On Tuesday Monica Boyer wrote the following: "For decades the American church has been asleep." She challenges us to wake up and this attitude is certainly behind her group, Silent No More.
I see the metaphor slightly differently. Indeed the church has been in bed, but not asleep, rather wide awake. And, at the risk of being overly-blunt, the prostitute in that equation usually ends up being used.
In the early 1980s many fundamental and evangelical Christians aligned themselves with the Republican party because it was thought to be the party of values. I was one of those people. For 30 years I was a member of the Republican Party. I voted for Republicans, I campaigned for Republicans, I was twice a Republican state convention delegate, and I served in public office as a Republican. Now I am no longer a Republican.
Over the years the Republican party became an odd mix of capitalist/industrialists/military hawks and sincere Christians. This two-winged bird made for a strange creature because as I see it, authentic Christianity is in many ways at odds with the bareknuckled capitalism and blatant militarism which characterize the Republican party. The industrialists supply the money and the Christians supply the ground forces and voices. And in the process the church is compromised because to allow this worldly political union to survive the Christians must remain muffled or silent when the cry for justice is demanded.
Where are the Christian voices on the corporate rape of the environment, especially locally? Is this not God's creation of which we are stewards?
Where are the Christian voices on the shameless exploitation of Mexican immigrants in the workplace even occurring locally?
Where are the Christian voices on the corporate welfare system that rewards these massive and shameless leviathans at the expense of average Americans and small businesses?
Where are the Christian voices on the corporate exploitation of the of Central American countries?
Where are the Christian voices on the absurdity of a political philosophy called neo-conservatism which holds that we can export democracy at the end of a gun barrel to Mideast tribal societies and in the process use our brave troops as fodder or bait? What madness.
Where were the Christian voices before George Bush led us into the absurd fiasco in Iraq?
I can tell you what some voices were like among some Christians locally. I was a board member of the local Right to Life committee when we held our local fall banquet shortly before Bush's invasion of Iraq. The speaker was a witty young man named Ryan Dobson, the adopted son of James Dobson. During his speech he said he was sick and tired of people criticizing President Bush in his obvious run-up to war. Young Dobson said he had a t-shirt company and he intended to produce a tee shirt which would read: "Give War a Chance". Many in the audience erupted in laughter and applause. Applause. I folded my arms and looked stone cold at those around me and wondered how we had ever gotten to this point. Are not the lives of the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of displaced and dead Iraqis worth our concern? Are not the lives and limbs of our braves soldiers worth more than a good laugh at a Right to Life banquet?
I hope that as my friends gathered at last weekend's tent revival they tried to consider that the sex sins and so-called creeping socialism aren't the only things threatening America. I am so often reminded these days of the Lord's words to the Jews a long time ago which seem to ring true today: render true justice, show kindness and compassion toward each other. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the alien or the poor; do no plot evil against one another in your hearts.
It seems to me those principles are truly worth speaking up about.
