Let's Stop the Political Blasphemy - Brad Jersak

Election(s) 2020: Four Convictions Upon Reflection
(with a P.S. interview from Brian Zahnd)

I. Vote your conscience.

I did in our recent election. Most people do. That's also a good invitation to reexamine the health of your conscience. Ask honestly where your vote ignored, offended, or violated your conscience. If your conscience comes to complete peace with ANY party's political platform across the board, then it has lost its capacity to discern or distinguish the gospel of the kingdom from the kingdoms of this world. Our politics have effectively disabled the God-given Nathan within. That should alarm us. It signals a call to repent and return, to fast from political idolatry until your baptismal allegiance to the "kingdom not of, like or from this world" is renewed and unconfused.

II. Be loyal to truth.

When we are so invested in our team that we blindly grasp at party propaganda without fact-checking, the fundamental Christian commitment to upholding truth (and therefore justice) is compromised. The second fateful step—wilfully perpetuating misinformation in the pursuit of power ("winning" or sulking if we don't)—is not merely a foray into character assassination. It is an act of moral self-harm. Character suicide. Once we make the third move—confronted with the truth, we respond, "I don't care"—we're now officially lost. What is the supposed "win" when someone displays a manifest desire to be duped? At that point, the pursuit of truth is over and enforcing healthy boundaries is likely the best we can hope to achieve.

III. Let your principles shape your politics.

The previous two points apply to every person, in any party, from any political system, in any nation. They ought to apply especially to Christian believers who risk their souls by entering a voting booth or posting to social media. But the dominance of dubious content and the hateful tone that has climaxed in a cold civil war south of my border has exposed the disease—the idolatry—of partisan amoralism and spectrum ideology that I addressed in A More Christlike Way. 

I rightly worry about the marriage of deep moral convictions and political bias in our attempt to persuade. But to ask, "How can you vote for them when they [insert your greatest moral outrage here]?!" is not out of bounds. Our moral and ethical principles should never be overlooked when wading into the political arena. Indeed, that's half the problem I've addressed in my previous points. It's critical that we know our sense of right from wrong and let that inform our politics and shape how we seek to persuade.               

IV. Let's stop the prophetic blasphemy.

“Any attempt to use the Spirit to leverage political power is blasphemous.” 
—C.E.W. Green

Okay, we get carried away, we get passionate, we slip. It happens. But for Christ's sake (literally), could we at least demand that our 'Christian leaders' cease with the political blasphemy? I am not speaking here metaphorically. Any of us might be guilty of abandoning Christ just by voting. That's not it. No, we have to say this directly and specifically: those who call themselves 'God's prophets' (literally) and then direct their flock to vote for a particular man or party because God says so (literally) are false prophets (literally).

I have watched our broader political idolatry escalate dramatically to overt blasphemy over the course of the last 20 years in certain (not all) wings of the evangelical-charismatic world that was my home.     

Please hear me: men and women of good faith who I love and trust wrestled and reasoned their way to cast their vote for President Donald Trump. Some described it to me as plugging their nose and voting strategically for a conservative Supreme Court. Others were enthusiastic about America's retreat from the world stage. They applauded the death knell of American exceptionalism on his watch. In any case, that is NOT what I'm talking about here.

I am specifically condemning what liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, have fairly called "the cult of Trumpism."¹ It can be defined as abusing the name of Jesus Christ and declaring falsehoods "by the Spirit" to establish Donald Trump as "God's candidate," without regard for truth, facts or observable outcomes. Three examples: 

• Identifying the President as or with the Saviour.
• Declaring a false victory via divine and angelic intervention.
• Demonizing the opposition as cursed opponents of God's will.  

Am I overstating the case? Perhaps you saw these viral debacles?
First, from Paula White, "spiritual advisor to the President":  

 

Or the MAGA prayer warriors on their knees, interceding at the Clark County election offices:

 

I can't in good conscience post the examples I think were far less tasteful. The boiling point here is not who we think should ascend the imperial throne. What I'm addressing is not a partisan political problem at all. This crisis concerns the reverse transfiguration of prominent Christian streams (who think they have the President's ear) into a dangerous sect. Dangerous to democracy, if that matters. Discrediting to Christian conservatives, certainly. But fatal to faith, and that does matter.  

So, yes, please: vote your conscience, be loyal to the truth, let your principles shape your politics. But for the love of Christ, most of all, let's say an emphatic no to political blasphemy and invite estranged and disillusioned friends of Christ back to the Altar. 

P.S. Postcards from Babylon

But it's not as though this took us by surprise. After posting his Feb. 14, 2017 article, "Cyrus Candidate or Charismatic Catastrophe," Brian Zahnd felt compelled to write his warning/rejoinder to politically compromised faith (of any brand) in his book (and forthcoming documentary) Postcards from Babylon. 

The following interview with Brian covers many of the book's themes. It may leave a better aftertaste than the bitter pill I've offered. If we're seeking our national prophets for Christlike clarity, BZ is a far better candidate::

Notes:

1. Cf. among the dozens of articles (and one edited book by 20 psychiatrists), Andrew Sullivan, "With Trump, the Pathology is the Point," The Intelligencer, 05-22-20; Joe Jobanaski, "The Cult of Trumpism," The Recorder 8-7-20; Ali Breland, "Cult Experts Warn the Trumpism Is Starting to Look Awfully Familiar," MotherJones.com 04-04-20; Sean Illing, "Is Trumpism a Cult?" Vox 01-26-20; Bandy Lee (ed.),The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (Thomas Dunne, 2017).  

Comments

[John H. Armstrong]

Anyone who studies cults and cult behavior can see the powerful cult-like attraction of messianic figures who promise to be the answer to all our problems. What is most shocking is the conflation of this with Christian proof texts and bad theology. May God use your words, and those of many others, to awaken us to the gospel of cruciform love.