Facebook is a wonderful resource for gathering informal,
social research, and on November 7, 2012, the day we found out Barack Obama was
reelected to four more years in the White House, I think what I saw in my
newsfeed was the birth pangs of something wonderful, an emerging disillusioned
community.
While many people are bitter now, I think many faithful
people will find themselves being strengthened by all of this. After seeing the
reactions of many older conservative Christians in the days after the election,
I have begun to think that perhaps many of this older church generation are
coming to feel something that many younger Christians have been feeling for
some time now.
Perhaps we did not arrive at these feelings by the same
means, and perhaps the means are in conflict in some significant ways. The
outcome, nonetheless, might bring solidarity between the younger and the older
generations in an interesting way.
There exists a lot of talk from the older conservative
Christian community (CCC) suggesting that this election has revealed something
about this nation and the population that makes it up. But, more than revealing
something to the CCC about the nation (that it is decidedly not a Christian
nation) I am hoping that the election will reveal to the CCC something about
the CCC’s purposes, and I think it has.
That the nation has not agreed with the values of the CCC
has led many of this community to see this election as a sign that the people have
failed us and that this is the end of Christian values and basic morality being
considered and executed by the government. In other words, many of the CCC are
making noise that they might be giving up on taking back our country for God
and the whole failing (or is it failed) Christendom project.
Let me say this. I do not, as of yet, wish to fully
discredit the fact that the United States was largely a Christian nation in
which many of its leaders considered many Christian principles in developing
the nation, but, at its best, it has always been a mixing of two institutions,
church and state, some decisions perhaps being made for the best interest of
the church, but some decisions certainly being made for the best interest of
the state, not that the two are always mutually exclusive. The two were never
synonymous, but the overarching Christendom project in America led many a
Christian to assume the two were synonymous, whether this was warranted or not.
In the end, whether it could have gone another way or not,
this Christendom project has led to a domestication of the faith in which the
church takes a back seat to social issues (because supposedly the Christian
government will handle all issues rightly) and evangelism is largely something
done within the church walls (because suppsedly there is really no one to
evangelize to other than perhaps the wayward Christian, since everyone in the
nation is Christian).
These realities have led to unneeded difficulties for my
Church generation. In a world where Christendom is falling apart and postmodern
pluralism is producing people who are not just indifferent to Christianity, but
are creating a push back, my generation has to make up lost ground.
Engaging with the world in social issues and in evangelism
to the lost outside the walls of the church are realities that were never
modeled for us. We are having to create anew a body that will engage in seeing
justice done when the government fails us and a body that will stand up to real
opposition to those in the world who hate us and are not ashamed to say so. We
are having to rediscover what it means to love and fight for our enemies.
Because of the issues we have faced in the wake of the faith’s
domestication because of the Christendom project, many of my generation have
never really cared for the older generations focus on Christendom. Instead, we
have placed all our cards, not in a blended effort of church and state, but in
the church, in the community of believers. (For more on this sort of thought,
see my previous two blog posts).
This is not to say that the church does not engage in
politics, but it is to say that we do not place our faith in that project. We
do not see our victories in elections. We call governments to task, but we also
hold the faith community accountable to see justice and mercy displayed to the
poor and marginalized.
Unfortunately, many of us feel as if we have been banging
our heads against the wall with the older branch of the CCC. Many of us feel misunderstood.
While liberalism in the church has often tried to engage in social projects without
so much as a nod to Christ, this is not how all of us who are concerned with
social issues wish to practice our hopes, social or otherwise, through the
church. Unfortunately, many of an older conservative branch have reacted to
liberalism by disassociating with social projects altogether and have instead
wished to see social morality dealt with in the political sphere. Hopefully,
this is about to change. The Facebook posts sure do seem to suggest so.
In the wake of the CCC’s disillusionment, perhaps the last
vestiges of Christendom will fall. I hope that the CCC really does realize now that the project
of seeing the government execute their dreams and to uphold their morals is a
failed project and that our only true hope in a human community lies in the
church, with Christ as its head.
This is not to discredit the past, but it is a call to move
forward. Many are now admitting that they are not going to see their world
impacted by a benevolent and moral government. So, they are left with one hope.
If state fails us, we are left with the much more lasting church. I hope that
all the efforts to see good done in the world will shift from primarily being
about a vote to being about acting as the church.
For many of the younger generation of the Church, the
Christendom project in the United States has been an unfortunate, residual
reality that has slowed us down in our Kingdom pursuits. Now that the CCC sees
the nation as too far gone, perhaps they will leave the project to die and will
join us in seeing our values and ethics being executed, not by a worldly nation
white washing our own tombs, but by a living and vital church.
To the older generation who has become disillusioned by this
election, you have two options. One, you can give up and just wait for the end,
or, two, you can shift your hope from the government and towards the church. I
hope you will choose the latter. She is the bride of Christ, worth fighting
for. She is His hands and feet. She will persevere, and the gates of Hades will
not defeat her. This is a time of purging in the church. Many young people are
giving up on her and moving towards a postmodern pluralism that fights against
the church. I think the church will only grow stronger. With greater challenges
and greater persecution, the church grows ever greater in strength. This is an
exciting time.
Do not allow your disillusionment to squelch your imagination
of hope; instead, shift your hope to the Church.
-TM
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