Many Evangelicals will undoubtedly celebrate the recent legislative moves in Texas and Florida and both governors (one Catholic and one Evangelical) are certainly viewed as allies or even champions in the Christian Right's culture wars.
Let's be clear. Sodomy is an abomination and parents that
encourage mutilations and other 'treatments' on their children are certainly
guilty of child abuse – in reality about the worst kind imaginable. In their
parental and moral abdication they literally destroy the lives of their
children. Guarding young children from exposure to these topics is hardly
extreme. Indeed these children wouldn't even be entertaining these categories
were they not introduced to them. These laws (especially the one in Florida)
are actually quite restrained and yet clearly their proponents face attack from
Sodomite fanaticism.
And yet as Christians we should be careful in celebrating
such legislative moves. As parents and other individuals face fines,
imprisonment, or other punitive action, we should consider how these actions
are being tied to the Gospel. As these actions are pursued and more or less
tied to the agenda of the Christian Right, the execution of these laws will be
perceived (and with some reason) as the application of Christian principles or
to put it differently Christian statecraft.
Some Evangelicals and other Christians will celebrate this as
they believe the state has a role in the promotion of religion and many believe
that in some capacity the state should be allied with the Church if not
formally then in some kind of functional capacity.
And yet, as those who represent the anti-sacral position will
argue – is this what the New Testament actually teaches? The protest falls on
deaf ears because those who belong to this sacralist camp have moved well beyond
the New Testament and have constructed a philosophical-theological method that
allows them to identify these extra-Biblical paradigms as Christian and even refer
to them as 'biblical' – but in reality they represent a form of syncretism or
in other cases syncretism blended with a Judaized hermeneutic.
These theological errors have to be challenged and yet in
addressing them we by no means wish to condone or encourage sinful behaviour in
society. We stand with Paul who clearly understood that sin will reign in the
present evil age and will never be restrained or eradicated by the efforts of
the Church. We bring the gospel – a warning to the world coupled with a message
of hope, a call to repentance and the hope of salvation. Christ died on the
cross, ascended into heaven and is coming again. Repent and believe or stand
alone before the Judgment seat of God and answer for your sins – the sins that
sent Christ to the cross.
God can work wonders through the power of the Gospel but
that's the message preached – the means is foolish in the eyes of the world and
yet the Spirit works through it. Where does the Bible say the Spirit works
through the sword of the state or through armies and police? Is that how the
Kingdom is built?
Can the message of hope and reconciliation brought in the
form of self-sacrificial love on the part of Christ's servants and ambassadors
on this Earth be delivered at the point of a gun and enforced by putting people
in cages, or threatening to destroy their livelihoods through fines and the
like? Of course not. Contrary to the most perverse and degenerate forms of
sacral theology the gospel is not brought by the sword.
Now if the state says that certain behaviours are out of
control and detrimental to society, then that's understandable. If the state
clamps down on sexual deviance and decides to 'go after' sodomites and the like
– then fine, I certainly won't be upset. And many pagan cultures have done
this. One need not be 'Christian' whatever that happens to mean in a
socio-political context. Cultures go through cycles of conservatism,
libertinism, and decadence. Our culture is certainly vile and yet given the
deep and historic values of the society rooted in mammon, consumerism, and
individualism – it's to be expected. It has reaped the rotten harvest and
what's left has gone to seed.
But when these punitive and censorial actions are tied to and
specifically associated with the Church and viewed as an application of the
gospel of grace – then I have to pause and raise a flag of caution. What gospel
is being preached? Are these actions harmful to the cause of the gospel? Are
they confusing the Kingdom of Heaven with the kingdoms of this world? Are such
actions generating ideological and ethical confusion within the Church? The
answer of course is – yes.
Through the aberrant theological constructs of the
Magisterial Reformation, the doctrine of 'Vocation' allows for Christians to
shed their Christian call on Monday morning and don a badge and gun and to live
Monday-Friday (as it were) by a different code and a different set of ethics.
The Biblical call of the Christian is set aside because they supposedly can
legitimately fulfill an 'office'. This is not in accord with the New Testament.
This is compromise with the world, a form of ethical syncretism that in other
instances would simply be called out as the worldliness and worldly compromise
that it is. But because of sacralism and its modern Dominionist form these
errors and spiritual bifurcations are not only allowed but even celebrated.
And the same is true in many other capacities – the judge's
robe, the soldier's fatigues, and many other functions of the state that are
tied to what the state is primarily based upon – violence. That's what the
sword in Romans 13 symbolizes and what Paul is contrasting with Christian
ethics in Romans 12. The state is legitimate but it is outside the Church and
while the Church can be thankful for the state on one level, it must never
confuse the state which is temporal, fallen, and doomed to perish with the identity
and mission of the Church which is eternal and eschatological. It is a servant
to be sure but this in terms of providence and common grace. The same language
was used with regard to Assyrian and Babylon.
Am I advocating some kind of ethical dissonance? Is it okay
for the state to go after homosexuals but I'm saying that as Christians we
should not? I am saying that, but it's not ethical or cognitive dissonance. In
fact that's what Vocational teaching actually is – ethical dissonance. They are
the quintessential 'Sunday only' Christians. I'm advocating full Christian
vocation all the time. Our only 'vocation' in New Testament terms is to be Christian.
Our means of income or worldly employment is not our calling – rather it is a mere
means to an end and given that reality we're only to seek the basics in life –
as Christ clearly taught. Earthly vocations (or jobs) are not part of our
identity or even much of a priority. Find something to do in which you can be
faithful, earn your bread honestly and provide for the basics in life. It's
simply a means by which to live out our pilgrim calling and it is this that
clarifies the ethic. Success, security, and respectability are the things the
gentiles seek. And if the culture is evil, then it follows that only those who
have made peace with that evil will flourish within that culture. The upper
echelons of society are closed to us and as pilgrims we're not interested in
them anyway. We are not invested in this society. We live as Christians which
means we live as second class citizens. We neither take up the sword nor call
upon it to right our wrongs or exercise vengeance on our behalf.
As pilgrims in Babylon we're not terribly concerned with what
Babylon does. The state is also a means not an end. Whatever they do it will be
for wicked motives – and incidentally the same is true with Greg Abbott and Ron
DeSantis who are both grievously deceived men who pursue not Christ but the
idols of mammon and power. Because of their actions the way of truth is being
evil spoken of.
The gospel message is confused with the power of the state
and the gold and guns it represents – and the worldlings in the Church love to
have it so. And these governors are their agents.
But for New Testament Christians we are called to live as
exiles. We're not citizens of Texas or Florida. We might live there (though you
couldn't pay me to live in either state) but we are not invested in these
societies. We don't have a stake in their governments – the false arguments and
claims of democracy and liberalism notwithstanding. These are not Christian
ideologies. And this is also to reject the many false teachers who work
diligently to combine these concepts with Biblical imperatives.
As New Testament Christians we don't vote, we don't participate in the
judiciary, we don't use the courts or the police and we don't take up arms for
the country and kill other people for its causes. Rejecting usury in all its
forms we are largely outside the financial sector which is at the very heart of
this decadent society and the font of its polluted ethics and policies. We are
exploited to be sure but as it's Caesar's coin we shrug our shoulders and press
on. We pay all our taxes happily and obey the laws as much as we are able –
even to our inconvenience and hurt, and we go about our Kingdom business.
Though a tool in the hand of Providence, the state is essentially evil. It
belongs to this present evil age and is under the aegis of the fell powers that
serve the enemy. This is no less true with so-called Christian states which
represent forms of apostasy. Again, the state may like Babylon and Assyria be a
'servant' in terms of Providence and in that capacity it restrains evil. But its
service to Providence and whatever good it does is not located in covenantal
categories. It's not a ministry of the Holy Spirit. It's not redemptive, holy,
or eschatological. It does not build the Kingdom nor can it participate in
doing so. The oft employed Israel analogy is false as it only pertains to the
New Israel – the Church of Jesus Christ, which is a trans-national or even a meta-national
institution. Anyone who confuses the identity of the Church with an Earthly
nation is guilty of syncretism and heresy.
I feel little sympathy with the pro-Sodomite parents who are
facing punishment for the disgusting actions they've taken with regard to their
children, the monsters they produce, and their total abdication of parenting.
But I cringe at the thought of doors being kicked down and people being hauled
off to cages, and these actions being associated with Christian witness and
celebrated by the Church community. To navigate this way of thinking requires
nuanced thinking which is not very popular in our cultural context.
Sodomy is rampant and I've long argued the reasons why are
rooted in the very foundations of the West's liberal order – and given certain
cultural idiosyncrasies America is particularly susceptible. The Church in
confusing its identity with America and baptising much of its ideology (in
other words sanctifying it), has become confused and ironically many who are
engaged in the culture war continue to pour fuel on the fires of cultural
decadence not understanding that the economic and ethical systems they
champion, and the ethics of mammon, libertarianism, and empire they have
celebrated, are actually what have led society to this moment. Again, confusion
and chaos reign and the hireling shepherds are silent or have already sold out.
Sodomy is certainly out of control and its going to get
worse. There are many parts of social life that we just can't participate in
unless we want to be exposed to it. I'm more inclined to turn things off and
quit bothering with certain venues and events – and tell people why as a means
of entering into gospel discussion. A social reaction might come. These things
have happened in the past. Or the decadence and degeneracy will continue and
this society will collapse.
Either way we're called to be faithful but allying with the
sword of state and utilising it to take vengeance on the wicked is not the
calling of the Church as Paul makes abundantly clear. The Church has ignored
this doctrine and since Constantine largely rejected it and when the backlash
comes it's not because of gospel fidelity but because of meddling in others
affairs and because of political machinations and alliances.
And yet those of us who refused the sacralist lie will also
suffer as a consequence. The actions of those Christians who were not faithful
will generate grief and persecution for those of us who sought to follow
Biblical teachings. It's nothing new. It happened in the Old Testament as well.
Let us be faithful without compromise and without succumbing
to the temptations of worldly power. Christ rejected these Satanic offers.
Abbott, DeSantis, and their myriad allies have embraced them and may enjoy a
moment of worldly glory and the aura of mammon. But they have been deceived.
Finally, there is an additionally bad precedent being
established. The state is being further empowered to determine what is child
abuse and what kind of information can be censored. This can easily flip back
on to the Church and part of the backlash might be that teaching your children
that Sodomy is sin will mean the
state is kicking in your door to take your kids away. The so-called don't say gay legislation empowers the
state to one day say don't say Sodomy.
And if you call it what it is – abomination, then your business will be shut
down, you'll be fired, and your kids will be taken from you.
The Church has learned nothing from the example of the public
schools. The Protestants in America were very much behind their creation and
encouraged them as a means of social engineering. They created the monster and
then in the aftermath of World War II lost control of it and the very machine
they created turned on them. It will happen again. The False Church is ever led
by fools and corrupt hirelings and nothing is learned. They're like the pig that
is washed and returns to wallowing in the mire. And so it goes. And so we will
someday see the tables turned and Christians will rue the fact that they
encouraged the state to intrude into these areas as it will generate grief for
them. I remember cringing years ago when I heard Rick Santorum talk about how
the state needed to get into your bedroom. This is misguided Christian ethics.
Let the dead bury their dead. Quite vying for power, for in allying with mammon
and the sword these people are literally losing their own souls.