Category: Politics

Let me add some background music to your news cycle today. Part of my daily routine is to peruse and read a host of articles from mainline sources and some academic as well to form what I hope is a more substantive approach to theology and politics. That said, the end result almost always leads to some general felicity for my tribe and some dismay for the other. But a good thinker comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comforted. The reason there is a smidge of interest in anything I write is that I have hopefully offered something hearty and simultaneously humored your satirical side.

So, a few additional follow-ups to the goings and comings from D.C. If you don’t know me by now, you will never, never, never know me…oooohhhh. And part of knowing me is that I have a placid temperament when it comes to the curious-minded, but share a distaste for the ideology of those who minimize the good, true, and beautiful. Translating that into the German, Luther’s German, it’s a hell of a thing to chase the horses and chariots around as if they are going to lead you to green pastures. Turning the pulpit into a political rally for the last four years gave us sister Kamala. Awoman!

You shall know true disciples by their fruit. And true disciples speak wisely into a culture by their track record. Ideas have consequences like fruit trees. One of the fruits of a poorly catechized culture has been the many teens and young adults these last four years touting leftist ideologies in response to the harshness of Trump. Some have left the church because of Trumpism. Perhaps rightly so. If a church is guided more adamantly by political allegiances, let my people go! So, I do place a lot of blame on evangelish churches for preaching the 151st psalm, instead of sticking to the first 150.

On the other hand, some remained never trumpering as if the landscape allows for such nuance. They feel rather justified at this stage and can’t wait for the Biden team to come in to give us a taste of true moderation. Awoman! Now, to be honest, for a long time, I have found Trump to be an abysmal example of a human being. But we all knew that morally he is hubristic and he will do whatever it takes to win. In fact, the appeal was that even in his disconcerting rhetoric, he still cared to preserve the remnants of sanity in politics. Trump didn’t need many allies to get good things moved. Was it the best strategy? Yes and no. Certainly not in these last few days, but surely throughout the last few years. The Republic did not need a Mitt Romney after Obama, she needed a bulldozer. We didn’t need a moderate voice to speak for the unborn, we needed an atypical man with an orange tan to do it. One thing Trump did these last four years was to push you to think deeply about what you believe and I count that as a good thing. If he pushed some folks to support rights for zen gender then at least you revealed what was in your heart all along. No need to play the hide-and-seek game anymore.

It’s clear the country was not ready for tribal separation. But we are all tribal now. There is no more going back to cute memes about bipartisanship. It’s time to take sides and bring out your inner communal self and tighten the fencepost around your tribe which means that if you have invested so much time in the political sphere/domain while missing out on your local church gatherings and feasts, you had it all wrong all along. Biden is the answer to your absence. When you leave the bride, the gap is filled in by someone/something else.

The ideologies you so dread take the place of what you cherish because you cherished it wrongly. Instead of giving thanks to God for the good, you pursued the transitory context that gave you the good, instead of praising the permanent God who gives all good things.

In light of yesterday’s post, I had several folks ask whether I supported the American Revolutionary War for Independence. My answer can take various shapes, but suffice to say, I am a Presbyterian, which means we are synonymous with rebelling against tyrants. But what that does not mean is that we equate scenarios. Modern revolutionaries have more in common with the speeches of Alex Jones than Patrick Henry. So, I view the comparison as simply illogical. America has voices of wisdom all around, we are still one of the most populated centers for missions in the world, homeschoolers are now 2% of the American population, Christian schools are growing, conservative voices rule alternative media growing by the thousands every day, and there is still a heavy dose of sanity in all the right places. Still, would there ever be a time when I take my glorious robe off on Sunday morning and fight tyranny? Of course. But it won’t be because Biden is the antichrist figure dispensationalists desire, but because his policies may be that which disallows me as a pastor from gathering with my people and calling the state a bunch of obtuse scoundrels when necessary or if they hinder me from worshipping the Triune God as I believe the Bible commands. If policies keep me from the sacred assembly, I will protect the freedom of mother church to speak as she pleases. That’s a cause I’d gladly die for.

In the meanwhile, my call is to strategize; a different form of fighting which begins with the cessation of complacency. Let men be men who lead well without the gooey rhetoric of a skinny jeans salesman. Drink to the glory of God and imprecate the hell out of pagans. Our philosophy of life didn’t lose, but we will lose if we lose sight of that philosophy.

The good news is that in January, those of us on the conservative side of things are pretty aware of who the other guys are. We know the ideology we are up against, right? We know who the transgender apologists are supporting which is always key to identifying who is on the wrong side of history. Let them rule in D.C. for four years. The children of Zion are heirs of the world (Rom. 4:13). It’s time for us to look at our calendars and start penciling in our strategy meetings and praying like the psalmist: “May my accusers be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.”

One of the increasing benefits of a polarizing era is that men and women are now much more self-aware of what conservative ideals are. Of course, wise Christians know that there can be vast distinctions between conservative politics and a Christian political order. As polls constantly demonstrate, lots of conservatives know much about modern politics, thanks to a steady diet of vegetative cable news and they are graded somewhere between a fig and a potato chip when it comes to basic biblical knowledge. That chasm shows that there are a lot of conservatives who love D.C.-ness more than Kingdom-ness.

Still, many who were once naively conservatives or who inherited conservatism, are now being forced to make ideological decisions or to think more deeply about their commitments. Now, they have to answer the questions: “Are you for BLM? If not, why not?” “Do you believe there is a disproportionate use of force used by police against black people? If so, should we defund the police or seek reform?” “Are riots that end private property merely as a necessary ‘spectacle’ to get attention?” Some of these questions are easier to think through than others. They touch on the very heart of conservatism and its focus on freedom and private property (as Russell Kirk develops in “The Conservative Mind”).

The end result here is that we can no longer remain neutral on political issues. We can afford to be less frustrating, and we certainly need to seek ways to draw people to our message rather than send them away, but we cannot be neutral bystanders, playing Switzerland to our own beat.

Congregations that attempt to harmonize the Bible with a myriad of political positions as a way of appeasing the cause of diversity will eventually realize that the diversity crowd can never be appeased (see mainline churches). But congregations that equip their flock to see righteousness from unrighteousness, the ant from the sluggard, the fool from the wise will shine bright as the sun. They will build a generation of convinced humanity who know the “what” and “why,” “who” and “when” of a faithful political system. There will always be those who fall by the side and cultivate friendship with the world, but they will be exceptions.

The great benefit of our age is no one can afford not to know where they stand. And for those just starting their journey, remember, Jesus is Lord! Begin there, and a lot of things will make sense in our present age.