Hijacking God

Sometimes the noise is deafening, the hype overwhelming, and the rhetoric like an avalanche.

The most prominent topics pounding the airwaves today are: Charlie Kirk, Israel, Gaza, and the Ukraine. All of massive significance.

Let’s tackle Charlie Kirk today and Israel later.

When everything is peeled back, issues are invariably stark and exposed. Bottom line, we cannot cherry pick from God to suit our agendas. God’s truths and ways are akin to gravity; unchanging, applicable to everyone without prejudice, and not negotiable for the highest donor or a favored individual, pastor or president. And therein lies the problem that has plagued humanity from Eden to our day.

Charlie Kirk was no martyr, nor even that remarkable. Of course his death was tragic and should be condemned alongside every life lost at the wrong end of a gun, bomb, or any weapon of destruction. He loved to debate issues on a Christian platform. However there are many planks missing, especially the way others of different persuasions are regarded. God doesn’t discard his enemies or treat with contempt those with whom he disagrees. Charlie’s realm was an elite portion of a much, much larger population. Debate is possible for very few, particularly in a public arena where one debater is constantly refining his words and skills, while others are not. It actually doesn’t matter if many, or all the points presented are the gospel truth; without love, empathy, and respect, the noise is a clanging gong of sound.

Christians cannot impose their beliefs on others, or debate them to believe. Certainly healthy debate is valuable as one method of communication. The Christian worldview is impacted and empowered by the person of Jesus and an individual encounter with him. That is the starting point to begin to discover and grow to the point where his perspective changes my worldview. I cannot expect those who know nothing of him to comprehend his values. By hammering Christian teachings without revealing the character of Jesus, we’re putting the cart before the horse. It’s an easy and lazy approach that demands little other than a loud voice, a wagging finger, no empathy, and a soapbox.

Logic and reason seldom, if ever, persuade people to change. I learned that lesson the hard way. I studied, gathering degrees in the belief that a solid rationale for my faith would make a difference. The reality I discovered was that people respond to kindness, listening well, encouraging, leading with gentle conviction, offering hope and a new experience of God’s goodness by the way in which they are treated. Haranguing, belittling, scoring points, is neither attractive nor particularly compelling to most. They walk away more resistant than before. They feel judged, not seen, certainly not heard, and decidedly unsafe. When the focus is on the head and not the heart the result is usually painful.

When we follow the model of Jesus the difference is as clear as night and day. He spoke kindly with people, asked questions, released power to heal whatever was ailing them first. Later they would have time to question and converse as they couldn’t help but ask: Who? Why? How? What now? If Christianity is merely reduced to debating points around gender, abortion, and whatever the pet issue – very few will be persuaded, or even want to listen. Everyone lands up where they are in their present with stories that need to be heard. That takes time, empathy, patience, humility, and kindness. Years of offering counselling taught me that everyone has a reason for being where they find themselves. It’s seldom cold and rational in the unfolding.

Listening to Charlie Kirk there are certainly points he makes that I can agree with. BUT! Meeting people ‘where they are’ is far more demanding then setting up tent on a college campus for 24 hours and pontificating though a microphone. As much as I genuinely share grief for his killing, I abhor the spectacle of his death being used to equate him to Jesus or elevate him in a manner that has no resemblance to reality.

It’s worth noting that times haven’t changed too much over thousands of years. There was immense pressure brought to bear on Jesus as his fame grew, to speak and to act politically. Even his disciples wanted to hijack him to confront the Roman oppressors. Jesus affirmed Samaritans, engaged with Romans, invited tax collectors to follow him, touched lepers, elevated the stature of women, and challenged the leaders of his day. It was radical. The ordinary people loved him, the establishment and those in power despised his exposing their compromise and duplicity.

BTW. Kirk and others are advocating for Christian Nationalism:

Definition: Christian nationalism, ideology that seeks to create or maintain a legal fusion of Christian religion with a nation’s character. Advocates of Christian nationalism consider their view of Christianity to be an integral part of their country’s identity and want the government to promote—or even enforce—the religion’s position within it.

Any review of history shows that when Christians (in name at least) hold power it is as corrupt (perhaps more so) than the secular powers. Consider The Crusades, Europe when the Church was the most powerful and influential institution in the 14th and 15th centuries. Not a pretty sight. Be careful what we wish for. Human beings are human beings, whatever we say actions are too often far from consistently Christlike. There is only one Jesus. He’s not for sale and not for hijacking. No cherry picking of his teachings or attaching his endorsement to any political sloganeering. Enough said.

I suspect Barabbas would be freed and Jesus crucified today. Same people, same issues, same offenses, same…..

Next time, the hot potato, Israel, also in the business of hijacking.