Visiting a church last Sunday I wasn't terribly surprised when there was mention of the Dobbs v. Jackson case and the overturning of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Evangelicals are celebrating this ruling and several others that have come down at the conclusion of the Supreme Court's recent 2021-2022 term.
Though when talking with people I also find that many don't
quite understand the nature of the ruling and what it means and how in many
respects there's no reason to believe that there will in fact be fewer
abortions.
But what struck me that day was how the man leading the
services was all grins – he was literally jubilant over the decision. He wasn't
alone in expressing a hope that the laws of the land would reflect Christian values.
It was evident that on that Sunday he was feeling good about America, what it
is, and what it stands for, and he's filled with hope that a new page has been
turned and that better days are ahead.
While he was triumphant I was filled with aggravation and
burdened by his attitude and even more by the assumptions behind it. Confusion
reigns in the Evangelical mind and there are grievous errors at the most
fundamental of levels. And then while discussing the court's ruling, right on
cue all the pronoun confusion came sweeping in – conflating and combining the
'us' and 'we' of the Church with the 'us' and 'we' of America. This represents
theological error on multiple levels and as opponents of this view have been
arguing for decades and even centuries such sacral confusion undermines and
ultimately overthrows key elements of New Testament theology. But it's most
destructive aspect is the way it eats away at and eventually consumes Biblical
ethics. Pride, mammon, the coercive violent power of the state, not to mention
politics, war, and questions of loyalty – all of the things (so critical to
questions of state and notions of citizenship) are at complete odds with New
Testament expectations and imperatives.
In addition to the theological and ethical confusion that
fueled this man's jubilation we must add a heavy dose of mythology – cultural
and theological mythology concerning America's origins, what it means and
stands for, the nature of its ideology, and certainly its history.
Not merely heretical, these views are dangerous because of
the role they play in spawning the present fog of confusion – obscuring the
real history of the nation. As such, these nationalist and
Evangelical-nationalist myths foster deceit and ultimately a form of delusion.
Such self-deception has to be viewed in terms of judgment as people lose their ability
to interact with real questions or hear (let alone comprehend) an alternative. Reason
and conscience all but shut down. Even the Scriptures are a closed book to
them. Their loyalty is insurmountable and sadly many have confused this loyalty
to flag and nation, kith and kin, ideal and myth with the authority of
Scripture, the Kingdom it presents, and their Christian calling to take up the
cross and follow Christ.
It's interesting as well to note how the aggressive programme
(that is even now being pursued) is likely to lead to authoritarian measures –
invasive surveillance of personal data, a system of informers, possibly bounty
seekers, and a brutal enforcement and judicial scheme to back it up. In order
to police and regulate pharmaceuticals, travel, and personal data, algorithms and
other investigative measures will be employed to monitor the lives of pregnant
women, their travel, communications with doctors (potentially out of state),
their mail and online activity, friends and so forth. In other words a 'Big
Brother' authoritarian regime will be implemented in many of these states, or
at least that's the direction things are headed – and it's coming together
rather quickly as the movement is eager to cement its victories. So much for
personal liberty, and one wonders if this won't drive a wedge between the more
libertarian minded factions within the GOP and the larger (and often
indistinguishable) Far Right, Evangelical, and Trumpite sectors of the movement
and those who are increasingly embracing a fascistic mindset and strategy in
order to control the country.
Right or wrong in terms of the abortion issue, such a
draconian approach represents an anti-liberal rejection of what America (again right
or wrong) was supposed to be about anyway. It's ironic that the America-Constitutional
narratives are re-written in order to justify these actions and somehow wed
them to the larger Christo-American narrative. In other respects one could
argue it's just another chapter in the great lie of America and its tendency
toward self-deception about its own nature and history. Its democracy has
always been something of a farce and the nation's history is dominated by
oligarchic concerns. This would be no different and would also be in keeping
with its gradual but deliberate drift into authoritarianism.
Regardless, we must again emphasize that whether we
generically speak of American values, the system of rights, the notion of
consent of the governed, and even democracy, the free market, and cultural
definitions of citizenship and success, or the pending authoritarian apparatus
that seeks to impose and enforce its views (while also waving the flag) on an
unwilling public – at a basic level both views (and indeed the entire spectrum
of Americanist political thought) represent a rejection of New Testament
theology, vocation, and ethics. To embrace these views and to participate in
these paradigms (and thus endorse them) is to reject our pilgrim status, the expectation
of persecution, and our call to cross bearing. It is to disenfranchise others
and persecute them – supposedly in the name of the Kingdom. It is to confuse
the New Testament call to make disciples of the nations and to love neighbour
with the Judaizing Dominionist task of rule and coercion. This is where the
gospel at the point of a gun comes into play – evangelising while the Church
chains people and puts them in cages, or even executes them, a message that
doesn't go very well with love, forgiveness, and mercy, a message wholly
incompatible with a paradigm that's about power, pride, and status pursued by
the sword and the coin. This is one reason among many why America's war and gun
culture is antithetical to the ethos of the New Testament.
For the regular folks, the American Dream and the quest for middle
class status and even the modicum of power that it implies are rooted in mammon
and the pursuit of mammon always resorts to the use of violence to suppress and
silence others. This is the task of the ruling class which the middle class
relies on. It's a rotten scheme all the down the line.
This is why I can be happy that (maybe) fewer babies will be
killed but I cannot share in the church leader's bliss. For his joy is not
rooted in truth but in a distorted gospel and frankly in a pernicious form of
idolatry that is given to gold, guns, respect – and let's face it, the sheer
joy of being able to walk down the street with one's head held high, secure and
proud, a feeling of status, entitlement, and security that is meant to intimidate
others who might oppose it. Many of these folks just want to feel good about
America and being American.
How is this Christian? It isn't. There's nothing to
celebrate. Instead we should weep and howl, we should lament such victories (so-called)
for they give a false hope and will produce evil all in the name of good. The
confusion means the enemy is able to set up his banners in the sanctuary. There
will be more evil alliances, schemes, deceit, self-deceit, and violence.
This weekend connected to July 4, along with the recent
Evangelical 'victories' in the culture war will mean that most Church services
will be little more than idol-fests and the pulpits will resonate with lies and
the twisting of Scriptural truths. The pews will be packed because the people
love to have it so and love to have their ears tickled. They too want to 'feel
good' about America, feel vindicated in their life and lifestyles. The pulpits
will ring with 'peace, peace,' all is well, God's face is shining on their
efforts and status. America's culture with all its idolatry and mammonist filth
and violence is vindicated. Feel good about America!
But it's not peace because the faithful are driven out.
Sunday July 3, 2022 is a day that the faithful must stay home and stay away. I
will not bow to their flag, sing their songs, and revel in their sanctified
Beast. It's a day of lies and darkness.
You can have your America, an empire of painted rust, a
perfumed cesspool that seeks to mask its filth and rot.
And they are delusional. America is a nation breaking apart,
an empire in decline and they are accelerating its fragmentation and fall.
Maybe it will collapse or maybe (like Rome) something else will emerge. The
name may continue but under a different polity and set of ideals.
In faith I understand that the powers that be are ordained by
God. It matters little what beast power I live under. They all stand for the
same thing in the end. They're all part of the same Hydra-Beast witnessed in Revelation.
But the schemers, liars, and the killers who capture power and then say it was
God's will – be careful, for the prophets judge such and though Providence may
use fools and the wicked – they are still held to account. And then there's the
other imagery in Revelation, the bride turned whore that rides the Beast – an image
of apostasy, an image very much on my mind and one that haunts my thoughts.
The church leader may feel joy for America but it's only
because he has turned his back on Christ. He ought to lament because the Church
is in a state of disintegration and apostasy. In the poison miasma of its
corruption, its gates and watchtowers have been abandoned and the agents of
Gehenna are in its midst. They dominate the pulpits while others sit in
positions of worldly power. Worldliness prevails on almost every front. They
think they're winning when the gangrene of their heresy has brought them to the
point of death.
Smile away fool. Glory in your shame. You delusion and
ignorance may be bliss and sweetness but it will turn bitter. I will tear my
clothes and live in dust and ashes.
And I tremble for if these folks really attain the power they
seek they will persecute those who oppose them but there will be a special
wrath appointed to those who oppose them on the basis of New Testament
Christianity, those who decry them Bible in hand. All counterfeit Sacralist
polities fear Biblically based dissent more than anything else. But at this
point one has to wonder if there will be a resistance as there are seemingly
very few who grasp these critical points. Let's hope there are at least seven
thousand who refuse to bow the knee to the Christo-American Baal.