Bumper Sticker Theology

 [My wife has told me recently that I need to lighten up.  Here goes.]

…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

I was once part of a small group of preachers who met weekly for sermonizing.  We shared our insights on the upcoming Sunday’s scripture passages and mined each other like 49’ers looking for nuggets - stories that might illustrate a particular theme.  Among the group, for a brief time, was a Southern Baptist who had, as a Ph. D. candidate, done a comprehensive study on the theology of bumper stickers one often sees plastered on the rear bumpers or windows of cars.  Bumper stickers cannot be particularly nuanced because in three to five words it is difficult to express much that is profound.  I wish I had a chance to read my colleague’s thesis but one can easily do one’s own musing on the spirituality of such messages.

“Catch the Spirit,” was popular among United Methodists back in the 70’s - a light-hearted encouragement to join in the fun of Wesleyanism.  No harm done, except the message failed to reckon with the reality that more often one is “caught up” by the Holy Spirit rather than catching (Him/Her) by one’s own initiative.  Catching the Spirit is likely to be as elusive as trying to harness the wind (I believe Jesus had something to say about that).

“Praise the Lord,” is another popular one which again seems rather harmless except that it conjures up memories of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and their greedy bastardization of the gospel.  Their dream amusement park, Heritage USA, remains largely a ghost town as a reminder of how little the lordship of Jesus actually held sway in their thinking.

“WWJD?” or  “What Would Jesus Do?” is a prod to our conscience, asking us to consider the will of Jesus in our decision-making.  This sentiment has been critiqued by those who claim it is asking too much of us to act as perfectly as the Messiah.  Still, I see the value in it.  After all, the apostle Paul did encourage us in this way, “Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus . . . ,” as he went on to commend servanthood to us.  We could do worse than consider WWJD.

“Jesus Is Coming, Look Busy,” is so terrible I don’t know where to begin to tear it apart.  On the positive side, if there is one, Jesus does encourage us to be at work in the vineyard at all times.  However, “looking busy” is not the point as that smacks of hypocrisy.  Also, there is this undertone that Jesus is coming with vengeance to smite those who are not busy - a far cry from the good news of the gospel.

Equally terrible but for different reasons we have “In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned” (sic).  While popular in some circles, the notion of rapture is a fantasy blown completely out of biblical proportion.  The idea that Christians will be snatched up into heaven like Elijah before an end-of-the-world tribulation was concocted with questionable biblical interpretation by a fringe element in the 1800’s (Darbyism).  Rational theology has long since discredited Darby.  Needless to say, self-piloted cars are more the workings of new technology than of spiritual transcendence.

Less fantastical, but inane, is “Honk if you love Jesus.”  I mean, what’s the point of that?  If everyone complied our roadways would constantly sound like a gaggle of geese to no one’s edification.  Someone obviously saw the opportunity and responded with a more helpful bumper sticker, “If you love Jesus, work for justice.”  While not as popular, it was more true to the essence of gospel.

I love the pervasive “COEXIST,” sticker that is made up of symbols from various world religions.  While each religion typically makes some claim to exclusivity on truth, there is no reason why we need to attack one another lest we, in biblical fashion, “devour one another.”  I suspect if we listen to each other’s grasp on the truth we may find more in common and have reason to not only coexist but also to cooperate for the good of us all.

I suppose the intent of any bumper sticker is to give a witness about what you believe or what’s important to you - like letting your light shine before others.  Of course, some stickers are simply whimsical, and that’s a kind of witness, too.  But I remember the words attributed to St. Francis that he’d rather see a sermon than hear one.  That might keep a few more stickers off our bumpers and generate more witness that actually testifies to the reign of God in our midst.  Peace.  

Epiphany Insurrection

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  John 1:5

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Matthew 5:16

[The following was initially written in the heat of anger on January 7, 2021.  I have let it sit for a year but have only made a few changes.  I am still angry, mostly at myself, but more hopeful.]

I had a role in the insurrection at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. on January 6, the day of Epiphany, 2021.  Not directly, of course.  I would never engage in hooliganism, much less, desecration of the respected national halls of our country.  Still, I am complicit.  There is plenty of blame to go around - scapegoats innumerable - but as they say about pointing the finger, there are ample fingers pointing back at me.  

What was my role, then?  I was for over 30 years until 2018 a pastor and I accept responsibility for any way I contributed to the overwhelming failure of the Church in America to hold true to the gospel rather than acquiesce to the nationalistic impulses that have watered down the message of Jesus in this country.  This failure has occurred over generations and is no one person’s fault, yet if we are to stand any chance of redemption it must begin with confession of the Church’s complicity in its prophetic calling.  

Okay, maybe I’m being too hard on myself.  I did try.  I engaged in difficult conversations with people who disagreed with me.  I preached prophetic sermons that offended people, some of whom left the church I was serving to go worship somewhere else.  But I always felt like I could have done more, and I am not alone.  Recent history has sharpened my awareness of the inadequacy of the Church’s witness and mine.   As a leader in the church I must claim my own culpability. 

The prophetic calling which the Church has overlooked is found in the words of Isaiah, quoted by Jesus at the beginning of his ministry, setting the theme for his righteous kingdom-establishing work:  

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

    because he has anointed me

        to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

    and recovery of sight to the blind,

        to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  (Luke 4:18-19)

The error of the Church in America has been the abandonment of this obvious mandate to work for justice in preference for an overly sentimentalized message about the individual’s need for reconciliation with God.  Of course, such redemption of the individual is a part of the gospel.  But if all that matters is getting one’s heart “right with God,” then one can ignore a multitude of existing social ills.  If all that matters is adding souls to the church rolls, then one can avoid messy confrontations with the principalities and the powers.  

The Church has focused on personal reconciliation with God and too often ignored our need to be reconciled to each other, all across the world.  

We have too often diminished the Church’s mission to the poor by serving only their basic needs while ignoring the institutional systems that lead to their poverty.  

The Church has sought to comfort the oppressed without addressing the societal structures that contribute to their oppression, nor have we often challenged the oppressor. 

Instead of “proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor,” we have sought to accommodate a culture that has obviously promoted some as more favored than others.  As one rare prophet declared about the Church, we have been content to have our fellowship meals, Bible studies, building programs, and membership drives while blindly allowing our institutions to do our sinning for us.

There are prophetic voices that have sounded the alarm, calling the Church to account, but too many of us have preferred the easy path, the wide way that leads to destruction.  The conservative evangelical movement’s unquestioning allegiance to the politics of power are particularly egregious but mainstream Protestantism has also been culpable in its failure to emphasize the fullness of Jesus’s message.  As mainstream denominations have seen their membership fall off in the last half century, the emphasis has been on church growth while the sharper edges of the gospel have been softened lest we give offense to existing and potential members.  We emphasize Jesus as Savior but sugar-coat Jesus as Lord.  But in making the gospel more palatable it no longer is gospel, and we are no longer the Church.

The events of January 6, 2021 should have come as no surprise.  They are the direct result of what Donald Trump had been fomenting from the very beginnings of his assault on the Office of President.  We knew who he was from the outset.  He made no pretense to being anything other than an amoral, self-aggrandizing, narcissistic liar who would say and do anything that would keep him in the spotlight.  At least he was honest.  He said who he was and did what he set out to do - no matter how unprincipled and unethical.  He made no pretense to being a leader for all, but only for those who walked in lockstep with him.  And any of us in the Church who embraced him, or who tried not to offend those who did embrace him, are guilty of a moral failure to point out the travesty he was all along.  The fact that many self-identifying Christians have supported him is a testament to the lengths to which the gospel has been perverted. This is not a matter of liberal versus conservative but a matter of truth versus falsehood, right versus wrong.  That we, as a country, had to endure the Epiphany insurrection is a national shame, and is at least in part due to the failure of the Church to be the salt of the earth, the leaven in the loaf, or the herald of “good news for the poor . . . and release for the captives.”  

Last January’s events should lead us to reflect on whom we as a democratic nation want to be.  Are we truly a nation promoting liberty and justice for all?  And for the people of God, called to be “a light to the nations” on the day of Epiphany, we should be pondering whether our light has been hidden “under a bushel,” and what kind of light we will now become.

As part of my desire to shine a holy light, and to atone for my previous failures, I am attempting to help our church become advocates for racial healing and reconciliation in our community.  There are those who wish our church would just stop talking about this issue - which is a sure sign of how badly the Church has failed to live up to our calling to follow Jesus.  I now know, to a degree I never realized before, just how difficult a task it is to do this ministry of reconciliation.  The great strides of the civil rights movement in the 50’s and 60’s filled me with great hope, but now I see how much work there remains to be done.  And the work of racial reconciliation is but one of the many tasks that need the attention of Jesus’ followers.  

May this year’s Epiphany be the beginning of a renewed festival of light revealing the glory of God.  We each have a light to shine.  Even a light as small as a candle the darkness cannot overcome (as we read in the first chapter of The Gospel of John).  Even such a great darkness as fell upon the Capitol Building last year will not defeat us if each of us shines what light we have for all to see. 

  

 

 

Is There Any Good News?

 A friend of mine engages in what she calls “positive self-talk,” and has accused me good-naturedly of sometimes being a “Negative Ned.”  I admit that almost two years of pandemic have made me a bit depressed and that even beforehand I had been discouraged by the state of our nation and the direction of my denomination (United Methodist).  Perhaps we could all use some good news amidst the gloom and doom of our most recent history.

John Krasinksi, known for his role in The Office, has hosted an in-home broadcast called “Some Good News,” to lift our spirits during these COVID times.  The stories are real, heart-warming, humorous, and an elixir for our current troubles.

In other good news we find ourselves in the Christmas season.  Perhaps the birth of Jesus can serve as a spiritual elixir to help lift us up from the downward spiral in which we find ourselves.  The big theological word to define the heart of Christmas is Incarnation, as in Emmanuel - God. With. Us.  There is something enlivening about the divine becoming human - good news, indeed.

What makes the concept of Incarnation good?  Where do I begin?

Incarnation affirms that the material world - flesh and blood, vegetable and mineral, earth, wind, fire and water - is good (Genesis 1:31).  Contrary to the fringe element of Christians who wish to evacuate the wicked world through some fantastical “rapture,” the Bible actually affirms that the earth is good, deserving of our attention, and worth saving.  After all, at the end of all things God is going to “come down” from heaven and dwell with us here (Revelation 21:3), in a renewal of creation.

Another big theological word affirms the goodness of Incarnation, and that is the word Resurrection.  One of our Christian creeds says that we believe in the “resurrection of the body,” which suggests once again that our bodies - flesh and blood - are good, deserving of our attention and worth saving.  There is a mystery regarding the exact form of this resurrected body which apparently is imperishable (1 Peter 1:4), and yet imminently recognizable as a “body.”  Jesus, resurrected, was known to his disciples.  He ate breakfast on the beach with them and invited Thomas to place has hand in his scars.  The good news of Incarnation suggests that even after death we will not be disembodied spirits floating about in the ether but we will know and be known by others - the blessed and beloved community that we were created to be will continue to exist - good news.

The early church struggled with this notion of divinity/humanity.  Some early theologians questioned how the divine could possibly still be divine if taking on human flesh, suffering on a cross, and dying.  They supposed it was all an illusion, a trick played on us, that the Godhead didn’t really go through all that.  But what became orthodoxy (the consensus of “right teaching”) is that while it remains an ineffable mystery, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” fully human and yet fully divine.

The good news of Christmas leads logically to wonder, if God was in Christ Jesus, is it then possible that God could live in us, as the hymn writer suggests - “be born in us today”?  Is there a spark of divinity in humans?  Are we capable of goodness?

Here’s a statistic:  As of today 62% of people in the U.S., 12 years of age and above, have been fully vaccinated.  That means the majority of people have made the decision for the greater good.  While surely some have been vaccinated out of a desire for self-preservation, I would argue that the many have done so out of a sense of public responsibility.  To be vaccinated assumes that we protect not only ourselves but also those around us, our families, certainly, but also our friends and neighbors.  In fact, by being vaccinated we protect even those who refuse vaccination.  To be vaccinated assumes that what we do with our bodies matters, and that we believe the bodies of others also matter.  This is an affirmation of Incarnation.  Good news.

During the Christmas break our church, in cooperation with our school district, sponsors a food program - cooking and delivering meals to children who qualify for free lunch at our public schools.  During the holidays this ministry insures that no child will go hungry just because school cafeterias are closed.  This is incarnational ministry which honors the bodies of children, which puts flesh on spiritual teaching - that we are to care for the poor, give water to the thirsty, and feed the hungry.  Good news.

Christmas teaches us about Incarnation.  It is Good News, indeed.    

 

Seeking a Seamless Garment

“. . . so that they may take hold of the life that is really life.”  1 Timothy 6:19

In the early years of my pastoral ministry I was drawn to the theological concept of the “seamless garment.”  The idea is to approach life with an ethic that is logical across a whole range of issues.  For instance, if one takes the stand for pacifism, arguing that life is precious and thus war is to be opposed at all costs, then one should logically be opposed to abortion because human life is hallowed even in utero.  Such logic leads to extraordinary measures taken to preserve the life of the seriously ill, even if such preservation leads to prolonged suffering.  It follows also that one would also be in opposition to the death penalty because life is of such intrinsic value that Christians must defend and preserve the life even of those who have committed heinous crimes.  Preserving life becomes the highest ideal.  

The seamless garment is attractive because of its inherent logic and simplicity.  If life is the ultimate value, then the complexity of decision-making is removed.  God created life.  Only God can take life.  Life is to be protected. Period. 

Against this ethic stands the weight and experience of human history.  

Wars are fought and justified, even by Christians.  Abortion is made available as an option.  The hospice movement provides alternatives to life at all costs with the implication that death may not be the worst thing that may happen to a person who is aged, infirm, or suffering.  And the death penalty is upheld in many states as a reasonable punishment for certain crimes.  Obviously, society has reasoned that sometimes individual lives can be sacrificed for a supposed greater good.

The seamless garment argument assumes the ideal - what life should be (will be) in the kingdom of God.  If the world is what God created it to be, then there will be no war, no unwanted babies, or accidental pregnancies, no disease or suffering, no murder or violence.  The seamless garment argument presupposes a return to Eden’s innocence and tranquility.  What the seamless garment naively fails to reckon with is the unfortunate and inevitable reality of sin.

Sin is at the heart of our human predicament.  While God created all life and called it good, there is in the human heart a tendency toward selfishness, even toward evil.  This proclivity toward sin by necessity calls for the need for law to create limits on evil.  

There is also a harshness to the logic of the seamless garment that refuses to acknowledge human frailty - a frailty that leads us toward errors in judgment and sometimes costly mistakes.  The vulnerability of human beings calls for a response of mercy from followers of Jesus.

The necessity of both law and mercy in the human community introduces complexity into the ethical issues we face requiring a certain amount of Christian humility - a humility that the seamless garment fails to recognize.

War is evil indeed, but could the world ignore Hitler’s regime without allowing a greater evil?  Abortion is a horrible choice, but is it fair to criminalize pregnant women while men bear no cost, no responsibility, no fault?  Euthanasia seems like a morbid and terrible act, yet do we value length of life at the expense of life’s quality?  The death penalty seems just - “an eye for an eye” - and yet it is meted out disproportionally to people of color, and even sometimes to those who are later proved innocent.  

Clearly, society has often decided that some lives are worth sacrificing for the overall good, but where and when do we draw the line regarding how many lives, or whose lives?  The seamless garment removes such a question from consideration.  How appealing it is not think about the complexities of law and mercy.  But when life confronts life, when sin must be reckoned with, simple answers are not sufficient.  Sin must be met with law to maintain order.  But the law must be seasoned with mercy lest it become another means of death-dealing.  The interplay of law and mercy cannot be simplified.  Until the kingdom of God becomes real on earth as it is in heaven, we must struggle to find a way that honors life without making of it an idol.  

Perhaps life is not the ultimate good.  Perhaps the ultimate good is love.  What would love call forth from us in the face of sin?  How does love mediate law’s demands?  How might love help us navigate the complex decisions that must be made in the dialog between justice and mercy? Even these questions lead to complicated answers, but arguably more fruitful ones for the common good.       

The First Letter to Timothy includes a rather cryptic reference to “life that is really life,” without defining what “real life,” is.  The implication is that Christians are called to something more than mere existence, that there is a quality of living above and beyond the ordinary.  In context, the reference refers to living with a spirit of humble generosity toward others (verses 17-18).  One might call this love.  A generosity of spirit which shapes how we view war.  A generosity of spirit that tempers the conversation between pro-life and pro-choice factions.  A generosity of spirit that affects our approach to end-of-life decisions.  A generosity of spirit which informs our attitudes toward crime and punishment.  What the logic of the seamless garment lacks is this spirit of humble generosity.  I wonder if the best we can hope for is to stitch together a patchwork quilt of our best intentions, guided by the willingness to love and be loved - to offer the same generosity of spirit toward others that we hope would be shown to us.  As some have previously said, “Be kind, most people are having a hard time."  

  

  

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 was a self-governing nation.  Indeed, racism is an American problem, infiltrating continents North and South, beginning with the institution of slavery and leaving its 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 love of mammon which unavoidably leads to wickedness in many forms.  Slavery was born out of a desire to maximize profits at the cost of human souls and bodies.  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.  “Greed is good,” serves as a mantra for much that is wrong in the American economy.  This is not meant as a wholesale rejection of our nation’s economic system, but as a warning for those who would embrace capitalism without a critical assessment of its frequent 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 malignant.  The increasing divide between the wealth of labor and that of management is a testament to the power of greed to rob society of reason and decency.  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).  In the post-Reagan years the unchecked growth of Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, etc., testifies to the failure of government to pull the reins in on corporate interests.  If we “follow the money” we should not be surprised at the reluctance of politicians to be more restrictive of the corporations that fund their election campaigns.

Our present course of unchecked capitalism will inevitably lead to increased human suffering, not only in America but also around the world.  U.S. profits have often been built on the misery of other nations.  Trickle down economy has 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.  When members of the Fed make ethically questionable stock market trades do we look the other way?  I am not an economist and cannot prescribe a solution. I am only making an appeal for a more measured, regulated, sustainable, and hopefully, 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.”  Jesus said one cannot serve both God and mammon.  Who will we choose?

Cobalt, Capitalism, and Christianity

 As it is written, “The one who had much did not have too much, and the one who had little did not have too little.” 2 Corinthians 8:15

These days there is economic and political turmoil in the Congo over the mining of cobalt.  Cobalt is a mineral which is one of the basic building blocks for batteries, essential elements for the wave of new electric vehicles which are destined to flood the market in developed countries.  As more prosperous countries compete for this resource, its value will increase, but not necessarily leading to the growth of wealth for the citizens of the Congo.  The flow of supply and demand is often at the mercy of the big players in global politics who are themselves frequent partners, maybe even at the service, of capitalist corporate interests.

Electric vehicles, hailed as an answer to global warming concerns, may in the long run do little to address international inequities in economic well-being, not to mention the dire consequences to the ecology of nations where mining takes place.  Not only does mining have catastrophic consequences for the environment, but what are we to make of the problems presented by the disposal of these batteries when their life span has run out?  The world has yet to come to terms with the long-lasting toxicity of the waste produced by the marvels of modern technological innovation.

Rainforests are being decimated, not only for agricultural reasons, but to create mines that extract nickel, another basic element of the growing demand for batteries to power our cars and other electronic devices.  So we are preparing to exchange one form of pollution for another.  The solution to one problem becomes the creation of another, and the effect on climate improvement may be negligible.  In other words, the slippery slope is getting slipperier, and the solutions are not simple.

The environmental cost, of course, is but one part of the equation.  The costs of advances in technology continue to benefit developed and developing countries at the expense of poorer nations who are often ill-governed and ill-equipped to negotiate with powerful corporations who exploit the available natural resources without regard to consequences to the people in undeveloped nations.  The profit motive is the driving force of capitalism and is generally regulated in developed nations - not so much in what once was known as the Third World.  Unregulated capitalism leads to ethical abuses, environmental destruction, and economic exploitation in the countries that can least afford it.

Against this bleak picture there is a Christian perspective that can offer a more hopeful way forward.  The apostle Paul offers guidelines for the followers of Jesus in the city of Corinth, encouraging equitable distribution of resources - the one who has much, does not have too much, the one who has little, does not have too little.  This guideline is similar to the description of the early church we find in Acts, Chapter 2:44-45, and 4:32-34, in which the people of God shared all things in common, and there was not a needy person among them.  Such a simple directive which historically has been difficult to live out.

Churches usually address these passages during the stewardship months of October and November, addressing the budgetary needs of the church for the ensuing year.  But these passages are intended to describe a way of life by which a Christian community is governed from day to day.  Unfortunately, church-goers in the United States are often more devout capitalists than we are Christians.  We are acquisitive by nature and we are never quite sure we have enough, so we are constantly seeking to accumulate more.  We are acquirers of property and overly concerned about protecting and insuring what we have so that “share, and share alike,” seems an impossible goal.  

What this suggests is a failure to trust our neighbor.  We do not have faith in the community to come to our aid in time of need so we surround ourselves with possessions as a hedge against the future.  And if we do not trust our community, we may find ourselves not trusting in God.  Against this tendency Christians would be wise to listen to the words we hear in 1 Timothy 6:17, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.”

The Christian ethic of “enough,” has a lot to offer to the world.  Our theology of creation assures us that God has made the world “very good,” and there is enough for all.  We hear so often that there are in fact more than enough resources - food, shelter, material goods (life’s necessities) - to provide for everyone on the planet.  The problem has always been not one of resource but of distribution, or in modern parlance, logistics. 

 

We may be fooling ourselves if we think the world will ever adopt an economic ethic of sharing all things in common so that everyone has enough.  But what might happen if the Christians of the world agreed that the one who had much, did not have too much, and the one who had little, did not have too little?  As followers of the One who said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head,” perhaps we might find the willingness to explore a new way of living in this world so that no one might be in need.  Perhaps such a hope is naive in a world hardened by cruelty and cynicism, but perhaps such a hope is the only thing that will save us.

      

We Have Met the Enemy

“We have met the enemy, and he is us,” was famously said by comic strip character, Pogo, a creation of cartoonist, Walt Kelly.  Originally the quote came from an Earth Day poster in 1970 to illustrate our human complicity in the problems of pollution.  As in so many circumstances human beings are our own worst enemy.  

I have been shaped by this kind of thinking.  Theologically, I have a well-developed view of sin.  Though created in the original good graces of a loving God, we humans have trouble getting out of our own way.  I am often disappointed, discouraged, and dismayed at sinful human behavior, but never surprised.  As hymnist Robert Robinson put it, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.”  Selfishness, greed, and other distressing tendencies always seem to get in the way of our best intentions.  I wish it were otherwise, but there it is.

Pogo’s observation keeps us from pointing the finger at the sin outside of us.  Wickedness may lie “out there” somewhere in some readily recognizable “them,” but the truth remains that there is wickedness at work in “us,” as well.  “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5).  And again, “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7:1-3).

Still, one cannot live life without making judgments.  When faced with two or more choices, one must choose, and preferably the choice is right, or life-giving, loving, or at the least, the lesser of two evils.  And in making such judgments one necessarily implies that those who choose otherwise have made the wrong choice.  That does not make them evil, of course, only misguided or perhaps, ignorant.  There is also the possibility that they are willfully reprobate, or incalcitrant.  But, as Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).  

In Christian orthodoxy (“right teaching”), the Church has tried to avoid dualism - creating a false dichotomy between “us” (the good), and “them” (the evil).  When we point the finger at someone else, the cliche reminds us that there are three fingers pointing back at us.  So, we must discern the presence of evil with humility and mercy.  But we must nonetheless use our discernment lest we ourselves be tempted to fall into sin.  

Christians have committed atrocities in our history by not distinguishing between the evil and the good.  Christians have defended slavery.  Thank God there were also Christians who were ardent abolitionists.  Christians in Germany supported Hitler.  Thank God there was also The Confessing Movement which perceived and warned of Nazism’s excesses.  And as much as scripture cautions us against being overly judgmental, we are also warned to not worship golden calves.  Scripture alarms us regarding “desolating sacrilege.”  Jesus pronounced woe on the scribes and Pharisees whom he judged as wrong.  Jesus drove the moneychangers out of the temple for turning worship into an economic transaction.  Jesus made judgments of people repeatedly.  Jesus reminds us that “narrow is the gate . . . which leads to life,” and “wide . . . is the way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).  In other words, we must make judgments about how to live into Christlikeness.

Not to belabor the subject, I want to suggest some ways that disciples of Jesus might follow in the narrow way in the midst of choices and controversies that face us in the 21st Century.  In the current racial crisis we would do well to follow the Golden Rule.  Doing unto others as we would have done to us is not only good advice for interpersonal relationships but also a preferred way of ordering society.  Our institutions would thereby provide equal opportunity for all.  As “white” people have experienced privilege (as has been done to “us”), how might we structure our society so that privilege was available to people of color (and so do for “others”)? 

In regards to immigration, our policies and procedures would be marked by “welcoming the stranger,” rather than the boondoggle of building walls.  While immigration reform is necessary, the border separation of children from their parents would not be tolerated.  “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6). 

The great conflict caused by the coronavirus pandemic pits economic interests against community health.  Loss of jobs is a catastrophic consequence of social distancing measures.  However, the alternative leads to death for vulnerable populations.  In such a time, Christians would willingly sacrifice for the greater good, and governments would provide relief for those making the greatest sacrifices.  “Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others” (Philippians 2:4).

Each of the preceding paragraphs could easily become a long chapter in a book, even a book in itself.  But these are examples of how a Christian makes judgments in the midst of the variety of choices before us in the present day.  I venture to add one more example:  gun control.  And I lead with a question:  What is the Biblical precedent for gun rights?  When Jesus says, “Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword,” how does the Christian justify the right to be armed to the hilt?  When Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also . . ,” how does the Christian justify concealed carry? The right to bear arms may be a constitutional provision but it is not a Christian right, and by no means is it a Christian virtue.

As someone once said, “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”  Christians must stand for what is right, life-giving, and loving.  Christians must make judgments in order to be Christlike.  As lines are drawn in the sand there are times when one must choose which side one is on, but with a reminder, also from Jesus who said, “Love your enemies.”  As we choose between the evil and the good, let humility, mercy, and love be our guide in our relationships with those who have, regrettably, chosen wrong.