington in 1978. Gingrich, a congressman from suburban Atlanta, decided not only to promote his Republican Party as fundamentally good but also the Democratic Party as irredeemably evil. The nascent conservative movement that dominated the GOP followed, as did the “religious right” in its Machiavellianism. That means in practice that, no matter what we do, they’re inherently worse.

I suspect that’s the reason that the political right went after Bill Clinton so hard. After all, there was far less on Clinton than on now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was credibly accused of sexual harassment during his hearings in 1990. (Clinton escaped his impeachment, of course, in part because much of the nation knew what was up.) It couldn’t ensnare Barack Obama in any kind of scandal, so beginning in 2011, hopefully in time for his reelection campaign, it decided to institute voter-ID laws to keep minority voters out of the voting booth and thus turn him out of office; fortunately, that failed.

And then you had Trump.

Basically, as I have mentioned earlier, you have an ideology where anything connected to “liberals” is inherently evil; by contrast, any opposition to them has to be inherently good. The trouble is that such a mentality cannot be justified using the Scripture — no, not even with abortion, which in fact is nowhere directly mentioned there. (My opposition to abortion has never had any connection to my faith.) Underhanded tactics simply have no place in the Christian toolbox regardless of the reason; remember that God sees all, including people’s hearts.

And that’s the real big lie that led to the other “big lie” about the election being stolen.

That’s why Christian support of Trump has led to a major braking of spiritual commitment, with younger evangelicals leaving churches in droves —  the trust of their elders always has been in the political process, not in an omnipotent, almighty God Who is willing to move mountains to prove His sovereignty.

We just saw hearings during which police officers endangered by Trump supporters on Jan. 6 offered testimony. What should be insulting, but for some reason isn’t, is that many of the rioters claimed Christ as Savior and LORD, that they were doing, shall we say, “His work.” Thing is, He would never authorize anything like that for any reason.

What we have here is people unfaithful to Jesus Christ, willing to sell Him out for the porridge of power and not looking to Him for spiritual sustenance. It is actually a practical form of atheism that focuses much more on receiving than giving His blessings — and thus making Him, as well as them, look bad.

Having allies

Last month my wife, who is white, and I attended a performance of a local blues band, the lead singer of which I had met about two years ago at a jam session. I had originally hoped to get some work out of it.

That hope ended during the break, when he came to talk to us — and, according to her (I didn’t hear much of the conversation), he made some racist remarks, including using the archaic term “colored” for black musicians. She became so angry and shaken that she told me that we would have nothing to do with him from here on out and soon afterwards made a post on social media announcing her displeasure.

Two people who reacted to her rant especially heartened me.

One of them was a singer and bandleader I’d worked with 20 years ago who asked his identity so that “we can shame him.” “Musicians police their own,” he said.

The other was a woman with whom I’ve attended social dances over the past few years, and she told a story I hadn’t previously known. At one dance I had just finished dancing with her when she was approached by an older white man who after their dance said afterwards, “I dance better than that colored, don’t I?” (I have never claimed to be a great dancer, though I do it a lot.) She said that she was initially taken aback and later said to him, “His name is Rick, and he’s my friend!” before really letting him have it.

Those two other folks who also expressed outrage on my behalf and whom we later thanked proved to be “allies” willing to stand up and fight for me — letting people know in no uncertain terms that what my offenders said was out of bounds. What’s more, they didn’t do anything they considered out of the ordinary; in their view, it was simply what decent people do.

I’m also reminded of the Freedom Riders of the early 1960s. The late evangelist Billy Graham, who demanded his crusades even in his native South be integrated back in the 1950s. The late Jim Reeb, the Boston minister and seminary classmate of the former pastor of my former church martyred in Selma, Ala. More recently, the millions of whites who joined Black Lives Matter marches last summer in light of the death of George Floyd at the hands of now-former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

Lately I’ve heard a number of evangelicals say, “Why do we have to focus so much on race? Can’t we just love each other?” But the reason why we need to is because racism is still very much a thing, especially with attempted suppression of black voting power and distortions of “critical race theory”— folks must be willing to say, “This will not stand.”

And that would be true love — in the Greek, agape.

Some thoughts on systemic racism, critical race theory and social justice

Back in March my wife and I closed on a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house on a cul-de-sac in a nice suburban neighborhood. It’s close to pretty much everything — shopping; the main expressway to get to work, church and gigs; the whole nine yards. (The schools are pretty good as well, but since we won’t be having children that’s not a factor.)

And yet I’m occasionally reminded that I couldn’t have grown up in this home, which dates back to the late-1950s.

You see, because my parents were African-Americans, banks would have denied them the low-interest loans prevalent back then to build new houses in what we call suburbia. And over time the value of those houses would appreciate in value. Indeed, most major cities eventually not only emptied out of its growing white middle-class but took its financial and social clout with it.

And that has led to, among other things, the racial wealth gap we see today.

And that is an example of the systemic racism that critical race theory, which was formulated in law schools in the 1970s but is now being vilified by the political right as “divisive,” attempts to address. “Systemic racism” is real, folks, and black folks understand that; the situation with housing is just one example of that.

As such, I believe that it would be a Kingdom of God value not simply to repent of racist attitudes but also to dismantle the systems that crept up as a result of such. His justice says, “We got ours, and we will help you get yours.”

That’s why my racially- and economically-diverse church has from time to time has held home-buying workshops, not simply for the permanence and stability that owning a home offers but also for the financial benefit. (Perhaps other churches hold them, but I’m not aware of those.)

Thankfully, most of the specific situations that caused such systemic racism in the first place have been addressed, but the fallout still lingers. How we address that issue we can discuss—but we must, hopefully without rancor.

Because it’s not enough to open the doors without providing the means for people to succeed. In that way we can build what Martin Luther King Jr. called “the beloved community.”

Bitterness over Biden

It still amazes me just how many evangelical Christians are still angry that their preferred candidate, Donald Trump, lost the 2020 general election to Joe Biden. And we’re talking seven months down the road.

Folks are still railing about Biden’s alleged senility and dementia. They’re insisting that Vice-President Kamala Harris is the real power behind the president. They’re still complaining about alleged wholesale election fraud.

None of these have been or will be proven — because they have no basis in fact.

Folks, we need to get over ourselves because these accusations are the result of sheer bitterness that was always there but is now coming to the surface. Trump himself was a bitter person in his own right, which is likely why much of the equally bitter “religious right” supported him. And we know, because of numerous Biblical teachings, the result of unaddressed bitterness (as I have personally experienced and since dealt with).

I wonder how many Christian Trump supporters have sat down with God since then and asked Him, “What are You trying to tell us?” To this day I’m convinced that Trump’s defeat was sanctioned by God, especially after he arrogantly held up that Bible in front of that church last year, perhaps trying to indicate that “God is on my side.”

Well, He doesn’t work like that — He’s God in His own right and thus endorses no one. For that matter, He’s not a tribal deity deigned to confer political power on certain folks, nor is the Christian faith reducible to a set of political positions.

But because the above question isn’t being asked and its ramifications aren’t being addressed, what we’re seeing today is a massive sabotage of Christian witness. We’re seeing the result of placing our trust in fallible political leaders rather than God, which is straight-up idol worship. We’re not seeing hearts and minds transformed, and we’re not seeing unity of the Spirit under the bond of peace.

The beginning of Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer,” recited at 12-step recovery meetings, goes as follows: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I understand that defeat hurts, but God is far more interested in how we handle it — because in this life no one gets everything he or she wants. Moreover, whatever we receive here we must understand to come from God, Who alone understands all the ramifications.

And that’s why it does us no good to remain bitter over Trump’s loss. It’s a sign that we still have some growing up to do.

A demonic delusion

You’ve no doubt heard about the criticism leveled recently at Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney from members of the Republican Party — their own — for not only refusing to believe the baseless accusation that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from Donald Trump but for even stating publicly that it’s false. Romney, speaking at a meeting of the Utah party, was actually booed.

The trouble, of course, is that over two-thirds of party adherents believe that nonsense. And since evangelical Christians represent a large bloc of the GOP, it becomes not just a political issue but a spiritual one as well — and one on which they look absolutely silly.

What we’re seeing is the result of a deliberate longstanding campaign by the Enemy to deceive Christians. And by longstanding, I’m talking about over 40 years.

The first and foremost problem is Christians’ focus on political and social power and, in the process, jettisoning the power of the Holy Spirit to cause the change that they say they want. Basically, they failed to trust in God and were moving “in the flesh’ — and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that little, if anything, has changed.

But rather than admit that they were barking up the wrong tree, they continued to pursue the goal of power for its own sake regardless of the means.

Which leads to their endorsement of a man without any moral compass but who told Christians that “Christians will have power.” (Given Jesus’ wilderness temptation, the parallels should be obvious, Jesus telling Satan, in effect, “Go back to hell where you belong.”) The reality is that Trump became quite literally a messianic figure, and in his arrogance he accepted the accolade; that pride led him to hold up that Bible in front of that church, and you can’t convince me that that action didn’t cause God Himself to pull the plug on him.

The delusion has become so strong, however, that, in light of the last election, which they still can’t admit that he lost, a number of people have dreamed up ways in which he would be returned to power. And they would run roughshod over the political process to encourage that — indeed, they did, participating in the riot outside the Capitol on Jan. 6.

I’m sorry, but this campaign, including the QAnon conspiracy garbage, is coming straight from the pit, and as a result the witness of the Gospel is being sabotaged. I do believe that God will put a stop to it but won’t pretend to understand just how or when; when He does, a lot of people will be embarrassed — or worse.

‘Haters gon’ hate’ — dangerous times ahead

Now that Joe Biden has become president and his comprehensive “infrastructure” package will put our nation’s money where former president Donald Trump’s mouth was, benefiting probably most people, including his die-hard supporters, it would be nice if we had tranquility in Washington and elsewhere.

It would be nice, but it won’t happen because, as the saying goes, “Haters gon’ hate.”

We need to keep in mind that many of your Trump supporters never cared about policy as such — they were, and are, angry, bitter, resentful people attracted to his snarl. For the last 30 years or so politics has clearly been far less about which philosophy governs than about side is defeated — no, destroyed, out of sheer hate. Trump tapped into that contempt for anyone or anything that leaned left, not because he or anyone else was proposing any alternative. (The opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010 by Barack Obama, must be placed in that context.)

But Trump’s worshipers are still trying to promote him as a messiah. One outlandish scenario has him running for Congress from Florida and, assuming that he gets elected, becoming Speaker of the House and engineering an impeachment of Joe Biden.

(It’s outlandish for two reasons: 1) Trump’s ego is way too big for him to be a “team player’ on any level; and 2) More importantly, it was God Himself who took Trump down because he tried to usurp His throne.)

That being said, let’s not be fooled. Despite his being banned from social media for his incendiary comments that violated their terms of service, he’s still a force to be reckoned with and we forget that at our peril. Moreover, his followers don’t believe at all in accommodating other views; as we saw on Jan. 6, they see compromise as surrender.

As the phrase coming from urban America goes, haters gon’ hate. And because of that, I see trouble on the horizon.

The imminent revival, part 17 — an imminent split

Especially in America, being involved in a religious community and engaging in rituals to display religiosity have not only always been popular but are often even encouraged, especially in evangelical culture.

The problem is, however, that truly following Jesus isn’t and never has been. That’s why He said that the gate was “narrow.”

With a recent Gallup poll indicating that, for the first time, a minority of Americans aren’t involved in a church (or perhaps mosque or synagogue as well — I don’t know the breakdown by affiliation), I think it’s time that we looked at some hard truths about where the Church is today.

Since the late 1970s perhaps a majority of American evangelicals have focused on political and cultural power to maintain social power. The trouble is that in the process they’ve continually ignored the power of the Holy Spirit, which is why their efforts produce only resentment toward them and anger and bitterness among them.

That’s the backdrop of not only people leaving the Church but a growing number of self-identifying evangelicals criticizing it — out of love and humility, not resentment, mind you. The response has been, unsurprisingly, anger — against the likes of Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention; Beth Moore (no relation), the Bible teacher who left the SBC; and blogger and pastor John Pavlovitz.

This is why we’re headed for a split — between those who really want to follow Jesus and those who simply want to play church. The numbers might continue to drop — but He’d be OK with that, because then we’d know for sure just who’s serious about depending on Him.

It may have not been ‘racism’ after all

Most of you have seen the memes “Stop Asian Hate” in reaction to the shooting deaths this week of a number of women, a majority of them of Asian descent, who worked at massage parlors in the Atlanta area by a Robert Aaron Long. A clear case of racism, given that the South has always grappled with this subject and especially since former president Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus?”

I’m not so sure. It seems to me that his crimes were more “religious” in nature.

It turns out that Long had been very active in a Southern Baptist church, that denomination at the forefront of the evangelical movement that has helped to define American Protestantism over the last half-century. And that movement has always had an emphasis, perhaps an overemphasis, on sexual sin, an issue because Long has admitted to what he called a sexual addiction and, according to a story in The New York Times, had actually visited two of the spas he shot up.

Those of us who are steeped in evangelical culture have consistently had the potential destruction by sexual sin drummed into our heads as something to be avoided at all costs. Part of the problem with such a mentality is that it actually, and wrongly, makes women responsible for men’s behavior, specifically their inability or unwillingness to change it.

While I understand that idea of “capturing every thought” under the aegis of Jesus is optimum, it’s not a guarantee that things will happen right away and the struggle may continue. Ironically — and here’s why I referred to the overemphasis on sexual sin — the more you focus on such sin the less you focus on Him.

And that may have been Long’s initial problem. (He may have found himself consistently attracted to Asian women, the only connection to race I see here.)

But there’s something else that’s often left out of the discussion: Love, αγαπή in the Greek, for the other person, which would clearly be an outgrowth of love for God.

For me, it’s been less about avoiding temptation than “How could I as a Christian be so selfish as to want to ‘do that’ to her?” You see, one thing I’ve been privileged to learn over the years but rarely addressed in such circles is that women and girls also have sexual desires, though they manifest themselves differently (and for that reason it’s never been a big deal) — one woman I had dated about two decades ago joked about “cold showers” for herself.

Then, over the past 10 to 15 years I’ve been blessed to learn how to relate to women in a safe, healthy, God-honoring manner but still as women, often through partner-dancing. Since evangelical culture promotes male leadership in cross-gender relationships, I’ve found it more comfortable to do it that way and still grow as a man, my sexuality becoming more integrated into my total persona as opposed to an alien force working against me.

Let me state without reservation that Long, in shooting those women, violated not only the Word of God but also the laws of the state of Georgia and ought to pay for what he did. And as such, his failure was connected to failing to loving others as he would want to be loved, the second of Jesus’ two great commandments.

Some thoughts on the Ravi Zacharias scandal

As many of you may know, Martin Luther King Jr., originally a Baptist pastor who eventually became the spiritual leader of the civil-rights movement, became my gateway to the Christian faith. His attitude of nonviolence combined with direct action showed me in retrospect the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and upon first reading “Strength to Love,” a collection of his sermons first published in 1963, I found myself praising and worshiping God.

In the 1980s, perhaps after his birthday was made into a Federal holiday, I learned about his dark side. I had heard once around that time that he had stepped out on his wife Coretta and ignored it, but when another person came forward and said that he indeed slept with other women I cried. Later on, it was disclosed that he had plagiarized part of his doctoral dissertation.

I bring this up in light of the scandal surrounding the late Ravi Zacharias, who ran a highly influential eponymous Christian apologetics ministry. Just a few months after his death last spring, an investigation into the ministry revealed that he apparently used his chronic back condition to abuse women who were massage therapists, asking some to send nude photos of them and even raping at least one.

Such sinful behavior creates a conundrum for the folks who not only believed what he taught but also supported the ministry financially (I heard him only once to my recollection, so I can’t say that I was one of his followers). So what do we do with fallen leaders who are no longer on the scene — and do we discount whatever they said?

While I won’t say I have the last word on this issue, I want to remind you of Hebrews 11, regarded as the “hall of fame” of faith and in which such people as Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Samson and Moses are mentioned. All these people, and many more major biblical figures besides, at some point fell into gross sin.

Of course, had we known about Zacharias’ transgression while he was still active he likely would have been forced out of his role, and properly so, but his own failure to live up to God’s standards means only that there actually is a standard to which especially leaders need to live up to. It also doesn’t mean that God hasn’t forgiven him, but his influence certainly has been sabotaged.

Perhaps the best example of that was disgraced evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, whose mailing list I was on in the 1980s and whose “A Study in the Word” was actually pretty good despite my theological differences with him. Remember that in 1988 he was caught with a prostitute — the Monday after that a spirit of heaviness permeated a prayer meeting I attended then because we knew that the Body had taken a hit — and soon after that he cried out to the LORD and his congregation for forgiveness.

The Assemblies of God, on the other hand, which licensed him, recognized that he needed to be disciplined, so the presbytery announced a three-month suspension of preaching. Fearing that the ministry would collapse without him at the helm, Swaggart decided to leave the denomination — and was subsequently caught with another prostitute. Just like that, his national ministry was gone.

Because both King and Zacharias have gone to their respective rewards we’ll never know if God could have used their transgressions for good. And granted, there’s always the temptation to believe that “men of God” with such international stature will eventually turn their back on moral standards, at least privately.

But I can tell you that my faith in God wasn’t at all shaken just because my hero of the faith was shown to be an adulterer — you see, my faith was never in King, who was only a vessel, and a flawed one at that, that God used. May the same be said for followers of Zacharias.

The imminent revival, part 16 — an attitude of humility

About two years ago my church began a building campaign to recast the campus into something friendlier to young families coming into the church. The endeavor will by pricey but, because of the church’s commitment to not only the Gospel but also foreign missions and serving the immediate community, it would be money well spent because, I believe, it will play a major part in the revival that I’ve been prophesying for some time. I shared that with an executive pastor.

He waved that off, saying, “We’re seeking only to be faithful.”

Just now, I realized that he’s proving me right.

I think a lot of people have the idea that the kind of spiritual awakening comprises a lot of overt religious activity, with folks simply being swept into churches and society being transformed as a result — into something that would make them feel comfortable.

It could be, however, that preparations would have to be made ahead of time — not just with building issues but preparing the hearts of congregations to be able not only to accept but also disciple new believers. And not only that, but that the people already there have a solid grasp of theology and the ramifications for Christ’s Kingdom.

That’s why I believe that the awakening won’t be on Christian TV. Oh, there might be some dramatics involved, but it’s more likely that those hearts “on fire” won’t simply focus on “signs and wonders” — they alone cannot sustain faith, as ancient Israel demonstrates to us — but a continual seeking after God and not being satisfied with head knowledge of Him. In fact, I would go so far to say that churches so consumed with Jesus won’t even know, or care, about any revival, thus bringing it about.

You see, people who truly love Jesus know that certain behaviors and attitudes that don’t bring Him glory should be eliminated and will be with the help of the Holy Spirit. They know that God acts only in certain ways and rejects sin (although He can, and if need be will, work around it). Most importantly, they also understand the need for a sense of justice not only for themselves but also the folks with whom they come into contact and will thus willingly serve them.

And for that reason I also believe that the Spirit will work more powerfully not in the independent “charismatic” churches but in those connected to a denomination — with oversight and connectedness to groups outside the walls of a particular assembly to hold everyone accountable.

Now, I understand that hierarchy and theology can go only so far, but over the last few decades we’ve seen our share of renegade pastors and churches more concerned with their standing in the world than their standing before God. They’ve often allowed destructive heresies into their churches and which often are reflected in the preaching, taking things as truth that God Himself never authorized — which is why many of them are hollowing out, especially of people younger than 40.

I do believe that my church will be a part of any major awakening, but if I know it well it will be focused not on that for its own sake but on Jesus, allowing Him to transform people’s lives. Bottom line, any awakening will be the result of obedience.

The defeat of an idol — and its ramifications

Many Christian supporters of now-former President Donald Trump were doing so because they believed that he was going to spark a religious revival. That was always false on its face because God doesn’t work the way they want, primarily by reestablishing laws, most notably restrictions on legal abortion.

What has surprised — and dismayed — me is the amount of bitterness many are spewing these days in the aftermath of the election, what with complaints about the election being “stolen,” even though it wasn’t; their willingness to insult political opponents such as Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris; and even their participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

And that says something pretty telling: Their faith was always in the political process, never truly in God. And that’s why they are in fact sabotaging the revival they say they want.

For “Christianity” has for many become little more than a set of political positions independent of following Jesus — imitating His character, rejecting worldly ways and seeking reconciliation. Nor is there any emphasis on cultivating the “fruit of the [Holy] Spirit,” mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”

As a result, following Ezekiel 36:20, “But when [Israelites] came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned [My] holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to go out of [His] land.’ ”

That is what Trump represented — profanation of God’s holy name. It would be one thing if they voted for him but held him accountable for his racism and divisiveness and threatened to withhold their votes if he didn’t shape up, but they didn’t.

In other words, Trump became an idol in his own right, and we know how God feels about idolatry. The fact that so many Christians are enraged with by his defeat shows that they haven’t gotten the message — and will suffer more defeats in the near future.

Why Christians shouldn’t celebrate Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh often joked that his talent was “on loan from God.” That’s about the only true thing, at least in a theological sense, that he ever said.

Today the longtime radio host passed away from lung cancer, and it’s not hard to see that he misused that talent, using distortions and ridicule from 1987 to last year to lampoon those of a more progressive ideological stripe and in the process causing a major divide in this country that exists to this day. I for one refused to listen to him because, according to Psalm 1:1, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers” — and there’s no getting around the fact that Limbaugh, considered the voice of the “angry white male,” was a mocker.

And yet millions upon millions of Christians hung on his every word for the latest broadside against his targets, playing into their bitterness and resentment. Eventually other right-wing talkmeisters hit the airwaves, and to this day they’re still spouting their bile, most making a mint in the process. And we often wonder why much of the church is in such bad shape — three hours of spiritual poison poured daily into one’s brain doesn’t lend itself to meditating on the things of God.

I know what you might be saying: “Aren’t ‘liberals’ just as bad?” No, and that’s not even relevant. You don’t even consistently have left-wing talk-radio, for openers; most of the time such shows don’t last because they don’t get the ratings (you have some late-night TV hosts, but they don’t have the reach). Besides, people of religious faith don’t watch them anyway, which is the point.

Since Donald Trump was defeated in November and is no longer president, some have said that this nation needs to take “time to heal.” But part of the healing process involves identifying and excising lingering attitudes, and it’s clear that Limbaugh fostered those — that is to say, they came from somewhere and didn’t just start in 2016.

The end of a political career

The current impeachment trial of now-former President Donald J. Trump, based on his alleged incitement of the rioters that took place on Jan. 6, is intended by Democrats as the end of Trump’s political career. The intent, of course, is to keep him from seeking federal office ever again.

Whether that happens or not and if he’s acquitted of that charge, which at this point appears likely, his political career is over anyway. Because — make no mistake about this — God Himself took him down. And that happened not because of the Capitol riot that his supporters took part in.

What really doomed Trump was that stunt during which he held up that Bible in front of an Episcopal church, which took place June 1 of last year. God ran out of patience with him because, like a lot of the so-called religious right, he intended to use it to promote his own authority rather than submit himself to the only real Authority that mattered.

And the dominoes began falling as a result.

While forces on the political left, including but not limited to voter-registration drives, were already marshaled against the Trump campaign, it turned out that the business community was growing tired of the political instability that he had always fostered, even though it agreed with most of his actual policies. After Jan. 6 its lobbying groups announced that it would no longer donate to Republican candidates that supported the insurrection.

But before that, some evangelical groups and individuals decided to throw their support behind then-candidate Joe Biden, bucking the trend of Trump-supporting Christians. Then you have his failure to lead on COVID-19, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. And did you notice at the Republican National Convention just how few Republicans were willing to put in a good word for him, a requirement to speak?

The result was the kind of broad-based organizing coalition that would have been required to beat Trump at the ballot box — and, of course, did.

By the time he tried to strongarm GOP-dominated legislatures and secretaries of states in swing states into changing election results amid baseless accusations of voter fraud, it was clear that he was finished.

It wasn’t simply the voters who had spoken at that point, you see. Ultimately, God had as well, in the process putting to shame those so-called prophets who tried to convince people that Trump was a shoo-in and then doubled down after Nov. 7. The riot failed to change the result because, really, Trump and his supporters were fighting against God, Who refuses to be mocked.

And while Trump still has his base, which is as strong as ever, he’s already finished as an electoral force because he’s alienated virtually everyone else — including the people at the hands of the mechanisms required to get people elected in the first place. And let’s not forget his other legal issues — charges of financial fraud in New York state and election tampering in Georgia, either of which could put him away for a while.

In that context, the impeachment might prove anticlimactic because even if Trump gets off he may end up going from the proverbial frying pan into the fire. He tried, and was still trying, to play God, and the True and Living God doesn’t appreciate anyone trying to knock Him off His rightful throne.

Finally being ‘owned’

Over the past four years the modern “conservative” movement has fallen to new depths as for what it really stands for. Or perhaps more accurately, what it stands against.

Because, as much as it tried to put a positive spin on what it believed, such as “less government,” it really wasn’t at all descriptive of not just its agenda but also its intent — which, as things turned out, is capsulized in just one phrase that became popular since Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016.

That phrase?  “Owning the libs.” That sounds like an effective rallying cry, and it has been over the years, but it also epitomizes what its focus has always been.

Modern conservatism has always been at bottom a reactionary movement, enviously pushing back against the progressivism that first reared its head in the 1960s. In other words, it’s based almost exclusively on bitterness and resentment toward what it sees as the “left,” though that side of the political fence is far more diverse that it believes (e.g., “liberals,” the hard left and the powers that be in the Democratic Party are not the same people) and tends to equate anyone not on its team as an existential threat. Not for nothing does it target those agitating for social change — it takes personally any challenge to its own desire for power and refuses to listen to anyone else. This is why, for example, it tried to besmirch the Black Lives Matter movement that dominated many news cycles over the summer, saying falsely that it was inherently violent and fostering riots.

And then we see government in general and the “deep state” — that is, bureaucrats who actually run things professionally — in particular and the mainstream media as two more groups that in such a mindset need to be denigrated. (The reality, however, is that you simply can’t run a functional society without those two institutions.)

Conservatism is especially poisonous when combined with religion, the dominant faith in the United States being Christianity. That’s because the heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is reconciliation through Him, is necessarily excised for the sake of dominating others — in other words, the faith itself becomes liberal.

Yes, liberal, in that certain “liberties” are taken with the Word of God and reinterpreted to mean things that He never said or authorized.

Such as the riot that took place at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, as electoral votes were about to be counted that would confirm Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president. It broke my heart to learn that Christians were not only involved in it but even trying to justify it, with the singing of Christian songs and the offering of prayers that the vote would be stopped to allow now-former-President Donald Trump another term in office. And make no mistake — that attitude is how he got to be president in the first place.

It’s also why he lost last year, however, as when you focus on power for its own sake you lose the reason why you seek office in the first place — to serve, not to dominate, everyone else. We saw that with COVID-19, which Trump tried to ignore because the idea of responsibility was always foreign to him. (This is a place where the Bible’s commands were in fact tossed out.) Basically, he wanted to rule, not govern, which is why he ended up being “owned” by those same “liberals” that he denounced.

Oh, sure, you did have a school of intellectualism in conservatism, which I did respect despite my disagreements with it, in such publications as National Review and the late Weekly Standard, the latter of which went under because of its opposition to Trump. But as Pat Buchanan said in 2008 in The New Yorker, “You can write columns and all that, but they don’t engage the heart.”

And in this case, the “heart” represents denying others the same status as what folks want for themselves. In essence, the conservative movement in practice wanted to turn those that didn’t agree with it into second- or third-class citizens not even worthy of an ear. As such, I can’t see why we can have any sense of unity and reconciliation in a post-Trump country — when the opposition is labeled as “socialist,” as it has been, there’s nothing more to say.

To wit, “owning the libs” has been a good rallying slogan but one that actually helped to make this country virtually ungovernable. To our eternal shame.

Life without Trump

Has anyone noticed just how quiet things have been in Washington, D.C. since now-former President Donald Trump has left office? It’s simultaneously boring and comforting not to have to notice the new regime in not only the White House but also in Congress.

And it’s not simply Trump and his political sycophants and enablers in the Republican Party that have gone virtually silent. We also have heard barely a peep out of evangelical leaders who not only supported him through these last four years but predicted — falsely, as things turned out — that he’d be in the White House for eight. I don’t know what they’re doing, but a part of me hopes that they’re now afraid to show their faces.

What’s even more gratifying to me personally is the collapse of the QAnon cult that held that Trump was going to bust members of the media and Democratic politicians that were engaging in a child-sex-trafficking ring, an accusation with no basis in fact. Many were hoping that the storming of the Capitol Building on Jan. 6 would spark those mass arrests; instead, some of his erstwhile followers have now dismissed him out of hand, calling him “weak.” (Which most of us already knew.)

And on top of that, social media outlets, citing violations of terms of service, not only banned Trump in light of the riot but some months previously also began shutting down QAnon-related accounts, prophetically citing the potential for real-world violence.

Here’s hope that the calm we may feel now produces some healing from the abuse that this nation has suffered over the past four years. But more than that: Similar to the Truth & Reconciliation efforts in post-apartheid South Africa, we need a full accounting of what actually happened and why so that it’s never repeated.

Some are saying that the second impeachment trial of Trump, tentatively scheduled for next month and which I believe to be just, isn’t necessary because it would “divide the country.” Nonsense, since the country already has been divided for four decades; he simply exploited that. We also know that he’s completely unrepentant so, although I don’t see him as returning to the White House, it’s up to us to make sure that he’s never in power again.

Above all, we Christians who did support him — of course, I’m not in that number — ought to take a look at ourselves to consider how we went wrong. Perhaps we focused too much on political and cultural power to allow the light of Christ to shine through. Perhaps we saw Trump as a messiah to rid the world of the “ungodly,” never mind his lack of commitment to any, let alone Christian, principles. There’s no question that our support of Trump has hurt the witness of the Gospel.

If we turn back to God with our whole hearts in humility, know what will result? The revival that people say that they want.

The result of ‘cheap grace’

Two weekends ago I was explaining to someone that the basic problem with the presidency of Donald Trump, thankfully coming to an end tomorrow, wasn’t merely political or ideological — it was theological in nature.

I didn’t appreciate just how true that was until I learned that the riot at the U.S. Capitol building two weeks ago featured “Christian patriots” in full force, believers invoking God and Christian music being played and sung. (And, I might add, alleged Christians using foul language in the process.)

At that, I was horrified.

Numerous Jews who survived the Holocaust have noted that Trump’s racist rhetoric was reminiscent of Hitler, not to mention the large number of supporters that he had. The reason I bring up Nazi Germany is that I’m reminded of the real problem with the church there was with what martyred German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace.”

That failure of American evangelicalism, most notably in its “charismatic” wing, which dominates Christian media, is what really drives people away from a true knowledge of the Savior and the reconciliation that He represents. The thinking is, really, in practice that once personal sins are forgiven you can pretty much live the way you want. Sin, of course, runs much deeper than personal sins or those connected to sex, stealing or lying.

Back in January 1984, at the lowest point of my life, I attended a church retreat. During that retreat we held a communion service, and after I took the wine I burst into tears, saying, I killed Jesus, I killed Jesus. You see, as bad as things were, in that moment I was owning my own sin for the first time, not blaming anyone else for my predicament. More to the point, in that moment I recognized just what my internal condition cost God.

If you’re not mourning your sin in that or a similar fashion or at least have never done so, you need to check your heart. Because what that should and will produce is humility, a sense of “there but for the grace of God go I — how did I escape God’s judgment?”

Get that? “Grace” — which Bonhoeffer called “costly grace,” not making light of the things that people did, said or even thought that proved evil in the long run. Of course, Bonhoeffer was specifically referring to the church in Nazi Germany, most of which for the sake of preserving itself allied itself with Hitler. (The church failed in that mission, which is why it has so little authority today.)

The “media” wing of the American evangelical church is in similar danger today — and, indeed, has been for decades because it preaches “salvation” but not a separation, and thus transformation, from the world’s way of thinking. There is simply no way that it could whole-heartedly support such a corrupt, cruel, morally compromised, bullying person if it truly understood the grace of God.

And that is why I would never believe that Trump is a true Christian. He said in an interview some years ago that he couldn’t remember anything he had to repent for. He grew up in a church pastored by Norman Vincent Peale — remember the heretical “The Power of Positive Thinking”? — and applied that concept to his entire life, including some big-time denial specifically about COVID-19. Reports have come out that he actually relished the riot that took place two weeks ago rather than fall to his face and say, “What have I done?”

What I hope happens in light of the wreckage that supporting Trump has caused — leading much of the church to sabotage its own witness — that it would repent of the “cheap grace” that Bonhoeffer talked about. That’s the only way it will not only survive but thrive in what many folks see, falsely in my view, as an inherent hostility to religious faith during a Biden administration.

‘You just damned your cause’

In light of the riot Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol Building by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump, I was reminded of a rant that Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald wrote in response to the terrorist attacks that took place on Sept. 11, 2001. Reading it again today, I noticed just how similar Pitts’ reactions were to how we should perhaps react to Wednesday’s actions.

They were those of, not to put too fine a point on it, terrorists inflamed by the president himself, who for the last two months complained, with no evidence, that the election, which he lost, was “stolen.”

And this isn’t new by any stretch. Trump has always been a violent man, threatening physical violence numerous times during his 2016 campaign. Nor should this come as any surprise, since probably the majority of his supporters are absolutely intolerant of anyone who disagrees — and have been for decades. It thus didn’t surprise me that they tried to hang President-elect Joe Biden with the pejorative “socialist.” That is, at best, an exaggeration — they simply want to exert power and control.

Not wanting to take responsibility for their role in Wednesday’s riot, following their infamous and fearful leader, they’ve taken to blaming it on left-wing “antifa” forces that supposedly infiltrated their ranks — again, without proof.

It will thus be interesting to see just how pro-Trump Christian leadership reacts to this. Many were ready to condemn Black Lives Matter for its alleged Marxist leanings, which they were likely convinced led to the riots — which, to be fair, took place in only a handful of cities and were fed by pro-Trump groups itching to fight.

But as I heard New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman say some years back, “Terrorists always overplay their hand.” That is to say, they’re so focused on the righteousness of their goals that to their mindset the means to achieve them was irrelevant. Numerous folks as disparate as Martin Luther King Jr. and the late Chicago Sun-Times columnist Sydney Harris have written that not only do the ends not justify the means but that the means can corrupt the ends, and I think they’ve done so in this case.

As Pitts wrote then, “Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.” We’re seeing that today, as GOP leadership that had previously supported Trump is now deserting him, numerous Cabinet secretaries are turning in their resignations and Democratic members of the House have asked Vice-President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment to have Trump removed or, barring that, have drawn up more articles of impeachment.

I do believe that the healing has already begun, though it will take at least a generation to be fully reconciled because Trump supporters will continue to nurse their grievance and thus allow their bitterness full flower. But their cause has now been shown to the world as unjust — which is why, in describing 9/11, Pitts referred to it as “damned.”