Domesticating Christianity

In this post I will briefly interact with an article in the July issue of Christianity Today by Jeff Christopherson, Chief Missiologist of the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and Co-Executive Director of the Send Institute, a partnership of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and the North American Mission Board. I quote the relevant portions of the article at the bottom of my post. 

i) I'm always amused by hotheaded moralists who combine condescension and indignation with intellectual frivolity. To be a serious Christian ethicist, you can't resort to the simplistic, one-sided objections raised by Christopherson.

ii) Although changing one's position in light of new circumstances can be a mark of moral compromise, that's not necessarily or even presumptively the case. It depends on the issue and the motivation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was originally a pacifist, but ending up joining the plot to assassinate Hitler. A complete 180 from is original position. Is his change of heart morally discrediting? Likewise, Anglican philosopher Basil Mitchell was originally a pacifist, but as a young Englishman in WWII, he changed his mind as he compared his abstract pacifism with the palpable evil of the Third Reich. John Stott was initially a pacifist. He changed his mind. Does that automatically make him a hypocrite? Or take people who used to support abortion in the abstract until they were exposed to the bloody reality. Are these examples of moral capitulation? Whether revision or reversing your position when confronted with a new and extreme situation is hypocritical can only be assessed on a case-by-case basis. 

ii) The church faces the perennial risk of becoming domesticated. Becoming an Establishment pet. Take puppet churches in Russia and Red China. Or state churches that were either subsidized by the state or had a religious monopoly. The church pays a price for that kind of governmental patronage. It can't afford to criticize the private lives of public officials. It can't afford to criticize foreign or domestic policy–for fear of losing the perks that come with governmental patronage. So that's a perennial temptation throughout church history. And there are many examples in which established churches become dogs on a leash. 

Among other things, the Apocalypse asserts the necessary independence of the Christian faith in relation to the state. A distance necessary to maintain its prophetic voice. 

iii) It's funny how scolds like Christopherson smear evangelicals, then turn right around and feign horror at the effects of their own smear tactics. They shape public perception by vilifying evangelicals, then appeal to public perception to justify their disdain. The vicious circularity is glaring. 

Insofar as evangelicals have a PR problem, the proper course of action is to educate unbelievers on our reasoning. To show that our position is, in fact, consistent, and their misimpression is the product of ignorance and simple-minded analysis. 

iv) What commonalities should evangelical Americans share with the Democrat Party, given its current ideological commitments? 

v) The allegation would have more traction if, in fact, evangelicals were assimilating to the Establishment. But they're doing the opposite. They vigorously oppose the secular progressive steamroller of Big Tech and the Democrat Party. So their political alliances are countercultural. It would be much easier to survive and thrive by becoming "progressive Christians" or renouncing Christianity altogether to identify with the secular progressives. 

vi) By contrast, scolds like Christopherson reprise the strategy of the Pharisees who maintain ritual purity by avoiding contamination through contact with untouchables. 

vii) The silence of scolds like Christopherson regarding the existential threat posed by secular progressive agenda makes you wonder if they themselves aren't closet progressives. Otherwise, why is there no sense of alarm on their part? 

viii) John Piper has said and done good things, but in the realm of ethics he's an Anabaptist. And the quoted statement is boneheaded. The secular police state promoted by Big Tech and the Democrat Party will outlaw Christianity. At best it will let progressive puppet churches exist–as a safe substitute for authentic Christianity, which poses a threat to godless absolutism.  

Here is a question. What happens to the mission field when partisan evangelicals collectively turn their missionary platforms into ideological troll farms? What happens to the mission field when our highest calling is to leverage a profound cultural angst into a vitriolic nationalism? What happens to the mission field when those with whom we disagree become cultural enemies to vanquish rather than friends and neighbors to love? 

The seamless convergence of cultural politics and religious identity has provided the climate for darkness to flourish with full permission from the very people who are commissioned to bring Jesus’ light...So, how do we clean up the toxic swamp that is today’s evangelical reputation?

The public flip-flop of evangelicals on the importance of personal character within public office has created a tsunami of an integrity crisis within larger evangelicalism. The collective perception that public figures are held to account by evangelicals, or given a free pass, adjudicated solely on the color of the candidate’s brand is difficult to dance around. The moral inconsistency of our positions only leads a watching world to conclude that our religious convictions—the essence of our faith—is up for sale. It’s a venal dogma.[5]

Rather than clear alignment between evangelicals and any political party, Tim Keller suggested that believers should have some commonalities with both political parties but should be uncomfortable aligning themselves completely with either.[6] A blind capitulation to a political party as a play for power always leads to spiritual compromise.

John Piper also didn’t mince words when he stated, “I’m one hundred times more passionate about creating Christians and churches that will be faithful, biblical, countercultural, and spiritually minded in a socialist America, in a Muslim America, in a communist America, than I am in preventing a Muslim America or a communist America. That puts me in a very different ballpark than many public voices.”[10] 

https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/july/partisan-evangelicals-and-burning-of-mission-field.html