A reminder of real power
A reminder of real power
God gave us brains and hearts. We must use them wisely, judging the deeds, without favor, of each other. Conservatives, especially, should know better.
Conservative thought has taken a big left turn, completing a century-long Jericho march begun by progressive Christians who championed prohibition, the use of state power to punish bad thoughts and words, and a hardy effort to outlaw sin (beyond the “blue laws” that have haunted our law books since the Puritans’ time). Now that “neocons” have given way to the “new Right,” progressive ideals of nation-state power, and the “common good” are back in vogue, along with a poisonous dose of racism, anti-semitism, and xenophobia.
Some conservatives are comfortable right back in 1915, when on November 25th, the KKK held a “formal induction ceremony” on top of Georgia’s Stone Mountain, joined by the speaker of the Georgia house of representatives. In 2017, the KKK was denied a permit to burn a cross atop the state-owned pluton, which features the largest stone relief carving of Confederate leaders in the world. The fact that the group actually applied for such a permit is a sign of the recent times.
Obviously, the ends sought and the means to achieve them favored by groups like the KKK are evil. But are the ends and means favored by other groups who want to bend state power to the accretion of a “national will” which places itself above the liberty of thought, property, and private actions of those who consent to be governed by it, evil as well? I think only by a matter of degree.
Liberal progressives believe that Christian morality is too restraining, and they fight against every Biblically-inspired tenet of law, including the right for Christians to say things they believe. This is evil. They fight a culture war to capture academia, boardrooms, and marketing departments of large, respected organizations, to move public opinion and thought toward their ends. They couple this with the power of the state, redefining words like “democracy” and “inclusivity” and “tolerance” to mean their opposites.
But the answer to these moves of political and social power, by Christians, is not to take the reigns of progressivism and use them to propel the same organs to ends which are Biblically-inspired.
Let me remind you that the Bible features powerful non-Christians in government and Jesus, who had all power in the universe, schooled Pontius Pilate in the source of real power. John 18:33-40:
33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”
36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate. With this he went out again to the Jews gathered there and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him. 39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in an uprising.
In the following chapter, the Jews in Pilate’s courtyard continued to call for Jesus’ crucifixion. Pilate made one more plea to Jesus, “Don’t you realize I have power to free you or to crucify you?”
11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”
Real power comes from above. Psalm 20:7 is one of the creeds of ancient Israel:
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
It is a greater sin to use the “chariots and horses” of state and political power to try to usurp what is God’s sovereignty to our own desires. Even if those desires, in our interpretation, are to do God’s will. The ends never justify the means, and the means are all we are responsible for to each other and to God.
George Washington, an imperfect man, understood this well. He quoted the prophet Micah in several of his writings. “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid….” He quoted this scripture in his letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. This is the essence of man’s, and governments by men, obligation to God and to each other.
Any other use of such power, is sin. Even (especially) if it’s unthinkingly applied to bring us to the “greater good.” God gave us brains and hearts. We must use them wisely, judging the deeds, without favor, of each other. Conservatives, especially, should know better.