Larry Hart
I have been asked to post something on the presidential election, and so am going to attempt to do so, but I don’t know how far I will get––I may be too depressed to produce much of anything at this time. The election of Donald Trump is, of course, not only an occasion of disappoint and discouragement, but of a certain amount of despair as well. However, it is really something more personal, and I suppose more selfish than the election, that has me as far down as I have been in a long time––we had to put down our much loved fifteen-year-old Cattle Dog and companion, Jack. I feel somewhat guilty for feeling so sad about the death of a dog when there is so much human suffering in our world, and believing as many do that Trump may be only the beginning of an era of untold misery for the people of this nation and those in the far corners of the world. But as for that, no one really knows the good or ill tomorrow will bring. However, setting aside, as best I can, what’s going on within me, here are some observations for my serious minded Christian friends and comrades. But first, I need to say if you are not a Christian or your interest is merely that of a cultural Christian, this little essay will be of no interest or help to you, and you will most likely regret wasting your time if you read any further.
The Essential Question
Whatever our circumstance in life whatever our situation, whatever the joy whatever, the sorrow, whatever the ecstasy or the agony, we are at every minute and in every condition confronted with the essential and fundamental question: “In what, or whom, do we place absolute trust––our faith?” To use the words of the famous theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich, the question is: “What is my ultimate concern?” “What matters most to me, what is more important than anything else?” This is the essential question because our ultimate concern will determine absolutely everything else about us. It is entirely possible, of course, to raise any concern to the level of ultimacy––money, sex, power, status, entertainment, a political party, a nation, a theological concept, a religious doctrine or an ideology, the Bible itself, some self-fabricated image of ourselves, food, a drug, another person, alcohol, prayer, meditation––you get the idea. We can even make a particular attribute of God like love or justice not just an important but our ultimate concern. However, anything less than God as ultimate concern is idolatry and will, in the end, always prove disastrous. Only faithfulness to the truly Ultimate can lead to ultimate fulfilment and the transcendence of what is becoming civilizations global crisis.
The Question Is Not What We Demand of Life
A second, but corollary, question is: “What is being asked of us in this moment?” Rather than asking what we need or require of life or of God right now, we need instead to ask what does God ask of us. In John 9 there is a story of a man born blind. The disciples ask Jesus a typical rabbinical student question, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus responds in verse four by telling them to quit worrying about who is to blame, no one is to blame, it’s just what it is. And one thing it is according to Jesus is an opportunity to do the work of God. It doesn’t make any difference who is president or emperor of the galaxy, we are still called to do the work of Christ––feed the hungry, care for the sick, clothe the naked, share the love of Jesus. Read Matthew chapter 5-7, Galatians 5, Psalm 1, and the little epistle of 1 John. Read them repeatedly, read them in more than one version, make sure you read Galatians 5 in The Message. Those texts will pretty much tell you everything you need to know about how to live each day regardless of circumstances.
Renunciation of Violence
For the world deceit and violence are sometimes the first and always the final solution. But to follow Christ is to renounce not only all mendacity, but also violence and hate in one’s own life. Ghandi was, I think, correct in saying, “Christians are the only people in the world who don’t seem to recognize that the teachings of Christ are non-violent.” Non-violence is not a conservative or liberal political issue. It is a spiritual principle that applies to absolutely every aspect of our everyday life. If we want to be disciples of Christ and, as Scripture puts it, “overcome the world,” we will need to renounce every form of violence physical, military, economic, sexual, psychological, emotional. (John 16:33; Romans 12:21). For the man or woman of faith, the practice of non-violence is both the final and only solution. We must, therefore, commit ourselves to the practice of non-violence beginning with our family, friends, co-workers, the people on our street, our community of faith, and the cashier who takes our credit card. Today, with a comment, I disliked a cartoon portraying, with approval, left wing violence on a fleeing Nazi character. I received numerous negative responses––the mildest declaring me a “snowflake,” a person who must have no more than “a fifth grade education, (please note I do not claim to be either well educated or intelligent), and a fool not to be taken seriously because he has an imaginary friend––I suppose the last criticism meaning Jesus. To these charges I can only say they are all at least in some sense true. I admit it. I am guilty. It has not been easy for me to become a snowflake––quiet, peaceful, gentle––so if that is what has happened to me I am pleased. But my point is that all violence whether perpetuated by right wingers or left wingers, the woke crowd or the hypnotized mob, communists, nazis, white supremacists or Black Lives Matter is abhorrent to the Christian because it is abhorrent to Christ––whom I can assure you is as real to me (and many others) as I am to myself. If that means I am a fool so be it. You cannot imagine how much I long to be the biggest fool possible (1 Corinthians 4:10).
The Real Battle
The real battle is not against Trump, who has correctly said that he is engaged in a spiritual conflict. We need to realize, as a Christian, that we are in a fierce spiritual struggle that is larger than Trump. Like all wars it has been and will be costly in sweat, and blood, and grief (Matthew 16:24-26; 2 Corinthians 11:23-33). “For our struggle, writes the Apostle Paul,” “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12 NIV). The ancients believed the world to be inhabited by evil spirits determined to do human beings harm. Powers, authorities, and world-powers are words categorizing these spirits. We may not take Paul in an entirely literal sense or think of evil spirits in exactly the same way as men and women living over 2,000 years ago; yet, our own experience, as well as modern psychology, tells us that there are indeed dark forces, destructive forces, at work in the universe and in our own hearts and minds. If you don’t believe in the power of evil, or even if you do, I suggest you read M. Scott Peck’s People of the Lie, or C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. Contemporary writers and thinkers across a wide spectrum of theological thought speak of this spiritual struggle as something very real. Quite rational theologians who are not in the least fringe or “wild” thinkers, people like the quite progressive Marcus Borg to the more orthodox Eugene Peterson are certainly conscious of this spiritual battle in which, aware or unaware, we are engaged. Borg conceives of evil as the domination systems of the world which, like the serpent of Revelation and the python of mythology, want to devour the human soul. All of these writers, see evil like the beast in 1 Peter 5:8––”the enemy prowling around looking for someone to devour.” This is all an attempt, of course, to describe something that is spiritual in metaphorical language and to talk about what is unseen in terms of what can be seen or imagined, but that it is metaphorical language does not make it any less about something real, deadly, or dangerous. Although they are fictional books I would suggest you read C.S. Lewis’s The Screw Tape Letters, and That Hideous Strength. They contain a great deal of wisdom. Finally, I would suggest you take time to meditate on Ephesians 6:10-24; 2 Corinthians 10:2-4; and 1 John 2:15-17. I am going to tack on one more sticky-note here. I have been stunned by the position of mainline protestant bishops and Pope Francis. Their response has been anemic to say the least. Before the election the pope spoke as if nothing more than a personal moral preference was at stake. Catholics, he said, would have to choose between two evils––abortion and failure to “welcome” the “stranger” (immigrants). As if nothing more was involved than those two issues in their most simplistic form. Statements from Episcopal and Lutheran bishops I have seen are pretty much along the lines of: “Okay, the games over. Let’s all shake hands and be good sports now.” The Democrats are fond of the slogan: “We have more in common than that which divides us.” In a sense that is true, but it is also true than what divides good and evil is not inconsequential. Otherwise, why did John the Baptizer keep saying to King Herod, “It’s just not right for you to steal your brother’s wife” until they shut John up by cutting off his head.” Why did Jesus call Herod “that old fox (vermin)? Why did Jesus call the greedy predatory clergy of his day hypocrites and ask them, “How will you escape the damnation of hell?” Look up Isaiah 5:20.
Resistance?
To resist or not to resist: Scripture can be marshaled on both sides of this question. My own study leads me to the conclusion that certainly Christians are to cooperate with those laws and civic duties that are meant for the common good. If the legal authority says don’t drink and drive, because the best evidence we have is that doing so endangers other drivers, then we shouldn’t drink and drive. In my opinion most protests today do not work and are exercises in futility because they lack any clear measurable goal. Unlike Ghandi or Martin Luther King Jr. they ignore the principle of non-co-operation as was effectively employed early in the Civil Rights movement ; as, for example, with the Montgomery bus boycott. Now they are mostly just angry noise in the street. However, we must become clear with ourselves about when and where we will not acquiesce. If we are told not to share the message of Christ, or gather with other Christians for worship, or that we must say: Caesar, Hitler, or Trump is Lord we must refuse even if they blow out our brains (Acts 5:29). If we are told to do anything that harms another human being we must refuse. If we see someone needing help and we can provide it we must do so even if told not to. Let me see if I can think of an example. Here is one: If someone is a government employee working on the southern border and told to rip an infant from its mother’s breast and lose it in the matrix, they must decline. Here is another: If told that on a certain day we have legal permission to beat the “hell” out of shoplifters or some other group, we should stay home behind locked doors. In my opinion we should not, as Christians, be involved in any protests which have the potential of turning violent. Although Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Theology of Liberation was written for the severely oppressive situation in Latin America it, nevertheless, speaks eloquently to the need of the North American church to become a presence of prophetic denunciation.
Relinquish Blame
We must let go of the impulse to blame. Blame is a counter productive way of escaping our own responsibility––for evading our own complicity in the ills of the nation and the world. Politicians are constantly making the argument that the right is trying to get us, as a nation, to be something we are not. Consequently they constantly employ the mantra: “That is not who we are”––usually meaning we are not as a country unkind or violent or selfish. But the fact is that as a nation, collectively, that is who we are––it is what the world is. Blaming evangelicals, as if every evangelical was the same, is useless and distorts reality. Examining our own soul is far more helpful than blaming. If you consider yourself to be religiously and politically liberal, progressive, or woke, has it occurred to you that there may be someone out there who reads the Bible from a more literal perspective that may have as high a view of social justice as you do, and who may have actually made more sacrifices along those lines. Look up the story of the Hoffer brothers on the internet, and reading Russell Moore’s book Losing our Religion may be helpful in recovering a more balanced view of evangelicalism––at least of the sort of evangelicalism that was at one time carefully distinguished from the extremes of fundamentalism.
Internet Abstinence
As abstinence from alcohol is required for the alcoholic’s recovery, so abstinence from the internet is now required for our emotional and spiritual recovery from confusion and our addiction to the anxiety of drama. Virtually all of us are addicted to the internet. I once met a young graduate student working on a Ph.D. in Psychology who told me that for her doctoral dissertation she was researching the addictive nature of the internet, how, in fact, using the techniques of operant conditioning, it is intentionally designed to addict us. Like all addictions it leads to a progressive deterioration ––it makes us dumber, more anxious, and less spiritually attuned. Instead, we need to broaden and deepen our own spiritual practice. To begin with I would suggest reading Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline and certainly Dallas Willard’s Spirit of the Disciplines. But most of all read Scripture itself. If you have never done so before, I would suggest you begin with the Four Gospels, the Book of James, the First Epistle of John, and then maybe the shorter letters of Paul––Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians. If you like reading short devotionals I would suggest for something with a little more depth you try The Way by E. Stanley Jones or the medieval classic The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis, or Richard Foster’s Devotional Classics: Revised Edition: Selected Readings for Individuals and Groups.
No Power Over Us
None of us knows what either our own personal or the national situation will be in six months or six years. But the question for every Christians regardless of his or her circumstance, whether living as the poorest of the poor under a cruel autocratic regime or living high among the elite, is: “What does it mean for me to live an authentic faith here and now.” As soon as we surrender the notion that we must have it easy or that we must survive physically whatever the cost, we are free and no autocrat or tormentorhas power over us.
And for now, that is all I have to say about that.