Christianizing the Christians
We seem to be living at a time when “the centre cannot hold” for much longer. The nation is polarized. Politicians and the media call for unity but they can’t unite around ideology or practice. They perpetuate the division. Social media extends the battlefield to the citizenry. We heatedly re-argue the points put out by the media without any resolution. We on the right see the world falling into chaos and disorder, while the left fears that we are losing our democracy to rigid right-wing despotism.
When the world is coming apart at the seams, people want to understand what is happening. We, Christians included, seek certainty. Christians seek it in biblical theorizing about the end-times or in theories about ‘evil’ groups or organizations controlling the world. These theories provide a sense of certainty about the out-of-control external world, and we take comfort in our “interpretation”.
I do not lead in either of these directions. I came to evangelicalism during the 1970s end-times craze that proved utterly mistaken. Church history reveals a long line of completely mistaken end-times crazes that discredit the faith when they fail. I try to avoid those speculations.
Conspiracy theories are appealing because government and the media have earned our distrust. Conspiracies need only be suggested, not proven, and by design cannot be disproven. Built on suspicions rather than solid evidence, they don’t warrant the confident assertions they make. I find their certainty illusory and trust in them ill-founded.
The pendulum will always swing between the desire for liberty and the desire for order. But America’s founders identified a deeper force that moderates that swing: Christian morality. John Adams observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
What did Adams mean by “a moral and religious people”? Like most of the Founding Fathers, Adams refers, not to the rituals of Christianity but to the established points of morality that governed European Christianity in the 18th century.
Each soul is required to govern himself, having a sense of accountability to God (above the state). The cornerstone of self-governance is taking personal responsibility for one’s actions—to pursue, wherever possible, those things that make for peace and prosperity and to avoid actions that disturb the peace of the community. Sobriety and temperance—the control of and resistance to appetites that can enslave and destroy self and others—are important virtues.
Not destroying, harming, or killing others is crucial (“you shall not murder”). Justice—treating all people as equals, regardless of social standing—is another important value (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”).
There is a high premium placed on truthfulness (“you shall not bear false witness”) and integrity in all dealings—honoring promises, oaths, vows, and contracts.
The foundational social unit is heterosexual marriage. Fidelity within marriage (“you shall not commit adultery”) for the creation of a stable atmosphere for the birth and rearing of children is a central value. Parents are responsible to train children, and children are responsible to obey and honor parents (“honor your father and mother”). This becomes the template for proper relationships with legitimate authorities beyond the home.
Work, a part of the original creation, is a blessing and honest labor and industriousness are virtues to be pursued (“six days you shall labor”). The right of personal property—the fruits of labor belonging to the laborer to be disposed of as he sees fit—is an important Christian value, as is the necessity of respecting the property rights of others (“you shall not steal”).
“A moral and religious people” will hold these principles to be true and right and will seek to live by them. Doing so, the Founders believed, would moderate wild swings of the pendulum between liberty and order. If the moderating force is the unchanging set of values held by “moral and religious people”, and the moral and religious people compromise those values to appease an unbelieving world, should we expect anything but wild swings of the pendulum?
Not only are these values not practiced, but they are also no longer held sacred or, in some cases, even believed—not even by many who name the name of Christ. They have been eroded by unbelief, and the cost of experiencing the disdain of the unbelieving world has become too much for many.
Many believe the answer is political activism (i.e. “culture wars”)— Christianizing the unbelieving world by law. Perhaps we need more work on Christianizing “the Christians” by faith.
Jesus’ admonition to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” was this: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5.13)
Israel had lost sight of its holy calling. Jesus came to restore them. Though the national machinery resisted, God powerfully used those that were willing to believe and obey to change the world.
He is still in that business.
When the world is coming apart at the seams, people want to understand what is happening. We, Christians included, seek certainty. Christians seek it in biblical theorizing about the end-times or in theories about ‘evil’ groups or organizations controlling the world. These theories provide a sense of certainty about the out-of-control external world, and we take comfort in our “interpretation”.
I do not lead in either of these directions. I came to evangelicalism during the 1970s end-times craze that proved utterly mistaken. Church history reveals a long line of completely mistaken end-times crazes that discredit the faith when they fail. I try to avoid those speculations.
Conspiracy theories are appealing because government and the media have earned our distrust. Conspiracies need only be suggested, not proven, and by design cannot be disproven. Built on suspicions rather than solid evidence, they don’t warrant the confident assertions they make. I find their certainty illusory and trust in them ill-founded.
The pendulum will always swing between the desire for liberty and the desire for order. But America’s founders identified a deeper force that moderates that swing: Christian morality. John Adams observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
What did Adams mean by “a moral and religious people”? Like most of the Founding Fathers, Adams refers, not to the rituals of Christianity but to the established points of morality that governed European Christianity in the 18th century.
Each soul is required to govern himself, having a sense of accountability to God (above the state). The cornerstone of self-governance is taking personal responsibility for one’s actions—to pursue, wherever possible, those things that make for peace and prosperity and to avoid actions that disturb the peace of the community. Sobriety and temperance—the control of and resistance to appetites that can enslave and destroy self and others—are important virtues.
Not destroying, harming, or killing others is crucial (“you shall not murder”). Justice—treating all people as equals, regardless of social standing—is another important value (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”).
There is a high premium placed on truthfulness (“you shall not bear false witness”) and integrity in all dealings—honoring promises, oaths, vows, and contracts.
The foundational social unit is heterosexual marriage. Fidelity within marriage (“you shall not commit adultery”) for the creation of a stable atmosphere for the birth and rearing of children is a central value. Parents are responsible to train children, and children are responsible to obey and honor parents (“honor your father and mother”). This becomes the template for proper relationships with legitimate authorities beyond the home.
Work, a part of the original creation, is a blessing and honest labor and industriousness are virtues to be pursued (“six days you shall labor”). The right of personal property—the fruits of labor belonging to the laborer to be disposed of as he sees fit—is an important Christian value, as is the necessity of respecting the property rights of others (“you shall not steal”).
“A moral and religious people” will hold these principles to be true and right and will seek to live by them. Doing so, the Founders believed, would moderate wild swings of the pendulum between liberty and order. If the moderating force is the unchanging set of values held by “moral and religious people”, and the moral and religious people compromise those values to appease an unbelieving world, should we expect anything but wild swings of the pendulum?
Not only are these values not practiced, but they are also no longer held sacred or, in some cases, even believed—not even by many who name the name of Christ. They have been eroded by unbelief, and the cost of experiencing the disdain of the unbelieving world has become too much for many.
Many believe the answer is political activism (i.e. “culture wars”)— Christianizing the unbelieving world by law. Perhaps we need more work on Christianizing “the Christians” by faith.
Jesus’ admonition to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” was this: “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” (Matthew 5.13)
Israel had lost sight of its holy calling. Jesus came to restore them. Though the national machinery resisted, God powerfully used those that were willing to believe and obey to change the world.
He is still in that business.