I Don't Know This Jesus

Franklin Graham has been in the news this week, chiefly because he has been refused entry into certain cities in the UK during his tour there, owing to his stance on LGBTQ+ persons.  Mr. Graham views anything other than a heterosexual relationship within marriage to be a sin and has been highly critical of Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg for calling himself a “gay Christian.”  Graham has been accused of “hate speech” in this regard.  And while I think such criticism of Graham is over-reactionary, I do take issue with Graham’s position.  He cannot seem to conceive of any Christian position other than his own while there are millions of Christians who think more inclusively of LGBTQ+ persons.  

Indeed, Graham represents a popular stream of Christianity in America that seems to have an understanding of Jesus that is incomprehensible to me.  I don’t know this Jesus.  This Jesus who has been lifted up by the conservative evangelical church in this country.  This Jesus who would throw the first stone at LGBTQ+ persons.  This Jesus who would not welcome the stranger (immigration).  This Jesus who would support our national fascination with and addiction to gun culture.  This Jesus who seems to say that the kingdom of heaven belongs to wealthy, white men (and the women who submit to them).  I don’t know this Jesus.

Unfortunately, this brand of Christianity is getting all the media attention.  Most Americans who are not Christian have the impression that Jesus’ followers are hateful, judgmental, and prejudiced.  I have spent my life as a Christian preacher seeking to share the message of Jesus, and I am now discouraged that the Jesus I have proclaimed has become increasingly overshadowed by this Jesus I don’t know.  It’s almost as if the Jesus portrayed in the public arena has been divorced from the message that he proclaimed - a message of concern for the poor, hospitality for the alien, mercy for the sinner, grace for the outcast, blessing for the persecuted, and peace and good will toward all people.  In my grief over what has become of the Christian witness I can hear Jesus once again crying out from the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

How odd that Franklin Graham has become a kind of standard-bearer for what I consider a harsh and distorted view of Jesus.  His father, Billy, was once the representative of conservative evangelical Christianity, but his witness was considerably different than his son’s.  Billy was often sought out for counsel by the various Presidents of the United States, but he was careful not to become overly identified with either political party, giving advice to both Republicans and Democrats.

An example of Billy Graham’s character may illustrate my point.  At a time when Lyndon Johnson was facing a heated campaign against Barry Goldwater, one of Johnson’s close advisors, Walter Jenkins, was arrested for homosexual activity.  This was, of course, during a time when homosexuality was considered a crime and the political consequences would have been considerable.  Johnson sought Billy Graham’s advice.  Nancy Beck Young, a history professor, writing last year in the Washington Post reports the following response from Reverend Graham.  

 “You know, when Jesus dealt with people with moral problems, like dear Walter had . . . he always dealt tenderly.  Always, . . .           I just hope if you have any contact with him, you’ll give him my love and understanding.”

Even Barry Goldwater, against the advice of some of his campaign operatives, refused to take political advantage of the Jenkins situation.

I am not suggesting that Billy Graham is a proponent of gay rights and gay marriage.  He was in many ways representative of the time and place in which he lived.  However, I am lifting him up as a stark contrast to Franklin’s approach, and as a witness to the merciful Jesus that is a closer approximation to the Jesus I know.

America's Original Sin

Jim Wallis of Sojourner’s fame wrote a book some year’s ago in which he described racism as America’s “original sin.”  I have no reason to critique his opinion on the matter.  Racism is a fundamental problem that has haunted American history from our nascent days, weaving it’s evil threads into our continental psyche long before the United States of America were a self-governing nation.  Indeed, racism is an American problem, infiltrating continents North and South, beginning with the institution of slavery and leaving it’s wicked residue to plague us with social ills for centuries.

However, I would step back a bit and propose that behind racism is a deeper, more original “sin” of which racism is but one of many troublesome symptoms or poisonous by-products.  America’s original sin is Greed - capitalized.  Behind slavery was mammon which necessarily leads to wickedness in many forms.  As Christian scripture informs us, “the love of money is the root of all evil.”  Perhaps it is an overstatement to exclaim that mammon, or the love of it, is the source of “all” evil, but the biblical warning should alarm us to the insidious nature of greed.

In America greed has been institutionalized in the form of capitalism.  This is not meant as a wholesale rejection of our nation’s economic system, but as an warning for those who would embrace capitalism without a critical assessment of its often harmful side effects.  While there is a kind of genius behind capitalism in its most basic sense - that a person through hard work and perseverance might prosper - America’s history of slavery, racism, child labor abuse, migrant worker mistreatment, and major bank bailouts provide plenty of evidence pointing to the ways in which capitalism can become a vehicle for malignancy.  The increasing divide between the wealth of labor and that of management is a testament to the power of greed to hold sway.  If capitalism is unregulated by checks and balances on human avarice, the result is bound to be human suffering.  

David Stockman, former manager of the OMB during the Reagan Administration, has bewailed the influence of crony capitalism in which corporations and politicians pander to one another, rigging the economic system so that free markets are no longer truly free, and national interests become indistinguishable from corporate profits.  The Trump family fortune is but one example of how crony capitalism has benefited a very few at the expense of the many (For further reading on this subject try Andrea Bernstein’s American Oligarchs).

My concern is that our present course of unchecked capitalism will inevitably lead to increased human suffering, not only in America but around the world.  Trickle down economy has been proven false.  Greed leads to evil consequences.  As corporations grow more powerful than governments, who will make sure that economies serve the public good?  Has not the time come to break up trillion dollar monopolies in the interest of competition and sustainability?  I write this simply to sound an alarm.  I am not an economist and cannot prescribe a solution. I am only sounding an appeal for a more measured, regulated, and dare I say, human, approach to capitalism.  Bob Dylan once sang that you have to serve somebody, “It may be the Devil, or it may be the Lord.”  One cannot serve both God and mammon.  Who will we choose?