What Are We To Do?

“The Irony of Evangelical Idolatry in the White House”

“Report: Over 300 Predator Priests, More Than 1000 Child Victims in Pennsylvania”

These are just two representative headlines this past week. The Pennsylvania Grand Jury report speaks for itself – hundreds of protected predator priests and potentially thousands of child victims not to mention teens and adults. That one hundred Evangelical leaders who had for at least 40 years had “preached dire sermons against a godless, sin-soaked culture focused on wealth, immorality, celebrity, sexual promiscuity and worldly power,” suddenly make peace with all of that – and more, as long as their political goals are met. Against such a backdrop we read in the first chapter of James, “If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” [James 1:26-27]

Meanwhile, in the seventh chapter of Mark, shortly after Jesus has fed 5,000 hungry people and healed countless others we find a group of Pharisees concerned that people with Jesus do not appear to be washing their hands before meals. They point out to him that the elders had made this important. Jesus challenges that by saying in effect, Do the laws of God really need to be protected by rules from the elders? Then seizing the moment, he broadens his argument to challenge the very rules of Kosher – what can and cannot be eaten. “There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.” [Mark 7:15].  

Those who write Texts For Preaching conclude, “The whole notion of ritual purity or of holiness based on food laws is undermined in one precise statement. What matters is the heart, the seat of

the will, where decisions are made about one’s neighbors. The condition of the heart, whether debased or pure, is far more critical than the food one eats or whether one attends to washing hands.” [Texts For Preaching, Proper 17B] That is, what is at stake is the very structure of Biblical religion, how holiness and sin are defined, and how the word of God regulates the life of the people of God. Evidently handwashing doesn’t stack up against feeding and healing people.

Jesus’ final words to the Pharisees suggests that their compulsive devotion to hand-washing may blind them to worse things than dirty hands at meals: “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” For that reason he calls them hypocrites, play actors, who are all show and no action.

Eventually James doubles down on all of this by urging believers to no longer be hearers and preachers of the word, but Doers of the word of God and “to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Yet, we find ourselves as a nation separating children from their parents creating orphans – incarcerated orphans at that.

Reasonably, many reading headlines like those above, and watching a room full of Evangelical leaders honor someone who embodies nearly all Jesus and James warn us about question the very foundations of Christian and Judeo-Christian religion. Atheist bloggers are having a field day. Anti-Catholic bloggers don’t have to work very hard to make their points. Just read the report for yourselves – if you can stomach it! It’s no wonder Jesus and James question the outer rituals of religion. Many of us in the Church are equally angry, saddened and sickened by all of the above, not to mention centuries of pogroms, anti-Semitism, murderous Crusades, complicit genocide of indigenous cultures around the world, and need we go on? The unknown writer of James says we need to stop and listen – listen to the facts, listen to the critiques, listen to those who question the very existence of the Church and organized religion of all kinds. “You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.” [James 1:19] Anger just allows us to feel better about ourselves. Listening may lead us to do a better job of being part of the Jesus Movement and God’s righteousness.

When we listen we may remember, we have been warned. Verna Dozier in her more relevant-than-ever book, The Dream of God, was first to warn us that the day Emperor Constantine re-made the Church into The Empire – The Holy Roman Empire – was what she calls the Third Fall; after the disobedience in the Garden, and the people of God demanding that the boy prophet Samuel petition God to give them a king. Once Constantine converted, the Church, which had for several centuries been a viable alternative to living under the brutalities of the Empire, became the Empire. And the Church’s evangelical zeal became a mechanism for expanding the Empire. Sincere attempts have been made throughout history to reform the Church, and in all fairness, there are many quarters of the Jesus Movement that are healthy and about the business of repairing and healing a broken world while striving for Justice and Peace among all people.

All Empires try to define you. Whereas nearly all religious movements throughout history seek to provide an alternative narrative and an alternative “way” to walk in this world and in this life. In the case of Biblical religion, Judeo-Christian religion, the emphasis tends to be on “holiness” which means being set apart or different from the ways of the Empire. The danger in such holiness, however, is to begin to see oneself or one’s “tribe” as “holier than thou.” This is why prophets like Micah remind us to “Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God.” Evidently Micah’s voice has not been heard by all. This word from Micah is the word about which we are to become Doers – doers of justice, mercy and humility. 

What are we to make of Evangelical leaders suddenly bowing down at the altar of a sin-soaked culture focused on wealth, immorality, celebrity, sexual promiscuity and worldly power? Or, a report as bad as it is from Pennsylvania that surely is just the tip of the iceberg of clergy and church abuse? The only thing we can be sure of is that they and all others who remain focused on preserving the Church’s outer appearances rather than serving, repairing and healing the world must be busy washing their hands!

What are we to do? Strive to maintain some manner of authentic identity as those who walk in the way of the Jesus Movement as distinct from “The Church,” The Empire, and all others who flaunt, oppress and make a mockery of the life of faith. This means maintaining a sense of hope in a world that rarely shows evidence that such hope is justified. It means stopping and listening to the critiques as well as listening to the Word of God. It means not allowing the Roman Catholic Church, Evangelicals or any one Administration to define us and tell us who we are and how we are meant to behave. We are to be those people who Do Justice, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly – with or without God. We are to walk in the way of Jesus, not the Church. Millions of Christians throughout the centuries have made the world a better place.

Jesus’ response to the Pharisees seems in line with a saying of the same elders to whom they made their appeal: “It is not your responsibility to complete all the work (of healing the world), but you are not free to desist from it either.” (Ethics of the Mishna 2:16) We must not desist from the work of healing the world to which Jesus calls us.  And like Jesus and James we must challenge those who misrepresent what it means to be people of God.