Posts Tagged power
I’m going AWOL
Posted by Dave Kirby in Challenge, Commentary on July 29, 2011
In case you hadn’t heard, there is a culture war raging around us these days. Orthodox vs. Secular. Conservative vs. Progressive. Call it what you will, we see two distinct world views battling it out in the court of public opinion. And this culture war has tainted almost every area of our society: our news media, politics and, yes, Christianity.
There are certainly elements of the Christian world who feel it is their God-ordained duty to fight the culture war. They see America abandoning the “Christian
values” they believe have guided our nation since its inception, and are committed to fighting to preserve those values. They organize and protest, criticize and argue with those whom they feel are leading the nation astray. I say these words with great care, because for most of my life I have belonged to this group.
On the other side of the table are Christians who equally love God, yet equally fight the culture war in a different way. They too have a list of morals and ideals they see as eroding, and they blame the “religious right” for leading America down a path of destruction. Again, I say this with caution and respect, because I have good friends who fall into this group.
Sure, my descriptions are over-simplified and excessively broad. But they are sufficient for me to make my point. Actually, it’s more of a question (or series of questions.)
When did God ever call us to fight a culture war?
When did He ever ask us to defend Him to the world around us? When did God tell us to argue and protest and defend our position? When did He tell us to marginalize and demonize those with whom we disagree?
Even if we think they are ruining our culture and even if we are convinced the other side is destroying America, where did we ever get the idea that we were to engage in a culture war to defend our beliefs, morals, and traditions? Have we become so engulfed in politics that we cannot separate them from our faith in Christ?
And since when was Christianity ever intended to become a culture in the first place? It seems to me it happened about the same time the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion. Since that day Christianity has enjoyed a place of cultural and political power that has been relatively unchallenged. And even when questioned, it wielded enough influence to quickly eliminate its detractors. This marriage of politics and religion has been a long time in the making.
So here we are. The gospel of our Lord Jesus has been reduced to a series of rules and regulations. The good news of God’s grace on sinful man has been tarnished by our lack of grace for one another. The One who spent His whole life on earth criticizing religion has become the foundation of yet another religion. We fight and argue, criticize and divide. And we do it all in the name of the One who said, “they will know you are my disciples by your love.”
If there is any culture at all to Christianity, it is love.
If there is any moral ethic which we should strive to uphold, it is love. Mercy, grace, forgiveness…all can be summed up in that one word, love. Yet our culture war is the antithesis of love. It’s hard to love someone when you are telling them they are ruining the world. It’s hard to love someone when you constantly criticize their deeply held values. It’s hard for them to feel loved when they are always wrong and you are always right.
What have we gained? Have we really changed anything? It seems to me all we have accomplished is driving a wedge between God and those we think need Him most. Most people probably wouldn’t have a problem with Jesus if they didn’t feel so beaten down by His followers.
So I quit. I’m going AWOL. I’m resigning my post in the culture war. I will no longer fight against flesh and blood, doing battle with those who are not my enemies. If there is warfare to be waged, I will fight it in prayer. And I will love those with whom I disagree. I will be merciful to those who I think have gone astray. I will leave the culture up to the one who transcends nationality, creed, culture and tradition.
Quitting Christianity 
Death to Jesus
Posted by Dave Kirby in Challenge, Commentary on August 9, 2011
Jesus met a man on the Sabbath who needed healing. The Pharisees gathered around Him to see if He would dare violate their rules in order to have mercy on a poor, suffering soul. He looked with sadness at the hardness of their hearts, then healed the man. He dared.
“Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.” Mark 3:6
There are two institutions that are directly opposed to the work of Jesus and His kingdom: Religion and government. The kingdom of God is the most subversive movement in the history of mankind, because it stands as a threat to both.
Most of us know the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. These leaders were so immersed in their own religion, so intoxicated by their own power over others, that Jesus’ work was viewed by them as a direct threat. Why? Because He operated outside of the neat little box in which they had placed God. THEY were the experts in who God was and how He worked. THEY were the voice of right and wrong, based on their own interpretation of the rules. Jesus didn’t operate with deference to their authority. He healed on the Sabbath, spoke words of mercy to the sinners, and had the audacity to forgive sins.
Many of us may not know the Herodians. Little is know of this group, other than the fact that they were a religious sect and political party. It is thought that they used support of Herod as a means to usher in theocracy. Some scholars think they even presented Herod as the Messiah in order to establish his political power. Jesus’ pure teaching about the Kingdom of God would have stood in direct opposition to their political aspirations.
The Kingdom, it turns out, is a threat to just about everyone.
Those who operate in the Kingdom seek humility and not power. Those who live in the kingdom serve the poor instead of sucking up to the rich. Those who live in the Kingdom experience the freedom of the Spirit instead of the rules of religion. Those whose hearts are consumed by Jesus seek His glory and not their own. The Sermon on the Mount is the most religiously and politically revolutionary teaching in history because it places the Kingdom of God directly in my heart, and outside the influence of religion or political authority.
And so it is today.
Those who choose not to submit to religion are deemed troublemakers. Those who choose to ignore the political climate of the day are labeled as liberals. Those who seek the Kingdom instead of earthly power or wealth are viewed as irresponsible.
The problem with the world today will not be fixed by more religion or more law. It won’t be fixed by a political or Herodian messiah. And it certainly won’t be fixed by a mixture of the two. The problems that surround us will only be repaired when those who follow Christ understand that the Kingdom He established transcends religion, government, and any other contrivance of man. His Kingdom on earth is not established at His return. It was established at His resurrection, then turned over to His body the church to fill the whole earth.
How could a Kingdom whose sole commandment was to love on another become so filled with condemnation and judgment? How could a Kingdom whose sole duty is care for the poor so abdicate our calling? It is because we have forsaken that Kingdom for our own.
Until His people abandon the ways of religion and government in favor of the personal, simple, revolutionary life of the Kingdom, we’ll just see more of the same. And the church of Jesus Christ will continue its slide into irrelevance and contempt in the world around us.
Death to Jesus, Herodians, Pharisees, politics, power, religion
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