This was but another case of meeting Christian people at a church and getting one impression and then finding them on social media and discovering they are in fact something else. The Nazarene body in question is something completely unrelated to the fairly numerous Nazarene churches which are part of the Wesleyan tradition.
The Nazarenes referred to here are also known as the
Apostolic Christian Church and have roots in Europe as well as many
congregations in America. They are Anabaptists but not connected to the
original sixteenth century movement. They appeared much later and were founded
in the 1830's under the leadership of Samuel Fröhlich who broke with the (by
then) largely apostate Reformed Church in Switzerland.
Their European story is one of struggle and persecution.
Refusing military service, they suffered a great deal during the
nineteenth-century especially in the Habsburg lands where many of them are to
be found even today – primarily in Hungary and Romania. Peter Brock (of the
University of Toronto) wrote some helpful journal articles about them which I
recommend.
The congregation in question is no longer part of the
movement but its old Nazarene hymnals are still in the pews and the meeting has
more of a Brethren-like feel to it. It was very encouraging in some respects.
Here's the letter I wrote to the pastor:
Sir,
We were delighted to visit your church some weeks ago. The
Bible-centered nature of the worship and its New Testament simplicity are
refreshing as I believe we communicated to you afterward. Additionally the fact
that you are a church that has come out of the Fröhlich-Nazarene Anabaptist
tradition was a point I found to be very interesting as I am somewhat familiar
with the group and their testimony of separatism and non-resistance. And while
not an Anabaptist, when it comes to these Kingdom doctrines, I am more or less
in agreement with them.
I knew based on our conversation that the church (despite
retaining the Nazarene hymnbook and thus some tenuous connections), has clearly
rejected that heritage. You made that clear with your statements about
Christians being police officers and the like.
I was not terribly upset by this as it's common enough. I
don't expect many people to agree with the views I espouse. What was
encouraging was the thought that at least in your congregation the views would
be understood as everyone would be familiar with them and presumably tolerant
of them in a way many Evangelicals would not be. I have no desire to make waves.
Instead, I am looking for a place where we can worship and hopefully enjoy some
fellowship in the Lord.
We have struggled in recent years as most churches have
succumbed to worldliness – worship having become a mix of entertainment,
therapy, and often politics. Doctrine is dictated by pragmatism and in some
circles the values of Western Enlightenment Liberalism and its thinking about
rights and libertarian freedom have come to dominate. As such these churches
tolerate a great deal of worldliness and sin – and even promote it. On the
flip-side of that coin, we find churches wholly succumbing to politics and in
many cases have clearly 'outsourced' their thinking and ethics to political
actors and agents. We have sought to escape the culture of entertainment as
well as the growing and increasingly rapacious and dangerous Right-wing culture
and its ethos that have also infiltrated sections of the Church. Its values
regarding everything from mammon to nationalism, to guns, and rights are in
opposition to the New Testament. But clearly many Christians have not
understood this – nor have they understood that they've been sold out by
Christian leaders who for the sake of fame and fortune have thrown in with
these political activists.
While it was clear we did not agree on some basic questions
regarding Christian ethics and the Christian's relationship to the world, we
were given the impression (by you) that you were definitely not caught up in
all of this political business. It was not something that concerned you or was
part of your thinking or interest. I will grant that apart from some
unfortunate and misguided statements you made about the supposed 'Christian'
heritage of the country, your sermon was otherwise free from this and perhaps
it's not a big part of your teaching.
But clearly you are given to this political ideology – one
might even say sold out to it. Curious, I took the business card you gave me
and went ahead and had a look at what you're about and it led me to your wife's
Facebook page and then sadly to yours. I was rather disappointed to discover
that you're not just a little on board with the whole FOX/Newsmax and even John
Birch Society ethos and ideology. No you're all in and you've adopted their
narratives about everything from Trumpism, to the attack on the Capitol,
nationalism, Covid, vaccines, the stolen election narrative, and the rest of
it. I was disgusted and felt misled.
These political actors have sold a false narrative to the
Church – a false binary. Just because the Democrats are in many respects
detestable does not mean that the GOP is therefore correct, let alone godly in
its concerns. Both parties are wicked and stand for wicked things. Sometimes
the Democrats will stand for something good but because it's rooted in a false
and wicked system – even their 'good' becomes problematic. The same is no less
true with the Republicans.
The system itself is wicked and putting a cross on top of the
Tower of Babel does not sanctify it, but it does sow seeds of confusion in the
Church. You are part of this confusion.
One cannot be a Christian on Sunday and then walk out the
door on Monday and under the aegis of the state shoot people and put them in
cages. One cannot love neighbor on Sunday and then adopting the worldview of
the Enlightenment, engage in financial schemes that exploit people and profit
from their suffering. One cannot be loyal to the Kingdom of Christ and then
give homage and veneration to the flag of a worldly nation, born in blood and
still dripping in it, a nation that has raped the world and literally murdered
millions. I know there are nations that may have a claim to being worse but
that doesn't excuse what the United States is, nor what it has done in its long
history of lies, thefts, and wars.
The system is wicked and we don't have to adopt their false
narratives about rights, social contract, and democracy simply because they say
so or because misguided and compromised Christian leaders say so or have in the
past.
At this point you may think I'm some sort of liberal. Far from
it. I'm certain that in many respects I'm far more 'conservative' than you are
– but that doesn't mean I embrace Right-wing ideology. There's not a
nationalist or capitalist bone in my body, nor am I a globalist or socialist.
Why not? I read the New Testament. You won't find any of these ideologies there.
We're called to be pilgrims living in a world that is in the bondage of death
and idolatry. Its wars are unholy and its coin (though utilized by us) is
ultimately Caesar's.
I was willing to tolerate differences but you're clearly not
what you presented yourself to be. We have a fundamentally different
understanding of what New Testament Christianity looks like. Your view uses
Scripture but then combines it with a host of ideologies coming from various
sources. Some of them have been around for generations and even centuries but
that doesn't make them right or compatible with the New Testament.
In the end, knowing what I now know, I see little hope of
fellowship. When it comes to money, power, violence, and the Christian
relationship to the these things and the world, there is no common ground or
basis for fellowship. We have nothing in common it would seem. While I find the
mainstream culture detestable, I find the Evangelical embrace of nationalism,
war, and its idolatrous views of money to be repugnant – and yet another form
or expression of mainstream culture. The fact that the Evangelical movement has
thrown in with a criminal, rapist, adulterer, and serial liar almost beggars
belief. And some (like you) seem to think this man a Christian or that he
somehow advances the cause of Christ. I don't know what to even say to you.
Wow. Do you really think the American Right (or Trump) is pro-life? Do you
really think that God is glorified in some parliamentary tricks used to flip a
law that ultimately changed nothing? Do you not see this is just an issue used
by political operatives to force the hands of the people sitting in the pews
and the fools listening to their radio shows?
At one time the Christian Right supposedly cared about
character and that was the basis of its criticism of Bill Clinton. Apparently
that no longer matters. The end justifies the means even if the means are evil,
or so it would seem. Do evil that good may come. That's the guiding ethos of
today's Evangelical movement.
Frankly I cannot understand why your small congregation
continues as it does. You have no fundamental difference with perhaps a dozen
congregations found within a reasonable driving distance. Your group comes
across as separatist but instead it would seem you are in fact pretty
mainstream – at least in your thinking. You're separate from another form of
false Christianity but that is not the measure or the standard. Clearly for you
the New Testament is not normative, sufficient, or even authoritative when it
comes to doctrine and ethics. The fact that people play fast and loose with
worship shouldn't be a problem. That's apparently how you treat the New
Testament and its teachings and imperatives. It's all subject to negotiation
and whatever the cultural moment may demand. In that regard you're not really
any different than the churches that have caved in to the cultural moment when
it comes to other issues. The divide is not Scripture but politics.
The Covid episode is just such a case in point. Rather than
churches approach the question as the Church, they instead were taken captive
by societal norms, practiced conformity, and in other cases political
interests. The churches that just bowed to the state were wrong as were those
who approached such questions from the standpoint of Right-wing ideology. The
discussions that should have (and could have) happened, never happened. On all
fronts the New Testament was set aside.
If I want relatively tame worship and 'fellowship' with Right-wing
idolaters, then I can find that readily enough. I don't need to drive up to
your neck of the woods. I realize by now you're probably angry. I hope so, I
really do. I hope it's a righteous anger that leads to repentance.
You do realize that if your spiritual ancestors, the people
who founded the congregation knew that a man like you was leading it – a man
with your values, they would demand that the building be bulldozed to the
ground. You have repudiated everything they stood for and suffered for. What a
bitter irony. At least throw the hymn books away. Why would you keep them? It's like dancing or spitting on their graves.
I'm sorry things turned out this way but I'm glad that I
found out what you were about before we invested our time and energy into your
congregation.
I have been and will continue praying for you. I must say a
moment of great hope and encouragement was (in but in a few moments) completely
dashed. We are very saddened and disappointed.
We went from riding high to being completely despondent. On a positive
note I hope I have given you something to think about and consider.
Sincerely,