LiturgicalCredo.com’s Blog

After yesterday’s post, “Warriors invert Gospel on CNN,” I came across a book released in May, entitled The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church (Zondervan) by Gregory Boyd.

At ChristianBook.com, the book’s description reads:

“Should church and state really be separated? Does the church belong in the political arena? Arguing from Scripture and history, The Myth of a Christian Nation makes a compelling case that whenever the church gets too close to any political or national ideology, it is disastrous for the church and harmful to society. Contending that the American Evangelical Church has allowed itself to be co-opted by the political right (and some by the political left), Dr. Boyd exposes how this harms the church’s unique calling to build the kingdom of God. In the course of his argument, he challenges some deeply held convictions of evangelical Christians in America, such as America being ‘a Christian nation’ and that Christians ought to be trying to ‘take America back for God.’ Includes a discussion guide for small group use.”

If you’d like to consider purchasing the book, here’s the link:

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?p=1010185&item_no=67314

-Colin Burch

If you saw Christiane Amanpour’s three-part special God’s Warriors, and tuned in for the Christian segment, you might have heard Baptist minister Rick Scarborough declare, “Christians don’t lose until they quit!”

Scarborough is passionate about urging Christians to vote, but regardless of how justified he might be, and how insane our culture can be, he misses two big issues:

1. Sometimes Christians lose. Nowhere are Christians guaranteed victory. Jesus did not accomplish victory in any worldly sense. He washed the feet of His disciples, and extended a second chance to a prostitute. He was arrested, beaten, and killed. When He rose from the dead, He chose to leave the earth rather than to occupy it or establish a government. By any worldly standard, Jesus remains a loser. Only the future holds an expression of victory in a worldly sense — but for now, that is not the example believers have been given. The example was one of sacrifice, not triumph. Surely in a democracy Christians love their neighbors by being civic-minded and by being good citizens. Voting is part of that. Scarborough is onto something. But voting is just part of the good work. Which leads to the next point.

2. The primary mission of the Church is to bear witness to the Gospel. Saint Paul said the weapons of his battle were “not carnal,” which raises the question — why is Scarborough and other Christian activists primarily focused on mobilizing believers to take up carnal weapons? In the Christian faith, a change of the human heart is brought about (rather gradually, it seems) by the work of the Holy Spirit. As Saint Paul stated elsewhere, it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance. God’s kindness is understood when the death of Christ on the cross is explained: love, forgiveness of sins, grace, beauty, and adoption into God’s household are made available. Only this begins the course to real change, regardless of how long that course might be. If Christians truly believe the doctrine of the Fall, and really believe the human heart is depraved, they should be amazed that our culture is not in worse shape. Christians cannot hope to change hearts through voting booths.

Certainly the work of the Gospel is not ethereal and abstract. Of course Christians ought to involve themselves in the issues of the day. Of course believers confront the culture of warped values with the Gospel values of repentance, confession, love, forgiveness, and acceptance into God’s household. As believers reflect the Image of God that each holds in their relationships, rationality, and creativity, we make efforts — within the light of Scripture, Reason, and Tradition — to express the Gospel in numerous ways.

But by putting the emphasis on worldly means rather than the Gospel, Christians are only, as the columnist Cal Thomas once told me, “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”

The title of a not-so-recent book by Thomas and Ed Dobson might say it all most succinctly: Blinded by Might: Why the Religious Right Can’t Save America.

Someone by Scarborough a copy.

-Colin Burch

From Time magazine’s intelligence columnist, former CIA field officer Robert Baer:

“Strengthening the Administration’s case for a strike on Iran, there’s a belief among neo-cons that the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp.] is the one obstacle to a democratic and friendly Iran. They believe that if we were to get rid of the IRGC, the clerics would fall, and our thirty-years war with Iran over. It’s another neo-con delusion, but still it informs White House thinking.

“And what do we do if just the opposite happens — a strike on Iran unifies Iranians behind the regime? An Administration official told me it’s not even a consideration. ‘IRGC IED’s are a casus belli for this Administration. There will be an attack on Iran.’” (Read the full article here.)

How many people really believe that the power of the clerics would subside if the IRGC fell?

If you have a chance to pick up the Aug. 13 edition of National Review, read the article on the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Zimbabwe, Pius Ncube.

Reporter Travis Kavulla presents the difficult circumstances posed to the Archbishop by the head of Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Robert Mugabe.

“In recent months, as the economy went into freefall and the crisis grew, Mugabe’s regime became only more paranoid and prone to violence,” Kavulla wrote. “Archbishop Ncube is one of the few Zimbabweans whose high profiles allow them to speak somewhat freely.”

Later in the article, Kavulla wrote, “Mugabe remains driven by his will to hold unchallenged power, saying recently of his political opponents, ‘The police have the right to bash them.’ The police did just that on March 11, beating and jailing dozens at a prayer gathering called by the parliamentary opposition. Later in the day, the ruling party’s youth brigade stormed a hospital where some of the wounded were being treated and brought them at gunpoint to police stations to be tortured.”

 And later, “Catholic clergymen have taken a place among the foremost targets of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO), Zimbabwe’s formidable spy agency.”

These are just highlights from the article. I found a copy of the article online at http://www.zimbabwesituation.com/jul28_2007.html. At the table of contents at the top, look for “Mugabe’s Marvelous Foe” and click on it for the article.

-Colin Burch