NOTES ON THE LOSS OF INTEGRITY FROM THE CHURCH: THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN CENTURY – (WITH VIDEO)

1. THE THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is perverse in his speech and is a [self-confident] fool. Desire without knowledge is not good, and to be overhasty is to sin and miss the mark.” – PROVERBS 19:1-2, AMPC

KEY TERM: “INTEGRITY.” ‘Tom’ [בְּתֻמּ֑וֹ]: “‘Completeness or prosperity derived from moral innocence;’ simplicity, uprightness; describes how a man can die in comprehensive security; such righteousness guards an individual with a clear conscience; innocence; the entire, unimpaired state of any thing, particularly of the mind; moral soundness or purity; incorruptness; uprightness; honesty; purity; genuine, unadulterated, unimpaired state.”

QUOTATION. “‘Imagine yourself as a living house.’ God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a Palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” ― C.S. LEWIS, Mere Christianity, 1952; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Better is the poor’ —Hebrew, רשׁ, ‘a poor man; that walketh in his integrity’ — Who is upright in his words and actions; he has a better character, is in a better condition, is more beloved, lives to better purpose, and is greater and more excellent in the eyes of God, and of all wise and good men; ‘than he that is perverse in his lips’ —Who is in the habit of uttering sinful and mischievous expressions [lies and blasphemies], however high he may be in rank, wealth, or dignity. 

‘Also, that the soul be without knowledge’ — Without wisdom or prudence to discern the right way of speaking and acting, and how a person ought to conduct himself in all affairs, and on all occasions; ‘is not good’ —Is of evil and pernicious consequence; ‘and he that hasteth with his feet’ —That rashly and hastily rushes into actions without serious consideration; ‘sinneth’ —Contracts guilt, and involves himself, and perhaps also many others, into difficulties and troubles.” – JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

1. THE TEACHING

Somewhere along the comparatively recent American lines of history, a tragic event took place: ‘Our once handsome Republic lost her Center,’ as the renowned sociologist of religion, ROBERT BELLAH, put it in his classic, Habits of the Heart (1985). It didn’t occur all at once, but in increments, a little here, a little there. Until we reached the Year 2020, and we had all but forgotten everything that had made us great in the first place.

And so today, we see this desperate, truculent and mindless obsession for ‘A Return’ to our former glory and might. It has a Narrative: “MAKE AMERICAN GREAT AGAIN!” It is, put in the simplest of naked terms, a nation-wide fervor to exalt ‘Us!’

Not God. Not honor. Not Integrity. But ‘Us.’ The United States of America.

It is festooned with the accoutrement of flags and banners and loud music from the past declaring “God Bless America, the land of the free and the home of the brave.” And of course, “O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming.” And all of this bathed in the sights and sounds of military machines and decorated soldiers spending their last to protect our hard-won Freedom.

‘Yet nearly all of it, beloved, has become Idolatry, Worship of a Nation and her ostensibly Glorious Past instead of her God.’ Selah.

CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM VS. CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. Though I have visited this subject before, there remains great confusion in the American Church about the vital, frankly existential differences between these two concepts. So at least a brief treatment of distinction is necessary here.

The following analysis is from a minister and blogger, DR. JOHN WITSETT, Lead Pastor of Lakeside Community Church of the Nazarene in Hastings, Nebraska. He holds the D. Min. from Asbury Theological Seminary, and blogs at Kingdom Thoughts and Reflections: Observations on the Bible, Faith, Theology & the Church in a Post-Christian Culture. His piece is titled, “Authentic Christianity vs. Christian Nationalism” (July 2, 2024; edited).

Significantly, my essay was drafted the morning after I viewed the first of four installments of Horizon, the epic account of America’s conquest of the Western Frontier produced and directed and acted by KEVIN COSTNER (June 28, 2024). Therefore, all of what I say here is exquisitely and painfully fresh in the soul of this writer.

Its relevance will become clear in the first paragraph below by Dr. Witsett.

·        INTRODUCTION. “‘One of the challenges of history is knowing if what’s being relayed to you accurately reflects what happened.’  For history isn’t necessarily an accurate accounting of events—it’s the accounting of what happened from the vantage point of the party that most benefited.  For instance, when I was growing up in Oklahoma, I learned in school about the ‘Trail of Tears’—the displacement and forced relocation of Native Americans between 1830-1850 at the hands of the U.S. Government.  However, the explanation of events would be very different according to who was recounting them.  Someone sympathetic to the Government’s viewpoint would talk about the agricultural and economic concerns that drove the decision … how this policy provided Native peoples an opportunity to pursue happiness without interference from settlers that were pushing West and causing their numbers to dwindle.  But if told from the perspective of the Indians, they’d talk about a government seizing their ancestral homelands and laying down laws that ravaged their way of life—about their relocation being a solution to the White man’s greed, expansionist impulses, and Colonialism.” 

·        CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM.  “Christian Nationalism is the belief that America is defined by Christianity and the Government should take steps to keep it that way … that America is and must remain a ‘Christian Nation’ … that our country’s Laws should be based upon the teachings of Christianity and any other source of grounding other than that is detrimental and destructive to her long-term well-being and must be resisted and opposed.  Christian Nationalists believe America is the ‘New Israel’—that God has raised her up, placed a Divine Calling upon her, and assigned her a preferred and Providential place among the nations of the world.  ‘They have fused Christianity with our National Culture in ways that tarnish the essence of Authentic Faith in Jesus.’  They are trying to bring about life change through cultural change rather than cultural change being the product of genuine life change.  It is at odds with the message of the Gospel and the Teachings of Jesus.”

·        THE PROBLEM.  “‘Religion and Politics have never made good partners.’  We see this in the Persian Gulf in countries that have merged their politics with the Islamic Faith—the harsh way they treat those who don’t fall in line.  Any time we fuse our faith and our politics in an unhealthy way, we tend to relate to those who don’t believe as we think they should in harmful and hurtful ways.  It’s like what happens when you mix manure and ice cream—the nature of the manure isn’t really affected by the presence of the ice cream, but the appeal of the ice cream takes a major hit!  When we blend our Religion and Politics, we typically try to implement a particular cultural ideology ‘by force,’ and we tend to become Authoritarian, dictatorial, and oppressive in how we relate to those who aren’t on the same wavelength as us.  ‘Folks who differ become enemies’—a constituency to be put down … a faction to be subdued.  And when that’s the case, we can’t express the love, acceptance, dignity, and respect that God calls those of us who avow the name of Jesus to demonstrate.  ‘We end up tainting His reputation and tarnishing [the Lord’s sacred] name.’”

·        AUTHENTIC CHRISTIANITY.  “‘Christianity is a belief system based on the Teaching and Works of Jesus’ … a Jesus who said His Agenda was to transform lives and build a Kingdom that was not of this world.  He made this point abundantly clear when He stood before, and was questioned by, Pilate.  Because the Kingdom Jesus came to establish is not of this world, it operates differently.  Instead of being about the acquisition and exercise of power over others, His Kingdom advances through the expression of Love [and Truth] and the diligent demonstration of power under others.  It advances by His people pouring themselves out and serving.  ‘Christian Nationalism by contrast is an ideology focused primarily on the identity of our nation.’  It’s about the ongoing development and formation of our country according to a specific cultural template—one that, to be sure, calls attention to certain morals but ‘seeks to regulate conduct through their imposition and enforcement.’”

·        AUTHENTIC PATRIOTISM.  “‘Patriotism is a sentiment—a feeling of pride, appreciation, and love for our country.’  It’s what motivates us to stand, remove our hat, and place our hand over our heart when the National Anthem is played.  It’s what compels us to attend a July 4 parade and wave a flag or clap and express our gratitude to groups of veterans as they walk by.  But ‘Nationalism’ is a muddled belief system that mixes celebration of nation with worship of God.  ‘Patriotism’ is motivated by gratitude, love, and generates a positive vibe. Nationalism is protectionist, isolationist, and insular.  Patriotism brings folks together; Nationalism drives them apart.  Patriotism expresses appreciation and fondness for our country; Nationalism makes such a preference exclusionary and a demand of discipleship.”

·        THE RESET. While it’s perfectly fine to love our country and appreciate the blessings we enjoy because we have the good fortune of living within her borders, we must put our faith filter in front of our political filter or our national filter.  And we should engage with a clear understanding that the transformation and change we seek as followers of Jesus is not going to come through the political process but only as a result of the grace of God working in people’s lives.  ‘We should live with the agenda not of trying to ‘Save America,’ but with the hope of trying to reach and rescue Americans’ … and Canadians … and Mexicans … and Guatemalans … and Costa Ricans … and Nicaraguans … and Salvadorans … and Panamanians … and Venezuelans … and Ecuadorians … and people from each and every nation with the Good News of the transforming grace of God.

IN SUM. Something has taken place in the American Soul in the last decade that is stunning in its impact and redirection of our National Vision, beloved. We are catastrophically, radically different that we were even a couple of generations ago. ‘We are rapidly becoming something Hideous’ in my view, hard to recognize any more. Most of you realize that – the vast majority of our citizens do not or will not.

I will explore the Path to it in the last section that follows.

1. THE GREAT AMERICAN WHITEWASH

We have very likely all heard the Great Maxim penned by Spanish historian GEORGE SANTAYANA: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Life of Reason,1905, p. 284). Indeed, perhaps America’s Second Greatest Sin is that she has, in my carefully rethought reflections over the last eight years, ‘labored for centuries to cover her Original Sins.’

“‘Lying lips are an abomination [idolatry] to the Lord,’ But those who deal truthfully are His delight.” – PROVERBS 12:22, NKJV

EVEN LADY LIBERTY. I propose that such sustained Treachery of the Truth has led to this Current Crisis of Character in both the heart of Politics and the American Church. We will now finish the work of this analysis by ‘tearing the Veil from the face of Lady Liberty’ that God will no longer permit to stay in its moth-eaten, rusted-out place.

Indeed, beloved, a little-known historical fact is, according to American historian MARCUS REDIKER, the Statue of Liberty, a present from France to the United States, was inspired by EUGENE DELACROIX’S rather scandalous painting of Lady Liberty (1830). Which of course would mean that, in Rediker’s words, one of the most famous depictions of Liberty in the modern world has ever known is indirectly based on ANNE BONNY, who with her Pirate lesbian lover MARY READ, pillaged the Caribbean Sea as “The Pirate Queens!” (cf. Karen Abbott, “If There’s a Man Among Ye: The Tale of Pirate Queens Anne Bonny and Mary Read,” Smithsonian Magazine, Aug. 9, 2011; Marlies Dekkers, Blog, “Anne Bonny: The Original Lady Liberty,” ret. July 12, 2024).

You getting the picture, beloved? Hidden things that did not fit the American Christian Narrative in this and countless other ways. Truth is the goal here, and nothing more.

THE GREAT AMERICAN ‘DENOUEMENT.’ “The unraveling or discovery of a plot as the Final Act of a play.” My mom used to use a phrase popular in 1940s America: “The jig is up!” The core meaning of which is found in the Scriptures, believe it or not. JESUS DECLARED: “‘For there is nothing hidden that shall not be disclosed,’ nor anything secret that shall not be known and come out into the open” (LUKE 18:7, AMPC).

So here we go, beloved, into the hallows and hollers of American History as you have probably never seen it rendered. May Truth alone guide us, and nothing more! The following review is taken from the work of library scientist and film studies scholar MATTHEW WILLS in a piece titled, “Whitewashing American History,” published in the respected journal, Jstor Daily (Feb. 18, 2019; edited).

WHITEWASHED CHRISTIANITY. I will conclude with some thoughts drawn from the distinguished ROBERT P. JONES, the CEO and Founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) and the author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Writing for The Atlantic this time, his article is titled, “White Christian America Needs a Moral Awakening” (July 28, 2020; edited).

Here is a Bullet Point Summary of his MAIN IDEAS.

• ROOTS. “The Christian denomination in which I grew up was founded on the proposition that Slavery could flourish alongside the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its Founders believed that this arrangement was not just possible, but Divinely mandated. Yet many White Christians, like myself, came of age in churches and communities where we seldom heard anything substantive or serious about the White-Supremacist Roots of our faith.”

• MATRICULATION. “I was raised in a Southern Baptist family, participated actively in my Southern Baptist church, and graduated from Mississippi College, a Southern Baptist institution. But it wasn’t until I was a 20-year-old seminary student that I began to grasp the central role that my denomination, and White Christians generally, have played in sustaining and legitimizing White Supremacy … And—just as I had learned from my Mississippi public-school education—the true causes of the Civil War were ‘complicated.’ Slavery was not the central issue but merely one of many North-South conflicts precipitating the split.”

• PROTESTANTS. “The Baptist denominational history is not unique in American Christianity. Virtually all of the major White Mainline Protestant denominations split over the issue of Slavery. For example, Northern and Southern Methodists parted ways in 1845, the same year as the Baptists, producing an additional spark for the tinderbox of Southern political secession. While they disagreed about Slavery, both Southern and Northern Methodists agreed that Black Methodists should hold a subservient place not just in society but also in Christian fellowship.”

• CATHOLICS. “The history of White Supremacy among White Catholics is more complex, but the connection to White Supremacy is equally clear. With its roots in Western Europe, Roman Catholicism has a long history of Colonialism, particularly in Africa and the Global South [Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean], where centuries of atrocities against Black and Brown peoples were justified by the conviction that White Christians were God’s chosen means of ‘civilizing’ the world. In the United States, Catholics and Catholic institutions were prominent Slaveholders in the 18th and 19th centuries and forced enslaved people to convert to the Religion. In late-18th-century Maryland, for example, one-fifth of Catholics were enslaved people owned by White Catholics or White Catholic institutions.”

• REALITY. “Underneath the glossy, self-congratulatory histories that White Christian churches have written about themselves—which typically depict White Christians as exemplars of Democratic principles and pillars of the community—is a thinly veiled, deeply troubling past. White Christian churches have not just been complacent or complicit in failing to address Racism; rather, as the dominant cultural power in the U.S., they have been responsible for constructing and sustaining a project to protect White Supremacy. Through the entire American Story, White Christianity has served as the central source of moral legitimacy for a society explicitly built to value the lives of White people over Black [and Brown and Native] people. And this legacy remains present and measurable in the cultural DNA of contemporary White Christianity, not only among Evangelicals in the South but also among Mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast.”

• RESOLUTION. “If we are finally going to live into the fullness of the promise of Liberty and Justice for all Americans, we will have to recover from our White-Supremacy-induced amnesia. Confronting historical atrocities is indeed difficult, and at times overwhelming. But if we want to root out an insidious White Supremacy from our institutions, our Religion, and our psyches, ‘we will have to move beyond Forgetfulness and Silence.’ Importantly, as White Americans find the courage to embark on this Journey of Transformation, we will discover that the beneficiaries are not only our country and our fellow Nonwhite and Non-Christian Americans, but also ourselves. We will understand that this Project is not an altruistic one, but rather a desperate life-and-death struggle for our own future.”

THE PRECIPICE. Fast forward from the publication of Mr. Jones’ analysis to today, July 2024, as America bears agonizing witness to the collapse of the Democratic candidacy of JOE BIDEN, the rising poll numbers of the Beast, DONALD TRUMP, and the nearly unavoidable catastrophe of a Fourth Reich being ignited starting on January 20, 2025, by President Trump – “Dictator for only one day!”

So beloved: What now?

          IV. LAST THOUGHTS

To conclude then on the only Note of Hope I can think of, I propose that American Christians take a page from the German Confessing Church of DEITRICH BONHOEFFER and company, as they courageously put forth the Theological Declaration of Barmen of 1934.

This was firm and courageous opposition to the German Christian [Nationalist] Movement of Adolf Hitler. Here are the SIX THESES OF THE BARMAN DECLARATION.

1. The only source of Revelation is the Word of God — Jesus Christ. Any other possible sources (earthly powers, for example) will not be accepted.

• Jesus Christ is the only Lord of all aspects of personal life. There should be no other authority.

• The Message and Order of the Church should not be influenced by the current political convictions.

• The Church should not be ruled by a leader (“Führer”). There is no hierarchy in the Church (Mt 20, 25f).

• The State should not fulfill the task of the Church and vice versa. State and Church are both limited to their own business.

• Therefore, the Barmen Declaration rejects (i) the subordination of the Church to the State (8.22–3) and (ii) the subordination of the Word and Spirit to the Church.

8.27. “‘We reject the False Doctrine,’ as though the Church in human arrogance could place the Word and Work of the Lord in the service of any arbitrarily chosen desires, purposes, and plans.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, May 8, 2024; edited

PLEDGE. I further and finally propose that we of this Peloton Confessing Fellowship resolve on our very lives to Honor these Six Theses in the Days of Antichrist just ahead of us. To the Glory of our King, to the Rescue of our neighbors, and to the Integrity of our own witness of Jesus Christ in these waning days of the American Order.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/LgAeS_auyhU