Obama Ushers in End Times (Missional Musings on Faith and Politics)

Edit, Evening 11/12, to add a few more links at the bottom of this post. 

I hear this often.  The lack of a Republican president means that the end times, ala the Left Behind series, are upon us.  Those who voted for Obama are “false Christians,” now exposed.  Yeah, those are just some of the nicer things that have been said. 

My last post about Obama resulted in quite the comment exchange.  I want to respond carefully, because I recognize that all sides and spectrum’s have valuable contributions to the conversation.  My problem lies primarily with the lack of many conservative evangelicals to see that non-conservative-evangelicals may have thoughts and opinions worth listening to.  In some circles, “Obama = Satan” appears to be as coherant as the argument gets.  Please note that this is not the same thing as simply disagreeing with Obama’s policies or viewing things differently than the Democratic party does.  It’s wholly and whole-heartedly different.  

Obama is said to be the forerunner to the anti-christ, though some speculate he’s the anti-christ himself.  One blogger said that he just looked evil.  Commenter’s agreed and added more adjectives of their own, while simultaneously chastising all those who did not fulfil their “Biblical obligation” to respect authority when it came to Bush.  The sheer irony of their behavior appeared lost to all participants.  

Another blogger said that she was able to maintain a sense of peace by shutting off the TV and radio every time anything about Obama came on.   She was afraid of being swayed by his hypnotic voice and protected herself accordingly.  Her commenter’s praised her wisdom and wished they had done the same.  The word, “ostrich” comes to mind?  Since when is the illusion of inward peace maintained through purposeful denial considered godly? 

I have written before about my paradigm shift, about my former status as a culture warrior and the subsequent burning of my draft card.  The liberal and secular readers here will probably laugh, but those of you who come from a conservative background will likely nod your heads with understanding (or gnash your teeth at my audacity). 

I literally thought that God wanted me to war against my culture.  I believed that culture was out to get me, out to get my kids, out to get my church. I mistakenly forgot the real enemy, and thought it was my culture instead, unlike God, who knew exactly what the real problem was when He came down INTO an equally-fallen culture.  He saturated Himself in it, unafraid to pal around with the worst of the lot and, interestingly, the only ones He had a real problem with were the ones righteously abstaining from said culture. 

There was a time when I looked at even the innocent Christmas tree with suspicion, as if its lights and baubles were demons in disguise.  I wrote about that here, and it’s perhaps the most concise post I have ever written describing the real essence of my paradigm shift from one gospel to another.

You see, the foundational message of the culture warriors is that Jesus doesn’t save by grace through faith (Eph. 2).  Proper performance, however, will get you everything.

And when we embrace that lie, rarely put into such bold words but woven into far too many conservative evangelical messages, the power of the Gospel is diffused, if not altogether lost. Instead, we become peddlers of a empty-but-righteous-feeling human philosophy, partakers of an empty-but-safe-feeling human institution.  Agreed, feeling safe is very satisfying.  That doesn’t make it always wise.  The frog in the pot of water feels safe, even good, while being slowly boiled alive.  

I am becoming more and more convinced that the lie is found lovely precisely because of how it makes us feel.  When performance is a prerequisite for approval, ”the cross of Christ is made of no effect (Gal. 5).”  But who cares?  I don’t need Him as long as I have that wonderful wonderful feeling of control. 

Everything about this runs completely contradictory to what Jesus did by coming to this earth.  Have we become followers of another gospel?

“…What He did, joining spiritual to earthly, is the essence of what we are called to now – a life where the heavenly and the temporal join, kiss, blend – where our lives are the expression of this Other Way, this Love that isn’t afraid of the dark, doesn’t judge by human status codes, and is not defined by what lips and teeth declare.”     —full post here 

We talk about how we love the homosexual but hate the sin, yet then go on to speak as if the homosexual is an alien from another planet (or an enemy seeking to devour us) instead of a real person with a real life with a real heart and real dreams.  We pretend to be Biblical, blowing up the verses about sexual purity into bold type, large face, because we follow the Bible, we are a holy people…while drowning out the surrounding verses that talk about walking with mercy and gentleness, conveniently ignoring the warnings to remove the plank from our own eye before going after the mote in our neighbors.  

We give lip service to the idea that the gospel transcends earthly kingdoms and then proceed to tell fellow Believers that they aren’t true Christians unless they vote for the political party we say is on God’s side.  What has happened to us?  Have we forgotten the story of Israel’s leader, Joshua, hand-selected by Yahweh Himself, when he lost perspective on who was supposed to be on what side? 

Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?”

And he said, “No, rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the Lord.”  And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?”  –Joshua 5 

God isn’t on our side fighting against our culture.  And if we’re fighting against our culture, we can pretty much bet, we’re fighting a battle that God isn’t in.  God isn’t against humanity, nor is He against human culture.  “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost (Luke 19:10).”  He didn’t withdraw from them because they were filthy, but lifted up His robes and started washing. 

Our God isn’t the kind who stays up in the pristine high and lofty places, passing jugdment with no awareness of what it feels like to live in skin, to be bound by bones and tendons and a heart that is ever at war with itself.  Our God is a kind who dives down right into the disaster, right into the pain, right into the blood and the tears and the sweat. 

He didn’t hold back, pinching His nose at the ooze of human culture, but jumped smack into the sea of it.  He didn’t speak from an ivory palace, but in the midst of the noisy smelly throngs.  He didn’t withhold from the multitudes because they were greedy, but fed them anyway—fed them more than their stomachs could hold.  He didn’t turn away from the leper because he was unlovely, but healed him.  He didn’t reject the children because they were bothering Him at an inappropriate time, but opened His arms to them.  

And He dragged His followers with Him in the process (calming down their shocked expressions as necessary). 

Aren’t we His followers too?  So I am left with the difficulty of realizing that there isn’t a gentle way to put it.  The fact is, when we adopt a posture of consigning our culture to hell and washing our hands of the mess (hoping for a pre-Trib rapture, to boot), shaming the broken for daring to be broken and maintaining a good safe distance between us and them, or putting our hopes in the kind of power that comes from a political kingdom, we have missed the heart of the incarnation and the power of the cross.    

You who have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. 

For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness.

For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision [or the Republican or Democratic ticket] means anything, but faith working through love. 

You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?

This persuasion did not come from Him who calls you.  –Galatians 5    

 I would rather take the position of a follower who, sure, maybe needs her shocked expressions calmed down from time to time, than a follower who can’t follow because she despises the path He walks. 

 

*For further reading, please see The Death of Religion, an excellent commentary (particularly the second half), A Primer on the Missional Church for a link-fest of further reflections on embracing a missional gospel instead of being a culture-warrior, folks who are actually doing it, and beyond.

**New Links Added: For those interested more in this paradigm shift from culture warrior to Jesus-in-the-midst-of-it thinking, please do not miss The Blind Beggar’s excellent site, Friend of MIssional, full of provocative Christ-seeking essays and further explorations (which you can agree with all, in part, or not at all.  Either way, you will learn a little more about a much misunderstood shift in thinking about what it means to follow Christ).  

This video clip of Michael Frost speaking to an American Presbyterian gathering about what “Missional” means is excellent.  No, amazing.  (The first five minutes or so may feel kind of slow, but stick with it, it’s worth it).  I am a huge fan of Michael Frost’s thinking and find his book, Exiles, to be a fantastic (please don’t equate that adjective with ”light reading”) work on the topic, except for that one part where he talks about how he spent time being in community with people who spend all day surfing on Australian beaches.  I don’t remember a lot of the details about that part.  Sort of one of those things you block out if you live way up North.    

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