Are Conservative Evangelicals Removing Christ From Scriptures?
Read Time:6 Minute, 9 Second
I often receive personal messages on social media telling me I am overly rough with the current conservative “Christians.” Fair enough but worse however, are those who call me “immoral” for taking these issues to the public.
Even worse, are those who show me a video embedded within a personal message including someone blaming the “nation for removing God from schools,” whether through prayer or removals of public displays favoring the Christian point of view.
What these people don’t seem to understand is that “God” was not placed into this nation until the Eisenhower administration, when he added “In God We Trust” to our nation’s fabric including our paper currency. Of course, Ike was the first president to “get baptized” as an evangelical during his first several weeks in office.
This is no small point, because up until then, the nation understood and accepted the well known first amendment, which allows people to worship however they wish, but erects a wall between religion and government. This is why religion – among other reasons – should not be imposed upon the citizens of this nation. However, I digress. I am immoral. Let’s discuss that, shall we?
Even those who participated in my ordination – those people who told me to “stick to the Word of God and I will be just fine,” call me immoral these days! Never mind that Paul Himself told his pupil Timothy the following:
“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2). And I assure each of these critics that Paul did not mean for Timothy to cherry pick only those verses which support one’s ideological bent.
Again, Paul makes clear in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:
“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” But I – ME – my wife and myself are immoral.
Forgive me up front, but I have repeatedly stated since each of you have come to know me, that it is my personal belief in Christ and my role as a pastor which motivates me to correct the wrongs I see taking place in our churches across the land. No, I am most certainly not trying to convert you, because truth be told, I would not want you to be a part of the toxicity currently seen in organized religion. And I am dead serious on this score.
When I was a minister, I taught my congregations that the greatest imperative we Christians had was to love one another. Indeed, the Biblical text itself conveys that Christ Himself told His disciples that THIS act alone, told others whether those who professed belief in Him were actually his disciples. To be clear, that a difference exists between simple belief, (which anyone can say they have) and behavior or obedience to the mandates Christ laid out, when He supposedly walked the face of the earth can be vast. After all, we are all sinners according to that good book.
Said Jesus regarding this moral imperative:
“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 Emphases mine).
So, what to do when a person like myself encounters a story where a Pastor of Baptist origin refuses to conduct a funeral for a straight father who also happens to be a minister, just because his son is gay?
Meet, “Pastor” Scruggs, Senior “Pastor” of Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church who refused the dying man’s wish, which is simple enough since Lee’s Chapel Baptist was the FIRST church the 71-year-old dying man attended.
I can relate to this man’s situation, even though I have no gay family members (at least none that I know of) because I’ve told my wife, and those family members on my wife’s side, that I would like my body to lie in state in the first Church I served. Why? Because it allows my wife’s last remembrance of me to be in the Church. It serves as closure.
Yes, I get it. We are not even in that body when we lie in state, but if a man has served in ministry, one would think that this is the least the Church can do in return, and after all, it IS a personal choice right? Wait, while I am on the topic of choice: This man who calls himself a pastor has absolute no biblical precedent to not allow that funeral to take place. None! Zilch. Zero!
Which leads me to my next point: Rev. Goodman served in ministry faithfully and simply wants his son – who he apparently came to terms with despite his sexuality – to sing the song, “The Anchor Holds,” and his service to have taken place at Lee’s Baptist, it turns out that “Pastor Scruggs” decided and made the clear choice that HE would decide who could and could not attend the funeral. Never mind that the funeral is not for the “Pastor,” but for the family, right?
Now, I already know with a level of certainty, that there will be conservative evangelicals within my network who will argue that this decision is for the “pastor of the church,” but a pastor is supposed to be a shepherd of his flock. He is to set the example, and it is here that he has utterly failed. They will also argue that the Old Testament reinforces that this “pastor” is correct. But here is my question: If this Preacher really believes being gay is a sin, wouldn’t he want to ensure that he did not alienate the very people he is trying to reach? Of course!
Whether he ever changed his mind, is of no concern to me either. Why? Because his deed has been done already. Yes, the story was printed in July, but when writers reached out to get his side, his comment was simply as follows:
“Pastor Scruggs had no comment, but did say he would talk with us after Jessie’s father is in the grave.”
Gosh, such empathy! Such ministerial skills. Such servanthood! Such love. So much Christ-likeness! Can you each feel it? Well sorry: I don’t! And I cannot sit idly by as a licensed and ordained minister to let this go on without comment.
Perhaps, this “Pastor” needs to reflect upon the very scriptures he preaches – I hope – from. Or, has he – the pastor – gotten so concerned about politics, that he has forgotten “His first love?” As Paul again states, in Romans 13:8:
“Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.” (Emphases mine).
Real compassion, huh? And conservative evangelicals wonder aloud why it is that I hold people like this man to the standard HE HIMSELF tells others to live by? Back to my earlier point: God very well may have been – rightfully – removed from the public square, but it appears conservative evangelicals are removing Christ Himself from the scriptures.
Q.E.D.
In case you missed it: Trump and Evangelicals Prove God Has Sense of Humor
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From your unofficial “Jewish Cneering Section,” my dear friend and brother, I thank you for this.
As I’ve related, I spent a decade in the buckle of the Bible Belt, working in “Christian” broadcasting… (quotes intended, ad the genre’s got a seriously spotty record… )… I know the sorts of folks to whom you refer…
I have also had the deep honor of having in my circles of those I consider true friends, those such as yourself, a couple of folks I’ve met on your wall who have also become friends, a dearest man who is an ordained Bishop in the Old Catholic Apostolic Church, in the Diocese of Vancouver, BC, the man I consider still my teacher, friend and brother, former pastor of a unique Evangelical church (now defunct), that welcomed everyone (what a concept), who finally got honest with himself, the world, and the rest of us who already knew, came out as gay, is deliriously happily married to a wonderful, petite little red-headed dude, no longer pastors (as he is also living with prostate cancer that dictates good days and bad days), but is an in-demand public speaker and published author…
Those who live their faith simply, lovingly, and just quitting emphasizing on that which is, as anyone with sense realizes, eternally unimportant.
Yet there are those of the sort of folks as Graham, Bakker, Falwell the Lesser, and the rest that the surface is what’s important, certain pet issues are at the top of the list, and not open for discussion, no matter what… (for what it’s worth, the insane Austrian corporal with the funny mustache was also anti-abortion/”anti-choice”/so-called “pro-Life,” albeit only for blonde, blue-eyed, “Aryan” women, and for that issue alone, I’ve no doubt many of the rigid would have suppported him)
I am Jewish, of a decidedly liberal, Reform interpretation, but certainly no atheist…
(as a note, I’m also no one’s mission field… We Jews don’t believe everyone has to be Jewish in order to take part in the good districts of L’Olam haBa (the world to come), I at least appreciate the same courtesy)
I recite the Sh’ma daily, recognizing the G-d alone is worthy of blessing:
“Baruch a’Tah, Adonai Eloyaynu, Adonai Echad, Melekh Olam”
(“Blessed are You, oh Lord our G-d, our Lord who is One, King of all that is”)
“Sh’ma, Yisrael, Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad
Baruch Sh’em K’Vod Malchu’tov L’Olam Va’aed”
“Hear, O Israel, Adonai is our G-d. Adonai is One
Blessed is G-d’s glorious majesty forever and forever.”
(Translation from “Mishkan T’Fillah: A Reform Siddur”)
I also recognize that there is a short list of things that are always, always wrong, and those that are always, always the right things to do… It’s a shame to me that there are such shallow people in positions of deepresponsibility and influence towards our government, for whom the non-essential and the surface is supreme in the thing… but they are those that worship power for its own sake, and I really pity them their final “exit interviews” with haShem when their own numbers come up.
As usual, dear friend and true brother, in all the ways that really matter, Mark, it seems I answer one of your essays with one of my own… Seems we’re quite often on the same page…
I’ve known more than a few “evangelicals” and every damn one of them is a freakin’ hypocrite.
Congress inserted the phrase “under God” to the pledge and Ike signed the bill authorizing it in 1954.
I believe that the “In God we Trust” motto was added to coinage in the 1860s. As you say, there was a surge in religiosity in those trying times – but it had been proposed as early as the 1830s after the founding fathers and their antipathy to state approved religious was dying or moribund.
It’s always struck me as hugely hubristic, because if you stop to think of it, it was meant to please those who supported a god recognized by the Christians of the time and would not be acceptable by others. In that way the motto begs the question by assuming the conclusion that our blurry idea of the Divine and his or their will is beyond question the real and only acceptable one. I do not know how many 19th century Americans would support Ahura Mazda or the Muslim God although he’s essentially the same as the Jewish one.
Hubris indeed to assert that “this is who we are as Americans” and so if you don’t agree with our three gods in one you’re not an American. You can also see it as an affirmation that God is on our side as Americans and that being true, he’s not on yours, mine being the official and exclusive Tribe.
Hypocrisy? Oh yes. If you’re into the “taking my name in vain” thing, that’s what it’s about in my opinion – and not about saying damn it! or saying Jesus! when you stub your toe. It’s putting words into God’s mouth in order to sanctify your prejudice, your practice, your prejudices. Since I can say with confidence that neither you nor I are divine, what we say comes from our egos and from nowhere else.
Christians are hardly unique in this of course and that has been a curse we put on ourselves long ago.
Hi Glenn,
You always amaze me with your insightful analysis. On this occasion spare the date when “In God We Trust” mantra was added, you are 100% spot on. Thanks for following along my friend.
Why thank you. I think about these things a lot and I’m sure you agree religion matters because it’s a major factor in what we do. Without humility and without a little doubt it wouldn’t be as harmful as it sometimes is.
Well said, Mark. We are called to love each other, and to show it by our actions. So many of those who are tossing Christ out with the bathwater yell the loudest about NOT caring for the least among us. The hypocrisy is breathtaking. Thank you for standing up to it. I’m always amazed at the insistence on God in the public square; it just never made sense to me. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.” Apparently, praying in secret doesn’t have any political value.
Hi CB Baker,
The public square was never intended – as you rightfully point out – to have God incorporated. Please note however, this does not mean that our nation was not founded by a bunch of people from England who arguably were “Protestant” in nature. But still, those Founders who wrote our Constitution, realized not only the importance of allowing those who believed to worship, but also preventing those beliefs being thrust upon those who do not. Therein lies our current problem which began right around the eighties, and earlier if you count Ike.
Thanks for chiming in and also your kind words.