The Statist Left is Co-opting the Church, part 3.

Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3
So here we are.  Let me give the disclaimer once more.  If you aren't experiencing these issues in your church or don't see it in your community, then I'm very happy for you.  I have a feeling you would have stopped reading before part 3 if that were the case, but if not I hope you'll keep reading for information or just to know what is going on in a large number of congregations.

So what can conservative Christians do?  I can only tell you what I have done and how it worked.  I had a chance to meet with a group of other men in my church on a regular basis.  Our group leader or someone else would pick a topic for the week, maybe with a handout or bible verses to discuss, etc.  We had a lot of great discussions and I grew to appreciate the fellowship we enjoyed from week to week.  I decided I would try to spur some discussion related to the role of the church so I asked the following: "Does The Church have a role in preserving American freedom?.  I knew it might make some uncomfortable since anything that can be perceived as "political" has become taboo in just about every situation.  Given that, I didn't pose the question until everyone was ready to leave at the end of the group but I did ask for them to give it some thought and reply to me in any way in which they were comfortable - e-mail, text, phone call, any method was fine.  I received no responses.  Zero.  Nothing. Needless to say, I was hoping for a different response.

The central issue with most of us is the simple truth that at our core, conservatives are not activists.  If we were, it wouldn't have taken the election of a left wing, statist ideologue like Barack Obama to inpsire the Tea Party movement.  Conservatives want to live our lives, raise our families, take care of our friends and relatives while many also serve in our communities and around the world to carry out the mission of the Church.  But when it comes to our government, we really don't like to demonstrate, protest, etc.  We would like to elect representatives who understand the limits of the federal government as proscribed in The Constitution, then let them govern on our behalf while protecting our individual liberty.  Unfortunately, there are many we do elect who either don't understand statesmanship or are simply so drunk with power, they ignore the solemn responsibility with which they have been entrusted.

So what do we do?  I, like many others, feel completely marginalized - to borrow a popular word used by the leftists - in my own church.  Conservatives who value the founding of this country have to find a way to have the difficult conversations with those in their social circles, workplaces and especially churches.  Just be prepared for what may happen.  Friends and co-workers may see you differently and act differently around you.  I'd like to tell you having the facts, history and common sense on your side would make the difference - that you will convince people to change their minds on the spot.  I'd be lying if I told you that was the case.  Confronted with the facts, liberals and leftists usually get emotional.  After all, when you don't have the facts, history or common sense on your side, what do you have left other than raw emotion?  It's almost like your relying on "hope" and "change" isn't it?  We have to force the hand of all these people, even friends, because the conversation itself is worth having! It's worth having because there is a chance you may be the one that makes someone think twice before pulling the lever for a committed statist like Barack Hussein Obama a second time.  It's worth having because if we can change the minds of a few, one vote at a time, it could turn the tide.  It's worth having because we have remained silent for too long, allowing ourselves to be bullied by political correctness.  It's worth having because we must be articulate when defending our founding principles. It's worth having because our kids must not be a part of the first generation in the history of our republic to have a lower standard of living than the generation before.  It's worth it because our kids will never hear our founding principles articulated, much less defended, at school.

Talk to your kids, your friends, your co-workers.  Be assertive, but respectful even when they are not.  Be optimistic and hopeful, even when they are pessimistic and defeatist.  Be adamant about the inherent greatness of America and the miracle of our founding, even when they will say our founders got it wrong and we need "fundamental transformation".  Explain how conservatives want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy the bounty of this country while the statists will divide us and pit us against one another for the growth and enrichment of the state (rich vs. poor, black vs. white, latino vs. black, gay vs. straight and on and on).  Let them know that we are for legal immigration that demands assimilation rather than isolation.  Be forceful in your defense of individual freedom with church members even when they have been taught that is not what Jesus would want.  Be confident when stating the facts about who really pays most of the taxes in this country and that taxation by a secular bureaucracy does not equal charity.  Be certain in your stance that a country without defended borders is not one that can survive.  Be unshakable as you fight the cliches of the left with reason and intellect.

Let the liberals spout nonsense like "I'm going to vote for someone that looks the most like Jesus" while you treat others as Jesus has instructed.  Let the liberals respond with emotion while you remain steadfast and reasonable.  Let the liberals explain how statism has worked in any setting in the history of the planet while you proclaim the absolute virtue and righteousness of individual freedom.  Let the liberals rationalize how our defense spending must be cut while you demonstrate how United States remaining the lone superpower in the world makes the world a safer, better place.  Let the liberals demand we give more and more to the state to help the poor around the world while you demonstrate that real Christian charity is a personal matter.  Let the liberals quote "I am my brothers keeper", while you politely remind them the President's own brother lives in a slum in Kenya.

 Look at the popular vote margins in presidential elections these days and you will see how few votes it would actually take to swing an election.  The time is now for us all to act.  We can do this one changed vote at a time.  Even if we can only give them pause and make them think, if only temporarily, about their intellectually vacant positions, it is what we must do.  If we do not, and this brand of statism is allowed to take hold in the next four years, we may not be able to fight back.  We will wake up on the morning of November 7th in a far different country.  Some changes will be immediate while others will slowly creep into our daily lives until our voices are no longer enough to affect change and save the greatest, freest society in the history of humanity.

As Samuel Adams once said:

"No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused and Virtue is preserved. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders."

We are the ones who must "diffuse" this knowledge.  The government run schools will not.  Sadly, many of our churches will not.  Our constitutionally protected media will not.  We must, and we must do it now.  In the days leading up to this election, be prayerful and decisive.  Each of us must take upon our shoulders in a personal way, the mantle of freedom with which we have been blessed.

The Statist Left is co-opting the Church, part 2.

Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3
How did we get here?  It's amazing...in a relatively short time the Church, without which the outcome of the American Revolution could have been significantly different, has become the 'useful idiots' in the war on American Freedom and individual liberty.  The name Black Robed (or Robe) Regiment was given by the British as an epithet to describe the group of clergy who actively preached about the righteous cause of the Revolution.  We don't realize this now, of course - there aren't many good movies or historically accurate You Tube videos on the Revolution and only those who devote more than casual study to it ever learn how dangerously close we were to completely losing the will of the people.  The British were terrorizing the colonies using every possible tool at their disposal from imposing economic hardships on the colonists to murdering any who openly opposed the King.  It was as bad as you can imagine and there was no mass communication, no video clips of laser guided bombs taking out enemy encampments with surgical precision to buoy the spirits of the people, only the occassional messenger who would deliver news of the war from the front.  I'm convinced the outcome would have been in jeopardy had it not been for this group of brave patriots known as the "Black Robed Regiment".  As historian Christopher Hamner of George Mason notes, "By encouraging the Patriot cause, those ministers helped muster critical support among members of their congregation —support the British begrudgingly acknowledged as vital to maintaining the colonists' frustrating resistance to British attempts to restore Parliamentary rule."  (click here to read more from Professor Hamner).  In other words, rallying public opinion in favor of fighting a just war against the oppressive British government was crucial in securing the "blessings of liberty".  How have we now arrived at the point in the "evolution" of the church where a radical leftist concept like "social justice" is now preached as if it is a biblical concept?  Where something like "the pursuit of happiness" from the greatest founding document in human history is taken out of context to somehow imply our founders were just concerned with a hedonistic existence devoted to feeling good?
The answer to me is simple, but not easy.  As has been attributed to Alexis de Toqueville:

"I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her comodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies; and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast commerce, and it was not there. Not until I visited the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."  

So I ask you, are our pulpits still "aflame with righteousness"?  Some, of course, still are.  In general, however, visiting many churches in America today can look more like a rock concert, peace rally or social justice lecture - President Obama's pastor, black liberation theologian Jeremiah Wright, is an expert on this and hating America.  Don't misunderstand, it is not my assertion that the Church or its pastors should be cheerleaders for a particular party or government official.  I do assert however, that if the Church is not using its moral authority to emphatically defend and even champion the principles of individual liberty as laid out in our founding documents, they are failing miserably and will become nothing more than the "opiate of the people", simply keeping us busy with social causes and feel good activities while the greatest free society in the history of the planet simply withers away.  Moreover the Church will be completely ignoring the divine connection between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  Doing so will lead to the Church becoming less and less relevant in our daily lives, especially to those who pay attention to and study history. 

If you're now thinking I've gone off the rails believing the Church should promote individualism, consider life outside the United States, past or present, in countries where their constitutions grant some form of liberty that springs forth from man, not God.  That is, a society whose citizens are governed not by natural law or the laws of God, but solely on the whim of the ruling class at any point in time.  This is a critical distinction and one I believe some in the Church today don't fully appreciate or even understand.  When Constitutional Conservatives promote individual liberty and stress its importance in our lives, it is not in the context of the church community.  It is an ideal solely concerning the relationship of the citizen to the government.  For example, I've heard the term "rugged individualism" used in a negative light several times as a jumping off point in messages or sermons that support Christians being part of a church community.  I can only assume the belief is that rugged individualism is somehow in conflict with the church's concept of joining together in a community.  This is the same kind of false logic used when President Obama characterizes capitalism as "you are on your own" economics.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I completely agree that God does not want us to be alone in the struggle to carry out the Great Commission or even in the day-to-day work the Church does around the world to feed the poor, shelter the homeless or take care of those who have fallen on hard times.  It is evident in teachings of Jesus Christ and the manner in which he chose to carry out his ministry - showing us the way to join with each other!  This is not arguable.  However, when misguided pastors extend this kind of "community" talk to include our relationship as citizens to our government - either implicitly or explicitly, they are perpetuating a dangerous myth and displaying a complete lack of knowledge of the miracle of our founding.  

What I see more often than not, is a watered down version of core Christian principles to make them more palatable to those in the congregation.  Even the Church, after all, is not immune to modern political correctness.  Pastors rarely mention politics and when they do it is usually accompanied by some disclaimer that will equally insult (or placate) both conservatives and liberals - as if there is suddenly a reporter at the podium worried about "balanced" coverage.  This is what allows politicians to invoke the name of Jesus Christ and bastardize his teaching to their end of expanded central government.  Here is one recent disingenuous quote from President Obama:

“When I talk about shared responsibility, it’s because I genuinely believe that in a time when many folks are struggling, at a time when we have enormous deficits, it’s hard for me to ask seniors on a fixed income, or young people with student loans, or middle-class families who can barely pay the bills to shoulder the burden alone,” Mr. Obama said. “If I’m willing to give something up as somebody who’s been extraordinarily blessed, and give up some of the tax breaks that I enjoy, I actually think that’s going to make economic sense.” He added, “But for me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’ teaching that ‘for unto whom much is given, much shall be required.’ It mirrors the Islamic belief that those who’ve been blessed have an obligation to use those blessings to help others, or the Jewish doctrine of moderation and consideration for others.”

If you remember when he made those comments in February (2012) there was no national outcry from our church leaders.  There was a smattering of comments from some clergy but no outrage as there should have been.  The fact that we have allowed this to happen with regularity over the past few years is disgusting.  There is simply no biblical support (not even Mathew 22:21 - read the historical context) for this concept.  We have allowed the left to control the narrative in the mass media for so long and with so little resistance that the above statement by our President (and many others) goes unchallenged by our church leaders.  Instead, more and more, paying taxes is equated with charity. As if the concept of sacrificial giving, a common and recurring theme throughout the Bible, can be replaced by a temporary politician's view of what is "your fair share" (for the truth about who really pays most of the taxes in the U.S. click here).  The damage this has done to our society can't be overstated.  Not only does it grow the size of government to proportions not seen in history, it also takes money out of the private economy that could be used in a much more targeted and efficient way by our churches to help those in need in our communities and around the world.  It has nothing to do with greed or selfishness or the latest term used by the left - "Social Darwinism".  It is very simply a belief that in a republic such as the United States, the easiest way for the government to control the people is through taxation.  This is why taxes must be as low as possible to fund the legitimate functions of government.  Can we debate what those legitimate functions should be?  Of course, which is why we have elections and is also why the church has a role in shaping the opinions of believers. 

I began this article by asking how we got here.  This is it ladies and gentlemen.  Apathy and inaction have been the rule for too long.  As the great Edmund Burke said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." We will all decide either by choice or by chance what our role is in what happens next. As for me, I will delve into this topic in part 3 of this series.

The Statist Left is co-opting the church, part 1.

Part 1  |  Part 2  |  Part 3
Something has changed.  Our churches, once devoted to educating seekers in the truth of Jesus Christ, are slowly being transformed into incubators of big government statists.  In many ways this has been a slow and deliberate process.  Just in the past decade or so many churches, including the one of which I am a member, designed for "seekers" became very popular.  And although we were already Christians, my wife and I found a place in this, our new church home.  However, this is not specifically about me or my church but rather of the Church as the body of Christ.

This seeker-friendly movement was, in most ways, an amazing development.  Churches that would meet people on their level just as Christ did, not expecting any special knowledge of rituals, proper dress or any prerequisite knowledge of the Bible.  Just show up and take in the experience.  This would hopefully lead to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and more involvement in carrying out Christ's mission throughout the community.  Feeding the hungry, taking care of the poor, spreading the word of the Grace of God (not a comprehensive list, but you get the idea).  All things Christ commanded his people to do.  And to a large degree, they do have that effect.  People who were never involved at any level in a church before are now doing the heavy lifting in ministry's in our local communities and around the world.  This is a huge success in my humble opinion.

Something began to change in the early 2000's.  Thinking back on it now, I can see how it is not a big leap to make the connection between the church's mission and the progressive agenda of the statist left and why churches designed for seekers, would be more susceptible to it than other more traditional forms of worship.  You can see how a more liberal person would be drawn to such a church.  After all, you get to worship on Sunday morning with what is usually a good band, hear a very professional speaker give a message and are provided with many opportunities for community service type projects both locally and around the world in some cases.  All these things make a liberal feel very good.  So in a way, it's just an extension of what they believe the government should do for everyone - that is function as the all-caring nanny of all citizens.  Whether you agree with me or not on the assessment of the liberal attitude, stay with me, this is not the focus here.

My first experience with this was at a function for a particular ministry that provided food to the hungry.  The event was at a friends house and was very casual with lots of food and conversation.  The two people in our church that were in charge of the food pantry showed up to the event wearing "Kerry/Edwards" ball caps.    Beyond the obvious question I've always had of how in the world Christians can support liberals for political office (a question for a different article), I wondered what they were actually thinking.  After all if your goal is to collect as much as possible for the ministry you represent and get new volunteers involved, why would you want to alienate people with a political message?  This is the heart of the issue.  The simple truth I've come to understand is liberals are liberals first and everything else a distant second.  Even if it means violating tenets of their faith to support so-called "pro-choice" candidates, alienating potential participants in their ministry or supporting the government takeover of the intended role of the Church on Earth.  This is not arguable.  History is my guide here.  We have seen it over and over again.

Since that incident there have been many more instances where messages delivered from the pulpit have, either through flawed analogies our outright false premises, attacked the very foundations of the great American experiment.  In a particularly frustrating sermon, near the beginning of the operation to liberate Iraq, our lead pastor actually quoted the Taliban.  That's right, the Taliban.  He referenced a video in which some murderous pieces of human debris were lecturing the viewer on why America caused all the problems in the world - which is the favorite topic of every islamo-fascist video along with Ron Paul supporters evidently.  Behind the cowards speaking in the video was a banner stating "Think America, why does the world hate you.".  After the initial shock wore off, I almost walked out of the service but decided to grit my teeth an make it through to the end.  I've spent a lot of time over the years thinking about that seminal moment.  Mainly because the pastor whose sermons I had to come to look forward to because they were more like a really good professor's lecture series had become more of a political indoctrination and I was saddened by this to no end.  When my family began attending this church, I didn't necessarily agree with every point he made, but I always left having been challenged both intellectually and spiritually.  With one single phrase, he had managed to destroy all that and insure I would never hear his messages in the same light again.  Even if it had been an off-the-cuff remark made emotionally I wouldn't understand it.  Considering this was a rehearsed sermon from notes, makes it so much worse.  That someone could prepare a message, rehearse it and still be able to deliver that line with passion and sincerity is beyond the pale and shows a dangerous lack of understanding of America's place in the world.  I simply cannot get past that statement.

While this is the most blatant example I can provide, I've noticed since then attacks keep coming and not just from this particular pastor.  Usually, they are more subtle.  Negative references to ideals like "rugged individualism" or "the pursuit of happiness" are commonplace.  Again, either due to a lack of knowledge or understanding of those principles or a willingness to use them to make false analogies.  It doesn't matter to me which although I would hope it's not a purposeful attempt to sway people using factually incorrect data or prey on peoples emotions to elicit a visceral response.

You may have seen this in your church.  If not, I am very happy for you.  If you have, you're probably wonder why this is happening.  How can otherwise Godly men and women be so flagrantly misrepresenting some of the core principles of the greatest nation in human history which our founders belived was divinely inspired and ordained? I'll delve more deeply into that in Part 2 - How Did This Happen?