this cultural moment

 

This Cultural Moment

reflections by Rev. Troy B. Cady

A few sober reflections on the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg: There is a sense of dread that is gripping the hearts of many people I know, friends I cherish. So, I am troubled by the sense of hope I suspect is filling the hearts of other friends I have. As one group fears the future, some can hardly wait to get on with it…to fill Ginsburg’s seat with someone who is more to their liking. How can this be? I am disturbed by how little compassion the latter group has for the former, given that the latter group claims to follow Jesus, who is the very embodiment of compassion.

I write this as a pastor who has attended Evangelical schools and ministered within Evangelical contexts over the years. And what I notice now is this: Evangelicals in the United States have been waiting, hoping, praying, working for this precise cultural moment. With the appointment of another conservative justice to replace Ginsburg, Evangelicals will finally be able to effect the kind of systemic change they’ve envisioned for years.

This has not come without making some moral sacrifices along the way and there is at least one more piece of integrity Evangelicals will have to give away to bring this vision to full completion.

Prior to the presidential election in 2016, it was not uncommon to hear Evangelicals explain why they were voting for a man like Trump, who clearly did not possess the level of decency and morally upstanding behavior that Evangelicals have generally expected of our nation’s leaders in the past. Over the last four years, Evangelicals have explained that they voted for Trump not because they loved Trump per se, but rather because they were counting on him to appoint justices to the Supreme Court that would enforce their vision of America—specifically regarding the matter of abortion and (perhaps secondarily) regarding the matter of same-sex marriage. To be sure, Evangelicals have several other concerns (such as questions concerning gun ownership, immigration and health care policy) but it would not be far-fetched to assert that if Evangelicals could only choose one issue in which to effect change it would be the matter of abortion.

To bring about this vision, Evangelicals had to hold their nose as they voted in 2016, not excusing Trump’s warped sense of personal morality but banking on the fact that the gains they would make in the culture war would far outweigh the losses incurred.  I suppose it seemed a small price to pay—to enthrone a person as mean, childish, untruthful and power-hungry as Trump—but it’s a classic case of invoking the ends to justify the means.

To secure this power, four years ago Evangelicals nodded in agreement as certain Senate Republicans explained why it was in the country’s best interest that President Obama be prevented from nominating a new Supreme Court justice, considering there was a soon-upcoming presidential election in the mix. They were successful in delaying the SCOTUS nomination on those grounds, so it is interesting that four years later the same scenario has emerged…only this time there is a new rationale offered as to why it is appropriate to install a new justice prior to the presidential election. The reasoning is thus: because the Senate consists of a Republican majority and the people have elected a Republican president, it follows that the confirmation process will represent the will of the people, at least the majority of the people.

It is easy to see that this is little more than clever reasoning and verbiage that provides a convenient excuse as to why certain cultural movers and shakers are resolved to do as they please to gain the upper hand in shaping the United States into a particular form that suits their own best interests.

For this reason, I call on Evangelicals to take a pause in this cultural moment to soberly reflect on what you are giving up as you stand in line behind such hypocritical leadership whose primary goal is to retain power through a twisted program of cultural engineering.

I write this with a sense of deep grief, reflecting on what has been lost in the heart of Evangelicalism…a word that is regarded today as signifying the opposite of its Good News meaning. And I implore you to heed this caution: you can no sooner make nice with a hungry wolf than to try to lay hold of power and not have the heart eaten right out of you.

Just wait and see: Trump will give you what you want, if it means you will put him in office once again. I shudder to think of the deals being made between Trump and certain powerful Evangelicals who see this as an opportunity to leverage the situation in their favor. It is reminiscent of Faust selling his soul to the devil.

I warn you that when you get what you want, you will end up alienating the very people you claim to care about. You will have gained power, but you will have marginalized the people you say God loves. You will have passed the laws you desire, but hearts will be lost, yours included. You desire to see people “give their lives to Jesus” but such a way of relating to God cannot be forced. Compelled obedience embitters. We are drawn to God’s ways not by laws but by love. God’s world is not a social experiment for you to manipulate. You like to say “God is in control,” so I wonder why it is you spend so much time and energy trying to control the lives of others? This is not the way of Jesus.

Jesus changed the world by laying down power and living in love. Yet Evangelicals have become like the Pharisees, laying heavier burdens on people by the law…without mercy, compassion and understanding. This is what comes of expecting everyone to live up to your impossible expectations: you become as Pharisees who speak the truth without love.

Wait and see: in your efforts to protect some, you will drive away a multitude of others whom God has called you to love. And you will miss the wondrous reality that, if you would only love those vulnerable people whom you label as “sinners,” God would make a way to protect the vulnerable you so deeply care about. Instead of loving the people right in front of you, you have spent all this time, energy and money lobbying for laws. But the way of Jesus is a way of love, not laws. The law of Jesus is singular and utterly sufficient: it is the law of love. It is a way of the heart and it is void of any political machinations or power plays whatsoever.

What do you think will happen when the laws you want to pass are suddenly passed? Do you think the hearts of the people will turn to God because you have passed a certain law? Do you think that, by passing your laws, we will be a so-called “Christian nation?” How is it that your vision of what it means to be a Christian nation consists of so much reliance on the legal code and so little trust in God’s transforming mercy, grace and love? Have you forgotten that we are saved only by grace through faith? Have you forgotten that this grace is sufficient to sanctify us through and through?

Evangelicals: I fear you have lost your way. I fear you have become drunk with power. Beware the hangover. When you wake up the next day, you will regret the wreckage you have made, the people you have hurt and driven away, the very people Jesus came to love and befriend. In feeding your addiction to power, your insatiable desire for cultural supremacy, you have betrayed a great trust. It is not only the trust of those around you but it is also the trust that Christ himself has placed in you to be his wounded hands and feet, opened in love, powerless and filled with grace.

……………….

*Photo by Claire Anderson via Unsplash. Creative Commons License.