The Conservative Church Is At A Crossroads

The times have caused movement within the conservative Church in America. Religiously conservative Christians are being pulled from multiple directions. Their penchant for political conservatism has them divided between supporting Trump and fellow conservatives who oppose Trump. In addition, mere observation and the influence of Post Modernism are telling many of them that because of the prevalence of systemic racism, we need to make changes. The demand for equality from the LGBT community also muddies the waters for many such conservative Christians. More and more conservative Christians feel forced into what is really a false dichotomy between supporting  equality for that community with the acceptance of homosexuality as a allowable sexual orientation for Christians or choosing to continue marginalizing that community.

And there are other divisive issues for the conservative Christian Church down the road. Some are already feeling the pull away from the economic system they grew up with. And what should we say about patriotism? Is it another religion?

So religiously conservative American Christians are at a crossroad. But it isn't the kind of crossroad one would expect with the conflicts tugging at us from different directions. The crossroad we are facing isn't whether we should remain politically conservative or not--I have personally decided to opt out of political conservatism. Rather, the choice we have is whether we will continue to embrace tribalism or not. Currently we hear the siren songs from a few groups that ask us to be tribal. They include the old groups like the Republican Party and conservative political ideology. But now we need to question whether we will retain tribal loyalty to our nation and whether we will embrace tribalism if we change party and politically ideological alliances. In other words, our choice is whether or not we want to continue to embrace tribalism.

Of course the big question is what do I mean by tribalism. There are several definitions and the one I am using is a post Cold War, sociological definition. That definition spoke of tribalism as having a high degree of loyalty to one's group regardless of what that group revolved around. In Christian terms, we could define tribalism as what occurs in a person when loyalty to a group trumps commitment to principles and morals.  When tribalism holds sway over a person's life, then because of loyalty what is right and wrong to a person depends on who does what to whom. In other words when one's own group does the same hurtful action to another group, it is not wrong. But when that other group does that same hurtful action to one's own group, it is wrong. And all of that is because loyalty determines what is right and wrong.

It follows then that tribalism interferes with one recognizing the real faults of one's own group. And when that occurs for us Christians, then we become incapable of speaking prophetically to our own groups. So while we have no problem with trying to correct others, we become offended and even defiant when others return the favor.

Thus, in essence tribalism becomes group authoritarianism. And thus the traits that are part of the authoritarian personality type become part of the person who embraces tribalism. When the authority or values and traditions of one's own group are challenged by others, one responds to them with hostility. In addition, tribalism causes one to think in black-white terms so that those within the tribe are regarded as being on the side of good and those outside of the tribe are seen as a threat. Here we must remember the words of Obi-Wan as he confronted Anakin Skywalker after Anakin had turned to the Dark Side: 'only a Sith deals in absolutes'--of course us Christians should note the limits of such a statement. No one from any group is seen as a mixture of being both good and bad. There is also the strong desire for one's group to have as much absolute control and power over those from other groups as much as possible.

So the choice we religiously conservative Christians have is not which political ideology we will choose. Rather, our choice is whether or not we will take a balanced approach to the groups we belong to. Our choice is whether we will have a higher allegiance to what God's Word teaches than our loyalty to the groups we belong to so we can speak prophetically to our own groups. And if we don't look at people in black-white terms, then we will have to choose to listen to others outside of our groups with the intent of learning from them.

Right now, the poll percentages that report on evangelical loyalty to President Trump indicates that we are still choosing tribalism. And that is confirmed by how many evangelicals view those who are not politically and ideologically conservative. And our tribalism is also confirmed by how we are so impressed by power and want our group to have the power so we don't have to collaborate with others.

So the question isn't whether we religously conservative Christians will become political liberals or even leftists. The question is whether we will tone down our loyalty to the earthly groups we belong to so that we can more closely follow God's Word and speak prophetically to the groups we hold so near and dear.

 

 

 

 

Persecuted By Design

According to his base, and perhaps to Twitter too, President Trump is the persecuted President. I've seen that idea expressed in the Facebook posts of some of his supporters.

Why does he get persecuted? He says something outlandish in a speech or he attacks a critic or opponent in Twitter. And because of those things, a flood of criticism comes his way. That flood is unfortunate because it does nothing more that solidify the support he gets from his base. But solidifying support is not the only  effect that criticisms directed has. For when his base sees their hero getting so much flack, his base feels that they experiences persecution too. Thus, it isn't only Trump who feel the hostility, so his base doess too.

The religiously conservative Christian part of his base already feels persecuted. Why? It is because there is a change in some cultural values especially about sex. The greater acceptance of homosexuality, as in the legalization of same-sex marriages in society, has rejuvenated  many of my fellow Christians. That is because for some, being persecuted can give one a feeling of significance. But it also has the effect of giving many of my fellow Christians a reason to withdraw from society, and possibly reality, while still seeking to have a controlling hand the writing of laws.
 
Now it isn't because I share a vast majority of the religious beliefs of these religiously conservative Christians, that I will say the following: we can't afford to let Trump's base to feel justified in withdrawing from society. There are two reasons why. One reason is pragmatic and the other reason  has to do with democracy.

The pragmatic reason why we can't afford to let Trump's base withdraw is that we need all of the voting help we can get to defeat Trump in 2020; we must steal votes from his base. First, we need to realize that people are reluctant to change. And so people need very compelling reasons why we should change from Trump. There is no guarantee that the Democratic Presidential nominee will provide such reasons on their own. In fact, I myself have not see any valid reasons to vote for a Democratic Presidential candidate since I stopped voting for Republican candidates. And thus to defeat Trump in the next election, we need to steal votes from his base.

The second reason why we can't afford to let Trump's base withdraw from society has more to do with the principles of democracy.  Those principles say that to achieve a state of democracy in one's nation, the state must belong equally to each so that there is no oppression of any group. That is as true for Trump's base as it is any marginalized group. And since we are not going to treat those in Trump's base as ICE has been treating immigrants, we need to learn to collaborate with them no matter how resistant they are to that endeavor. And so to collaborate with them in the political process, we should not only want Trump's to be politically represented, we should look to what we can learn from them. Despite their many faults, Trump's base does have important viewpoints that we need to pay attention to.

So what should we do with Trump's inflammatory statements? When he attacks people in interviews or at events or makes wild claims, then it is the media's job to fact check him and point out any errors and inconsistencies. But when it comes to Twitter, perhaps the best strategy is to ignore his tweets rather than competing to see who can post the best put downs of Trump. Again, all that does is to give him a stage to perform before his base and to make his base feel persecuted and thus more alienated from the rest of us. We should simply ignore his tweets so that perhaps some of his base will see his penchant to attack people without provocation. And  thus we hopefully better reach his base and at least let them see on their own that Trump is a bully who does not deserve their support.