Hypocrisy is hardly unusual, especially in the realm of politics.
And sadly we must admit it is also fairly common within the larger Church.
And yet there are times when it reaches levels that can only be
described as over the top, even obscene. Maybe people have short memories,
maybe some can't see it. In other cases one is left wondering if it isn't
hypocrisy as much as just plain deceit.
The hypocrisy I refer to in this case is with regard to the
American Right, congressional as well as members of the general public
affiliated with the Republican Party. And yet, that larger umbrella is not
really what concerns me in this case. Lost people will behave as... lost. They
will lie, cheat and steal, even murder. This is especially true when it comes
to issues of wealth, power and control. I am a firm believer in man's
depravity, and fallen nature. This is what the Scriptures teach. I do not
believe that people are basically 'good'. Not only are there none that are
'good' vis-à-vis the Holiness of God, I don't even believe people are good when
it comes to their daily lives as it pertains to human relations and their
relationship to society at large.
The American Christian Right which largely operates within
the confines of the GOP claims to be representing Christ in the political and
social sphere. They claim to be applying Biblical ethics to the culture. As
people professing to be regenerate and Spirit led they should represent a sharp
break with the ethics of 'lost' or 'unregenerate' politics.
They should be concerned primarily with truth. After all we
serve the One who is Truth. They should be concerned about holiness and
integrity. Jesus railed against the Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious and
political leaders of His day. They certainly misunderstood and grossly
misapplied the Scriptures and they were condemned for it. They had a false view
of the Kingdom, false Messianic expectations and thus when Christ appeared
preaching the Kingdom of God and demonstrating it in the power of the Holy Spirit,
they rejected him. They plotted against him and used the Romans, their pagan
conquerors to do their dirty work and crucify Him. It was all part of God's plan
as Acts 2.23 indicates and yet they were still wicked in their motivations and
certainly in their deeds.
And yet for all their twisting of Scripture it was their
hypocrisy that seemed to anger Christ the most. He absolutely denounced them,
most famously perhaps in Matthew 23. Invoking curses he called out their
hypocrisy and roundly condemned them. In John 8 he famously referred to them as
liars and sons of the devil.
One cannot help but be reminded of such hypocrisies when
witnessing the antics and manipulations of the Christian Right. As I've said in
previous pieces, don't misunderstand me on this point. It certainly is
frustrating to live in our culture. Men's minds have been harnessed and
trapped. If I criticise the Right or the Christian Right then it is assumed
that I'm for the Left, the Democrats or the godless. Because Christ criticised
the Jewish leaders of His day, did that mean he was for the Romans or the
Hellenists? Just as in the first century, even today men have small minds and
struggle to think beyond the dirt they wallow in.
Just because I'm critical of the Christian Right doesn't mean
I've apostatised. Rather, I'm more critical of the Christian Right just because
they dare to invoke the name of Christ. They should be held to a higher standard
and yet their conduct is only worthy of the world.
Christians are called to have renewed minds. We're called to
be different. We're Christians because the Gospel message represents the truth.
Our embrace of Christ should never be about what we get or for our advantage.
There most certainly are benefits to being a Christian. We can have hope and
peace. If obedient to Christ we will indeed probably have happier marriages and
families. We will be freed from the bondage that is in the world, and living in
the Spirit, we shouldn't fall prey to the lusts of the flesh, materialism,
addictions and all the rest. We are freed from condemnation and death loses its
sting. The fires of hell no longer terrorise us and we are released from
Satan's claim on us when we die. This is all true enough but primarily we are
Christians, not because of what we get but because we are convicted that the
Gospel and all that it implies with regard to God and His Word are things that
are true. We believe that Christ is the
way, the truth and the life. We desire to be freed from sin and reconciled
to God, to know Him and His ways. We long and rejoice to see His Kingdom, to
walk its paths, a glory and hope that the world cannot see or comprehend.
Many false Christians have confused godliness with gain. They
think Christianity is a means to empowerment, to money and success. Like the
Pharisees of old they pridefully crave power over others and dream of a
dominion, a kingdom defined in worldly, fleshly terms. Their desires for
holiness are not genuine but instead are expressions of pride and the desire to
wield control over others, the perverse joy in being the standard of righteous,
judging, giving life and death to others as they see fit. They want to bring
judgment and all too often they are motivated by vengeance. Essentially (whether
they realise it or not) they desire to supplant Christ on the throne and rule
in His name. This Judaized understanding of the Kingdom was explicitly rejected
by Christ on many occasions. I refer to it as Judaized because it was based on
a mis-reading of the Old Testament. It read the Old Testament in terms of
geopolitical Israel and the Law being not a means but an end. Even today there
are those who have misunderstood Christ and whether they realise it or not,
they have rejected Him and the Kingdom He inaugurated. Whether they are
Dispensational and still look to a Jewish Kingdom to be fulfilled, the
Christ-rejecting dream of the Pharisees or in other cases they have transferred
that conception to Christendom or an American version of it. Either way, their
concepts of Christ's Heavenly reign and rule have been grossly perverted. They
rest on Old Testament concepts and idiom, and yet their understandings of these
passages are contradicted by the Apostles and writers of the New Testament.
It's not that the passages are flawed. By no means, they have been fulfilled by
Christ. The problem here is that they've misunderstood them and certainly
misapplied them. They're not reading them through the lens of Christ's Person
and Work. And even worse, their misapplication and manipulation of these
passages is more or less the same as that of the Christ-rejecting Pharisees. In
this sense they are Judaizers.
His Kingdom is not of this world, it's not born of violence
which is what worldly politics are... at their essence. Politics are the pre-war,
the battle fought with guns yet in the holster and swords not yet torn from the
sheath. It's the threat of war, and using the threat of violence in dictates of
the law and the courts. Power breeds pride and its quest generates a consequentialist
ethic. The end justifies the means. You're allowed to play fast and loose with
the truth if it serves the greater end... political and cultural victory.
Politics almost necessarily produces sub-Christian ethics and
deceit. By the way this is true even in ecclesiastical politics. When
Christians turn the Church into a bureaucracy and a political order, when they
create hierarchies, extra-biblical courts and the like, they too will fall into
this trap. And thus it must be acknowledged that many Christians who on one
level mean to serve God, by creating forms of government and
ecclesiastical-political orders like denominations (and other similarly
constituted institutions)... they too fall into these traps.
The presidency of Donald Trump represents a new epoch and
certainly a new low for the so-called Christian Right. After the cultural
changes of the 1960's and the failures and perceived failures of leadership
found in figures like Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford and eventually Carter, the
Evangelicals sought a new model of overt political organisation and activism.
Post-War Evangelicalism has from the beginning been about cultural engagement
and social influence. It sought to promote capitalism, oppose communism and
stand for 'traditional' values, some of which may have been culturally traditional
but weren't quite Biblical. Patriotism, reverence for the Constitution and
celebration of the 1776 Rebellion immediately come to mind, but these sub- and
anti-Christian ideas and the narratives they consequently generate only scratch
the surface.
Under the leadership of Jerry Falwell and others, the Moral
Majority rejected Jimmy Carter and laboured to elect Ronald Reagan. By all
accounts they played a critical role in his success. These nationalistic
Evangelicals wanted a leader with integrity and moral backbone. Reagan was
going to fight the communists and win the Cold War. He was the leader they
wanted. And yet some were troubled. In addition to being divorced, Reagan's
Christian profession was dubious at best. He had a fascination with
Dispensational-influenced End Times prophecy but was no student of Scripture,
no follower of Christ. The embrace of Reagan ironically was a capitulation in
terms of integrity and moral leadership. It's hard to imagine today but at the
time divorce was still absolutely rejected by Evangelicals and other
conservative Christians. It was a shameful thing not only in the Church but even
in society at large.
Most Evangelical and Confessionalist Christians went along
with the embrace of Reagan and yet there were a few that believed something had
been compromised. They were worried that such compromises would ultimately lead
to the collapse of the project. Within a generation their fears bore fruit. George
HW Bush did not get along with Evangelicals. He clearly did not share their mindset
yet they tepidly backed him over Dukakis. In the end he proved a
disappointment. He made overtures to the sodomites, raised taxes, and some were
upset by his globalist vision which to many nationalist Evangelicals,
undermined American power.
And then the Clintons arrived. For over eight years
Evangelicals raged against the whoremonger Bill and his feminist wife. How
often did I hear conservative and Christian people express a desire for
integrity and dignity to return to the Oval Office? Of course any Christian
immersed in Scripture and history would have realised the absurdity of such
sentiments. And yet for the Christo-American Right there was a real belief in the
mythology of a 'godly' America and there was a genuine (if sorely misguided) desire
for righteous leadership. The Baby-Boomer Clintons represented a shift in
values, or at least that's how it was perceived.
There were huge sighs of relief when George W Bush came into
office in January 2001. Finally Bill Clinton's legacy of philandering and
immorality, his filling of the White House with morally questionable people had
come to an end. Now there was integrity and moral leadership! Moral stalwarts
like Bush and Cheney would lead the way. It's all absurd of course. Clinton was
a wretch but I don't consider starting wars and setting the Middle East on fire
to be 'moral'. We could additionally talk about kidnapping people off the
streets, spying on the public, torture and much more. At this point more than a
million people have died in the wake of Bush's Middle Eastern policy and all
the wars he and Obama helped to spawn. Countless lives and whole cultures have
been destroyed. Immoral filth has many manifestations. Clinton's adulterous toying
with a loose intern while damnable does not cancel out mass slaughter and the
theft of nations.
The Obama presidency generated another crisis. He was not
base in the way Bill Clinton was but he was attacked as being a Manchurian
Candidate, in this case a secret Muslim-Communist (whatever that might be),
even while he promoted the interests of Wall Street and The Pentagon. To many
on the Right, Obama could never represent them or their nation. As American
politics slipped further into the gutter and as the Right began to embrace
feminism (a la Sarah Palin) and the celebration of post-1990s cultural and
financial decadence, the older concerns regarding integrity and moral
leadership seemed to fade. The Culture War inaugurated (as some see it) by Pat
Buchanan's famous speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention meant the
gloves were off. I'm embarrassed to admit it but I actually voted for Perot in
that election. Victory was the end, the means were no longer important. War
necessarily abandons ethical particulars as victory takes precedent as the
supreme ethical concern. As the Right became more desperate and politics descended
into a type of trench warfare, all pretenses at ideology and integrity passed
away.
In 2016 Evangelicals supported Donald Trump and with the
congressional gains made during the Obama era, those on the Right found
themselves in control of both houses of congress, the presidency and largely in
control of the Supreme Court. But at what cost? We're still watching the
fallout and I'm sure we'll be talking about this period a generation from now.
It's truly a watershed.
Ethics are being redefined. Robert Jeffress, an idolatrous
leader of the Southern Baptist Convention who has confused Biblical
Christianity with the worship of the American Beast has declared that Trump's
adultery with a pornographic actress 'doesn't matter'. Tony Perkins, a
corrupted warmongering lobbyist and liar says it's all a ploy of the Leftist
media.
Just imagine that. Imagine if Clinton or Obama had been
exposed committing adultery with a pornographic actress, what would be said?
The Right would be attacking them not only for their immorality but for the
fact that the porn industry would undoubtedly receive a boost and a sense of
legitimisation. Trump had this affair apparently not long after his son with
Melania (wife #3) was born. Of course Melania is also a pornographic model, a
gold-digger and a whore. Imagine how they would have gone after Michelle Obama
or Hillary Clinton in such a case.
In the past I've pointed out the hypocrisy that occurred
around Sarah Palin's daughter who turned up pregnant out-of-wedlock. If that
had been Chelsea Clinton they would have railed against her (beyond the insults
they already poured on her for being ugly) and called her a slut and blamed her
promiscuity on the moral values of her parents.
In Palin's case it was all spun and re-packaged. Palin was
lionised and her daughter was made into a hero who kept her baby (just like
Madonna!) and was rewarded with more reality show coverage and an opportunity
to wantonly 'shake her stuff' on Dancing With the Stars.
Pat Buchanan thinks 'America First' under Trump represents
some kind of victory in the culture war. If he had any wisdom he would be
despondent and recognise that he played his small part in opening the flood
gates. War for war's sake loses its way. The culture debauchery they hoped to
combat... they have instead embraced and
become.
When Evangelical leaders shrug their shoulders at adultery
and the other moral filth that emanates from the Trump clan... then indeed
there's been a shift, a change in what the whole Christian political project
was supposed to be about. It was wrong from the beginning but now the failures
should be obvious to all.
But they're not. That's what continues to stun me. Most
Evangelicals remain stiff-necked and defiant and refuse to acquiesce and
instead rush to embrace fools and buffoons and every other creature under the
sun that will tickle their ears.
Michael Farris of HSLDA-fame admitted the failure in 2016,
before Trump even won the election .The fact that Evangelicals backed him as a
candidate was enough for him (Farris) to realise all they stood for had been
lost.
The Right won a few victories in the culture war. And yet for
the most part they have suffered a series of heavy defeats. The truth of the
matter is that if people didn't want to watch shows like Ellen and Modern
Family... they would turn them off. And yet most Evangelicals have with almost
equal enthusiasm embraced the immorality, tolerated it in their homes and in
their own families. The Christian Right is still woefully blind in
understanding the effects of money and how the quest for it shapes one's
ethics. The economic and political system they have promoted as godly is in fact
a worldly affirmation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life. And like Sodom in Ezekiel 16 they have seemingly been handed
over to self-indulgence, self-idolatry and now, self-destruction.
American never was Zion but now it most certainly has become Sodom.
And the Evangelical Church is right there in the thick of it.
Its leaders are corrupt and blind and I'm not merely referring to the obvious
figures like Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyer and the host
of other false teachers that dominate the television on Sunday morning.
No, many names that are familiar to and cherished by
conservatives are actually in an almost equally bad place. They may not preach
a tacky version of Prosperity Gospel, but they preach it nonetheless... though
under different names and frameworks. They may not own private jets but oh,
they're rich. They've done very nicely for themselves and yet because they
compare themselves to the other more extreme examples of decadence and
corruption... they think they're okay. They're off the hook. They're not
guilty. They are not wise.
In fact they are poor, blind and naked. They are spiritually
impoverished and have lost their way. They teach God's people to fornicate, to
commit spiritual adultery, to worship idols. I'm talking about many teachers
who pretend to promote 'Biblical Worldview' and Sola Scriptura. They use these
monikers as covers for promoting their own political and cultural agendas. They
lie, deceiving themselves and others. They are blind in their judgments of
Scripture and the culture. They think like lost people, relying on fleshly
presuppositions in how they approach culture and history.
And they are naked... naked to those who have eyes to see,
those who (immersed in God's Word) see before them yet another manifestation of
that old perverse spirit... the same heart that rotted in the breasts of the Pharisees,
the same spirit that builds the tombs of the prophets and yet are the descendants
of those who put them to death.
Who do they think they are kidding? Obviously they rest
solidly on the fact that most of their audiences are asleep. Their congregations
and listening audiences are like zombies, checkbooks in hand. They manipulate
them through fear and lies and in the end are little better than the lost and
worldly political powers they oppose. Truly they are cut from the same cloth.
They are not God's blessing on the Church in a time of adversity. They are His
judgment.
I remember James Dobson, one of the leading false teachers
and corrupters of our age railing against Obama. He was so upset that when
Obama took office in 2009 he had a fully Democratic congress. The nation had
reacted to the Bush years and by the 2006 mid-terms had even handed the House
back to the Democrats. The Gingrich Revolution of 1994 was over and the
Republicans and the Christian Right were bitter. There's something particularly
ironic about the fact that Gingrich's successor, Dennis Hastert who was so
praised by Evangelicals that they named a department at Wheaton College after
him turned out to be a paedophile. The Christian Right and Evangelical movement
are filled with many such ironies. The very people who went after Clinton in
1998/99 and attempted to impeach him were saturated in sin and hypocrisy.
Dobson ranted about checks and balances and how the Founders
did not intend for one group to hold all the branches of government. There was
a danger of dictatorship and so forth. He was really concerned and upset. Of
course if he knew his history he would know that the Founders were concerned
about the rise of political parties and viewed them as a threat to democracy.
So in one sense the appeal to the Founders is problematic and misleading.
Nevertheless, one certainly can understand Dobson's concerns even if his
motivations were merely partisan. How do I know this?
Because when the Republicans gained control of the congress
and the presidency in 2016 there was no criticism. There's been no concern for
the fact that now the GOP controls everything and no one can check their power.
Apparently Dobson's audience doesn't realise that he's a
swindler. Truth is not his concern. What he cares about is power. The irony in
his case is that he built an empire (to call it a ministry is obscene) which
was taken away from him. In order to expand and make the big time you have
follow all the rules laid out by the IRS. He did so but in doing so he lost
absolute control of the organisation and the board forced him out. Revenue (one
can't call it profits) was down and he was putting people off with his
incessant politicking, so the 'ministry' decided to force him out. He has
attempted to re-build his base but he's too old and soon his voice will be
silenced.
Dobson has been set up as a leader of the Church, a wise man
who will help lead the Church through the morass of modern culture. Instead
he's promoted war, theft, deceit and has polluted the Church with ecumenicism,
nationalism, psychology and other heresies. His hypocrisy when it comes to
politics and culture war is rank and offensive and yet his audience is asleep.
He has tickled their ears and they can no longer hear the truth.
The same type of hypocrisy is repeatedly on display on my local
so-called Christian radio station, the Family Life Network. In reality the
station largely promotes heresy and a host of other sub-Christian and
anti-Biblical Evangelical projects. The news staff is deceitful but also so incompetent
as to be laughable. And yet to my astonishment people write into them and the
station looking for wisdom and advice. Fools turning to fools.
They regularly host a couple of lobbyists whom they present
as 'experts' on the Christian political struggle. Michael Geer of the Pennsylvania
Family Institute and ex-pastor Jason McGuire of New Yorkers for Constitutional
Freedoms, (an organisation that professes to
influence legislation and legislators for the Lord Jesus Christ) appear on
the show and offer commentary on the news. Of course, they're lobbyists
something the less-than-swift host and the audience don't seem to grasp. They're
not experts. They're hired guns paid to push an agenda. The show is little more
than lobbyist propaganda of the most extreme partisan nature. If the GOP isn't
paying them, it should, for all they do is promote the GOP at every opportunity
and attack Democrats.
Truly it is a silly programme and utterly lacking any useful
information that would help someone understand what is actually happening in
Albany or Harrisburg. They lie and misrepresent the facts every time they're
on.
Like Dobson they carried on repeatedly about the Democrat's
control of Congress under Obama. They echoed Dobson's line with concerns of
dictatorship and separation of powers. Did they express such concerns when
Trump came into office with a GOP dominated congress? I'm still waiting but so
far there's been no expressed concern.
Spiritually speaking these people are whores, mercenaries,
guns for hire that are paid to promote a line regardless of whether or not it
reflects truth or Scripture. They are the antithesis of integrity and the
audience loves to have it so.
Continue reading part 2
Continue reading part 2