The Reckoning is Now

The Insurrection of January 6 brought shock to our country like we have not seen since 9/11 when planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Many of us watched in horror as armed militias stormed our American Capitol building shouting death threats at Vice-president Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. I’m convinced that with another few minutes, they would have carried out their ugly intentions and the destruction to our Republic would have been beyond what we could ever imagine. As it is, the death and destruction was brutal and intentional.

What came to mind earlier today was a reflection on a time 1,600 years ago–a pivotal moment in Christian and world history. In 410AD, Rome was sacked and nearly destroyed. The seat of world power for over 800 years had been breached by a people nominally under Roman governance, much like what happened when the seat of American and even world power was breeched by a group of citizens so alienated from the rest of us that they are willing to believe conspiracy fantasies about our recent election despite no concrete evidence that would stand in a court of law. 

Augustine was not in Rome at the time, though he certainly spent a lot of time in his early life in that great city. When he heard the reports brought to him in North Africa where he was serving as a Christian Bishop and overseeing congregations under his pastoral care, I can only imagine what he felt. The world as he had known it for all of his life was coming undone. I wonder if Augustine could even imagine a world without Rome at its center, just like I cannot imagine a world without our American Republic. Fortunately, Augustine went on to do some of his best theological work after those events, as seen in his magnum opus, The City of God. I wonder where are the Augustine’s that will guide us in the coming years?

Even more, I wonder about American Christianity, especially its evangelical variety. What is emerging from the Capitol Insurrection of January 6 is an ugly picture of many who claim to be Christians like you and me participating in the storming of our Capitol, and even some pastors and leaders who claim evangelical Christianity on hand for the events. Christian music blared from the speakers. Bible verses written on large picket signs. Christian flags and large crosses throughout the crowd. A few weeks earlier there had been a so-called “Jericho March” in the capital with Christian Nationalist rhetoric so bizarre that some evangelicals warned of “a form of fanaticism that can lead to deadly violence.”

The writer and lawyer David French put it bluntly. “I would bet that most of my readers would instantly label the exact same event Islamic terrorism if Islamic symbols filled the crowd, if Islamic music played in the loudspeakers, and if members of the crowd shouted “Allahu Akbar” as they charged the Capitol.

“If that happened conservative Christians would erupt in volcanic anger. We’d turn to the Muslim community and cry out, “Do something about this!” How do I know we’d respond in that manner? Because that’s what we’ve done, year after year, before and after 9/11.”

Friends, American Christianity, specifically American evangelical Christianity faces a reckoning! We have replaced our Lord Jesus Christ with political idolatry. And if we want to follow Christ and communicate a gospel message of grace to our fellow citizens, we had better come to terms with the hatred, with the fantasy thinking we have allowed to harm so many, with the “what-about-ism” that allows us to excuse our own idolatry. 

I think this massive evangelical participation in conspiracy theories and now even violence against the rule of law in our country stems from a lack of biblical, expositional preaching in our pulpits, and in our inability to read Holy Scripture apart from our cultural location. Hence the Bible becomes a mere tool in our right-wing (or left-wing) politics as evidenced by one of the signs I saw carried into the Capitol by the violent protesters. Renee and I copied down the three verses on that sign and looked them up. Each one was ripped out of their context and used almost like a magic saying to justify a bizarre highly-charged political interpretation of our country as well as hatred for those who might disagree. Such a use of Scripture is idolatrous!

I have always contended that when theological liberals use the Bible, they say far too little. But when evangelicals use the Bible, they say far too much. Both point to the crisis of the Word of God we face in the church. Because of this crisis, we have become way too susceptible to crackpot conspiracy theories that are nothing more than extremist manipulations. Donald Trump is the most post-modern president ever. And what is shocking is that he uses the tools of Nietzsche and Foucault to deconstruct reality in a way that has duped many, many evangelicals and religious conservatives.

The most appropriate act of worship followers of Jesus can perform at this time is lament. This is not a good season for us and for our congregations. Nearly 400,000 of our fellow citizens are dead because of a horrific disease that spreads through the air and is especially harmful to our elderly and to those among us who are infirm. We have witnessed a brutal attack on our government and the rule of law. We have allowed partisan politics to fester among us. We’re worse than the theological and political liberals we claim to abhor. 

Lament followed by repentance for the idolatry that we have allowed to fester among us is the order of the day. If we refuse to turn to the Triune God, don’t be surprised when God turns away from American evangelical Christianity.

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David French’s words are excerpted from Only the Church Can Truly Defeat a Christian Insurrectionpublished online in The French Press, January 10, 2021. https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/only-the-church-can-truly defeat?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1NDI2NTk2LCJwb3N0X2lkIjozMTE4OTU3MiwiXyI6Ikt3S01GIiwiaWF0IjoxNjEwOTc1OTQwLCJleHAiOjE2MTA5Nzk1NDAsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0yMTc2NSIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.4xQkoVazp8LjkOyU-omJJzup05JzTeLl5sLmeMWxA1s