Posted by
Billy on Thursday, September 02, 2010 8:28:22 PM
A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls
American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to
give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the
evangelicals cheering that they've heard the gospel, right there in the nation's
capital.
The news media pronounces him the new leader of America's
Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America's Christian
conservatives have no problem with that.
If you'd told me that ten years
ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an It's taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to
Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure
years of vacuous talk about undefined "revival" and "turning America back to
God" that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a
generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political
movement.
Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the
common good (which would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us
sometimes at odds with our political allies), we've relied on populist
God-and-country sloganeering and outrage-generating talking heads. We've
tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our leadership as long as with it there is
sufficient political "conservatism" and a sufficient commercial venue to sell
our books and products.
apocalyptic
novel about the end-times. But it's not. It's from this week's headlines. And it
is a scandal.
Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, of course, is that Mormon at the
center of all this. Beck isn't the problem. He's an entrepreneur, he's
brilliant, and, hats off to him, he knows his market (see video news report). Latter-day Saints have every right to
speak, with full religious liberty, in the public square. I'm quite willing to
work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good.
What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the "Tea Party" or any
other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this
says about the Christian churches in the United States.
It's taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to
Glenn Beck. In order to be this gullible, American Christians have had to endure
years of vacuous talk about undefined "revival" and "turning America back to
God" that was less about anything uniquely Christian than about, at best, a
generically theistic civil religion and, at worst, some partisan political
movement.
Rather than cultivating a Christian vision of justice and the common good (which
would have, by necessity, been nuanced enough to put us sometimes at odds with
our political allies), we've relied on populist God-and-country sloganeering and
outrage-generating talking heads. We've tolerated heresy and buffoonery in our
leadership as long as with it there is sufficient political "conservatism" and a
sufficient commercial venue to sell our books and products.
Too often,
and for too long, American "Christianity" has been a political agenda in search
of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of
the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at
heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a
Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the
reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right
wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic
security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.
(Billy's Thoughts>>> I also admire Mr. Beck for what he has done on radio and TV. However we all must admit he should not be the leader of evangelicals since he is part of the Mormon Church. However these are the kinds of things which happen when we put our faith in politics instead of in the true Jesus of the Bible. If you care you may