For two decades in The Tallassee Tribune, I have been privileged to write a lot about music and entertainment. Occasionally some of the things I write have come across as too conservative, while others may have been read as too liberal. I have always subscribed to a ‘no label’ type philosophy, staying in the middle of the road when it comes to politics.
That ends today.
Sometimes, being that my column appears on an opinion page, I have let my glass-is-half-full politics show. And that’s when people start calling me names.
One man attacked me at the grocery store as he poked his finger in my chest, saying, “you ain’t nothin’ but a liberal because you’re a member of that teachers’ union.”
Another reader has angrily approached me and accused me of being in the tank for abortionists, and even called me a “baby killer” (as the father of seven, I am obviously very pro-life). This same person also denounced me for being Catholic, because President Biden is Catholic – and, to this person, is also a baby killer.
All of this has happened during the past seven or eight years, as politics and religion have become ever more intertwined. A recent book uncovers some of this, and I’d like to use my space this week to draw your attention to it.
Russell Moore is an evangelical Christian minister. Before becoming the editor of Christianity Today magazine, he was the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.
In other words, if there’s a theological perspective worth at least listening to, Rev. Moore has earned the right to be able to speak his mind.
In his new book Losing Our Religion, named for the 1990s-era R.E.M. song, Moore argues that we are losing a generation of evangelicals – not because they are becoming more liberal or ‘woke’ than their parents, but because the Church has aligned itself with politicians.
“The political fusion with Trumpism, Christian nationalism, white-identity backlash, the dismissing of issues such as abuse as ‘social justice’ secularism, are dividing almost every church, almost every family, almost every friendship I know,” Moore writes in the introduction to his book.
And he’s not wrong.
In a 2021 Gallup survey, only 47% of Americans affiliated with a Church or house of worship. This is a significant drop from just 20 years earlier, when 68% of Americans said they were members of a Church.
Moore states in his book the secularization of our culture is not being driven by so-called liberal agendas, but by evangelicalism itself.
How many times have you heard someone say President Trump is “anointed” or “appointed” by God? Have you seen people conflate his trials with those of Jesus?
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This is an abomination!
There are people I know – and you know them, too – who have preached against the evils of gambling and divorce for decades, yet they now say that a thrice-married casino owner is their savior?
As one man told me, “I am not voting for my Sunday School teacher. I’m voting for the man who will get done what I want done.”
Moore recounts in his book the events of January 6, 2021, when a banner proclaiming “Jesus Saves” hung above a gallows built for Vice President Mike Pence. Yes, that was a riot. Yes, people tore through barricades and broke down doors in an attack on the Capitol, because President Trump said the election had been stolen from him. Jesus does save – but how in the world could that message not be associated in the eyes of the secular public with the violence at the Capitol that day?
“Church after church is divided over conspiracy theories and falsehoods,” Moore says, citing the great work of journalist Tim Alberta from The Atlantic magazine, who wrote extensively this year about the divide in his own family and church. Alberta, the son of a Presbyterian pastor, was nearly thrown out of his father’s funeral by a family friend who attacked him for not being supportive of President Trump. And this was at his home church, at his own father’s funeral.
Politics has monopolized our identities. Moore says it’s not what we love but who we hate: Wal-Mart vs. Whole Foods; NASCAR vs. soccer; electric cars vs. pickup trucks. We are so polarized that it seems impossible to unite for any purpose. Even the Covid crisis got politicized by both sides – getting a shot or not; wearing a mask or not. And if you criticize anyone or anything, you’re a hater, or you’re intolerant. Sadly, Christians wind up getting the short end of the stick a lot of the time – and, Moore argues, it’s our own doing because we chose to hitch our wagon to a politician.
Moore’s book lays bare the effort by some evangelicals to become Christian culture warriors full time. While we Christians are called upon to witness to others, we are also called upon to live as Jesus did – right? Christians should be seeking common ground and unity, not burning it all down in His name.
As I was preparing to write this, a couple of news items caught my attention that illustrate this strange arrangement. President Biden was recorded singing along to the gospel song “On Eagle’s Wings” at a Palm Sunday breakfast at the White House. Biden, appearing frail, said that hymn was special to him as it was performed at his son’s funeral. No harm, no foul. It didn’t take long for people to pile on with the usual: “what about Hunter’s laptop?” or “how can he sing a gospel song and kill babies?” On top of the far-right attacks, the ‘woke’ side attacked him for siding with Israel against the Hamas terrorists.
Also during Holy Week, President Trump was selling autographed Bibles for $60.00 apiece. This was pretty insulting to me as a Bible-believing Christian. We don’t need a Trump Bible – we need the Holy Bible. And no matter what you believe, he gave the anti-Christian crowd plenty to poke fun at, with some saying he was raising bail money by selling these Trump Bibles. It weakens our message as Christians to tie ourselves to a politician so firmly because, after all, he’s a human being, not a deity.
Moore makes the point that Jesus knew to walk away from politics. Midway through the book, he lays it all out: “Jesus was well aware of the pull of humanity to a gospel that is about finding a political avatar or accommodating the appetites. When Jesus perceived that the crowds were coming to make Him king, He walked away (John 6:15). And when the crowds assembled to hear Him after His multiplication of bread and fish, He told them ‘you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves’ (John 6:26). He was willing to see those crowds walk away – and His own disciples tempted to do so – because what they would have received would have been the fulfillment of populist fervor, but it wouldn’t have been Him.”
As we move into a political season that is guaranteed to be more divisive than ever, especially with these same two running for President, let us please be mindful that yes, we are a nation blessed by almighty God – but He never named one politician or party as His favorite. We would do better to keep His name holy by not attaching it to one side or the other.
Let the attacks begin. See you at the grocery store.
Michael Bird is a music teacher for Tallassee City Schools.
