We
view everything through regenerate eyes but we never seek political power. We
had better be aware of it, quick to expose it and critique it. The world's
devices are both clever and seductive. But the world's goals concerning power
and the lust can only create a Pseudo-Zion a Pseudo-Eden... that's the last
thing in the world we want.
And
for all the Church's efforts to manifest the Kingdom through civilizational and
political power, that's all they will end up with. A cheap imitation, a
counterfeit, and there's nothing more dangerous than that.
If
we do embrace this fool's quest we end up like Perchik. Everything is about the
quest for power. We will be deluded and deceived. This is why I hear Christians
contorting and twisting Scripture to serve their political purposes.
It's
an old trick. Take a walk around Washington. The monuments are plastered with
misapplied and tortured Scripture verses seeking to justify violence and
promote the idolatry that America is somehow sanctified by God. We ought to be
demanding these things be removed, instead Christians clamour to defend,
protect and promote these errors.
The
Bible is quoted as a means to dominate others, to empower the state. Even humanitarian
activities are political. Even when good things are done, they do them for the
wrong motive.
Laws
are passed, not to glorify God (as if they could). They're passed to
consolidate power.
Candidates
run for office seeking power and vain-glory. They say they seek to honour God
calling him Lord, but they won't do what He says.
People
take to the streets in protest, not for righteous indignation but to weaken
power, break it and grab up the pieces.
The
non-violence of King and Gandhi also fall into this category. It can be
admirable, even moving. I'm reminded of the scene in 'Gandhi' where the little
man dressed in homespun is shown walking up the massive steps into the heart of
the British Raj and all its power only to find out that they've acquiesced to
him and are leaving. It's very moving and no matter how many times I watch it,
it brings me to tears.
But
in the end even this type of non-violent protest is a form of coercion. It's
one thing to refuse obedience and either take the punishment or leave. It's
something quite different to 'resist' in order to try and force change. It's a proven
method and one preferable to the sword but in the end it is also a form of
force. It's basically trying to flip the violence back onto your adversary and
hope that they will splinter and self-implode. And then when they retreat, you
assert.
And
sometimes it works. And while I sympathize strongly with that tactic, it too
can be corrupted and problematic. It also can be a form of power-seeking. These
were the points Niebuhr brought out in his post-War criticism of Pacifism and
non-resistance. His models are flawed and his thinking non-Christian but Niebuhr
did raise some valid points.
We
must oppose Abortion and homosexuality and all the sinful cancers that rot and
torment our world. But in understanding that the cure is the Gospel of Grace,
we realize the means to bring those things to an end has nothing to do with
political activity.
I
admire those who have been arrested for blocking the sidewalk to an abortion
clinic. There's real courage there. And I don't doubt there are some who
genuinely care for the lives of the unborn.
I
really admire those who are reaching out to impoverished pregnant women and
helping them not only to keep the child but helping them after the baby is
born.
Sadly
those who have politicized this issue show their true colours when they
encourage the woman to keep her child but then abandon her to the conditions
that made her think about getting rid of it in the first place. And then they
castigate her for her poverty and dependence. And all too often if she's part
of a race that doesn't control the establishment institutions of our society
she (and her child) is trapped in a death cycle. They're imprisoned in a world
lacking any hope, any promise and riddled with deceitful traps that pretend to
offer ways of escape, but only lead to the destruction of both body and soul, a
prison cell and an early death.
You
cannot claim to be Pro-Life and support policies that harm people. You can't
claim to care about the unborn and then abandon them in the ghetto and gang
dominated neighbourhoods. You can't claim to be Pro-Life and support militarism
and all the political and economic mechanisms of Empire. Empire is just a power
monopoly. It's theft and murder on a grand scale.
So
while I support the overthrow of Abortion, I cannot join with the movements who
engage in political protest. Speaking in generalized terms their motives are
deeply flawed. And I say that knowing there are those involved who do have and
maintain pure hearts.
All
of these issues are tied in with political power and agendas. If I speak to certain
sins, people in our society don't hear Good News or an urge to repent and
reconciled to God. They hear a political agenda.
If
I speak to my Lesbian neighbour down the road about the Gospel, she doesn't
hear about peace with God. She hears a political programme that seeks to
destroy her.
"We're
not trying to destroy them," some will cry in protest. When you fine
people and ban them from social participation, then you're using the force of
law, the threat of violence to oppose and crush them. If they pay the fine then
they're submitting to the moral force of the state. People will resist and when
given the chance will lash out in retaliation. We're seeing that right now.
They
of course are wrong. Their moral compass (as it were) is skewed and quite
literally perverted. But what's the remedy?
Do
we call on the police to bring the Gospel at the point of a gun? If you don't
pay your fines, at some point a court will issue a warrant and men with guns
will come to your house and 'force' you to appear before the Judge. And if you
don't submit he will order the officers to 'forcibly' and against your will
'constrain' you.
Is
this the way we spread the Gospel?
This
is the end result, the telos of political activity. It's calling on violent means
to accomplish our goals even if we think they're moral.
This
is not the way. We're thankful that some states have better moral compasses
than others. We can vote, we can go to a town meeting and speak about zoning or
water, or noise ordinances. We can seek a better Babylon but we had better not
forget that in the end, that's all it is. And Babylon only offers a false
gospel.
Like
Perchik, the deceived use the Bible not as a means of being reconciled to God
and knowing Christ. They use it as a tool even a weapon of conquest. I will not
labour the point here as I have elsewhere but this is precisely the imagery we
are being warned about in the 17th chapter of the Apocalypse.
And
while right now I can laugh at the tortured political and economic hermeneutics
of Perchik, twisting every Scripture to his perverted and ridiculous ends... I
have to say when I encounter the very same in the Church, it's not funny at
all.