When President Trump lost the election for a second term and
I in frustration unfriended some friends on Facebook I felt a certain freedom.
But it was the kind of freedom the Israelites must have felt walking on dry
ground with towering waves on both sides. Only faith in a sovereign Lord would
keep you going step after step.
To be clear I unfriended some friends because after pushing
and pushing into the realm of awful conspiracies in order to make it okay to
tell others they weren’t true Christians or they had blood on their hands, the
friends then insisted it was not trumpers who invaded the United States Capitol
but Black Lives Matter and/or Antifa. I also unfriended them because I realized
they were making all others enemies. It wasn’t that some Democrats were left
leaning and some desiring a socialist government, but they consider all
Democrats communists/Marxists. How many times have I seen a picture of
President Biden with the communist flag draped under his face?
I still love them, still pray for them, but they have headed
so far into the darkness that prayer and silence on my part is probably the
only way. (I was becoming a troll.) And in the clarity of the moment I have
some thoughts about the future of orthodox Christianity in the United States.
First are some very personal thoughts which entail my own
walk with Christ. In sorting
through all of the reading material on Twitter and
Facebook I have discovered that some
pro-life sites are lifting up some of the same conspiracy theories as my
Facebook friends. So I am busy scouting out groups that are truly pro-life.
That is, they are pro-life from the womb to the tomb. And they include
anti-racism and the needs of the poor and immigrants in their concerns. I
recently posted two videos on Facebook from sites that embrace that fullness of
Christian compassion. See Pro-Life
and Civil Rights: Loving Our Unborn Neighbors - Karen Ellis and “What
Does it Mean to be Pro-life?”
But still I see the problems that are entangled within the
progressive movement which are unbiblical and as deadly as the conspiracies of
the far right. That is why I see this particular time for orthodox Christians
as a time of walking on dry land with towering walls of water on both sides. Already
it is clear that both abortion and unrestrained sexual desires will plague the
future but the biggest concern for orthodox Christians will be, and must be,
fidelity to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That fidelity means not embracing the lies and immorality of
the far right which includes generous doses of anti-Semitism, paganism, materialism
and idolatry and not embracing the immorality and lies of the left which
include lies about the worthiness of human life in all of its stages and
relationships. Christians cannot embrace the murder of the unborn, the tearing
apart of immigrant families, the hatred of the other, the mutilation of
childhood’s innocence, the redefinition of marriage, the blood libels against Jews
and others.
It isn’t an easy road ahead but we have the promises of God.
I love the way that Karl Barth put it in his little book Theological Existence Today, written as the Confessing Church was
forming during the early Nazi years:
Within the Church it is agreed that
God “upholds all things by the Word of His power” (Hebrews i. 3): that He supplies answer to every question, that He
allows righteousness to experience all anxieties, that He sustains all that he
has made, and leads it to its truest end, that no thing can subsist and
flourish without His Word.
So the Church, Christ’s disciples, the orthodox Christians
in the United States have the word of God, have the good Shepherd leading and
caring for them, yes in the midst of anxieties and even perplexities. We will persevere
and flourish in His care.
But you, beloved
building yourselves upon your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep
yourselves in the love of God waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ to eternal life.
And have mercy on
some, who are doubting;
Save others, snatching
them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment
polluted by the flesh. (Jude 20-23)
1 comment:
Good evening Viola,
I like this path you are on and I hope you don’t mind that I am resonating with it.
I was thinking about the things that make the Gospel of John different than all the others, and one of the things that makes it different is how often the word “true” appears in various forms. “Truth”, “truly”, “true” appear 74 times in 21 chapters.
It occurred to me that in the Greco-Roman culture, the greatest hero of antiquity – Odysseus – was a trickster. It was a culture that idolized liars for their wisdom and cunning, held them up as examples to follow, and searched for the meaning of life in witchcraft and fanciful stories of false gods who also were known for their lies; and whose religions revolved around finding ways to gain their favor.
Into that World come these Christians who proclaim that their “hero” is not just a truth teller and a truth revealer, but that when you put a fine point on it, He is the very incarnation of absolute Truth itself in flesh and blood. How odd it must have seemed, this honest God.
But it became our second nature, to always aim to be honest and truthful and to live truthfully, both in public and in private. We believed that lies enslave us, and that it was the truth that set us free. Not only a Christological statement but an ethic to live by. To be called a liar was the greatest insult, and to be a liar was the greatest shame of all.
My point is, and I think yours as well, is that we’ve been here before. And we know the Way out. We really do.
Jodie Gallo
Los Angeles, CA
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