Freedom Is Messy - Church, State, and Beto

So I've been thinking more about Beto, taxing the churches, and all that jazz.

Made me think of Roger Williams. He spoke up in Massachusetts Bay Colony that they should treat the Indians better. That they were stealing land and mistreating them. This isn't me projecting my 21st century sensibilities on a colony in the 1600s. This was a Christian in tune with God in the 1600s proclaiming the truth to the powerful. He spoke as a pastor. And just about as effective as speaking the truth to the powerful these days, on October 9, 1645, he was banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Roger Williams went on to start Providence as a place where people could have religious freedom. Puritans came. Jews came. Quakers came. The first Baptist church was started there. Religious people of different orientations could live together in peace and not be banned for disagreeing with the state.

What Beto and others are asking for, without maybe even recognizing it in themselves, is a return to the totalitarian ways of Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Europe our American predecessors fled from. In this particular instance, Beto is encouraging taxing churches who don't agree with him on gay marriage. But that is giving control of church teaching over to the state. Either you conform, or you pay. This is a dangerous change.

This seems to be the toxic fruit of an idea that I hear regularly: Religion should have no influence on the state. The idea goes on to say that separation of church and state flows both ways. The state can't influence the church. And the church can't influence the state. As seen in Beto, they would rather err on the side of the state forcing the church to do things.

This concept holds that religious principles that shape a religious person's worldview are inferior to secular principles. Due to this, religious principles have no room in the public arena. Do you realize that this approach would have made Martin Luther King Jr. not happen? One of our national heroes could not have done what he did in this hostile toward religion framework. He was a pastor, emboldened by his religious convictions, trying to change the state. Christians throughout history have spoken truth to the power of the state, and I don't want that principle to end to this new totalitarian view that the religious should be silent in regard to the state.

If Beto's proposal or any like it were to move forward, the secular victory would be weak anyway. The church would just move to house churches that aren't legally churches so the state can't say what we can and can't say because I, and I believe most remaining Christians, would never let the state tell us what we can and cannot teach. We have a good, solid history and lots of examples to inspire and encourage us to not conform to the state. Whether that be heroes like Martin Niemoller in Germany, Corrie Ten Boom in Denmark, Dirk WIllems in the Netherlands, Telemachus in Rome, or these other people - Jesus, Peter, and Paul in the early church era. Conforming to society goes against a core principle of the church: The church is to be a separate kingdom with an alternative way of living. If we just conform to the wishes of society, what are we? We definitely aren't the church.

Freedom of speech and religion are principles that we should still enshrine as an Americans. Principles that goes back the early days of Roger Williams in Rhode Island and of William Penn in Pennsylvania, which we didn't really get into here. Principles that our founding fathers enshrined in the Bill of Rights because they knew that the tendency, as exhibited even these days, of the state is to take them away. Principles that have made the world better. Principles we shouldn't dispose of just to get the political outcome we want.

Conformity is not freedom. Freedom is messy.

Rethinking Church's Relationship To State

Throughout much of the history of the Church, the Church has just followed society hook, line and sinker. From the time of Jesus until 313 AD the Church had an on and off again relationship with the State. On again meaning that the State was persecuting and killing them; off again, meaning that the State would leave them alone despite Christianity still being illegal.

In 313, that all changed. Constantine issued the edict of Milan making it legal to be a Christian. Throughout the 4th century, laws were passed until Christianity became the State religion and all other religions were made illegal, and, with that, a dark era for the Church was initiated. Instead of loving the lost, some Christians started persecuting the lost and, in the worse cases, killing them. As if you should die if you don't agree with what we believe. When given the power of the State, Christians throughout history have shown that they often behave no better and sometimes worse than those who don't know God.

No longer was the Church viewed by Christians as a kingdom without borders, colonies of God’s kingdom here on earth, ambassadors not of this world who live in the truth of God's otherworldly kingdom bringing its beauty into our world; Christians began to confuse the State with God’s kingdom, melding the two, and the State and the Church had an affair while Christ waited for His Bride to come back home. It wasn’t until recently, that this hold of the State on the Church and the lust of the Church to control the State has waned.

Stanley Hauerwas shares this watershed moment by telling a story of his childhood in Greenville, South Carolina. On one Sunday night in the summer of 1963, as Hauerwas writes:

In defiance of the state’s time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us—regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship at Buncombe Street Church—made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quietly slip out the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox…On that night, Greenville, South Carolina—the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world—served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. There would be no more free passes for the church, no more free rides. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young. That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish (Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, 15-16).

And the church has been reeling ever since. We seem to be finding our legs these days. We are not in cahoots with the State any more. We understand that our culture is not Christian or God honoring. There is now a great divide between the Church and the world. The seductive siren call of popularity, power, law, and control never fit well with the call of Christ to be a self-sacrificing servant to others, to love our enemies, and to go the extra mile even when we don't want to go the first. The State no longer wants us. The world no longer wants us, and we should be comfortable not wanting what they have instead of conforming to what they want us to be. Jesus never meant for His Church to wield the power of the State nor worry about being accepted and popular. We are to be an irresistible alternative from the world for those who seek God.

Instead of being the bride of Christ throughout the centuries, the Church has been dating Themis, the Greek goddess of Law. And the breakup has been tough. During this fifteen century affair, the Church forgot its purpose and how to function. Thankfully, there have been faithful remnants and glimmers of God's Kingdom that we can look to in relearning our role as the Bride of Christ in a post-Christian society. But since breaking up with Themis, the Church has gone through a deep depression, tried dating around, but now we’re finally getting back to Jesus. And dating Jesus doesn’t look like the way the Church has been since the time of Constantine, but it’s the way that Jesus has designed us to be. We're learning how to love again. We're learning how to passionately follow God again. We’re learning to fully live in grace and truth. These are good times to be following Jesus.

And the same thing that happened to the church over the centuries may be true in our own personal lives. We might be listening to the siren call of false god of America, Hollywood, Sports, or to any of the other idols of our culture that should never be listened to above the voice of God. We might have hardened to God like Playdoh hardens, but, like Playdoh, it’s never too late. God is the master heart shaper, and, as long as we have life left in us, he can pour the water on us and shape our heart again if we are willing.

Now, more than ever, many are awakening to the idea that America isn't exactly a Christian nation. It's baffling to me that this wasn't already self-evident with our nation's stance on abortion, attitude toward the poor, aggressive military action around the world, and many other issues. But now, it is ingrained in our laws that homosexuality is just as valid as heterosexuality. Maybe we, the church, the body of Jesus, have been going about it all wrong for the last few decades. We have been obsessing with how to make our nation more Christian, which leads to us putting law forward instead of love, and in focusing on the State and what it should do, we have neglected how we can be better Christians - better followers of Jesus in our everyday lives and together as the church. We have a dangerous and terrible tendency to focus on others who we can't change rather than ourselves who we can.

Our government is not, despite the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, the "shining city on a hill." We are not "the hope of the earth" (as Mitt Romney said in the presidential debate, October 22, 2012., but a sentiment also said by Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln). Nor are we "the one indispensable nation" (as Barack Obama said in that same presidential debate). Our nation is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. Those are prideful misappropriations of phrases that are reserved for the kingdom of God. The local church is the city on a hill, the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. The local church is the answer for the problems of the world, and yet we neglect the bride of Christ time and time again for all the whimsical allures of the world. And I think things are crumbling around us because I don’t even know if the church believes in our special place anymore.

I hope that we can give up fighting the cultural battles of our day on a political level because they have already been lost and have hurt the cause of the gospel. But that doesn’t change what is right or wrong; it just changes our approach. The Bible gives us no hint that Jesus was concerned about changing the laws in the Roman Empire. Instead, we see him establishing an alternative kingdom where he is the King. Let’s follow suit. Instead of attempting to change American laws, let's focus on changing our lives to be more like what God wants them to be and shower our community and the world with the love of God. We can't make a nation Christian through legislation. But that shouldn’t bother us. We live as citizens in God’s kingdom under the authority of a perfect King. This is the one indispensable nation. The foot we put forward shouldn’t be homosexuality is a sin, although if people ask, they do deserve and honest, biblical answer. But we should be focused on working through our local churches to win the hearts of people to Jesus. We must set an example of kingdom living that is irresistible to those seeking God. Through that, our nation will have more Christians.

James described true spirituality as loving orphans and widows while keeping ourselves unstained from the world (James 1:27), Jesus described true spirituality as loving God and loving our neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40). Paul taught us that the pinnacle of the spiritual life is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). John taught us that if we don't love our brothers and sisters, then we don't love God (1 John 4:20).We don't have to agree with people to love them. And that is true religion. That is the positive message and life that we must focus on and live for.

But here is the truth that we must realize, we never let our State or the world dictate to us what is right and wrong. Society dictates morality in a secular state. But we operate differently. We allow God to dictate to us what is right or wrong. That is why, historically, dictators have always attacked the church, whether that was in early Communist China, Soviet Russia, or Nazi Germany. We, followers of Jesus, are like herding cats. The faithful cannot be manipulated. Our nation may be hardened to the will of God, but we don't have to follow suit. We must always remain faithful to our understanding of God’s word in Scripture.

No matter what the State says, our beliefs hold true. We don't conform to the world; we allow God to transform us. The Church and the State were never meant to be bedmates. Our state is secular; it's not Christian. It can allow gay marriage. That is not our domain. We don’t even need to invest our energy opposing it in the legislative arena. Our domain is here: The church, the kingdom of God. And I think Christians have spent a lot of energy and effort trying to fix the State while we have let the church crumble. Our priorities and energy have been misdirected.

The church was always meant to be countercultural. That should be evident now. We shouldn't spend our time being overly concerned with the State because we can't control it. But you know who we can control? Ourselves. We can strive to be more loving. We can strive to help the poor. We can strive to bring peace into our circle of relationships. We can strive to stand on truth and exude grace. We can be humble and full of forgiveness. All too often we get hung up on the wrong things and miss out on working on our own spiritual lives. We get distracted, preventing ourselves from drawing closer to God and learning to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Let us take this moment in history and allow it to spur us all closer to Jesus. Let it not cause us to be disillusioned but to regain focus. Let us strive to be the church filled with people in community with one another. People who seek to live in the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven. Let us focus on ourselves and our sin rather than the sin of others. Let us revel in the grace of God and live in such a way that others want to join us in giving glory to our Father in heaven. This is the time for the church to be the church and live up to its calling to be the hope of the word. The time is now.

The Church Finding Perspective in the Wake of the Supreme Court Ruling on Gay Marriage

Throughout much of the history of the Church, the Church has just followed society hook, line and sinker. From the time of Jesus until 313 AD the Church had an on and off again relationship with the State. On again meaning that the State was persecuting and killing them; off again, meaning that the State would leave them alone despite Christianity still being illegal.

In 313, that all changed. Constantine issued the edict of Milan making it legal to be a Christian. Throughout the 4th century laws were passed until Christianity became the State religion and all other religions were made illegal, and, with that, a dark era for the Church was initiated. Instead of loving the lost, some Christians in name only started persecuting the lost and, in the worse cases, killing them. When given the power of the State, Christians throughout history have shown that they are often no better than those who don't know God.

No longer was the Church viewed by Christians as a kingdom without borders, colonies of God’s kingdom here on earth, people not of this world trying to bring God's otherworldly beauty into our world; Christians began to confuse the State with God’s kingdom, melding the two, and the State and the Church started dating while Christ waited for His Bride to come back around. It wasn’t until recently, that this hold of the State on the Church and the lust of the Church to control the State has waned.

Stanley Hauerwas shares this watershed moment by telling a story of his childhood in Greenville, South Carolina. On one Sunday night in the summer of 1963, as Hauerwas writes, “in defiance of the state’s time-honored blue laws, the Fox Theater opened on Sunday. Seven of us—regular attenders of the Methodist Youth Fellowship at Buncombe Street Church—made a pact to enter the front door of the church, be seen, then quietly slip out the back door and join John Wayne at the Fox…On that night, Greenville, South Carolina—the last pocket of resistance to secularity in the Western world—served notice that it would no longer be a prop for the church. There would be no more free passes for the church, no more free rides. The Fox Theater went head to head with the church over who would provide the world view for the young. That night in 1963, the Fox Theater won the opening skirmish.” (Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon, 15-16).

And the church has been reeling ever since. We seem to be finding our legs these days. We are not in cahoots with the State any more. There is now a great divide between the Church and the world. The seductive siren call of popularity, power, law, and control never fit well with the call of Christ to be a self-sacrificing servant to others, to love our enemies, and to go the extra mile even when we don't want to go the first. The State no longer wants us. The world no longer wants us, and we should be comfortable not wanting what they have. Jesus never meant for His Church to wield to power of the State. Jesus never meant for His Church to be accepted.

Instead of being the bride of Christ throughout the centuries, the Church has been dating Themis, the goddess of Law. And the breakup has been tough. During this fifteen century affair, the Church forgot its purpose and how to function. Thankfully, there have been faithful remnants and glimmers of God's Kingdom that we can look to in relearning our role as the Bride of Christ in a post-Christian society. But since breaking up with Themis the Church has gone through a deep depression, tried dating around, but now we’re finally getting back to Jesus. And dating Jesus doesn’t look like the way the Church has been since the time of Constantine, but it’s the way that Jesus has designed us to be. We're learning how to love again. We're learning how passionately follow God again. These are good times to be following Jesus.

And the same thing that happened to the church over the centuries may be true in our own personal lives. We might be listening to the siren call of America, to Hollywood, to Sports, or to any of the other idols of our culture that should never be listened to above the voice of God. We might have hardened to God like Playdoh hardens, but like Playdoh, it’s never too late. God is the master heart shaper and, as long as we have life left in us, he can shape our heart if we are willing.

Which brings us to the big Supreme Court decision this week legalizing gay marriage across our land. Now, more than ever, many are wakening up to the idea that America isn't exactly a Christian nation. It's baffling to me that this wasn't already self-evident with our nation's stance on abortion, attitude toward the poor, aggressive military action around the world, and many other issues. But now, it is ingrained in our laws that homosexuality is just as valid as heterosexuality. Maybe we have been going about it all wrong for the last few decades. We have been obsessing with how to make our nation more Christian, which isn't a terrible concept, but in doing that, we sometimes neglect how we can be better Christians - better followers of Jesus in our everyday lives. We have a dangerous and terrible tendency to focus on others who we can't change rather than ourselves who we can.

Our government is not, despite the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, the "shining city on a hill." We are not "the hope of the earth" (Mitt Romney in the presidential debate, October 22, 2012). Nor are we "the one indispensable nation" (Barack Obama in that same presidential debate). Our nation is not the salt of the earth or the light of the world. Those are prideful misappropriations of phrases that are reserved for the kingdom of God. The local church is the city on a hill, the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. The local church is the answer for the problems of the world, and yet we neglect the bride of Christ time and time again for all the whimsical allures of the world.

I hope that we can give up fighting the cultural battles of our day on a political level because they have already been lost, let's focus on changing our lives to be more like God wants them to be and shower our community and the world with the love of God. We can't make a nation Christian through legislation. Instead we must work through our local churches to win the hearts of people to Jesus. Through that, our nation will have more Christians.

James described true spirituality as loving orphans and widows while keeping ourselves unstained from the world (James 1:27), Jesus described true spirituality as loving God and loving our neighbors (Matthew 22:36-40). Paul taught us that the pinnacle of the spiritual life is love (1 Corinthians 13:13). John taught us that if we don't love our brothers and sisters, then we don't love God (1 John 4:20).We don't have to agree with people to love them. And that is true religion.

Biblically, there is no way around teaching that homosexuality is a sin although that doesn't stop some theologians. I wrote a whole piece (An Attempt at a Compassionate yet Theologically Conservative Approach to the Issue of Homosexuality) on that subject a few weeks back and try not to just bang that drum time and time again. It's just one sin, and not as prevalent as many that we struggle with. So it's a sin and we still have to handle the issue with grace. This isn't what this message is about, yet it is deeply ingrained in the conversation we're having today. I do understand that it is a contentious point for some. Some want to conform to the ever shifting standards of the world and be accepted. I get that. I want that, yet I can't do that and still be faithful to the Bible as I understand how to read it.

But here is the truth that we must realize, we never let our State or the world dicate to us what is right and wrong. That is why historically dictators have always attacked the church, whether that was in early Communist China, Soviet Russia, or Nazi Germany. We're like herding cats. The faithful cannot be manipulated. Our nation may be hardened to the will of God, but we don't have to follow suit.

No matter what the State says, the Christian belief that marriage is between one man and one woman still holds true. We don't conform to the world; we allow God to transform us. The Church and the State were never meant to be bedmates. Our state is secular; it's not Christian.

The church was always meant to be countercultural. That should be evident now. We shouldn't spend our time being overly concerned with the State because we can't control it. But you know who we can control? Ourselves. We can strive to be more loving. We can strive to help the poor. We can strive to bring peace into our circle of relationships. We can be humble and full of forgiveness. All too often we get hung up on the wrong things and miss out on working on our own spiritual lives. We get distracted, preventing ourselves from drawing closer to God and learning to listen to the Holy Spirit.

Let us take this moment in history and allow it to spur us all closer to Jesus. Let it not cause us to be disillusioned but to regain focus. Let us strive to be the church filled with people in community with one another. People who seek to bring the kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven, together. Let us focus on ourselves and our sin rather than the sin of others. Let us revel in the grace of God and live in such a way that others want to join us in giving glory to our Father in heaven. This is the time for the church to be the church and live up to its calling to be the hope of the word.

Tax the Churches

If churches were taxed like businesses, most still wouldn't pay any taxes. Money is paid out to workers (who pay taxes on that income), used on expenses, and given away to help people. Most churches usually end a year with the same money (or less in today's world) as they started the year with. No profit to tax.

Churches aren't showing record profits.Most churches don't even try to have profits unless they are saving up to buy a building or a piece of land. If church profits were taxed, churches would be unwise to save up money to buy just to have that money be taxed. Instead, they would just get a larger mortgage and avoid any accumulation of money that would be taxed.

Even the corrupt, financially immoral churches probably wouldn't be taxed all that much as they are giving their money out to the pastors and using it on expenses (like jets and new cars). Not saying that is okay. Just pointing out that taxing the churches probably wouldn't contribute all that much to tax revenue.

But churches would have to pay property taxes if they were no longer excluded from taxes.

If people are arguing that offerings should be taxed like sales tax, then that would also give some tax revenue.

Any group, even politically active groups, can create a tax free non-profit organization in the United States. The key is to be non-profit, which churches are.

Now onto the issue of politics in the church.

Personally, I think ministers should preach politics more. But they shouldn't be preaching the politics of either the right or the left. Just the politics that expresses loving the least, loving our enemies, and loving our neighbors. The politics of helping the oppressed and reconciling the haters. The politics of grace and forgiveness. The church becomes tainted when it aligns itself with any political party, but that doesn't mean that the views of Jesus are totally inapplicable to politics.

I stay away from directly addressing politics or candidates at our church, but that does not mean that I don't address issues and stances that would have political ramifications if the listeners to the message actually lived them out. Often, political issues and the Bible intersect one another. I don't see how one could preach the gospel and not talk about issues that would influence politics.

Separation of Politics and Faith?

We often hear in our society that our spiritual beliefs shouldn't influence our politics. That view can only come from people who have superficial beliefs (beliefs that they intellectually assent to but practically avoid) or none at all. I don’t mean that to be offensive to those who separate their faith from their politics, but let’s be honest. If your beliefs don’t influence the way that you view the world and the way that the world should operate, then your beliefs are not really beliefs; they are just part of some religious ritual that you give intellectual assent to.

Our deeply held spiritual beliefs will influence our politics. They aren’t contained in some fictitious fairy tale section of our minds. Instead, they transform the way we live and view the world. If we really believe the spiritual things we claim to believe, then those beliefs will permeate our entire life. If we compartmentalize the practical applications of our spiritual beliefs to our church life or our life around a certain group of people, then we really don’t believe the beliefs that we claim to believe; we just give them lip service. Authentic belief influences the way we live, everywhere we find ourselves living.  That is what genuine, true belief is. The truth of the matter is that our beliefs always influence our politics. The question is, “What do we really believe?”

Now this doesn’t mean that we should have to spout off about Scripture in the political arena. What it means is that our politics are shaped by our beliefs, and those beliefs should be able to hold their own without referring back to Scripture with those who do not believe in Scripture. Truth doesn’t need Scripture to show that it is true. It is the truth. It is in Scripture because Scripture contains the truth, but the truth is not confined to Scripture.

Let us look at some clear, Christian teachings from Scripture and see how those should influence what our political views are. We need to recognize these problems in our nation and work to resolve them rather than turning a blind eye toward them or, even worse, supporting these sinful actions that are contrary to the teachings of God.

Jesus teaches us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44). All too often our society’s fervent nationalism will spur us to dehumanize our enemies and harm them. Jesus went so far as to say that we are to love those who persecute us. So these enemies are doing harm to us, yet we are still supposed to love them. This might be difficult to iron out politically, but we must always remember that we are called to be faithful, not effective.

The Bible is filled with passages on how we are to treat the immigrant (Leviticus 19:33-34). We are taught to treat the immigrant as a native and love them as we love ourselves. Yet all too often the mentality of many politically active Christians is to speak against the illegal immigrant who has a worse life than us, not because of his or her work ethic, but because of the place they were born. This hatred has no room in the Kingdom of God because a brother or sister in Jesus who is from a foreign nation shares their primary citizenship with us in the Kingdom of God. We should be concerned about their well-being, not attacking them or making things difficult for them.

When it comes to abortion, the church is typically against it. Unfortunately, we often stand against it in a "you should do things my way" approach rather than a "we will sacrifice ourselves to help you despite your bad decision" approach.  Many people are hurt by abortions. We need to be willing to take the burden of sacrifice necessary to help the women who wind up being unwanted mothers. We need to make the sacrifice and adopt the unwanted children. We serve a savior who died for us despite us not deserving it; we are called to do the same for the others (Galatians 5:13-15).

One of the biggest dilemmas facing our society is the increasing income gap between the rich and everyone else. Not paying workers a fair wage, profiting off of unrighteousness and injustice, and ignoring the plight of the poor and needy are all actions that disgust God (Jeremiah 22:13-17). We may or may not think the government is the solution to these problems facing our society, but we, as followers of Jesus, cannot be complicit in, participate in, or even be supportive of those who bring these problems about.

Those are just a few of the issues where following Jesus criss-crosses with society.

We must make sure that in the process of being politically alive, we never compromise important beliefs. The ends never justify the means. However, that expression is often used as an excuse to be an obnoxious jerk, one who is unwavering and unwilling to compromise. We must realize that it is better to head in the right direction than to hide in our ivory towers, be self-righteous, and make no progress for the betterment of those who need help. We understand that this world will never be what God intended it to be prior to Jesus’ second coming, but we also recognize that striving for His ideal is what will make life better in the here and now.

We must be vigilant that we never lose our focus on Jesus in the mire of politics. This nation will not be transformed into what God wants it to be through political action. The key problem is a problem of the heart. But that does not mean that a follower of Jesus cannot be involved in shaping laws to promote the common good. We might hear the retort, “You can’t legislate morality.” But that is nonsense. Every law is a moral teaching, even in a secular nation.

When talking about politics, we must never forget that our primary witness for Jesus is our not our political stances; it’s our life together as a church. The government is not the salvation of the world; Jesus is. And He reveals Himself to the world through the local church. We must love one another and be the light of the world that we were intended to be.

It is my hope that the laws of the land I live in reflect the teachings of the spiritual kingdom I exist in. Everyone wants the laws of the land to reflect their own personal beliefs. The question is “What do we really believe?” Do we really believe in Jesus? Or do we believe in some warped rendition of nationalism? Or a gospel of selfishness? Or something else? Are we really agnostic? Our actions show what we really believe. I hope and pray that we, the people who claim to follow Jesus in America, will begin to truly live as if we really believe. What a difference that would truly make. We would really be a city on a hill.