Christianity thrives at the grassroots

 Ever since Constantine was baptized into Christianity, many Christians believe that the best way for Christianity to grow is from the top down. If we could only replace the heads of state with bona-fide Christians, then Christendom would be the default and Christians could live in peace. After all, the Great Commission does say "disciple the nations", doesn't it?

The Middle Ages and the time before the Enlightenment should dissuade us from seeking to grow Christianity through political power and influence, or by the sword. Instead, when political and religious power cohabit, we find a much deeper level of corruption - political leaders who influence through the power of the sword, but also place like-minded puppet priests in positions of religious authority to make submission to tyranny a religious imperative.

The church essentially had the power of the sword to put people to death. The religious leaders would hold a trial and excommunicate someone for heresy, then hand them over to the civil courts. The civil courts would feel obligated to put the heretic to death because somehow "spiritual murder" must be worse than "secular murder".

This didn't get much better in Colonial America. Religious leaders would use their positions of authority to influence civil magistrates. Roger Williams was declared a heretic and banished from Massachusetts because he disagreed with the state church (and the Crown of England) that they should be stealing land from the natives, and he believed that the church should be separate from the state.

When Jesus declared to Pontius Pilate that his kingdom was "not of this world" otherwise his followers would "take up arms" on his behalf. I believe this is precisely what he meant to avoid. Jesus is stating that his mission then, and his mission now are to grow his kingdom like the mustard seed, like the leaven. In other words, we don't serve Jesus by forced conversions at gunpoint, mandatory church taxes, government establishment and legislated Christendom. We grow the kingdom by living pure lives, loving our neighbors and serving others.

Christians can certainly enter the political realm, and Christians should be guided by the Holy Spirit in enacting just laws for all, but those laws shouldn't punish those who don't subscribe to our religion. In enacting the law, God said it was evidence for a just God that there was one law for both Israelite and foreigner. It's hard to discern how those foreigners could remain non-Israelite and not violate some of the laws, but it seems that there was a way.

Christian Nationalists like Doug Wilson, who come from the RJ Rushdoony Theonomy tradition think that God wants the church to grow by mirroring the traditions of Islam. So, yeah, it's okay to be a Jew in Wilson's United States, provided you pay some sort of non-Christian tax and never run for public office. This flavor of Christian Nationalism feels very much like trying to return the clergy to their position of influence. Wilson has been known for using his position of authority to attempt to influence judges in cases involving his congregants.

The abortion debate seems to be a very interesting case study. While Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, the abortion rate had been steadily dropping. I think this was partly due to Christians seeking to deal with the causes of abortion at a grassroots level. In all of this, there are mixes of good and bad, so understand that I'm looking from certain perspectives, but Christian-influenced abstinence-based sex education pushed away from the mechanics-based sex ed I was taught and focused on how does sex fit in with what I want as a person? What are the characteristics of a partner I would want to enjoy it with? Is my value as a human being tied to sex and how do I communicate my personal boundaries? The abortion rate dropped as people said, I'm going to choose when to have sex and with whom, because my value isn't tied to my sexual conquests. This is an inherently Christian perspective - that our value is in just being human and not in how others see us.

I'm familiar with a local pregnancy center. Under Roe v. Wade, they flourished, saved many babies, and converted many women and couples. Their approach? Support. Instead of shame-based language, they provided medical care, parenting classes and many of the child's needs for the first three years. They provided counseling services for pregnant women and couples. It pains me that the same people who call themselves "Pro-Life" are the same who are trying to end any sort of societal safety net for children once their born? WIC, food stamps, Medicaid and pre-school are all programs that provide enormous support for poor families, but they are the programs seemingly most hated by cost-conscious budget hawks. Of course, it's okay to spend $2B to upgrade some Navy ships and then decide to retire them because that is the cost of protecting freedom, but $6B to ensure that newborns have enough food to survive is a waste of precious money. This flows from the same mindset that it's okay for the United States to force other sovereign nations to do things that are in the United States' best interests. It's okay to threaten Ukraine that we will withdraw protection unless they send us tribute, but I guess it was wrong and evil to send US equipment to Ukraine to protect innocent people from an invasion.

The new regime has made me wonder - how can we be a light in the midst of darkness? People who are harmed by the new regime will, almost certainly, associate this with Evangelicals and Christian Nationalists, even though the primary actors don't seem to be Evangelical at all? I volunteer at a church that did everything they could to support a refugee family escaping Crimea. Ultimately, the husband was jailed and is now going to be deported because he was held up satisfying Russian requirements while his family flew across and that created a discrepancy on his entry papers that said he would "come with his family". I hope that this man's view of Christianity is not the supposedly Christian regime that sent him back to maybe be drafted and die in an unjust war, but the church that came alongside his wife and children and did everything they could to support him fleeing oppression.

I hope that is the testimony of Christians in the United States. Will people look at us as the people who put a tyrant in power, or will people look at us as those who roll up our sleeves to help when people's government lifelines are cut?