Losing Our Religion For Lesser Things

 "The Christian faith does offer moral order, political and social action to help the weak and oppressed, and therapeutic comfort for broken individuals.  But if a church or denomination offers only moralism, politics, and social activism, or emotionally exciting therapeutic uplift disconnected from deep prayer, sacrificial commitment, and authentic change of life, it is useless.  It is worse than useless, because it convinces the world that Christianity is counterfeit." - Rod Dreher, Living in Wonder

As has been mentioned recently in another post, I am in the process of largely "giving up" on the bulk of social media for two reasons.  The secondary and therefore less meaningful reason (for this post) is that it simply does not add anything meaningful to my life, is a good way to burn valuable time in a low value way, and represents the "Shallow Work" that Cal Newport rails against in his book Deep Work.  

The more primary reason, of course, is politics.

(I know, I know - "TB" I hear you say, "you never discuss politics here."  And today would be no different.  Stick with me.)

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For almost two months now I have been putting "pause" on anyone that posts anything about the current political situation and travails of the U.S. current day - and to be consistent (outside of any personal beliefs I may have) I have been applying it to both sides of the aisle.  Yes, it probably means I am missing actual non-political interesting topics (although see reason "two" above for winding down my time), but it has also cut down on my day to day stress/anger/anxiety level.

But what I find most...concerning...about all of this is the fact that people are becoming - at least in my mind and in practice - identified almost completely with their political beliefs.

Instead of, for some of them, their professed religious beliefs.

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A great danger for us as humans, it seems, is our ability to have a thing or small group of things dominate our lives and thinking.  I suspect this is one of many reasons why God, starting in Exodus and really continuing throughout the rest of Scripture, commands us "I am the LORD thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me."  He knew that we as species had the ability to focus, but also that we were prone to focus on anything else but Him (And yes, hat tip to the King James Version.  Still the most fun version to read in my opinion.).

But not us - especially not us in the modern world.  We have very much become a "God and..." sort of people.

I suspect that people like Francis Shaeffer would attribute this to the idea that through the history of the late Medieval period and into the Enlightenment, Western Christianity divorced God first from the material world, then from the physical world, and then as a finally as the operating principle for Christians (Shaeffer does a much better job of all of this; the man really was a modern prophet in the sense of seeing 60 years ago where we would be today.  If you have not read him, his book Escape from Reason explains how modern society got here in 93 short paperback pages.).  

What modern Christianity has been left with is too often the idea that we can be "God and" something.  God and our beliefs become a something that are either bolted on to our daily life or are something that are of equal and equivalent importance.

And it is that "equal and equivalent" that has forced my social media hand.

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The danger is this:  when we as Christians let something else become how we define ourselves, we can do injury to the message of Christ and God.  When our words, our actions, and our interests come to be dominated by something else other than Him, when all we ever talk about is anything and everything but Him, or worst case we simply somehow fail to acknowledge in any of our practices or words that we are His - we are no longer messengers and servants of Christ, those of whom Isaiah said "How beautiful on the mountain are those that bring good news..." (Isaiah 57:2) and who Paul quoted in Romans 10:15 as bringing the Gospel of Peace.  

Our words and our thoughts behind them matter, especially if we call ourselves Christians.   But just as we become what we think about and speak about most of the time, so people come to understand us per what we speak about and our thoughts (and the intent behind them) most of the time.

An example:  If you were to ask anyone at my current place of employment about me, they could tell you that 1) I like rabbits; and 2) I am a student of Iaijutsu,  It is what I talk about.  It is what I express I do with my free time.  It is what I will happily speak on when given the opportunity.

Rabbits and swordsmanship are pretty neutral or even unique topics to be known for.  Politics, a bit more divisive.

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Why, then, am I so concerned about how people post politically that I would pause them?

It is not the people that are agnostic or even atheist that of primary concern (other than the principle, of course) as much as it those that are professing Christians who come to post only and almost completely about "current events".  They have, to my mind, sold out the thing of Greatest value - Christ's sacrifice and message of salvation - for lesser things.  

To those that agree with them, they will be evidence of the rightness of their ideas.  But to those that are politically opposed to them, they have or will have cut off their means to communicate the Gospel through words and actions - because they have put up a barrier to any sort of initial conversation or even the viewing of actions; all will be viewed through the lens of their political messaging.

After all, why would I talk to someone about something personal and intimate and potentially even impactful on the sensitive areas of my life like religion when it has been clearly demonstrated what they do and do not believe about their political opponents?

Perhaps there are individuals that can bridge such a narrow gap. Sadly, I am not one of them.

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Of all of the characters that fill out the New Testament, we really only know of one - Simon the Zealot - who political leanings were - and I emphasize the past tense here - known.  After his call by Christ, we never hear of any of his (or anyone else's) political leaning again, certainly in the post-Resurrection New Testament.

When we lose our religion and more importantly our witness for anything, even politics, we have made a deal which leaves us the poorer and the world with one less witness - perhaps the only witness to some person that, without us, might have not seen the Gospel lived out in a way that makes it credible.

And that, simply, is an explanation I do not want to have to make at the Judgement Seat.