Just when I think the polarization in our country cannot sink any lower, it does. The most recent example was the benediction given the opening night at the Republican Convention. As a pastor who has given thousands of benedictions myself, it made me cringe. You can watch it on YouTube and decide for yourself.
Perhaps in the heat of the moment at a political convention (one might argue), it’s OK for benediction to take a different form than expected at the conclusion of a worship service, a wedding or a funeral.
But is it OK for a Christian leader at a national event to say: ““Our enemy is not other Republicans but is Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party”? In other words, roughly half our country is the “enemy” of the other half? Is this really the message of Jesus Christ, who repeatedly taught “love your enemies?”
Such us vs. them language which names the other as “enemy” is incredibly toxic today. It’s also antithetical to genuine Christianity.
Reflecting on the brutal Serbian fighters who murdered, raped, and pillaged paths of destruction through his native Croatia, theologian Miroslav Volf narrates how this causes him to live in tension:
“My thought was pulled in two different directions by the blood of the innocent crying out to God and by the blood of God’s Lamb offered for the guilty.”
Volf says he must hold two ideas or inclinations in paradoxical tension. He wants to remain loyal to the demand of the oppressed for justice. Yet at the same time, as a Christian he must uphold the forgiveness that God freely offers—even to the perpetrators of horrendous crimes. He concludes that he is
“divided between the God who delivers the needy and the God who abandons the Crucified, between the demand to bring about justice for the victims and the call to embrace the perpetrator. I knew, of course, of easy ways to resolve this powerful tension. But I also knew that they were easy precisely because they were false.”
As Christians in a polarized society, we are quickly losing our ability to name both sides of such tensions and live in the midst of them as Volf does. When we do, we can no longer see that the easy ways to resolve them are false.
Dare we suggest that truth might sometimes reside within such tension? Dare we propose that the best policy choices often reside somewhere between Democrats and Republicans, left and right, MSNBC and Fox News? Do we spend so much time in media echo chambers reverberating our own predispositions that we can no longer see such tensions even exist? Are we ready to claim we have all “the truth” and the other side has none? Once we leave the realm of ideas and enter emotionally personalized us vs. them rhetoric, it’s where we often end up.
During the height of the Cold War, Soviet human rights activist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (who had legitimate enemies and suffered greatly at their hands) wrote in The Gulag Archipelago,
“If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”
Genuine Christians will heed these words and refuse to simplistically call ourselves good and our “enemies” evil.
Genuine Christians will refuse to speak and act in ways that use Jesus as a political mascot. Jesus suffered an agonizing death in a political execution, yet with his dying breath said “Father, forgive them.” Jesus had no enemies…including those who crucified him. So why do we?
Wow. I did not hear the prayer. It is extremely sad that such language was included. As I see it, political elections in this country involve legitimate differences among our population about the proper role and function of government, and who is most able to provide leadership in attaining whatever path is chosen by the populace. The question of how our Christian duty to love God and love our brothers and sisters relates to political choices is, within some reasonable limits, also subject to differences of opinion among us.
Yesterday I sent you the Dale Carnegie quote that speaks to the mob/sheep propensity of human beings:
“when dealing with people, let us remember we are not dealing with creatures of logic; we are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.”
What better place than a national political convention to take the high road of forgiveness and praying for our ‘enemies?’ If indeed Donald Trump is a follower of Jesus (and one could question that if one were to judge), could not have this preacher invoked God’s blessing on Trump’s mission and protection of his life? Could not he have taught his TV and convention hall audience that it is God who raises up and defeats our leaders?
I deplore any leader who seeks to divide this nation by rhetoric or act. And such hateful words from one who prays in the name of Jesus bring shame on our Savior.
Lord, have mercy! I watched and listened to the video, and more than ever understand why so many millenials are “Nones,” or militantly atheistic. I believe it was Christian ethicist Lewis B. Smeades who wrote “name no one your enemy.”
I wish I could say that I am surprised about the benediction, but I am not. That type of hate has been around at least since the beginning of Clinton’s first term as President. It has been drastically enlarged the past 8 years with the hate, lies, and fear spread by leaders of the Republican party. It is no wonder that the
backers of Trump are angry and disillusioned. For the most part, they have “bought” the lies, hate, and fear that has been spread.
My theory is that old saying that “the chickens have come home to roost” for the leaders of the GOP. Otherwise, they would not have to make the excuses they have been doing for Trump. Of course Trump was encouraging the assignation of Hillary when he cited the 2nd amendment as one way to stop her from naming judges that might have a favorable opinion about some type of restrictions on how guns are sold. Of course Trump will say and do whatever Trump feels like saying, no matter what the consequences. That’s what a spoiled child does, and why should anyone expect any difference? Anyone who has read Neville Shute’s “On the Beach” should have real reservations and concerns about Trump having access to the nuclear
process. Ted Cruz scares the daylights out of me, but I do admire his courage in NOT backing Trump.