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| WAVING A RED FLAG |
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The following is the address Lynn Anderson gave at the ACU Graduate School of Theology Alumni Association Luncheon at the ACU Lectures, February 22, 2006.
I take great pride in being the first person to receive a Doctor of Ministry degree from ACU. Eddie Sharp was the 10th since he was at the other end of the alphabet in that 1st guinea pig class. Such fond memories. We called ourselves "the dead theologian's society." I was also the first D. Min. Dr. Royce Money ever hooded too, and he must have been nervous as I because he mugged me with the hood. Of course he was an elder of the church where I was preaching at the time, so the mugging may have been deliberate.
That was 17 years ago. Thrown in with the current model of graduates, we feel like vintage Model T Fords rattling along in a parade of shiny new Mercedes. But we are still proud to be part of "the club" and feel a special bond with each of you.
Ever since the committee asked me to make some remarks at this luncheon, I have been trying to think up something erudite. But since erudition from my lips would quickly be identified as plagiarism, I decided just to tell you what is on my heart these days.
Carolyn tells me I am way too spun up about this, and said I had better write down what I want to say, so that I don't wind up saying something else. So here is what I have written. Please bear with me and try to listen past an anxious presence. Let me hang my thoughts on three words: Constantinianism, Consumerism and Certainty.
CONSTANTINIANISM
I am feeling troubled over a new rising tide of what some dub "neo-Constatinianism": that is the current unholy marriage between "the conservative Christian cause" and American Nationalism, more specifically the right wing view of American economic and political interests.
Such an alliance would have been inconceivable to the early church, which was marginalized by the culture and the state. The early community of faith wielded no economic or political clout. In fact those bands of believers knew that that the powers that be might silence them, crush them, and even kill them. Like most Chinese believers in our day, early believers did not expect Kingdom progress to ride on the wings of government favor. It was illegal to be Christian. Yet the early Christians prayed for the kings and authorities and honored government officials as instruments of God - even when many of those officials were cruel, pagan dictators. Yet, those early believers lived vibrant Christ-honoring lives in authentic communities of holiness, forgiveness and compassion and even though they were powerless and without freedom (as in China today) the Kingdom spread magnificently during those first two centuries.
But then in A. D. 312, Constantine changed all that and it soon became illegal not to be Christian. From that day till this, the waltz of Church and State has continually re-cycled and morphed, oftentimes with neither church nor state being sure who danced the lead. And the gospel of the kingdom has suffered for it.
In our day several American expressions of "The Christian Faith" verbalize separation of church and state but practice essentially the opposite. For some, the Kingdom of God is equated with organized religion. Yet a big chunk of organized religion has become intertwined with Nationalistic interests. Sometimes we hear Old Testament passages quoted in ways that equate the United States with the kingdom of God. Some even appear to view America's material prosperity and privilege as signs of God's blessings. While poverty, disease and genocide in other nations (even pockets of misery here at home) don't make it onto the radar. Or if they do, are sometimes seen as evidence of "sin and godlessness." For some it is not a stretch to regard the advancement of the American cause with advancing the cause of Christ.
This trend falls little short of idolatry.
First, it suggests the wrong allegiance - to the state rather than king Jesus. "Since 9/11 the most common symbol displayed in American churches is not the cross, but the American flag," says Christianity Today magazine. Does the flag trump the cross? (Of course, being a Canadian, I don't mind a flag in the sanctuary, so long as it has a Maple Leaf on it! Ha.)
Second, in this unholy dance we are being shaped by the wrong values: including individualism, success, money, and control.
Third, this idolatrous trend relies on the wrong power: It often presumes to get kingdom business done through economic, political and military might.
Fourth, this Nationalized brand of the faith has us pursuing wrong objectives - Compliance! Some visible Christians attempt to use the power of the government not only to impose Christian behaviors on our non-believing neighbors - but even to impose American ways on other nations of the earth.
Fifth, mixing nationalism and "the Christian faith" has often resulted in wrong attitudes - descending into rudeness, and innuendo rather than thoughtful dialogue, leaving some Christian leaders looking like a Bill O'Reily or a Rush Limbaugh with a Bible in his hand.
CONSUMERISM
Add to Constantinianism the cultural drift into Consumerism. Rugged Individualism expects its inalienable rights - "Life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." But consumerism turns these into demands for "affluence, license and the pursuit of gratification." Surely it takes no Solomon to recognize that the culture can shape the church rather than the other way around. Churches are tempted to tailor their "product" to the cultural values of a self-consumed market. And wind up becoming ever expanding smorgasbords of religious goods and services, rather than outposts of the Kingdom of God.
No this doesn't indict all Mega-churches. Recent research indicates that many mega-churches are a lot healthier than some had begun to suspect. But we still cannot ignore a glaring irony: While American mega-churches grow at explosive rates, America moves into secularism at warp speed. One can't help but wonder how often the "Walmartization" of the church actually affirms the culture of consumerism rather than challenging it.
When we have God on the side of American power, and American power driven by the appetites of consumers, the mix tastes less and less like the "water of life" and more and more like an "a mood-altering intoxicant."
CERTAINTY
Then stir another ingredient into the mix of Constantinianism and Consumerism: Certainty - the hubris that trusts its own ability to understand - and thus to "get things right, absolutely right." (In churches of Christ we know a thing or two about certainty.)
This kind of Certainty stands unbowed before the ever expanding mystery of God's majesty and Holiness. And it naively reduces the rich texture of scripture down to a few rigid moral and doctrinal bullet points. In addition it seems oblivious to the baffling mystery of human persons - let alone the overwhelming complexity of global social issues.
We see certainty all over the place: Letters to the editor, laud "fairness and balance" when their views are printed, but want the paper to drop columns representing opposing views. Certainty chooses its own "fair and balanced" news channels and demonizes the other agencies for their "bias." Fox News crowd vs. the CNN and ABC crowd.
Certainty creeps into American "Christian" circles as well. For some the "real" Christians are those on the Religious Right and who vote Republican. (How often have we heard, "I can't understand how a Christian could be a Democrat.") Of course some of the Democratic persuasion tell me it is the other way around - and demonize Republicans.
The definition of "Christian" gets really fuzzy too. Who is a better Christian: Jimmy Carter or Tom Delay? Martin Luther King or Pat Robertson? Some tell me Bill Clinton could not be Christian because he seduces women in the White House and lies about it, while others tell me George Bush could not be Christian because he kills people in Iraq and lies about it. (Caveat: it seems to me that the immorality, deception, and indictments of high officials are fairly evenly distributed between the political parties.)
Since Certainty assumes itself to be "certainly right," it sees no need to listen further and surrounds itself with voices of agreement, often dismissing thoughtful alternatives to its viewpoint with a quip, a sneer - or cartoon. Even worse - if I see my cause as God's cause and I am Certainly right - I must promote "the cause" and crush the "other side" at all costs, using whatever weapons: sarcasm, ridicule, innuendo, half truths to outright lies - ethical or not, legal or not.
Christian brothers flood the email with innuendo: Cartoons belittling those in the opposing party. Articles that distort the views of others. And jokes that - while I have to admit are sometimes hilarious - at the same time are coarse and mean-spirited.
Closed-minded Certainty shows up in theological discourse as well. I know first hand, for I have sometimes found myself setting up straw men that are easy to tear down, especially when I have not gone to the trouble to really understand the other point of view. God forgive me, I am ashamed. But I think I have seen it happen with others as well. Maybe you have too.
For example, across nearly 40 years I have witnessed a chasm (yawning still today) between some in the Academy and some in the Local church; between some preachers and some professors.
(I'm on thin ice here. I once wrote an article in Wineskins entitled "Why aeronautical engineers don't make good combat pilots and vice versa." It was meant as a tongue-in-cheek satire to acknowledge a chasm and to point up that preachers and professors cannot afford to be adversaries. We both serve on the same Kingdom team but with different skills and gift-mixes. So we absolutely must remain in conversation for the sake of both - because we all desperately need each other. However, my cute little article totally misfired. Both sides felt misrepresented. Neither side acknowledged a chasm - but I think it grew only deeper. Well here goes anyway.)
In the current discussions of "church growth," "mega-church," "emerging church" and "missional church," some conversations around academia sound as if the Missional church perspective finally "gets it right" while "mega-church" is only about marketing and consumerism. Then, when I hang out with some mega-church leaders and church planters, I hear the missional church folks caricatured as a collection of recluses, inept Mr. McGoo's, who care more about books than people. Both caricatures are mostly untrue and terribly unfortunate.
DREADFUL CONSEQUENCES
Mix Constaninianism and Consumerism together and stir in the myth of Certainty and the broth becomes a deadly toxic brew. Some observers say the nation has never been as sharply polarized as it is now, both religiously and between liberal and conservative political parties. As one friend puts it, "Liberals and conservatives mostly yell at each other without ever really engaging each other." In this emotionally charged atmosphere constructive discussion of issues related to Nationalism and the Church is hard to come by.
And how dreadful are the consequences:
- Congregations dividing
- Our Restoration fellowship fragmenting
- The Christian community at large falling into competing camps.
- National ideological and political polarization intensifying at a time when the country desperately needs some bi-partisan collaboration.
- And we are moving further into a growing global polarization - Death to "the great Satan." Death to "the evil empires."
- And what of Kingdom witness in the world? Consumerist Nationalism sometimes sees other nations either as tools of our prosperity (or threats to it) rather than peoples loved by God and objects of His Kingdom mission. So how does the gospel of the Kingdom get serious play in the Middle East nations who perceive America's economic, political and military agenda, plus American immorality and opulent self-indulgence as manifestations of "Christian culture?" And what hearing can the gospel of the Kingdom expect in the Middle East when their television sets show the Prime Minister of Israel preaching from the pulpit of an American evangelical church about "land belonging to God's people." This only confirms Muslim fears that all Christians are pro-Israel and bent on destroying the Arab world.
One of my mentors, the late Wesley Jones, brought this into perspective. He had given his life to planting churches on several continents. During the Desert Storm war, Wesley sat in a staff meeting of a para-church organization, listening as some one blurted out "we ought to just bomb the daylights out of them." Wesley quietly asked, "Brother, is it before the bombing or after that we tell them about Jesus?"
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
OK, so my wife was right. I am way too spun up about all this, but thanks for letting me get it off my chest. Ah, but hopefully folks like you can help lead us to a better place. As people of God, we are called to something infinitely better. But how do we speak into 2000 years of accumulated and convoluted Constantinianism - complicated by Consumerism and Certainty - in such a way as to be heard? How do we initiate dialogue, without sabotaging the conversation before it gets started?
Some strong voices are speaking out of course. I recommend Jim Wallis' books, especially God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. And Lee Camp's book Mere Discipleship, (though these voices may sound a bit shrill for those just entering the conversation.) And don't miss the latest issue of Leaven magazine on the theme "Nationalism and the American Church" (Vol. 13, #4, Fourth Quarter 2005). However, it too speaks more in the tongue of the Academy than in the language of the grass roots folk. So part of our job - especially as ministers in local churches - is to engage the pew.
I certainly don't profess to have a formula for this conversation. But here are at least some conversation starters as we pray God's help.
First, a recovery of a Kingdom view.
People of good will in this nation (and maybe across the world) are fed up with closed mindedness and polarization. And most assuredly your children and my grandchildren have no interest in carrying on their grandfather's wars. (Very few young people attended this week's Unity Forum. This doesn't mean the young are not interested in unity. I think it is because they wonder why we keep discussing a blueprint for a bridge they have already crossed!) They want something better. The last count I saw approximately 60-65% of the voters of this country - those who actively participate in elections - considered themselves something other than right wing republicans or left wing democrats. That puts them both squarely in the middle.
Not that the Kingdom mission is to be "centrist." Centrist is a political place to be, but not necessarily a Biblical "Kingdom place" to be. Being radically Christian might make one appear to be a redneck conservative on some subjects (gay marriage and abortion for example), and yet appear to be dangerously liberal on other subjects (environment, materialism, identifying with justice for the poor, for example.)
Possibly we need to think and pray our way toward a healthy theology of the Kingdom and the State that is much larger than Nationalism? If government and police are "agents of God" and our role is to "support the government and be patriotic" - is that true only if you are an American? For example, should Christian citizens of Venezuela love their country and support their government - even if Chavez decides to attack the U.S.? Of course this doesn't mean that Christians should not love their country. The early Christians respected and supported the state even when it was a dictatorship run by cruel, immoral, pagan despots. So surely we don't really expect the Kingdom of God to be ushered in when the right party comes to power in the U.S.!
If God is in control, must we have the correct form of government, let alone the correct party in charge of the outcomes?
And could "the good news of the kingdom" be much more than words about the salvation of individual souls (though it includes that, of course)? But might it also encompass "being the gospel" in communities of forgiveness, compassion, holiness and servant hood?
The confidence and joy of the early Christians was sustained by the vision that the Kingdom would ultimately triumph when "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ."
Second, for now, however, we may need a real dose of humility - especially in the face of the bewildering complexity of the human condition and before the mystery and majesty of the Holy One. How dare we close our minds or disdain the views of others - much less presume to "fix" everybody?
And humility implies fairness. So let's be done with the caricaturing, the innuendo, "guilt by association," disinformation and straw men.
Third, we may need a renewed trust the power of servant hood. After all Jesus called us to be servants, not power brokers, not even "successes." Rather than focusing only on the salvation of individual souls and the happiness of individual persons, we may need to expand our mission to service in the larger Kingdom issues of compassion and justice.
And when we walk in the world of the poor, looking into the faces of the hopeless, our eyes may open to the larger sins of America and the larger issues of global suffering.
Why do some modern Christians march and carry placards protesting gay marriage and abortion but remain mute as a stump on materialism, exploitation of the poor and the rape of the planet? Surely they believe these things to be sinful.
Why does Iraq pique our religious and patriotic passion a hundred times more than does for example, Darfur - where a whole Tsunami's worth of people die every month? Surely massive poverty, disease, and annihilation have moral implications at least as momentous as private sexual sins.
And, I have to ask myself, why across nearly 50 years of ministry, have I preached so much on the so called "right wing sins" like sexual immorality, drunkenness and divorce, and so desperately little on the so called "left-wing sins" like injustice, racism, pollution of the environment - especially when the Bible has even more to say about these "left wing sins" than the "right wing sins?"
Fourth, this means that possibly it is time for us as leaders to find fresh personal consecration. I would describe a spiritual leader as "the kind of person that God hungry people want to be like." I love what David Wray says are the three passions of his life these days:Spiritual formation, Shepherding and Missional church. At a personal, grass roots level where is your world moving?
These days as I live out my 70th year God is leading me, under the over-arching banner reading Simplify, to the following three treasures:
-To run deeper, not faster. A calmness lies at the heart of kingdom living. It does not rest with personal or sectarian triumphalism, but in triumphant confidence of the kingdom come.
-To nurture primary relationships
-To find hands on service of compassion and justice, outside the church walls and under the radar.
Let me leave you with this final world of encouragement:
Don't get mad. Seems I read somewhere that "the wrath of man does not work the righteousness of God."
Don't get bitter. When you speak a courageous and prophetic word, don't whine about the inevitable consequences. There is nothing more pathetic than a whimpering prophet. Getting hurt in ministry is not merely one of the hazards of the trade. It is inevitable. More than inevitable, getting hurt is often the central means through which the very best ministry gets done. As Rabbi Abraham Heschel said, "the man who has not suffered, what does he know anyway?" If you don't love people enough for them to hurt you really bad, you probably don't love them enough to do them much good. Remember that a God-man screamed out one dark afternoon, "My God, why have you forsaken me?" And more ministry was accomplished in those brief moments than in all the millennia before or since.
So by all means...
Don't give up. Kingdom people always live in hope. These are definitely not good days to collapse under the odds. Think of the power of one. Think of the power of a Mother Teresa or a Martin Luther King. Of a Desmond Tutu or a Dietrich Bonheoffer.
As Landon Saunders said, "The nails of reality have been driven through the hands and feet of God's man, the sword of the spirit has pierced his side, and out of him flows the very life of God."
Lynn Anderson
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