The culture and political wars have not excluded even the evangelical churches. In a recent article Tim Roberts in The Atlantic, writes about his small home town Brighton, Michigan, where in one church the pastor spends time railing against the “liberals” who have seized American society, vaccinated children, and banished God from “our lips.”
There is no talk or preaching about helping the poor, healing the sick, or even Jesus’ message of nonviolent resistance to evil. Another pastor sadly commented that the “crisis of the Church is a crisis of discernment.” Evangelicals, he said, had come to value power over integrity.
Brighton is just an example of evangelical Christians who once looked at politics in the context of their faith now look at faith in the context of their politics. This is not just sad. It is tragic because the although Jesus was clearly “political,” that is, he stood against power that would destroy people, his politics was one of liberating us from the powers that would oppress us.
Prayer for the Day
Called to preach and live a Gospel of welcome and inclusion,
We hear calls of misinformation and polarizing anger;
Indeed, O God, we fear your Gospel of justice and mercy
Is being subverted into a call for violence and inequality.
Help make us communities of faith discerning your truth,
The truth that goes beyond narrowness of vision and hate.
In the name of the One who opens his arms to all,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
God was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own ... by a corrupt church, a timid politician, and a fickle proletariat led by professional agitators.
- Dorothy L. Sayers, English crime novelist (1893-1957)
The Spirit of God doesn’t work where there is division, and what we want today is the spirit of unity amongst God’s children, so that the Lord may work.
- Dwight L. Moody, American Evangelical (1837-1899)
For wisdom, the fashioner of all things, taught me.
There is in her a sprit that is intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, clear,
Unpolluted, distinct, invulnerable, loving the good, keen, irresistible, beneficent,
Humane, steadfast, sure, free from anxiety, all-powerful, overseeing all.
Wisdom of Solomon 7:22-23