Deep and Wide: KevinH

The ramifications are deep and they are wide.

Recently I had dinner with a good friend where among other things, we discussed some of the current issues and aspects of corruption and abuse in Christianity and often their relation to politics, primarily in American evangelicalism.  As we continued in conversation, we were drawn to the realization of just how copious and widespread the consequences are.  My friend, himself, is currently living through the harshness of some of these consequences, by no fault of his own.  They have been inescapable and we cry out to the Lord for help, strength, and justice.

Primarily abiding in conservative American evangelicalism, the toxic mix of celebrity worship, love of authoritarianism, devotion to partisan politics, infatuation with the end times, gratification with superficiality, and misplaced loyalty has left much of evangelicalism in a hurting, compromised, and ineffective state.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still plenty of evangelical Christians who are faithfully seeking after God, doing the work of His Kingdom, and have not been led astray by these carnalities.  However, the number of American evangelicals who have gotten caught up in these things is so significant that the ramifications are truly as deep as they are wide, affecting not only the church but the country as a whole.

For example, let’s take the case where a pastor falls into disqualifying sin wherein they fall into some sort of “inappropriate relationship” or “moral issue”, as they are commonly termed today.  Not only is it often likely that the pastor committed some manner of abuse against the person or people they were involved with, but subsequently they become manipulative and abusive towards other church leaders and staff members in order to protect themselves from the consequences of their sin.  In turn, those other leaders and staff members decide to either join in protecting their revered leader or else they don’t and subject themselves to suffering further and escalating abuse.  Church congregants, as they catch wind that something is brewing, then choose one of three directions: 1) they actively join in protecting the pastor who they have set on a pedestal, rolling out phrases about King David and how “we’re all sinners”, while clamoring for instant forgiveness and maintenance of the status quo, or at the very least, a quick restoration, 2) they act as if nothing of significance is going on, aiming to maintain their bubble of comfort and pleasure, or, 3) they choose to speak up against the wrongdoing and end up receiving abuse themselves, from either the pastor, other church leaders, and/or other church congregants.

In the end: 

• The effectiveness of the pastor, other church leaders, and church congregants in ministering to others and performing the work of the Kingdom is substantially inhibited because of their active and unrepentant participation in sin.

• Other church leaders, staff members, and church congregants are battered and bruised, the original victims, greatly so.  They received this treatment from the very ones who were supposed to care for them and were left to suffer and fend for themselves.  Consequently, many become disillusioned with the Church, some even leave the faith, and just about all become hampered, at least to some extent and for some time period, in their ability to minister to others and doing the work of the Kingdom due to their own trampled and weakened state.

• The church experiences some level and manner of discord and division, thus compromising its collective ability to minister to others and do the work of the Kingdom.

• The witness of Christ by the church is diminished, if not sullied, as an outside world watches, especially in the case of high profile churches and pastors.

Let’s take another case where a corrupt political leader rises to power and rather than having their corruption by Christians, they and even their corrupt ways are embraced, even glorified by many Christians, even pastors and other leaders.  The politician managed to do this by manipulating and taking advantage of various factors of political desires and circumstances.  This leader commits much wrongdoing, but many Christians, again including many pastors and leaders, excuse, ignore, justify, and even cheer on the wrongdoing.  This leader tells many lies and spreads many falsehoods and dubious conspiracy theories, yet many Christians believe them and even espouse and propagate the lies, falsehoods and conspiracy theories, themselves.  This leader creates an “us vs. them” atmosphere, makes many enemies, and denounces and demeans many people, yet many Christians hop on the divisive bandwagon and gleefully join in on the hostility and denigration.

In the end:

• Many people suffer slander, belittlement, and all kinds of other mistreatment at the hands of Christians.

• The poor, the marginalized, the disadvantaged, and the “least of these”, rather than being treated with care and compassion as Jesus calls for, are instead cast aside, if not even actively demonized and vilified, by the very people who claim to be following Jesus.

• The proliferation of dubious, if not completely untrue conspiracy theories by Christians helps lead to:

• • unjustifiable harassment, if not even assault, of innocent people, such as Capitol police workers and election poll workers.

• • unhealthy distrust and disparagement of people from the “other” political party and other people such as immigrants and federal government workers deemed to be part of the “Swamp” or the “Deep State”.

• • people wrongfully disobeying the government over things like paying taxes or wearing masks, things that in no way contradict the divine commands of God.

• • situations where emergency government agencies are unable to properly help people because their work is inhibited by those who see them as the enemy or mischaracterize their efforts.

• • the emboldening of less stable people to commit evil actions in the extreme.

• The infatuation with the end times and trying to force fit every current happening into its narrative only makes Christians more deluded and gullible to believe even the craziest of conspiracy theories.  

• Many Christians who could be doing much work for the Kingdom of God are instead following after, if not outright participating in work that is a distraction at best, and of Satan at worst.
• The witness of Christ by the Church is diminished, if not sullied as an outside world watches the blatant and unrepentant hypocrisy of so-called Christians, especially high-profile ones, as they are able to identify actions being taken as wrong, even as many of the watchers do not subscribe to God and/or His teachings on morality.

• Many Christians are led astray from the faith once delivered, and instead start practicing a convoluted bastardization of the Christian faith mixed with partisan politics.  Thus, they end up causing undue hurt and damage to others while concurrently significantly diminishing their work towards the Kingdom of God.

The ramifications are deep and they are wide….. and there are far more than what I have pointed out here in just one article.  Whenever one chooses to be guided by a perspective that causes one to say and act on things like, “But he’s such a good teacher”, or, “We’re electing a president, not a pastor”, or, “‘They’ engineered the hurricane”, the adverse consequences are far more reaching and destructive than they probably ever realize.

Many parts of American evangelicalism have sold their birthright for a bowl of porridge, and a rancid one at that.  There is a cure, but it takes repenting before and following after Jesus of the Bible, and not the flag-waving, MAGA hat-wearing, authoritarian-loving, gun-toting, macho-gushing, celebrity-loving, self-gratifying Jesus that many in our country have taken to.

Do we want Jesus, or do we want the porridge of earthly gratification?