What Kind of Disciples Do We Need?
Christians, especially conservative evangelical Christians, do not take the power of culture seriously. Culture is something that is cultivated. It is what we as people tend to and create. If you enter a museum, you might run into the curator. They are tending to the art in the museum, improving it, displaying it, explaining it, and promoting its importance. There are many ways to define culture - the water we swim in, the institutions we establish, what we do without thinking. It is probably best to call it “our way of life”.
I think it was Peter Drucker who said it first, “Culture eats strategy for lunch every day.” For example, if a pastor is calling on the congregation to love one another, but two of the elders are at each other’s throats the culture defeats the exhortation to love. If the leaders are calling on the congregation to reach out because people will live unfulfilled lives and will be banished forever in spiritual darkness and separation from God, but a tolerant sentimental culture via media has programmed all the hell out of hell there is no urgency. There is no reason to act and culture wins again.
Slowly, but with certainty, we have watched our culture change our theology and our churches. We have largely been bystanders. We stand and lament how the powerful and ruling elite have taken control of the universities, school districts, local governments, sports leagues, and, the most powerful tool of all, the media. Media includes television, the theater, music, museums, and film. Add to that the most potent tool of all, the thirty-second commercial. Don’t forget the corporate and very “woke” Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, and old boring Microsoft. The national narrative has changed dramatically in the last fifty years. It is a post-Christian story of moral confusion and permissiveness.
Religion has moved from mainstream and important in the 1950s and 1960s to something to be rejected and scorned in the 1970s and 1980s to the now largely ignored and considered irrelevant of the early 21st century. Of course, I have generalized, but I will not take time or space to say all the things that I don’t mean to say or exceptions to the above summary. If you want that, go to the … hmmm, I don’t know where you go for that - good luck and have a nice day.
We are in a fight to tell the truth. This is what Christians don’t seem to understand. We cannot continue to be passive, that is to continue the mistake of the past fifty years. We want to render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God (Matthew 22:21). The answer is not political, but politics are important and cannot be left out.
Politics are a reflection of the culture which in turn is driven by religion, worldview, God - choose your word. That is why I started The Bonhoeffer Show, a podcast about religion, culture, and politics and in that order. I believe with A.W. Tozer, “That whatever comes into my mind when I think about God is the most important thing about me.” That then determines my worldview and the personal culture I create in my own life, the life of my family, my workspace, et al.
My political views then are a product of my worldview, my culture, and then what I fight for in my community, state, and nation. I choose the candidates who best represent the world in which I would like to live. At the same time my worldview says, “This life is temporal, but I am a steward for future generations and particularly for my children, grandchildren and those that will come later.” This is the reason so many are concerned about everything from public education to the environment.
This is why Donald Trump is such a great object lesson. He is a cultural creation. He has emerged from the reality television cosmic ooze, dripping with irony, all things horrible, and much good as well. He is controversial, watch me waste space being the master of the obvious. So much theory, core beliefs, and propaganda is considered around him. He gives everyone a focal point for presentation of beliefs.
Most of the ardent Christians against Trump who erupt with outrage and protest that any Christian who takes the Bible seriously cannot possibly be anything other than a hypocrite; they tend to be left of or lean left of center in their political affiliation. They like to shame their fellow Christians for supporting Trump and use the scriptures that talk about being nice, passive, and even pacifistic. They pick up that stick and beat Trump supporters about the head and shoulders, saying, “Look at you with all that Trump filth all over you.”
At the same time, they support politicians who call for abortion on demand and even through nine months. Most ardent Christians don’t seem to mind that the Trump impeachment scandal was actually about the real threat to liberty which is that the Obama administration spied on Donald Trump via the FBI for political reasons. They support many other policies that are terrible for our country and would destroy the family, religious liberty, et al. Donald Trump has never refused to respond to a court order. He has worked through the system. He only has done what it is his right to do - challenge subpoenas or court decisions by appealing to other or higher courts. None of which is illegal.
If Trump were a fascist, as it is popular to say, then why are all his enemies not dead or in jail? Why didn’t he provide a fleet of buses after the Oscars ceremony for all his enemies and have them bused to detention camps and executed? The reason is he is not a fascist, as many of us believe. He has done much to protect the unborn and religious liberty. He has put more people back to work, particularly minorities, than any president in modern times.
I want to be clear; I don’t admire very much about Donald Trump. I don’t want to be his friend. I don’t want to know most of his friends. I would not point to him and say to my children or grandchildren, “Be like him”. No leader on the left would inspire my allegiance either. They are a feckless bunch changing their minds and selling their souls in order to get some votes, but more importantly, fortune and fame. I would give Bernie Sanders a tip of the hat for being consistent and a man of conviction even though socialism/communism (Bernie is both) has never worked, and it won’t ever work. The millions of bodies left in its wake after the 20th century demonstrate that it doesn’t work even if you kill all the people who said so.
Here is what I do respect about Trump: Even though he is as careless with the facts as a carnival barker, almost all of it is how he exaggerates his own accomplishments. He is, as I have always said, suspended in a state of perpetual adolescence. His has to be the greatest, fastest, biggest, meanest, most fantastic whatever it is of all time. When he says he and the leader of North Korea or China have a great relationship, I know what he means, but I don’t believe for a moment that he really does, or that he really thinks that he does. All it means is they are on speaking terms. It is his way of being diplomatic. And yes, every time he clears another investigation like the Mueller report or impeachment, he gloats and is not gracious; he hits people when they are down. That is all wrong, not Christian, and it troubles me.
Yet Trump seems to be realistic about who is trying to destroy him. He understands that the barbarians are at the gate and he will not let up. His enemies are not only the democrats, but the press. And my friends, the democrats and the mainstream press are the same thing. Unlike George Bush, he has decided to call them out, call them names, and beat them to a bloody pulp. Trump has the stomach for the battle, something that causes most of us benign evangelicals to wretch.
I do admire that he is tough, speaks his mind, has convictions, and follows through on abortion, religious liberty, personal freedom, job creation, prison reform, stimulating the economy through removal of harmful restrictions, and tax cuts. Of course the rich get tax cuts. They also create the wealth that makes it possible for minorities to get new jobs, buy homes, and take care of the needs of their family. The left protests that it doesn’t work for everyone. What does work for everyone? Of course, some people will be poor no matter that the government does. There will still be poverty. There will always be people being left behind regardless of who occupies the White House. We live, and will always live, in a hierarchal society. There are no exceptions - Christian, Muslim, Hindu, secular, it doesn’t matter - there is always a top and always a bottom.
In America the question is, “Will we keep our liberty or give it to the government?” Trump, in spite of what his opponents will say, is further away from a monarch or king than former President Obama. If one drops all the vitriol and looks at the facts as regards to presidential decrees, it is apparent that President Obama attacked his opponents with IRS, spied on political campaigns, etc.
Reality has its own voice and a growing number of Americans can hear it. It is saying, “What Trump is doing leads to a country that is freer. Where people are free to speak their mind, worship their God, work at a good paying job, and keep the government on my back.” That is a powerful message. For those of you who repudiate Trump, can’t stand him, and violently disagree with me - fine. I am not angry with you. And if I am wrong, I plan to admit it. In a few more years Trump will be gone, and I would like to be as free then as I am today. Actually, freer; I want to use a plastic straw again when I go out to lunch.
Politics Are Sport
The conversation and depth of feeling around politics is because politics is tribal and competitive. People used to kill each other around theology, but no one cares enough about theology to even get exercised let alone to kill. The playing field is political. It is a sport where people can divide up into teams and compete, watch it on television, have its favorite players, and favorite commentators. It appeals to the need to compete for something we all care about, the culture, and where our money goes. That is why religious or theological friends can be affiliated but have differences and give each other a pass. But when those same friends enter into political discussion, they get angry, even hostile, and break fellowship over political theory.
When I was in Rwanda around 2000, I kept asking Hutu pastors how things got so bad that the Hutus were killing millions of Tutsi Christians. The answer was that ancient tribalism ran thicker than the blood of Christ. This is the present danger we face. The culture does matter. In many ways it affects us more deeply than religious belief. This is why we not only need to make many more disciples; we need to ask ourselves the question, “What kind of disciples?” I do know that they will need to be less fearful and feckless, and more courageous, willing to take a punch, and deliver one I might add.