According to legend the Times of London in 1905 sent an inquiry to a number of writers asking the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?”
The Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton responded succinctly and profoundly: “Dear Sirs, I am.”
If that same question were asked today a large segment would respond,”You are.”
Why?
Because many are overly concerned with managing the speck in their neighbor’s eye and not the beam in their own.
It’s not like this is new.
Chesterton went on to observe, “The only tenet of Christian theology which can actually be proven is the doctrine of original sin.”
The doctrine rejects the premise that human beings are intrinsically good and leaves us to wrestle with our brokenness.
What sets this tenet apart is that it says all human beings are equally
- broken
- humbled
- restored
Chesterton goes on to say it is only when we recognize our own broken state that our idealism becomes something more than a hobby.
So in a world where we are equally broken it’s impossible for any person to lord it over another.
Ain’t nobody on top in a world where there is no top or bottom.
You can always recognize someone who’s not been humbled — they’re the one casting judgment on someone else.
But now a great, collective, unholy movement has taken hold of the minds and hearts of many and is threatening to tear down the institutions that govern us in America.
Christian nationalism.
In a recent New York Times article Susan Stubson, an evangelical Christian from Wyoming, shares her experience.
What Christian Nationalism has done to my State and my faith is a sin
CASPER, Wyo. — I first saw it while working the rope line at a monster-truck rally during the 2016 campaign by my husband, Tim, for Wyoming’s lone congressional seat. As Tim and I and our boys made our way down the line, shaking hands and passing out campaign material, a burly man wearing a “God bless America” T-shirt and a cross around his neck said something like, “He’s got my vote if he keeps those [epithet] out of office,” using a racial slur. What followed was an uncomfortable master class in racism and xenophobia as the man decanted the reasons our country is going down the tubes. God bless America…
I now understand the ugliness I heard was part of a current of Christian nationalism fomenting beneath the surface. It had been there all the time. The rope line rant was a mission statement for the disaffected, the overlooked, the frightened. It was also an expression of solidarity with a candidate like Donald Trump who gave a name to a perceived enemy: people who do not look like us or share our beliefs. Immigrants are taking our guns. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. You are not safe in your home. Religious freedom is on the gallows. Vote for me.
…..
I am adrift (now) in this unnamed sea, untethered from both my faith community and my political party as I try to reconcile evangelicals’ repeated endorsements of candidates who thumb their noses at the least of us. Christians are called to serve God, not a political party, to put our faith in a higher power, not in human beings. We’re taught not to bow to false idols. Yet idolatry is increasingly prominent and our foundational principles — humility, kindness and compassion — in short supply.
💐
in another New York Times article the columnist Charles Blow characterizes
Christian nationalism this way:
Where your nemesis will smile at you and promise to pray for you, where people will quickly submit that they “love the sinner but hate the sin,” where one hand can hold a Bible while the other holds a shackle. He is from a place where people use religion to brand their hatred as love so that they act on it cheerfully and without guilt.
To be sure — these are the gravest of times.
The contagion that has been let loose is a threat to us all.
Is there a silver lining?
I do not know.
The only thought that comes to me is — This Too Shall Pass.
As for now, we’d all do well to remember what comes from a haughty spirit.
Perhaps the most appropriate answer to the question posed by the Times in 1905 is:
“We are.”
Just a thought…
Pat
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