Special to United Methodist Insight
I begin these remarks confessionally.
My heart is tempted to open these remarks with the claim that Christian faith has been overtaken and bent in subservience to the will of those with malicious intent. Not a bad hook, is it? It has a ring to it and may just keep someone reading to the end. But the truth is that I imagine such a claim being met with stifled yawns and silent eyes rolled upward in dismissal. In my mind’s eye it is as though I am home with my once adolescent twins, who had a natural gift of looking up at me in mute disbelief at my utter cluelessness. Even so, the temptation remains, and I succumb.
OK. Let’s not kid ourselves. That religion has been manipulated by corrupt and evil people is not news. Indeed, it’s business as usual; standard operating procedure. For centuries, religions the world over have been co-opted by the cultures in which they exist. Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity; all have met with the relentless attempts of culture to overwhelm and absorb. And of course, “Resistance,” as the Star Trek Borg drones repeat, seems apparently “futile.”
But this is not a time for beating our chests for having sold our faith so cheaply. It is a time for clarity, a moment of confession.
Our national life today, is chillingly similar to the situation faced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church during the years of Nazi rule in Germany. During those days, Brown Shirts marched, not unlike the “Proud Boys” of today. Ovens incinerated millions, and a world war was raging. German churches were draped in swastikas with the majority of clergy and church members going along in mute if not eager acquiescence. It was only a small minority who refused to remain silent, and who became the “Confessing Church.” In that time and place, Pastor Bonhoeffer and his small band of faithful were the Church. They continued, no matter what to claim Christ as Lord over all.
I believe that such a time has come upon us in the United States. The so-called religious right has risen up to embrace a politics of narcissistic arrogance and a religion of law without grace. Their huckster leader hawks Bibles signed by him, and lying has become a new form of public art. The words of Isaiah describe today’s reality very well. “The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their path. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace. Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us; we wait for light, and lo there is darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom (Isaiah 59:8-9).”
Indeed, the time for waiting is past. The time for gloom is over. Now is a time when we are called to truly be the church, to be the light of hope and new life, no matter what it may cost.
This is not a moment for reasoned debate. This is about separating the “wheat from the chaff" (Luke 3:17). It is about making a renewed effort to stand, not for a planned agenda of brutal political and quasi-religious hegemony, but for compassion, justice, and peace; for the transformative love of God in Christ Jesus.
A call for clarity
So it is that these words are offered as a call for an emerging clarity on the part of Christians within the United Sates. It is a call for a new birth of understanding about a commitment to faith and life that takes precedence over cultural and political allegiances. It is a plea to claim grace over law.
Jesus says that we can’t follow two masters, for we will “love the one and hate the other"(Matthew 6:24). Jesus is right. But what too few American Christians understand is that we long ago chose our master, and we didn’t choose Jesus. What we have done is to choose greed, lust and national love over grace and forgiveness. What we have done with a frightening intensity is to commit the sin of idolatry, worshipping the gods of nation, wealth, and self. We have allowed the toxic call to “Make America Great Again,” stand unchallenged by God’s call to faithfulness and justice. We have put our material gain and comfort before the needs of others. And we have participated, at the very least by silence and inaction, in the despoiling of the planet and the permanent state of war that murders millions of our sisters and brothers around the world.
The veracity of the foregoing is not debatable.
This is not a point of view. The shrill voices of false prophets cannot unmake this truth (Matthew 7:15). Corporately controlled media cannot twist it with tweets and screeches of “fake news.” This is truth. It is real. It is inescapable. We are guilty of turning from the God of Israel, the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ to follow the false gods of power, control, culture, and nation. This is a confession we must utter. This is a truth we must shout (Isaiah 58). It is a call for true repentance.
As American Christians we have lapped up the mythic broth that this is a Christian nation. And with a nationalist God at our side, we have lent our efforts and our resources to building a standard of living unprecedented in human history without considering the cost to others. As a tiny percentage of the world’s population, we gobble up a majority of its resources. We have turned blind eyes to the plight of the poor, not only in our own neighborhoods and nations but around the world as well. The prophets warn of dire consequences to such callous living.
“The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood; and they hunt each other with nets. Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe; and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice….” – Micah 7:2-5.
Perversions of justice continue today. From a Supreme Court that knows not the reality of sober judgment as it robs women of their rights and grants king-like immunity to a dangerous buffoon to 40 million people without health care, justice is being strangled. Nearly one in ten children suffer from malnutrition; homeless poor die in our streets. The prophets’ clarity is not an echo caught in the crystal resins of time. This is now. And we need to listen.
It is no secret that our national life has a global reach. Our military, which consumes a huge portion of our national budget, serves not as an instrument of justice and democracy, as we are told. Instead, it is and has long been an extended arm of the corporate rich. We do not fight in Syria, Iraq and across the Middle East for freedom or to counter terrorism. We do not fight to depose a dictator. No, our husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers – not to mention tens of thousands of civilians – continue to die for the benefit of wealth and corporate greed.
This is hard truth for those of us who have believed in the “American Way.” But there it is. There is no noble goal. There is no lofty premise. There is greed and lust for power, and it is wrong. How many more must die and suffer so that a billionaire can buy another yacht? How many more must starve and suffer oppression so that the 1% of the population who already control 50% of the resources can grow even wealthier?
Speak truth to power
The time has come to stand up and speak truth to power. This is not the speaking of narrow, statistically manipulated statements named as truth, but truth that is rooted in justice and equity for all people, not just the privileged few, truth that reaches into the soul and expects the well-being of all life, the truth of love and wonder, the truth that is God's own self (1st John 4:7-8).
It has been nearly four years since Donald Trump fomented a deadly insurrection at the US Capitol to overturn a valid national election. It has been seven years since Hilary Clinton won the popular vote for President of the United States by more than three million votes. And today we face an election that will most certainly determine the path of this nation. While trolls and trumpets babble about age and image, we edge closer and closer to an authoritarian state, an oligarchy which exists for the benefit of the few at the cost of the many.
Only those with ears willfully closed and eyes shut tight could have missed the steady dismantling of civil rights, the increasing mean-spiritedness of government in its attitudes toward the poor and marginalized, and the erosion of ecological protections. A determined right-wing minority has chiseled away at public education and social security. It has fought to dismantle what moderate gains have been made in health care, and it accuses anyone who speaks for the poor and the homeless as “socialists.”
This is a planting whose harvest we should tremble to reap.
There. Acknowledgement of wrong is the easy part. But it is not enough to list the evils being done and to claim our responsibility. We must act. To do nothing is to support the injustice. To remain silent is to give our permission for the stealing of our freedoms. To turn away as though we are powerless is to nod in assent to the oppression of the poor and the rape of the planet.
Today, let us reclaim our faith in God through Jesus Christ as the core of our being. If you haven’t picked up your Bible in a while, pick it up now and read Matthew, chapters 5 – 7. That’s a good glimpse of where Christ calls us to be. Let each person be absolutely certain that our daily lives match the lofty words of Holy Scripture. Let us not keep silence. Let us not be still.
The obvious question to all this is, “What shall I do?” No one can tell you what God’s call is for you. That is between you and the Master. But while you are praying, discerning and preparing for faithful witness, here are few basics to consider.
- Every day, speak the truth about what is going on. Challenge the relentless barrage of lies.
- Do not allow those who claim to be Christian to get away with supporting violence and racism. Talk about religion and politics. Share your faith!
- Overcome the lie that politics has no place in the pulpit. Encourage your preachers to preach God’s Word of justice and hope, liberation, and compassion.
- Write to newspapers and officials. Visit politicians. Ask what is being done to serve the poor in your community.
- Read at least two actual newspapers.
- Do one thing now. Work at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, or peace organization.
- Organize a group in church. Study. Pray. Discern a path of action.
- Talk to your pastor. Encourage him or her to speak out.
We cannot manage history. That’s in God’s hands. But we can be faithful. We can choose worshipful lives. We can live our lives as God’s people, faithful to justice, striving for peace, working so that no one goes hungry or homeless. My prayer is that we will do this, not later, but now in this prayerful and holy moment.
Rhodes 2
The Rev. Schuyler Rhodes
The Rev. Schuyler Rhodes is a retired clergy member of the California-Nevada Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. Email United Methodist Insight for permission to reproduce this content elsewhere.