AN ARMED SAVIOR
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Chubasco |
Suddenly thundering pulses of
sound vibrated everything; Chubasco’s sails, the hull, my chest cavity, and the
very atmosphere as well. The concussive pulsations
opened the clouds overhead, exposing the whirling blades of a descending Navy
helicopter. Then beneath the clouds, the
chopper cut its way through the mist to North Island Navy Base, off our
starboard beam. Off our portside, yawned
the luxury of Shelter Island and its neighbor, Harbor Island, where sightseers on
a sunny day peer at the war machines crouching on the opposing shore of Coronado
Island. The bay of San Diego is a
fitting buffer between those two incongruent zones…splitting serene extravagance
from destructive sentinel potency. Figuratively,
mixing the two is a nation under tyranny.
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The separation is reminiscent of another
divide, “church and state.” The mission of
God in Christ is uniquely different from the purposes of a nation’s legal
authority. God’s love appeals to the
heart of a person to fulfill Holy ends within, while civil authority appeals to
the order of the masses to fulfill political ends, communally. Mixing the two, distorts the image of them both. When there is no clear buffer zone between spiritual
and civil authority, the perception of God becomes tangled with political
ideologies and the legalized force of law. It is the same inaccurate political/religious
lens used to justify the crucifixion.
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The misperception is so
pervasive that pointing to the “church” as proof of God’s existence weakens,
rather than strengthens any claim for spiritual reality. While grasping at more political-power, the
church has mingled its goals with its secular coalition allies. Tragically, the resulting belief-system
betrayal has been so gradual that it remains undetected by many of the beloved today.
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American church attendance echoes that assessment. I am not suggesting attendance has dropped…it has remained constant. Nonetheless, growth has leveled off over in recent years, as those leaving are nearly equal to those joining. However, the reality is, the churches have been conducting a public ferryboat from their spiritual island to the political mainline, pick some up and dropping others off. The net stability belies the fact that as the church became more politically focused, it unconsciously became less spiritually focused.
One source of evidence for that claim was reported in a USA Pew Forum study, called, “Conversion & Deconversion,” It indicated a major cause for the “deconversion” trend is the declining spirituality factor:
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Two thirds of those unaffiliated have some belief or spirituality, just
no affiliation with any defined religion, and only one third are true
unbelievers (Pew Forum).
· The study also probed reasons for changes in
belief. The main reasons for
deconverting were not based on truth (e.g. the perceived conflict between
science and religion was not a major factor) but on factors such as believers
being hypocritical and judgmental, too many rules and too little spirituality
in the church, the perceived focus of religious leaders on money and power, and
a reaction against the exclusiveness of religion. Many who leave remain ‘spiritual’ and are open
to returning to active faith. (underlining added)
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After a decade of mingling
the two (God’s power with political power), Christians have unwittingly
exchange the church’s former spiritual power for its present political entanglements. As a sailor, I find the mixture not only emotionally
and intellectually unsettling but spiritually nauseating…a kind of spiritual/political-seasickness. In my view, presenting Christ in this political,
social, financial, militaristic, and cultural storm drowns our Christian message
in waves of political dogmas.
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There is a very good reason
for retaining a gap between “the law of sin and death” and “the law of the Spirit
of life” as chronicled in Romans 8:2. It
allows a space for the cross of Christ to carve a much-needed peaceful Bay
between those two shores through which the current of the Holy Spirit can
freely flow. A place unhindered by a politically
affiliation church.
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Unfortunately, when the
guardians of spiritual power, conspire to solve America’s problems politically,
they reveal their lack of trust in God’s spiritual power. In so doing, they in effect, strip Christ of His
spiritual power and robe Him in political authority, in open view of a spiritually
starved nation. Empowering the Prince of
Peace with legal authority makes Him look less like a heavenly savior and more
like the pilot of a helicopter armed for war. Christians remember, as you long for a Him to
come dressed for war, “judgment must
begin at the house of God.” (1 Peter 4:7)