More Than Conquerers

What do we do when we're no longer the big dogs?

When we're losing the culture wars?

When church attendance is falling?

When people no longer believe in God?

What do we do when we're no longer the triumphant, dominant paradigm in the world - Christian values, a churched public, a Christian humanist society?

It's a question facing Christians in the west as 'human rights' become less anchored in the imago dei and more anchored in 'this is just the way that it should be'. Which is a problem all its own, but it's not going away. The Christians of the last 500 years built a fairer world, acknowledging not only spiritual grace and faith in the resurrection, but also the grace of God from which derives both 'this world' justice and mercy (instead of confining it to the next) and fought to end slavery, fought to give suffrage, fought to make things fairer for everyone, even if they couldn't make all men (and women) equal.

And yes, they failed along the way. Some of them pretty spectacularly. For those failures, we repent and ask forgiveness, we try to make amends, and where we can't, we press on, resolving to do better.

There's a big focus on 'winning' these days - well, in the last thirty years, actually. It's not enough to be quietly the people of God, beavering away. No, we must be CONQUERERS. We must subdue the earth and everything in it! It is our DESTINY to be the rulers of the Earth!

It kind of ties into that post I made a while back about 'good Christian governance' and what we think of as a 'good Christian leader in a secular world'.

moral questions in an immoral time

And no, I'm not talking about gay marriage or marriage equality. I have thoughts on that, of course, but the thing that worries me more right now is love, compassion, and the human condition in the context of our fellow humanity - specifically, those who aren't like us.

I guess the 'immigrant discussion' of the last few years has taken its toll. Mixed in with Islamophobia (or fear of Muslims and Muslim teachings), Australia's national numbness towards the plight of refugees - whatever their legal or financial status - has been, well, terrifying.

I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was homeless and you gave me somewhere to stay...

There's a nasty pragmatism in western society - particularly among western Christians. The preacher at church on Sunday pointed it out while preaching about Obadiah: that, yes, the judgement of God was on the tribe of Judah, but Edom wasn't to just sit in their hills and caves and cower before the Babylonians, but to show compassion towards the Israelites left remaining in the land of Judah - the poorest people, left eking out an existence. (What they did? They went into the land of Judah and basically ransacked what the Babylonians left behind, abusing the poor sods left behind in the process.)

We're very concerned with our comfort and our safety in the west - the rise and triumph of the prosperity gospel; that God wants you and your children to live long and sit pretty on top of a safe place, be fat, and die happy. It's a very attractive gospel because of its worldliness - you are being blessed by God in good health and money and security and The Good Life, and it is therefore godly to protect that by any and all means that you have - including rejecting the poor, the sick, the might-be-terrorists, and the stealing-our-jobs.

Worse than the bitter materialism of such pragmatism, though, is the hardening of our hearts against others. 'Bleeding heart' is a curse and a sneer these days, and yet...

The heart of the Father yearned for us so much that...

The heart of the Son bled for us so that...

The heart of the Spirit stays with us until we can be reunited with God...

The heart of God was torn for us. Three in one, ripped asunder why have you forsaken me? because so great was his heart for us.

Do we mimic God? Is our heart for the lost (not just the spiritually lost, but the emotionally lost, psychologically lost, nationally lost) even the faintest echo of God's?

Christians and governance

Is it possible to have a responsible Christian leader in governmental power?

I guess it depends what you consider a 'responsible Christian leader' - and in all honesty, the jury is wildly split on this matter.

Is a 'responsible Christian leader' someone who enforces "Christian" laws, who restricts, controls, and denies other religions the freedom to observe, worship, and participate in community life because "Christ's way is the only way", and if they didn't observe that tenet in both their personal and their professional life, then they wouldn't be a 'responsible Christian'?

I think most of my Christian friends (Australian Evangelicals) would probably say "yes."

I suspect most of my non-Christian friends would probably say that was a "Christian dictatorship".

Christianity is a theocracy - not the priest/minister-led theocracy that we tend to imagine when the word "theocracy" is used, but an actual "God makes the rules; the people follow them."

There's the whole question of exactly what "God's rules" are and whether they apply universally or only to His people; that's another post in and of itself.

But what about a Christian in the government of a representative democracy?

Is it the responsibility of the governing Christian to make life equitable, fair, just, and liveable for the maximum number of people, or is it the responsibility of the governing Christian to convert unbelievers to Christianity (or perhaps at least have them observe the forms of Christianity) by any and all means, including by the law?

I'm not in government leadership and unlikely to be, but someone on an FB thread I was watching posted about how they were looking for a practical example of responsible Christian leadership. And so much of that depends on what your view of Christianity, its role in representative democracy, and the responsibility of the individual vs. the responsibility of an individual in ruling government.