"Christian" Nationalism on trial...

 

After last Sunday’s funeral/revival meeting/political rally in the name of Charlie Kirk, it is past time for all Christians to learn about the Theological Declaration of Barmen (Germany, 1934). Presbyterians should be aware of it, but Episcopalians may not be, so I will be leading an introduction to it at a local Episcopal church this coming Sunday.

Why Barmen now? Just one sentence offers a hint: “We reject as false doctrine that the Church could have permission to hand over the form of its message and of its order to whatever it itself might wish or to the vicissitudes of the prevailing ideological and political convictions of its day.” That happened big time on September 21, and the Church must not give in to it.

I invite all of my friends, and particularly those who are Christians, to become familiar with the Theological Declaration of Barmen. The time is right.

Charlie Kirk Murder Comments

Here are a couple of my recent Facebook posts for those who do not follow me there.

"A government headed by the man who pardoned the convicted far-right-wingers who attached the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, is now threatening an all-out assault on people on the "far-left" in general. A dangerous hypocrisy is at work here, and it will lead to no good end. Every American should be appalled."

"ABC caved to the government in suspending Jimmy Kimmel’s show. I am not defending what it’s reported that he said; it seemed over-the-top to me. But my question is this: who is going after all the administration and Republican Party prople who are blaming “the left” for Charlie Kirk’s murder? Are they accountable to no one when they make up a culprit? Why don’t they have to stick to the facts as we know them? We are in deep trouble."

What If It's Too Late?

Charlie Kirk was a guy who lived near the very edge of my current-events radar screen, if even he was on it at all. I’d heard of him, and probably could have connected him with Turning Point, USA if I’d had to. But that’s about it.

Now, in the aftermath of his murder, I am learning more about him in his death than I had in his life, and that forces me to ask myself, once again, what business I have sharing opinions about what’s going on in our nation and world. I don’t know anything that tons of other people don’t know a whole lot more about than I do.

I do know what lots of people are saying about Charlie Kirk, most of them not only trying to prove their own political creds to the world, but, more importantly, to draw me into their circle of beliefs. In this war of attrition we call political discourse these days, it’s the body count that matters, not the quality of the arguments.

Amongst all of this clangor there are few plaintive cries imploring us to become more temperate in our discourse, to respect one another more, to try a little harder to act like Americans all. I appreciate those cries and I value them, and I wish—O how I wish!—those cries might come to something positive.

Alas, I think and I fear it is too late. The horse is out of the barn, and the cat is out of the bag. Our democracy’s fate is sealed, and our republic, Mr. Franklin, is lost. We cannot go home again, because those in power do not want us to and will not allow us to.

I still have opinions about things, and I will continue to express them in the respectful and thoughtful ways I hope for from us all. But offering what I think about our current political situation feels somewhat akin to sharing my thoughts about the weather while experiencing an earthquake and a tornado at the same time. Who cares? Who has the wits to care? It’s whistling in the wind while our very foundations shake ourselves unto death.

It all might drive me back deeper than ever before into some form of my lifelong Christian faith. A form so basic and so simple that it simply assures me that Jesus loves me and loves you and loves us all, and I don’t know exactly what that means or how it will finally play out, except that by some grace both Charlie Kirk and I will one day both be held in those everlasting arms. And if Jesus can hold us both close, Jesus can and will do even more than I will ever think, or offer opinions about.