The Christian Citizen - Consider Ourselves Exiles

Image Source - Freedom of Speech, Norman Rockwell

With the quadrennial election cycle once again upon us, many Christians are in a lather about this side or the other and whether this year there even is a legitimate choice.

For the brief time you read this blog, pretend that you are disenfranchised and have no vote at all!

As an aside, one's vote seems of little consequence anyway. I have a sister in Texas who has voted Democratic in the last several Presidential elections - but the Texas vote is overwhelmingly Republican and her vote is virtually meaningless. In Minnesota my Republican Presidential ballot is likewise of little importance in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

Consider as well that in many places Christians have no vote and for many centuries Christians had no opportunity at all to vote!

[I am not advocating not voting! I have voted in every election since 1972 (the first year I was eligible!). I will vote this year as well!]

A common view is that the United State was birthed as a Christian nation and that many of the so-called founding Father's were Christian. Certainly there was a strong Christian influence by some of the founders: Consider the Mayflower endeavor (not bragging, but I am a descendant of both William White and Stephen Hopkins), the Winthrop Fleet (see John Peat on this manifest), and the Providence Plantations - all Christian endeavors! As to the founding Father's: this article suggests that while they were Deists, they probably not Christians. But suffice to say that our country is based on a Judeo-Christian heritage and specifically not a Muslim-Sharia law heritage!

If one takes "Christian" seriously, it's fairly obvious that real, God-fearing, Jesus Christ followers are a small minority among us! (Oh yes there are the Pew surveys such as this which state that 70% of us are Christian. But Christian is so loosely defined to make that statistic meaningless!).

How Christian were we - say in Colonial times? Well it appears that Christian lingo was common but Christian adherence was not.

Often Christians express that our faith is persecuted here in the United States. I would like to disabuse that idea with these facts:

• If you donate to your church, you receive a tax deduction (one has to itemize to benefit from this).
• Your church in all likelihood does not pay property tax. (The Little Flowers Montessori School near my home pays, $ 27,500 per year on their 4 acres. My church pays zero for our 22 acres.)
• Your ordained pastor receives a parsonage allowance that enables him to eschew taxes on a large part of his income.
• We have freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. 

Often I hear that things are changing for the worse for Christians. Is that so? Well maybe yes and maybe no:

• Certainly it seems that our entire world is wickeder. If it is so (I think it is), it seems consistent with what the Scriptures teach: "evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse" (2 Timothy 3:13). 
• We certainly live in a violent world. I have not need to prove this - just watch the news!
• Certain court rulings have gone wrong in my view: Say Roe v Wade. But no Christian is forced to abort. People have been sinfully aborting children throughout recorded history. And actually abortions are declining in the U.S.
• The recent Supreme Court case legalizing same-sex marriage makes no sense, but is consistent with a godless culture that would call evil good! 
• Has anything improved? Well if you were born a black person things are much better today than 60 years ago: The voting rights act, the end of Jim Crow laws, et cetera.

Three models for Christian exile have been proposed:

1. a return to a pre-Moral Majority separation of church and politics
2. a Benedictine model
3. the Jeremiah option

Here's my take on the three models:

1. The moral majority model represents the church in bed with the Republican party. It's zenith was with Ronald Reagan. Christians would help elect him and with his election and his Supreme Court appointments, Roe v Wade would be overturned. My assessment is that it was a prostitution of the church that diluted the message of the Gospel. As an aside I voted for Reagan twice! Since Reagan, Evangelicals have been searching for one to take up the Reagan mantle and go forth. Every quadrennial Evangelicals wait for their candidate to announce his born-again-ness and rally behind him. The model seemed reasonable but has been a complete failure.
2. The Benedictine model is in my view basically an isolation approach. 
3. The Jeremiah option comes from Jeremiah's letter to the exiles in 29:1-9. See also Jeremiah 40:9.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

The article linked above suggests these five lessons:

1. Be Faithful in the Ordinary Things of Life
2. Engage Babylon, Do Not Withdraw
3. Be Discerning
4. Be People of Hope
5. Things Are Not Out of Control

What follows are my comments on citizenship with appropriate Scriptures:

1. If one is married, endeavor to have a strong Biblical marriage. Ephesians 5:22-33
2. If unmarried, remain sexually chaste
3. If a parent, raise one's children. Ephesians 6:1-4
4. Earn a living. Don't be a slacker. Ephesians 4:28 and 2 Thessalonians 3:10
5. Respect established authority and pay taxes. Romans 13:1-7
6. Pray for authorities. 1 Timothy 2:1-3
7. Be faithful in gathering with God's people in one's church
8. Be a witness