"Thou shalt never question your political leader even if -"
"Let he who is born in the US of A throw all sorts of stones because they're just better -"
Be honest - do you know anyone who seems to think the quotes above could absolutely be from the Bible? For whom the trinity seems to be a quad comprised of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Red White and Blue? Maybe you are that person. I'm not here to judge or make fun, but if you are that person, this post may not be your favorite of mine. Why? Because of the next line, and basically all the ones after it.
Many American values are completely antithetical to Christianity, and are not ideals Jesus would have led people to.
There is an entire church predicated on the idea that I'm dead wrong about Jesus and America, and if you'd like to answer the door the next time those nice young boys from the Mormon church come knocking on your door, you're welcome to let them in to hear all about it. I've talked to them, read the literature, and remain deeply unconvinced.
If I start off in a completely hypothetical space, it'll even look like I'm proving myself wrong here (which our good Lord knows I've done on more than one occasion). What are our hypothetical/publicized values?
Truth. Great start - Jesus loves truth. He is the way, the truth, and the light. He wants us to tell the truth. He gives us the truth.
Justice. Golly, we're practically identical already. God is the creator of and arbiter of justice. He himself is just, and we can keep faith in Him because we know He will remain so.
Freedom. We are set free from the bondage of sin by the grace and salvation of Christ Jesus. And you all know I can't get enough of Beth Moore's study "Breaking Free."
So where's the problem? Did I lose one too many brain cells to Covid this past week and start the article wrong? Am I an America-hating, rebellion-stirring monster?
No. Because what I'm talking about are the values I actually see acted out here. The American values I see held highest are these:
- Freedom - "I get to do whatever I want - I have rights. You can't make me. I won't do it. I'll do it if I want to. Other people may have a problem with it, but that's not on me."
I have sixteen places I could start here. While I'm sticking to biblical backup, I'd also like to throw in the very common sense quote I can't properly credit for lack of knowledge, "My right to swing my fist ends at the tip of your nose." You can drive your car, but not onto someone's lawn. You could smoke in a restaurant in the 90s, but it was still frowned upon to blow it in a stranger's face. You technically can go around licking hand rails, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it - for your health or anyone else's.
Jesus' freedom is not the do what you want when you want and darn the consequences kind. Matthew, 11:28-30 says "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Notice that it doesn't say there will be no yoke. Jesus doesn't say our shoulders will be free and clear so we can go skipping off to do as we please. When our hearts are full of God's grace, we have freedom to do as He wishes. Not as we do. You may have noticed at some point in time that not one of us knows what's best for us. Not one of us. No, not even you. When we use our American freedom to do things that fly in the face of the things God wants us to use His freedom for, we are very much of this world.
- Patriotism/pride - "This is the best country in the world. If you don't like it then leave, and don't let the door hit you on the way out. How dare you speak out against our president. Other countries don't do things like we do because we're better and they should be more like us."
First of all, I'd like you to raise your hand if you chose to be born in the USA. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Great. Now that that's sorted, how many of you have lived in another country long enough to completely experience the place and not just whatever blips come up on the news about it from time to time? And no, the cruise you took doesn't count.
Some of you may have lived in those places long enough. Some of you may have been born elsewhere and moved here. But none of you born here chose it. No one whose parents brought them here as children chose it.
Second, if you do love something, you want it to be better. That's why marriage counseling exists. I hope I'm not bursting any bubbles by saying that nothing in your life is perfect. No job, country, person, relationship - nothing. If you want to enable it and stick your fingers in your ears whenever someone brings up a flaw, that's some deeply codependent muck I'm not wading through. That's why therapists in general exist.
Third, it is OK to admit that something another country does is good or could be good, and it DOES NOT MAKE YOU A COMMUNIST. You're allowed to like other systems. France has a great one for water. Iceland has a great one for power. Doesn't mean I'm moving onto a commune in Paris or Rekjavik, but it's ok to not think America is the best at literally everything. Really - I swear. God made all of us, in all countries, and loves us all. It's fine.
Fourth - your political candidate is not God. Nope, not that one. Nope, not that one either. If you're taking everything out of their mouth as gospel, you need to re-read the actual gospel. And maybe check out what happens with idol-worshipping in the Old Testament. Spoiler: it's not good.
- Individualism - "I worked hard to get where I am and if someone is poor that means they're just lazy. Why should I have to help feed people who can't afford it? No one helped me get where I am - I am a SELF-MADE man/woman."
Why is it that I hear these so many times from Christians? "Well, Stephane," you might say, "because it's true."
Take a step back and look at it again. Who do we glorify in our actions? To whom do we give credit for our triumphs? We don't have anything but what WHO gave us?
That's right - God. You cannot stand secure in your job. In your house. In your vehicle. Job certainly couldn't. You didn't bring water forth from a stone by yourself. Moses didn't. One flood. One fire. One bad enough injury. One act of God could give you multitudes beyond what you have and one act could take it all away so that you have nothing but Him to lean on.
Matthew 25. "When I was hungry you cut funding to the programs to feed me and told me to get a job. When I was thirsty, you poisoned my water with factory runoff. When I was naked, you turned up your nose and passed me, muttering about the homeless."
It's an exaggeration, sure, but not by much. And when you do help, do you only reach out a hand to those who look like you? Act like you? Live like you? Do you only have compassion for people going through things you already have and have firsthand knowledge of? It's easy to love people who are similar to ourselves, but that's not where God asks us to stop.
- Self-Righteousness - "I'm just glad I'm not like that. I would never do that. That thing is unforgiveable."
Jesus died on the cross for our sins, but only the really repugnant ones like rape and murder. Right? Because that's certainly how we (and definitely I more than once) can tend to act. As though that nasty rumor you passed on last week, or the office supplies you took home, or your failure to help another human being didn't drive the nail just the same. Remember the loveable prayer "Thank you that I'm not like that sinful tax collector"? That one went over like a lead balloon for a reason.
Here's where I make people even more upset because there are only two things I hear Christians around me talking about at least 90% of the time when they talk about sin: homosexuality and abortion. I deeply refuse to talk about my stance on abortion again - it's toward the beginning of the blog if you need it, and I'm far too tired to unearth it to be just a piece of this writing.
I'm told that I should be a "single issue voter" and vote a certain way just because of abortion rights. That it's good to not worry about any of the rest because this is so horrific that the rest doesn't matter. I am deeply horrified by dead babies. And dead women. And dead children. And dead men. And people in poverty. People who are starving. People who had abortions because they had no access to proper education and thought you could only get pregnant in a certain position. People wasting away in prison for something that should have been a slap on the wrist because the judge was in a mood or because the for-profit prison system is...something I'd need a whole other post on.
The idea that there are only a couple of things that are THE BIG BAD and that other sins are ok is certainly understandable. There are some things that just hit us harder than others. And I know that it's possible to care about 100 things but only talk about two of them. But it seems that the things most talked about are ones that can be preached along party lines, and that I do take issue with. As my friend Beth (who is usually the shore I wash up on when I know I've been in the whale's belly for too long and need to get going) said, God wants us to don our armor and take up His sword and stand our ground - ground He already won. But here we are picking a particular hill on that ground and throwing rocks. It's as if we don't believe that He can hold the ground - we have to thump enough of these bad guy sinners over here and no, don't worry about that log in my eye. I'm not saying we don't convict. I'm not saying we don't share the word. I'm just saying the population of these two hills is way too high, and some hills have been thoroughly abandoned - oddly enough, usually the ones that the most people who profess to be Christians are committing themselves and would prefer to think aren't so bad.
- "Truth" - "There is no discussion here because I'm right and you're wrong. I won't listen to anything except for what confirms my political and social beliefs already, so I'll always believe this way no matter what.
This one is deeply tricky. I have faith in God. I will not be swayed from that faith in God. There's not enough evidence in the world to turn me because I'm not operating on evidence. I'm operating on faith. We all are.
Unfortunately, that tends to bleed out into other areas of our life where the object of our belief isn't a perfect creator - it's a human being, or a human idea. A nutjob (bless their heart) with a blog. A corporation lying for profit. A politician lying to advance their platform.
One of my favorite examples of this requires me to go outside of the Bible and into one of my favorite court cases - Stella Liebeck v. McDonalds. McDonalds paid a lot of marketing and PR people a lot of money to paint Ms. Liebeck as a money-grubbing idiot who got millions of dollars for not knowing coffee was hot. There is even an unofficial award given in her name to the most frivolous lawsuits each year. It's common sense, right? Their story makes sense. She spilled her coffee, got mad about it, and got some crazy lawyer. It happens all the time.
Stella (if I may be so bold - I don't know the woman, but I like to think she'd be ok with it given that I'm defending her) was handed a coffee that was 30-40 degrees hotter than it should have been, which McDonalds had been warned about previously. Literal hundreds of people, including children, had been burned already, and no action was taken to correct it.
She sustained third degree burns over 15% of her body (including thighs and genitals - yowch), which is bad enough even if you aren't 79. Multiple procedures and skin grafts were involved, and the recovery took two years. She asked for $15,000-20,000 to cover her hospital bills. As we all know - those can get extensive. They countered with an offer of $800. Total. So she took it to court, and was awarded punitive damages.
This is a story so well established that the "didn't know coffee was hot" is a major part of the cultural zeitgeist when talking about lawsuits. I didn't know the real story until my 20s. Many still don't. And the "facts" shared by McDonalds' spin artists are still spewed to this day.
Nothing else in this world is God, and nothing else deserves that much of your faith. What's worse, sharing incorrect information makes people who aren't believers say, "Yikes - if they'll believe that easily verified lie, they'll believe anything. God must be on the same level as that nonsense."
The short wrap here for anyone who just spent a lot of time scrolling wondering if I ever shut up (I don't) is that American values and Christian values don't always line up. Not all human rights are American rights and vice versa. I'm an American. I'm a Christian. And I can be both - but not if I don't use careful discernment, humility, scripture, and faith every day.
No comments:
Post a Comment