Decent Statement, Badly Timed and Framed

Several days back, the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood issued a manifesto detailing their position on issues such as marriage, homosexuality, and transgenderism.

It was signed by 250 national leaders of conservative Evangelical movement.

And it met with a firestorm of criticism and ferocious push-back from those holding the opposite convictions.

From Non-Reactions to Vicious Reactions

The link to the original statement is here:   https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement

And Christianity Today‘s article on it is here:  http://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2017/august/complementarians-new-gender-identity-lgbt-cbmw-nashville.html

I lead with CT’s article because always good to allow the best voices of any movement explain what it means by what it says, instead of letting its enemies define it and put alien words and meanings in its mouth.

Conservative news outlets are treating it as a simple restatement of the long-standing, historic absolutes held by Christians for millenia.   Which it is.

This response is essentially a yawn.

Progressive news outlets are treating it as a hateful, vicious attack on LGBT people, as an existential threat by a group of extremists that must be denounced and eliminated.  It’s isn’t.

This response is essentially yelling “fire!” in a crowded room and causing a stampede.

A good example of the hyper-inflamed responses is in Salon, “Evangelicals Bigotry-filled Statement is Denounced for It’s Anti-LGBQ Message”:

http://www.salon.com/2017/08/30/evangelicals-bigotry-filled-nashville-statement-is-denounced-for-its-anti-lgbt-bigotry/

What Was Said

First, the What.

As a Conservative, Bible-believing Evangelical myself, I see little new in this statement.

It pretty much captures what I have always believed and will always continue to believe about the absolutes taught by the Bible on sexual morality.

It rightfully locates standards and teachings about human sexuality at the core of doctrine and holy practices.

It rightfully says this is not a secondary, agree-to-disagree issue within Evangelicalism.

And, to be fair, I can see that the writers genuinely tried to be kind and frame it as such.

This group of 250 leaders are not lightweights or outliers.

They really do represent a broad spectrum of voices within the mainstream, scholarly, and pastoral leadership within Evangelicalism.

It is almost non-news because it isn’t new at all.

As one commentator put it, “It’s like the headline “The Pope Denounces Abortion”.  Nothing new here.”

How and When:  Not Good

Now some observations on the How and the When:

These signers and writers are intellectuals who prone to lengthy sentences and technical terms and objective rationality.

They clearly did not write their document to address things from a “matters of the heart” or “feelings of others” viewpoint.

They were not thinking about how the city of Nashville might feel about having the city’s name in the title.

They were not thinking about the timing of releasing a statement when the nation is absorbed by Hurricane Harvey’s devastation, or the highly-charged atmosphere of the Trump presidency, or the terrible aftermath of the racial conflicts going on all summer.

They did not take into consideration the unwisdom of having major signers be people who sit on Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory council–practically begging for vitriol and polarized reactivity.

They simply were not thinking about how it might feel.

A No Feelings Approach Got An All-Feelings Reaction

I don’t think they were thinking about feelings at all because their processes are designed to remove all personal feelings and considerations from how they do it.

This was a purely logical, task-oriented exercise designed to provide a statement to pastors, churches, and institutions within their own movement and thus counter any drift away from historic moral absolutes on sexual morality.

It was an “in-house” document not designed to influence the wider culture or win hearts and minds outside their movement.

For its critics to attack it with such ferocity and animus is therefore wholly inappropriate.

Evangelical leaders and scholars have every right to reaffirm and apply central biblical teachings, every right to decide what their group does or doesn’t believe, and every right to instruct their movement on what’s allowed and not allowed according to the Bible.

Trying to browbeat or silence or pejoratively label them is itself bullying and hypocritical–miles worse than what this statement actually does.

But that’s the reaction it got.

Which raises the question, “Why?”

My Own Take

So where I myself land is this:   I agree with the content of the statement and would be quite comfortable affirming it’s teachings.

But I think their timing was lousy, and believe the “intellect-only”, objective statement-making approach to public moral stands has serious deficiencies.

“Why now and not later?”,  “Why did it have to be them and not some other group?” are two questions I think needed to be asked but apparently weren’t.

Had they waited until the dead of winter and separated their release time from the disasters and racial tumults of the summer, it would have been better.

Had they approached the Evangelical Theological Society, or the National Council of Evangelicals, and issued a broad-based joint statement, it would have been better.

It would have diluted the Trump connection, and would have made it easier to see just how many critical and hostile responses are themselves biased and full of animus against Evangelicals.

Time to Add Feelings Back In

Above all, it would have been vastly better had they asked, “How will this make people feel?  How can we show more of a caring heart towards those who fall on the outside of biblical morality and/or who disagree with us?”

You can hold the same views and have a decidedly more pastoral and compassionate heart towards those who disagree and/or who feel unable to ever live up to these absolutes.

I can’t think of the last time I had an argument about biblical sexuality, let alone a heated exchange.

But I can think of many times I’ve been with and helped folks “on the wrong side of God’s law” reconcile to God when at the bottom of their lives.

Finally, like it or not, I would counsel the signers this:   beware of associating anything you do and anything you believe with Donald Trump!

To have members of his Evangelical Advisory Council as major signatories is nothing more and nothing less than stupidity. (And, for the record, that’s less than 6 out of 250 names.)

These men might have to recognize that they have now been tainted and compromised.

By their open and continued association with the President this side of Charlottesville, their ability to effectively advocate on matters of faith and practice to the wider culture has been lost.

They will be seen as part of the Great Threat instead of mild-mannered scholars doing their thing.

And the sooner they realize it, the better it will be for American Evangelicalism.

Facing the Unimaginable

The images of Hurricane Harvey  and how the storm has flooded nursing homes, submerged neighborhoods, and drowned freeways in Houston, Texas is hard to take in.

The area has already received 30 inches (2.5 feet!) of rain since Friday.

And they are expecting 15-30 more inches by the end of the week.

It is unimaginable and unprecedented.

It is totally overwhelming all government agencies and civic authorities.

Only the Beginning

The damage from Harvey will almost certainly take years for the area to recover.

Even the head of FEMA, Brock Long, is saying private boats and citizen donations are needed now to rescue all the trapped people, and will be needed for the foreseeable future to cope with the mass displacement and life uprooting.

Here are what the major news outlets are now saying:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41074919

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/08/28/heartbreak-texas-harvey-drive-30-000-shelters-fema-says/607224001/

While some might fault-find or seek to fix blame, the truth is we have simply never had a major hurricane stall for a week over a major metropolitan area, especially in a place as flat and wetland-covered as Houston.

It’s the worst possible combination.

It is beyond anyone’s imagination and the scenario was not in anyone’s “normal” hurricane recovery forecasts or disaster plans.

Blame Only Makes It Worse

Yet the propensity to blame, to find someone or something we can fault or fix that’s within our control, is how we often cope with the out-of-control and the unimaginable tragedies of life.

The citizens of Houston are living out a real time horror story and it’s not anywhere close to being over.

Many of them are being traumatized and are losing everything they own even as I write.

They don’t need more blame-gaming or finger-pointing.

And neither do we.

Beyond donations of material and dollars, and expressions of solidarity and sympathy, is there something we can all give that will help?

I think there is.

Shocked Into Silence

First, disasters often shock us back into our humanity and remind us that we, too, are vulnerable and in need.

They have a welcome tendency to silence the proud argumentativeness and opinionated nastiness we are all too prone to expressing these days.

The reason is they reminds us that so much of what we think is all-important isn’t important at all in light of eternity.

Life is not found in winning political arguments or in posturing on Facebook.

It never has been found there and it never will be found in dominance, control, and temporal power.

Goodness That Lasts

But the good we first receive as sinners and then give out to others–that lasts.

It outlasts even death and is what we’ll be remembered on earth for long after we’re gone and rewarded by God on the day of Judgment.

The humbleness, lowliness, and brokenness we rediscover in the face of the unimaginable is pure gold for our souls.

It shrinks us down to size and reminds us all the answers are found close to the ground instead of in the high-altitude hi-jinks of our bloated, corrupt egos.

It motivates us to lend a hand up, to reach out instead of hunker down, to be there instead of isolating ourselves and insulating ourselves.

It’s the humble people who are the kindest, who express empathy and who meet practical needs without being paid or praised.

It is they who lend a shoulder to cry on, who are simply “there” when others want to get on with it, who are able to draw out the horror and the trauma and then gently pour tenderness and compassion and grace into the raw and ragged soul of the sufferer.

Buildings can be rebuilt but who will help rebuild the traumatized infrastructure of the soul?

You?  Me?  Us?

A Taste of Infinite Beauty

I was so privileged to be in the path of the total eclipse here in Oregon!

My family and I were transfixed by the darkening skies, the 360 degree dusk on the entire horizon, and the shocking sight of a black disc replacing a too-bright sun.

Then the corona with it’s neon pink area of solar flaring left us gaping.

All of us kept exclaiming, “Wow!”, “I’ve never seen anything like this!”, etc.

It was emotionally moving in a way few of us expected.

It was like being a child again.

The Toll of Human Ugliness

We live in ugly times.

We are surrounded by ugly attitudes, ugly words, ugly opinions, ugly actions, and ugly divisions.

They are incessant and unceasing.

All that moral air pollution calls forth our own inner ugliness as we join in, as we react with dismay and disgust, and then speak what we intensely feel without regard for others.

Ugliness within and ugliness without.

The slow poison of personal bitterness and chronic offense, of rage and corrosive vindictiveness, have sadly and undeniably taken their toll on us all.

Far too many of us have become, in spirit, the same foul things we so vociferously condemn in leaders, in those who are on the other side, etc.

Which is the greatest spiritual tragedy of all.

Diminished Capacity For Rapture

Beauty, true transcendent beauty that lifts us up, is in very short supply.

Our capacity to enjoy real beauty in real life has been eroded by grandiose special effects, by exposure to too much stimulation and cheap adrenaline highs, in our virtual entertainments.

We are bombarded by artificially-enhanced pictures of beautiful people in social media, in this pornified society we have erected for ourselves.

There is precious little left which can call forth genuine awe and wonder.

Not much can make us gasp in delight or catch us off guard with sheer loveliness.

As the ancient Israelite prophets were prone to saying, “Woe to us!”

How did these once wonder-loving children grow up to be such jaded, indifferent, benumbed adults?

The Path Back Towards Ecstasy

And, more importantly, is there a path back towards wonder, towards tenderness of heart and softness of soul, towards spiritual loveliness?

For me, the eclipse reminds me of a transcendent beauty above and beyond everything on earth, which predates the universe and which will outlast it.

There is an infinitity, a boundless center and source of all that’s good and lovely and true and right.

There is One in whose face we can behold an everlasting, limitless, perfect beauty that only grows more fascinating and fantastic with continued gazing.

In the natural glories and beauties of nature, in the wonderments He has built into the world around us, we catch glimpses of His all-loveliness and hear the invitation into endless ecstasy.

Ecstasy means “out of ourselves” in ancient Greek.

We’d use phrases like “beside ourselves in joy” and “out of body experience” to capture the same idea.

True, pure, undiminished beauty calls us outside of ourselves and, however briefly, causes us to take our eyes off of our miserable selves and look up and away and lose ourselves in marveling.

The transports of natural wonders are tiny invitations to behold the Source and Inventor of all true beauty:  the infinitely Perfect and All-Beautiful God.

The Invitation Stands

He invites us to truly know Him and enjoy Him forever in endless ecstasy and limitless wonder, as we were created to do.

It is our own selfishness and willfulness, our stubbornness and addiction to our injured ego and its agenda, our woundedness and obsessive complaining that block this.

It is our sins which prevent us from yielding up ourselves to this holy invitation and fling it back in His face.

The joy I continue to feel this week after the memory of the eclipse is fading is centered around the needed reminder that there is much more than this life, more than this present world order, more than my fallen sinful self.

It was not merely a reminder of what I had lost sight of, but a rare invitation to enter into the delights of intimacy with God and the thrill of His all-beauteous nature.

I needed it….badly.

And I suspect you do, too.

Disassociating Conservatism From Donald Trump

I have refrained from making direct comments about Charlottesville and President Trump’s response to it until now for two reasons:

1. Many, many others have already been raising their voices and saying what needed to be said far better than I could.
2. My own personal grief over the state of our nation, over the evil that has come out into the open and which operates with impunity, has made it difficult to speak.

Never a Trump Fan

I did not vote for President Trump for many reasons.

I never believed for a single moment he had the temperament to hold our highest office.

I never believed he had either the moral character or even the moral capacity to serve as a moral example to us all or as a moral leader of us all.

I was and am uncomfortable about the kind of people he attracted and the odd characters who surrounded him–they struck me as weird and strangely unbalanced.

I thought and continue to think he exhibits all the traits of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD).

More importantly, in Trump’s presidential campaign a long-dormant strain of conservatism–anti-foreigner and implicitly racist–which William F. Buckley and his magazine The National Review,  worked so tirelessly to eradicate from mainstream American conservatism, has resurrected itself.

Now a Stranger in a Strange Land 

Ronald Reagan best epitomized the kind of conservatism Buckley advocated–an optimistic, uniting, free-market championing, pro-law and order, equal opportunity for all, communism-opposing, traditional values-affirming “big tent” that felt like home to me and many others.

To be conservative was to be sensible, measured in statements, careful with money, and to value time-tested wisdom, treasured traditions and ways, and godly character.

Now the nation-first, isolationist, protectionist, racist ideology of former times has reared its ugly head.

The formerly underground and very marginal groups espousing these ideologies, thanks to Internet recruiting and publishing and to social media networking, have come out in the open with an infuriating swagger and a menacing impunity.

Many of their thoughts were echoed and repackaged by Donald Trump and by his campaign–to my utter chagrin and dismay.

The sad fact is Trump cannot disown them because, to some degree, he would be disowning himself and the message that carried him to power.

Though I was somewhat relieved the anti-God totalitarianism of the the Left was arrested by his win, I was under no illusions and fully expected that little good and great harm would be done during the Presidency of Donald Trump.

Worst Fears Coming To Pass

Sadly, I find my unhappy predictions more than sadly fulfilled.

Polarization and aggressive extremism are flourishing.

Room for any kind of rational, national discussion about any subject is shrinking–too many people are too afraid on too many levels for that to happen.

Room for passing any kind of legislation about anything is fast disappearing–too many bridges have been burned in too many quarters for that to happen.

Conservatism itself, which had broken free of its former association with white racism and nativist nationalism and anti-foreigner protectionism, is being reconnected to these evils again.

You know you’ve gone far astray when the ever sensible George Will can no longer be a Republican in good conscience!

Our president is greatly isolated at home and abroad, cannot reign in his narcissistic raging and mouthing off, and has alienated corporate America, the military, and the vast majority of elected Republicans holding office.

Such isolation does not bode well and lends itself to paranoia (everyone’s out to get me!) and volatility (Surprise! That’ll show them!).

Here is how Chris Cillizza of CNN, a person I rarely agree with, puts it:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/16/politics/donald-trump-crisis/index.html

How Reagan Conservatives Can Help

First, I think we have to accept this president will never “hear” whatever messages anyone is trying to send him.

So let’s speak to everyone and anyone else who will listen to us.

I think we’d all be better served if calm, conservative leaders led our society into taking a collective deep breath and into greater thoughtfulness and less reactivity.

Truth be told, everyone wants to conserve something precious in their life from the people and events that would destroy it.

We can therefore lose the defensiveness and insecurity and say things with a kindly smile.

Second, it’s time for the adults in the conservative room to step up and fill the moral vacuum.

Give us a winsome alternative vision of an opportunity-based, can-do conservatism.

Speak to people’s fears–reassure them and raise their eyes towards constructive endeavors that lift spirits and that fight despair.

Get back into the business of practical hope and of opportunity for all, and lose the bitterness.

Go Reagan on us.

Please.

Street Armies– A Threat to Democracy

[NOTE:  This blog was written in the brief period in between Donald Trump’s belated and tepid denunciation early Monday morning of far-right Neo-Nazi, KKK, and white supremacist groups, and his new statement late Tuesday afternoon blaming both sides for what happened in Charlottesville and making them morally equivalent–as if the far right was morally justified in killing a counter-protester.  In that period of time I thought there was some space to step back and say, “we have a dangerous, silently growing threat to our democracy at work.” My argument was thus about the militarization of political protests all across the USA by Internet-organized, armed extremist groups, which function now as travelling private armies, and the parallel between such a development and what happened in pre-Hitler Germany.   Both far right and far left groups have adopted this “organized violence” tactic, and both extremes are spoiling to fight each other, quickly recruiting new members, and engaging in more frequent and violent street battles.   To preserve democracy, I argue below that we need both mainstream parties to unite (as they never did in Wiemar Germany) to empower the Federal Government to disarm these private armies whenever and wherever they rear their ugly heads in public–regardless of their political doctrines or orientations. Donald Trump, on the other hand, continues to create moral space and show sympathy for the street armies on the far Right. Which poisoned all the waters again and closed any windows for bi-partisan action on this still unaddressed and growing problem.]

Few of us have heard of the Wiemar Republic.

But all of us Americans can and should learn some valuable lessons from it’s failings.

Parallels to Pre-Nazi Germany

I say this because there are some disturbing parallels between where we stand now, and where Germany once stood before Hitler came to power.

The Wiemar Republic was the representative democracy in Germany between the end of WW1 and the Nazi dictatorship in 1933.

In the final half decade before the Nazis gained power, civil authority had decayed and national politics was increasingly polarized between extreme Left and extreme Right, between the Communist Party and the Nazi Party.

The mainstream parties in the political center formed short, unstable ministries and were unable to enact policies or deal effectively with extremism on both sides of the spectrum.

For example, when Adolph Hitler tried to stage a military coup in the early 1920’s, he was jailed for a very short time and used his trial to become a celebrity in extreme Right wing circles.

Ineffectual Government

The Wiemar governments did not take their domestic enemies seriously, nor did they strongly address the violent, armed extremism happening openly in their society.

Worse still, in between “frequent elections that changed nothing”, they allowed a slow, steady breakdown of civil order.

Both Communists and Nazis (and other groups) had their own private armies to fill the vacuum, and these armies frequently engaged in running street battles–leading to a further breakdown of civil order and increasing insecurity that fed, you guessed it, the need for larger private armies.

These groups showed up itching to fight and did fight and kill each other time and time again.

These armies began as small, formed around a core of early supporters and extremists, and then grew exponentially under the charismatic leadership of their leaders.

And if you are inclined to disbelieve me, here is what the FBI is saying about the current state of armed, organized, extremist armies, and our local and national law enforcement’s inability to curb them:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/01/antifa-charlottesville-violence-fbi-242235

In the end, the political mainstream and all the parties in the Center were swallowed up.

The Democratic Socialists wanted to clamp down on the private Nazi army, and the Christian Democrats and Center Party wanted to clamp down on the private Communist army.

Yet both found these private armies on their own side to be useful in countering the extremists that their side feared and so they protected them.

So these parties in the middle ended up doing neither.

People Lost Confidence in the Centrist Parties

Under the duress of the Great Depression, more and more people voted for the Marxist and Fascist extremes as they lost confidence in the mainstream parties to represent them and/or solve the very difficult and distressing economic problems of Germany.

In the end, the Nazis fielded a far larger, more effective private army than the Communists.

And the Nazis, at least in theory, allowed for private property and were thus seen as preferable by the German business community to the collectivization and seizure of private property and all businesses they’d receive under communism.

So the parties on the mainstream right thought they could bring the Nazis into the government and “control them”.

The Nazis first outlawed the communists and socialists and disarmed them ruthlessly.

But then they turned on their duped allies on the mainstream Right.

So it was the mainstream Right who were then controlled and eliminated.

Hence, Hitler’s dictatorship and all the horrors that followed found their genesis in this slow, increasing, long-running civic breakdown and rise of private political armies.

Now We, Too, Have Private Armies of Extremists

What does this have to do with the USA right now?  On this week after the unconscionable events last Friday night and Saturday in Charlottesville, VA?

And, more importantly, what can to be done to arrest and reverse our slide into civic chaos?

Let’s start with the fact that there are now running street battles between armed groups of extremists across America–often happening where peaceful demonstrations are scheduled.

The Neo-Nazis and White Nationalist people on one extreme, and the Anarchists and Antifas (Anti-Fascists) on the other.

Here in Portland, peaceful anti-Trump demonstrations were repeatedly hijacked by the extreme Left Antifas and Anarchists who committed acts of violence and mass property destruction while the inept, offense-fearing civic authorities looked the other way.

Instead of making a separation between the two, and lowering the boom on the violent extremists, we ended up with mild sentences and/or easy acquittals plus a celebrity status for extremist street army heroes–as if they were just ordinary demonstrators.

Sound eerily familiar?

Differentiate Between Private Armies and Lawful, Peaceful Demonstrations

So the first item on the list is to ban the public assemblage of private, organized armed groups, and to differentiate them from peaceful, unarmed demonstrations.

And, for the sake of effectiveness, both the Fascist/White Supremacist and Marxist/Anarchist extremes must have their informal, private armies disarmed whenever they show up, and all their violent acts must be swiftly and strongly addressed without giving them time to escalate things.

It will not be enough to simply demonize and crack down on one extreme or the other.

Both Antifa Marxists and Anarchists, and Fascists and White Supremacists, must be addressed in concert to successfully address the problem of street fighting, of armed extremism, and of private armies.

Democrats and Republicans, our mainstream parties of the center, need to end their “unspoken deals with the devil” where extremism on their own side is seen as protective, justified, and useful for achieving certain goals–and thus shielded from legal consequences.

They conveniently let them do their dirty work, but disavow them and heap blame on the opposite side’s extremists (as Trump does).

But what we end up with is a culture of armed impunity and open menacing that provokes the other side into similar measures.

It’s a case of escalating, permitted lawlessness that feeds on itself–where we, the vast majority, all lose in the end.

Address Each Side’s Armed Extremists

Instead, each party clamps down on its own side’s armed, violent extremists, and both sides of the aisle do this consistently, coordinatedly, and clearly.

Republicans denounce, disown, and disarm the Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, etc.–even in Conservative areas and localities.

Democrats denounce, disown, and disarm the Antifas, Anarchists, Marxists, etc.–even in Progressive areas and localities.

Whenever they show up and brandish weapons at each other, even on “friendly soil”, any organized groups of armed extremists and their ringleaders get arrested and receive stiff sentences.

Pretty soon, it just doesn’t pay for any extremist private army to show up armed and, especially, to fight street battles.

The rule of law and civic order, and the space needed for peaceful protest and for respectful, effective civic dialog, will be fully restored.

Deprive Them of Causes

Beyond that, I think I would counsel both mainstream parties to do this one thing:   let sleeping dogs lie and stop initiating provocative acts and words.

For example, let’s have a moratorium on removing the aging, almost-forgotten Confederate statues and deprive “White Nationalist” extremists of a cause to rally around.

Instead, let’s build as many new statues as we want to MLK, or to Abe Lincoln, or whoever best represents our values today.

It’s much harder and less exciting to oppose the new than it is to fight against the removal of what’s old and cherished by each side’s extremists.

Of course, under Donald Trump the ultimate agent provocateur, the Republicans will have a much harder time doing this.

Wise and responsible voices in the GOP can raise their voices and enact legislation to mitigate the President’s damaging influence and to deescalate things in general on their side of the aisle.

But deescalation needs to be done.

Especially in the new age of mass social media and instant chain reactions we now live in.

Expect Them to Show Up and Take Decisive, Early Action

Finally, civic authorities need to fully prepare for the armed extremists who are now habitually showing up to peaceful, mainstream political demonstrations, and especially to demonstrations called by the other extreme.

Aggressively inspect for and confiscate on sight any and all the weapons they bring to demonstrations–guns, clubs, tasers, tear gas, etc.

Don’t sit back and adopt a passive approach until something truly terrible happens, as the police did with the Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists in Charlottestown.

Even liberal-minded Portland learned they couldn’t just turn a blind eye while the Anarchists ran amok and destroyed millions of dollars of property.

And, more importantly, the city’s civic authorities finally learned how to address armed extremism sooner rather than later, and how to spot the telltale signs of escalation and move swiftly to intervene proactively.

Forbidding and disarming any and all private political armies now at work can be done and must be done.

Unless we want to go the way of the Wiemar Republic.

Is War About to Happen?

I confess to tuning out both Donald Trump’s provocative tweets and Kim Jong-Un’s paranoid propaganda.

Until this past week.

Could This Be It?

Now I’m not so sure the North Koreans won’t do something really stupid with their nukes and/or missiles.

Something our prickly President cannot ignore and must use great force in response to their outrage.

And who can tell where it will escalate from there?

And I’ve seen enough documentaries about Hiroshima, and seen how even moderate levels of radiation and fallout can travel around the globe (Chernobyl and Fukushima), to really not want this scenario to happen.

There may well be rational reasons to start thinking the unthinkable right now: the likely use of nuclear weaponry in war.

But first, two beliefs must be examined.

Are All Wars Planned?

Most of us would like to think that almost all great wars take a long time to finally happen.

We’d like to believe they are the result of a long period of diplomatic failure and irreconcilable disagreements, then a gradual increase in public tension and mini-conflicts, and then a final precipitating outrage (like Pearl Harbor) leading to all-out war.

Something most can see coming a mile away.

Something as a last resort and avoided at all costs.

Something reserved only as a response to direct, premeditated attacks against our people and our soil.

False Comfort

It’s comforting to think that.

It allows us to go about our lives, unconcerned and oblivious.

But search the annals of human history and you will find wars quite often begin by accident, in ways few could foresee or easily predict beforehand.

The tensions and disagreements might be there for a long, long time.

But then national or tribal pride is suddenly and gravely offended, and one party goes to war against another.

A sneak attack.  A sudden raid.   A daring operation.  A outrageous strike.

World War 1 comes to mind, a chain of events that began with the sudden assassination of Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Ferdinand.

It provoked a fury that could not be assuaged and a set of extreme demands with a war threat that were impossible to meet.

Can All Wars Be Limited?

Most of us would like to think that wars can easily be limited to a certain level or to certain field of conflict.

It will be “over there” and “of limited nature”.

Again, World War 1 began as a regional dispute between Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire over that assassination.

Then each party’s allies took sides and sought to gain the upper hand before the other could strike, and soon all of Europe and most of the world was at war for 4 years.

We isolationist and pacifist Americans tried to stay out of it, but repeated outrages by the German Navy and intrigues by the German foreign office refused to let us do so.

During the Cold War, there was the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) doctrine of mass nuclear retaliation.

It gave the communist bloc and the capitalist West great reasons to limit their conflicts to small areas and to never resort to nuclear weapons in the first place.

But is that true anymore?  Especially of Jim Jong-Un and Donald Trump?

Again, the belief that wars can be easily limited within geographic limits, or by prior, mutual understandings between responsible powers, might not be a rational belief right now.

Time for Awareness and Urgent Prayer

Could it all turn out to be one of many false alarms?

Absolutely!

But North Korea is not terribly predictable or responsible–they love secrecy and scary surprises.

Their ruler is deeply insecure, irrationally stubborn, and paranoid in the extreme–yet a gambler.

And so is ours.

Pray that God would restrain the North Koreans from launching four ballistic missiles towards the U.S. Territory of Guam, as they now say they’re going to do.

Folks, we just don’t want to go there!

I end, however, with some wise, calm words from the past applied to our present situation:

http://breakpoint.org/2017/08/breakpoint-north-korea-nukes-and-president-trump/

More Important Than Politics

Jesus, the Apostles, and the early church didn’t spend much time discussing, debating, or arguing about Roman politics.

They didn’t campaign against Caesar, lobby for church-friendly policies, protest against the injustices of the Roman system, or take sides in any class or gender or national divisions.

The set up no political movements and had no economic agenda.

Not of This World System

In fact, Jesus, when confronting Pontius Pilate on the morning of His execution, explicitly said, “My kingdom is not of this world (order).  If it was, My servants would be fighting in the streets.” (John 18:36)

The word for “world” here is cosmos–the world super-system above all nations and cultures and societies on earth.

The kingdom of God, His kingdom, was not of the present world order nor was it a part of the system.

It is going to overthrow the entire world system once and for all.

It will physically replace the world system in the future, and is already working right now to replace it spiritually in an underground, secret, person-to-person way (Matt. 13).

Thus, His kingdom was and is above and beyond all times and places and personalities and political entities and transnational movements.

In Opposition to the World System

From this point of view, both socialism and capitalism, both nationalism and internationalism, both traditionalism and anti-traditionalism, both conservatism and progressivism are just as much part of the world system as their opposite.

They are part of a temporary, corrupt order that “lies in the lap of the evil one”. (1 John 5:19)

So absolute is the opposition between His kingdom and world system that we are told, “whoever loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15b)

And we, His followers, are commanded to not love the world system, or the things the world system has to offer us (1 John 2:15a)

The reason is simple:  “This world is passing away, and also its lusts.  But the one who does the will of the Father lives forever.” (1 John 2:17)

Christ Himself was offered all the kingdoms of the world and their glory at His temptation by Satan, and refused to worship the enemy when offered this bribe (Matt 4; Luke 4).

The enemy even boasted that “they are mine and I give them to whomever I wish.” (Luke 4:6)

So it is little wonder that, when faced with a similar choice, the early Christians followed their Lord in refusing all invitations to be co-opted by the system or to sell out to it.

Souls Trump Money Matters

Similarly, when asked the loaded question about paying taxes to Caesar, Jesus requested a coin and asked, “Whose likeness and inscription are on this coin?”

When told, “Caesar’s”, He made the timeless response, “Then give back to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but to God what belongs to God.” (Matt. 22:21)

Caesar minted this money and had every right to have it back.

But God made human beings in His image, and had the right to receive us back in our worship and service–the totality of our lives and our overriding love and loyalty.

The system could have its money back, but Christ wanted the souls and hearts and minds of transformed, born-again followers who would create a parallel, growing new kind of humanity under the noses of the powers that be.

And the State, however great its powers, had neither the ability to make souls nor the rightful authority to claim ownership over a single human soul.

Yet the latter is exactly what every State and dictator and boss and movement and system wants to do!

So we simply refuse to give them our souls and give our ultimate loyalty to Christ not them.

Roman Outrage and Fright

Little wonder then that the power-worshiping authorities reacted with outrage and fierce opposition to this teaching.

If Christianity had been just another political movement or religious cause-carrying group, they would have been opposed but not seen as an existential threat by the Imperial authorities.

What scared the powers that be was the kingdom of God made their entire position, their entire system, irrelevant and downgraded them into ultimate insignificance.

The Christians had another, higher, far better and eternal citizenship “in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) and looked forward to the return of the world-conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19).

When faced with those who had eternal life and, for whom, death had no threat and this life had nothing of eternal value, the State was powerless.

There was nothing they could give or take away that would sway these people, these Christ-followers who sang at their execution and whose calmness unnerved the crowds.

And, in light of their exemplary moral behavior and legendary works of charity for people and groups the Empire neglected or mistreated, the system lost all credibility and was exposed as the corrupt, immoral, soul-enslaving travesty that it was.

This “kingdom of God through Jesus” movement was both infuriating and frightening to the pagan elites and imperial high-ups–confounding and subverting them so subtly, so totally.

How Far We Have Fallen

Contrast this impact with American Evangelicalism’s conservative and progressive wings!

For example:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/450200/hillary-ghost-haunts-evangelicals-prompts-trump-support

We are so caught up in moral-political-economic-social battles on both Left and Right that it begs the question:

Where does our ultimate loyalty lie?

Which citizenship trumps which–our heavenly or earthly citizenship?  Kingdom of God or the world system?

That’s not to say we can’t help the helpless or use all democratic means available to protect the vulnerable or resist immorality and aggressive paganism.

It is to say that, truth be told, we have allowed our faith and our belief system to be infiltrated and co-opted by the very world system we are so strongly warned against.

Unlike Jesus, we are fighting in the streets.

And that means something is amiss, something is out of order, something is at variance from how He described His followers who are part of His kingdom, and us.

And something is called, “political idolatry”.

Must Everything Be Political?

Am I the only one who thinks politics has bled into too many other areas of life?

Political Sports and the Backlash

I ask this question because, of all things, what Colin Kaepernick is experiencing.

No NFL team will hire him as their quarterback, despite his record with the San Francisco 49ers.

USA Today recently published an article where other NFL players cite racism as the reason he has not found a place on any other team:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/columnist/bell/2017/08/02/richard-sherman-colin-kaepernick-baltimore-ravens/534922001/

I understand the point of view, and perhaps there is more than a little merit to it.

But may I suggest something different at work?

I think lots of sports fans, myself included, would simply like to keep sports apolitical.

We see politics belonging to another, limited sphere of life, and we crave spaces and places in life where politics doesn’t intrude itself.

We just want to watch an athletic contest without thinking about Black Lives Matter or social activism or “the system”.

And I think a lot of sports fans, myself included, don’t want to be thinking about which players are standing, sitting, or kneeling whenever the national anthem is played at the beginning of games.

And, it goes without saying, keep respect for our flag and American traditions ordinary and normal and everyday and mundane.

Is it too much to ask that sports be exclusively about sports?

Political Entertainment and the Backlash

18 months ago, I attended a comedy night with a guest Hollywood comedian at my son’s college orientation weekend.

And the guy spent half the night, not telling jokes, but telling us how to vote and pushing Hilary Clinton on us.

We weren’t laughing.

It went over like a lead balloon.

Again, we weren’t there to tune into the election, but to enjoy a fun activity on a weekend bringing us together at a key life moment.

But, typical of his profession and LA ethos, it seems like actors and actresses and comedians and artists feel duty-bound to tell us how to vote, shame us for voting wrong, and infuse all of entertainment with politics.

I just tune them out and hold these politicizing celebrities and entertainers in scorn.

Why?

Because, again, entertainment isn’t about politics but about beauty and story and imagination and celebration and diversion and humor.

Or at least it used to be.

I think a great many of us would like our entertainment to be apolitical.

We have reached a saturation point and an overload point.

Political Education and the Backlash

Then, in my locality at least, we’re finding that politics has intruded into the local public school system in a way it never used to do.

We had a big group of school teachers wear black in their classrooms on the day after the election–even at an elementary school level.

When my circle of friends heard about this– we reacted with disgust.

Why?

Because, crazy at it seems, we want the education of our children to be largely apolitical.

We don’t want it to be about issue advocacy, or political activism, or the indoctrination of our kids into progressive causes or agendas.

To me and to us, it strikes us as educational abuse–especially at the elementary school level–and an intrusion into and contradiction of the role of parents.

The politicization of our local schools sets a terrible precedent, feels communistic, and destroys the broad consensus public education once enjoyed.

If the school system is no more and no less a political indoctrination center, and if all our teachers are simply educator-advocate-activists, how will that not end up antagonizing those of us who disagree and polarizing things still further?

Again, must every single institution and every area of life be all politics, all the time?

I say let’s depoliticize public education and as many public institutions as we can and as many areas of life as we can!

Political Religion and the Great Betrayal

Then there’s the church.

And time for the shoe to be on the other foot.

In response to the liberal propensity to politicize every institution and all of popular culture, many of us Evangelical believers have responded by politicizing our churches.

And as worthy as our causes are, I wonder if, in the long run, we are doing God and His Word and His gospel message a huge disservice by politicizing our congregations and subordinating everything to advancing conservative political agendas and candidates.

Or, to put it differently, the kingdom of God has it’s own politics that are fundamentally at odds with and, ultimately, working to overthrow the world system and all its political expressions on the Right and the Left.

Instead of fighting left wing politicization with right wing politicization, and losing our identities and our souls in the process, I think it is time for a far more subversive and revolutionary approach.

Which is reverting to the New Testament approach.

It’s working to extend the reign of King Jesus in heart after heart after heart in an underground, under-the-radar people movement the changes things from the bottom-up.

It is utterly transforming one heart at a time and seeing people become “new creatures in Christ” and part of a brand new human society, the Church.

We’re not trying to make the structures and values of this present order more just, more righteous, more fair, or more equal.

That agenda is a fool’s errand and doomed, ultimately, to utter frustration.

God instead is creating a brand new human race, and the fallen world order and powers that be are on their last legs and soon to be entirely replaced.

More on that counter-message and counter-agenda the next time…