Reclaiming the Faith

It has never been so hard to be a Christian in America.

Not because of persecution, but because we are the persecutors.

Not because we have to practice the faith underground, because our faith is loud and misplaced.

Not because we are ostracized and shunned, but because we have become poor exemplars of the Gospel and we are our own worst enemies.

Even for the most cynical and jaded among us, it is hard to imagine the damage done to our witness.

Pastors and religious leaders are openly supporting fascism, nativism, and xenophobia.

Supposed leaders of the faith who once derided “godless communism” suborning wickedness in the name of Christianity.

Preaching and teaching that empathy is a sin.

Espousing the rhetoric of hatred and violence.

Americans outside the faith would say this was the logical progression for a faith that for the last forty years has been politically motivated and dispassionate instead of spiritually centered and compassionate.

They are correct.

It didn’t have to be this way.

It wasn’t meant to be this way.

The Gospel that was sent to the Jews and the Gentiles is one of inclusion.

The Good News is for everyone, including immigrants, widows, and orphans.

Jesus didn’t come so that we could send innocent people to foreign concentration camps.

He didn’t come so that people seeking freedom and opportunity would be hunted down and put in cages.

He didn’t die on the cross so that people would anoint sinful, reprobate politicians as their Lord and Savior and elevate him as an equivalent Savior.

This is what American Christianity has wrought.

This period in history will rival the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and other injustices in making the faith anathema.

There are many Christians, both clergy and laypeople who know better and do better, but their good work is overwhelmed by many public deeds.

Things went astray the second American Christianity abandoned saving souls and redressing social inequality to achieving political power.

The American Church exchanged love, mercy, and compassion for endorsing candidates who paid hypocritical lip service to Christian ideals and principles.

This unholy union between the Church and the Republican Party has reached its nadir.

The party that once touted itself as the party of religious morals and values rallied around a racist, sexist, serial philanderer.

This from the party that wanted a Democratic president removed from office because he lost his “moral authority” for having an affair while in office.

A 34-time convicted felon was not only palatable but is perceived to have a “holy calling” on his presidency.

A Christian president who spends every Sunday playing golf.

A Christian president who only steps inside a church when cameras are rolling.

If American Christians want to demonstrate authentic faith, we need to speak out against fascism.

We need to rally against injustice in all its forms – racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and nativism.

We must protest against this administration.

We must speak out.

We must volunteer and serve to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for widows and orphans.

We must champion the immigrant.

We must preach and teach the Gospel and occasionally use words.

Our churches must not be silent.

While wrongs are perpetrated in the name of Jesus, we cannot remain silent.

An unimaginable reckoning is going to occur.

The American Church is going to be called to account.

Speaking harshly is better than silence because we are called to speak truth to injustice.

It will be insufficient to think that political posturing is preferrable to demonstrating mercy.

Saying what needs to be said and doing what needs to be done but abstaining because of fear, doubt, or worry is not acceptable.