A False War
It’s not about believing the women, it’s about the lie that we are at war.
In a war, you work with imperfect people and ideas to win. You're willing drop the first nuclear bomb, killing millions, creating a weapon that threatens the human race, to save millions. In a war, you work with evil people to stop evil people. Wars provide excuses to slip on blinders so that you can focus on the “common good.”
These blinders allow us to deceive ourselves that there are acceptable lose and casualties of war as long as we achieve a“common good".
The women who have accused Roy Moore of despicable acts are acceptable losses in a misguided war. This misguided war was created by the false perception that the church is being persecuted. It causes us to scream loudly about Starbucks cups and ignore God's plea to love our neighbors.
The church isn’t being persecuted from outside, but within. Our church is forgoing the Kingdom of God for the idol of the nation of America. Pastors in Alabama, support a pedophile – Candidate Roy Moore has been accused by 9 women. Their stories have been collaborated and he has not refuted dating teenagers. – while denouncing the "evil of Democrats", "communist" and "other political institutions". Their words mocked Jesus' command to love your neighbor.
I often vote Democrat. I support many of the views of the Democratic party. But my identity is not in my party affiliation, but in my inheritance as a daughter of God. I do not believe that either party – or any type of American government – provides my hope. My hope is in Jesus and nothing less.
That is true regardless of your political affiliation. As Christians we do not get to side with political party, because we must side with Christ. Neither democrat nor republican promote the values of the kingdom. They are simply human made institutions we have created to Govern our world. If we allow the political parties to become idols, we are seeking to find our hope and salvation in a humans institutions, casting aside Christ.
As culture has encroached on our beliefs, we are more aware of our inability to disciple believers. Rather than pour into scriptures, we have instead tried to legalize morality. Finding it easier to create laws than make disciples. The problem with legalizing morality, is it turns us into Pharisees who sacrifice Christ on the Altar of religion. The legalization of morality, has caused a new enemy to raise its head; a political party that pretends to worship our God, but chooses to ignore his commandments.
Rather than putting our hope in Jesus, we’ve created a political party that tries to fashion a nation out of a distorted view of the gospel. However, unable to legislate people’s hearts, this political party has created a perceived war; us verses them. Those that are in the club and those that are out. Both political parties are guilty.
This perceived war is antithetical to the gospel. The gospel cannot exist with the exclusion of others and the kingdom of God must conquer all nations. Legislating morality chases people from the gospel. This war of us versus them – the culture war – does not allow God’s kingdom to come here. It instead creates a nation made from our own idols that obstructs the gospel.
Roy Moore and his evangelical support is an example of this false war impeding the kingdom.
Roy Moore was despicable before the allegations came out. A man abusing power to take advantage of women, is not surprising. It’s a cliché. But the fact that pastors, and others claiming to speak for God have stood behind a man, who violates God’s daughters, makes a mockery out of the gospel.
When we support a man, or a political party at the expense of the gospel, the church becomes impotent. People cannot trust that God stands for good news, when those that proclaim to stand for the gospel so easily hurt God’s children. Paul’s words that Jesus came to reconcile lose potency in the face of “godly” men tout racist rhetoric. The message of peace is bitter when it is sung by people clamoring for war.
When we tie the gospel any political party, it ignores Jesus’ invitation to live our lives devoted to him.
The church is being destroyed, because choose the safety of politics. Our hypocritical words preach an ineffective gospel. We can't preach freedom, when we demand Muslims locked up. We can’t testify to God’s love, when hate spews out of our mouth. We can’t claim a redeemed sense of sexuality, when we side with sexual predators. There cannot be a lesser of two evils, because the church must always cling to Christ. When we choose sin, we abandon Jesus, leaving us ineffective.
We cannot choice political expediency at the cost of bringing God’s Kingdom here. We must abandon the hope we have placed in politics. Our salvation does not come from forcing people to say Merry Christmas, but from Jesus' death on the cross.
There are no acceptable losses in God’s eyes. God’s kingdom is meant for everyone. When we buy into the lie that the evil buggy man is coming from this world to destroy the church, we negate the fact that Jesus already won the real war. The battle is done. The only victim was him. Our job isn’t to fight a perceived threat, but cling to the truth of Jesus. To follow him into bringing “a new kingdom and a new earth here.” Jesus will be victorious. But if we choose this nation – or some perceived “Christian world” - over God’s kingdom, we will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
