Because some folks read one blog and not the other, I'm posting this on both blogs - I have wrestled with this for months and months.
Robert L. Withers, August 28, 2020
For the past few years, as I’ve
been observing the polarization and fragmentation of our society, and the
societies of the world, I’ve grappled with words and images to describe what
I’m seeing. One of my favorite words since around 2005 has been “tsunami”, for
this word conveys sudden and chaotic destruction. Undersea earthquakes hundreds
of miles away can visit destruction and death and disorientation on the
unsuspecting.
There is another phenomenon which
I’ve been observing, for which I have no one word but rather a term borrowed
from the Cold War, “mutual assured destruction.” This was the Cold War doctrine
that if the superpowers each had enough nuclear weapons to destroy our planet
many times over that they would not dare initiate nuclear war. What did not
happen in the Cold War is happening within our society, and I frankly think the
church (a term I use loosely) is an enabler of this insanity.
What do I mean?
Let me begin with the political
climate in the United States. Politics has always been hardball and ugly, a
serious student of history knows that for every bright and shining moment in
government and politics that there might be ten moments that make one ethically
and morally sick. Today we have a situation in Washington, D.C. in which it
appears that the avowed goal of both political parties is to destroy the
opposition. Not only that, but within each political party there are factions
whose agendas seem to be the elimination of their ideological opponents
within their own parties.
The notion of compromise, of
reasoned discussion, of give-and-take, has itself become a target of
elimination by both parties.
The excesses of the party in
power, whether in the White House, the Senate, or the House of Representatives,
are surpassed when the party out of power gains the supremacy – then it is
payback time. Thus, I find the term “mutual assured destruction” an apt description
of the escalation of what payback time looks like. This abdication of moral
leadership on the part of both parties, and of the church (which I’ll address
below), is propelling us into an abyss from which it is doubtful we will
recover. We will likely have the moral equivalent of a nuclear winter. I am reminded of the title of a book written
some years ago by Dr. Richard Swenson, Hurtling Ourselves Into Oblivion
– this is what we are culturally doing, politics being the particular rocket
that I am focused on in this reflection.
Political and social “mutual
assured destruction” is not without precedent, it reaches at least as far back
at the Roman Republic. In his book, The Storm Before the Storm – The
Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic, Mike Duncan makes the following
observation and quotes Gaius Sallustius Crispus (86 – 35 B.C.) on the political
dynamics that led to the Roman Republic’s demise and the rise of the dictatorial
Caesars:
“But though there were not formal
parties, it is true that there were now two broadly opposing worldviews
floating in the political ether waiting to be tapped as needed. As the crisis
over the Lex Agraria [land reform legislation] revealed, it was no
longer a specific issue that mattered so much as the urgent necessity to
triumph over rivals. Reflecting on the recurring civil wars of the late
Republic, Sallust said, ‘It is this spirit which has commonly ruined great
nations, when one party desires to triumph over another by any and every means
and to avenge itself on the vanquished with excessive cruelty.’ Accepting
defeat was no longer an option.” [Italics mine].
Duncan observes that in the late
Roman Republic “it was no longer a specific issue that mattered so much as the
urgent necessity to triumph over rivals.” This is what we have come to in
the United States. We have abandoned long-term thinking for short-term
victories. We have hardened ourselves across the political spectrum against the
suffering and needs of others as we look to vanquish our opponents. The term
“culture war” is an apt term indeed, but we ought to expand it to, “a culture
war of mutual assured destruction.” Many of those leading this war have their
economic bomb shelters which they think make them invulnerable, impervious to
the spiritual and moral nuclear winter descending on humanity – they are the wolves
licking the knife bathed in blood, their insatiable appetites will consume
them.
Through all of this, the professing
church has been an enabler through its identification with political parties, by
identifying with competing worldly worldviews, and by the abdication of its
Biblical mandate to be “in the world but not of the world”, to be seeking a
City whose builder and maker is God. We are called to be witnesses to Jesus
Christ, not advocates for a political party or for a worldly worldview – and
when we are seduced into adopting a view of life and of the world that is other
than a Biblical view – which all sub-Christian views necessarily are, then we
exchange the glory of God for the glory of man, God’s vision for man’s vision.
In the United States, our
syncretistic civil religion, with its blend of pseudo-patriotism and
Christianity, is particularly seductive. While there are professing – Christians
who lament political correctness and the thought police, many of those same
Christians are quick to condemn the notion that we are a deeply sinful nation
with an ingrained sinful past, and that Christians are citizens of heaven
(Philippians 3:20) before we are citizens of anywhere else. (I will
mention that the concept of dual citizenship is not helpful here, for there can
be no parity in our thinking or dual allegiance in our hearts, “no one can
serve two masters”).
The Church is not called to take
sides in culture wars, doing so pulls us down into the toxic morass of the
present age. We are called to bear witness to Jesus Christ, to be His faithful
Bride (not the harlot of an element of the world-system – no matter how
attractive it may appear – note what happens to harlots in Revelation 17:16).
The Church is called to be separate and distinct from the war of mutual assured
destruction swirling around it.
The people of the world; our
families, friends, neighbors, coworkers; need to hear us speak from heaven, not
from earth. The world needs us to wear the white linen of the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, not the red and blue garments of political parties.
In the war of mutual assured
destruction, we are called to be peacemakers (Matthew 5:9), agents of
reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:20), and medics on the battlefield (Matthew 5:43
– 48).
Consider these words from John
the Baptist (John 3:29 - 30):
“He who has the bride is the
bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him,
rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has
been made full. He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.”
And then of Paul (2 Corinthians
11:2 – 3):
“For I am jealous for you with a
godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I
might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent
deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Let me be straightforward here;
pastors, priests, elders, deacons, evangelists, church leaders, are called to
wed the Church to Jesus Christ in a monogamous marriage, a pure marriage, a
holy marriage. The “Christian” leader who in any way suggests and encourages
God’s People to dye the white linen of Jesus Christ with the colors of this
world, including blue or red, is not acting as a friend of the Bridegroom. (There
are many other colors we could include here, including green – the color of
money - one of the gods of our pantheon).
Dear friends, the people of the
world need us to bear witness to Jesus Christ, not political or economic or
social agendas. They need the Church to demonstrate the Gospel and what
it is to love one another as Christ loves us, they need to see us actually
living in community across ethnic, racial, socio-economic, political, and
educational barriers…yes, even nationalistic barriers.
There are two women portrayed
throughout the Bible; the harlot, and the Bride of Christ (Proverbs Chapter 9,
Revelation Chapter 17; 19:7 – 10; Chapter 21).
Which one are we?
