Freedom and Religion

It is doubtful whether certain forms of Islam will ever be able to co-exist side by side with our American way of life as we have known and practiced it for the last 200 years. The reason is simple. Islamic extremists do not understand the balance between religion and freedom. And unfortunately, these extremeists are increasingly influential within Islam, not only in the Middle East, but in the daily lives and worship of Islamic adherents everywhere. They are seeking to impose their way of Islam on every aspect of life in western Europe and the United States. Their understanding of Islam does not appreciate freedom; it demands allegiance. Moslems are demanding that businesses be guided by Sharia Islamic law. What's more, they and their Arab allies increasingly have the economic muscle to give these demands teeth. Where money doesn't do the trick, they appeal to sympathy and fear to get an intimidated citizenry on their side. The public applies pressure to business or government leaders, in the mistaken belief that conscience and fairness are on the side of the extremists; and before you know it, western culture, freedom, and civilization are compromised again. Some are asking if Christian evangelicals are not guilty of the same kind of religious arm-twisting. Christian fundamentalism is being equated with Islamic fundamentalism. Most of us realize that this is an absurd comparison. Christian fundamentalists do not strap weapons to themselves and run into crowds as human suicide bombs, or fly planes into buildings. In fact, Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism do not even have the same view of God or eternity or truth! But the real difference between Christian and Islamic practice is a distinction that is more subtle and that the Christian evangelicals need to guard vigorously. Christians understand the proper place of religion in a free society. We realize that not everyone is going to agree with us. We wish everybody did. We would like to persuade everyone to accept the Bible as the Word of God; but we don't demand that acceptance. The conservative Christians I know and represent do seek to influence legislation along the lines of traditional western practice; but they do not seek to impose new, strict interpretations of Scripture that would alter the freedoms we have known since the founding of the nation. We do not wish legally to ban rock music, for example, or bring back strict Sunday "Blue laws." We no longer seriously promote national prohibition or demand the enforcement of dress codes on religious grounds. I have been very wary of certain evangelicals who seem to think that if we could just elect the right people, get the right political party in power, all our problems as a nation would be fixed. I believe that involvement by the church in politics, whether of the conservative or liberal stripe, is very dangerous for just this reason: It blurs the line between the practice of religion and the practice of freedom. It is all well and good for Christians to come together to work for certain laws or causes. But when the institutional church tries to display its political muscle, or when evangelical Christians become overly zealous in enforcing their own understanding of a particular religious principle, they border on misunderstanding the balance of religion and freedom. The Christian way of influencing society is by preaching, waiting upon the work of the Holy Spirit, praying for genuine revival, and transforming society as Christians come to understand what their faith means in practical terms. As one becomes more aware of the implications of Christianity, one will desire to put Christian principles into practice in daily life. We do not, however, seek to impose these principles on those who are not yet part of the family of faith. As Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was fond of saying, "A person cannot live like a Christian until he is a Christian." The Islamic fascists are a threat to our way of life, not only because they have the capacity to launch terrorist attacks against us from almost anywhere in the world, but also because they seem to have the will and the ability to intimidate us in the practice of our Constitutional liberties and a total disregard for the freedom of the individual. They have not yet made the distinction between the state and the practice of religion that western civilization finally made with the rise of Christianity. This failure on the part of Islam must be fully understood and appreciated for the threat that it truly is. Christian zealots need not make the same mistake. We dare not allow the Islamic extremists to abuse the religious freedoms of the West in order to promote their own intolerant agenda; and Christians need not become so fixated on politics--whether liberal or conservative-- that they forget the real message of Christ. Salvation comes by grace through faith, not by Congressional legislation or forced conversions!

1 Timothy 6:6-19, September 25-October 1, Year C:

This passage is primarily a warning against a wrong attitude toward riches. As is often pointed out, Paul does not say here that money is the root of all evil. Rather, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil. The desire to grow rich can easily lead people into temptation, causing them to make decisions for primarily materialistic rather than spiritual reasons. As a pastor, Paul tells Timothy to be content with godliness, only having the necessities of life. He should shun the lust for money that is so common among men. This suggests many questions which are relevant in today's church climate. I have known pastors who only desired a salary which would give them the least possible amount they could live on. I understand somewhat, from a spiritual standpoint, why these pastors might feel this way; but it seems to me to be misguided. In fact, it could be a matter of spiritual pride for a pastor to claim that he has voluntarily been willing to accept a low salary. This would be especially wrong-headed in a church where most of the members are relatively affluent and the church can afford to pay a good salary and still maintain a vigorous missions ministry of outreach and evangelism. On the other hand, should judicatories require that local churches pay a certain minimum salary to pastors, or does this make the local presbytery seem too much like a labor union for ministers? And for those in our congregations who are not ministers, does this mean that they should never seek to put themselves in a position to earn more money for fear of seeming ungodly or too materialistic? Clearly, such extreme interpretations of this passage are too legalistic and are unnecessary. The issue here is one of attitude. Our decisions should not be driven primarily by a desire for riches. If opportunities come to the Christian for financial advance, it is not wrong for us to take advantage of these; but the desire for money should not be the driving force of our lives. In addition, those who employ Christians, whether in the secular or spiritual realm, should not take advantage of our humility in order to pay the bare minimum allowable. If a Christian desires to return a goodly proportion of his wealth to the work of the Lord--whether pastor or businessman--he can certainly do that; but churches must still practice sound stewardship principles in their administrative decisions. A final question is the matter of contentment. Paul urges Timothy to be content with food and raiment. (1 Timothy 6:8.) Today, Paul would certainly say that the pastor and other Christians are permitted to have whatever is necessary to do that work to which they are called. So long as we are seeking first the kingdom of God and are truly grateful to Him for those blessings we are given, I think gratitude is a far healthier response to God's bounty than guilt. John Calvin said that we are given the blessings of prosperity that we may better perform the duties of charity. If we can honestly maintain this balance, I think we are being faithful to Paul's words to Timothy. It is a fine line; but it is, as with so many things in the Christian life, a matter of degree, balance, attitude, and integrity of motivation.

Non-Discerning Non-Believers

We are seeing more and more news items about the supposed disintegration and decline of Christianity and, indeed, of religion in general. I am quite certain that, along with Mark Twain, the report of the demise of Christianity is quite premature! I have no doubt, for that matter, that religion of all types will be around long after its current detractors have left the planet--or, as Rush Limbaugh would say, "assumed room temperature." But what if anything can we learn from the present hysteria about the state of erligion in the world today. For one thing, we can learn a great deal about the non-discerning non-believer. Many of those who are abandoning religion are not coming to a coolly calculated decision that their past beliefs were wrong. C. S. Lewis said in one of his writings that most people are not reasoned out of Christianity; they just drift away. Many of those who are giving up on religion today are doing so based on an emotional reaction to things they see in the world around them. They see suicide bombers blowing themselves up or fanatic zealots carrying out terror attacks by flying into buildings or attacking people in subway stations and they come to the conclusion that they want no part of religion! This is, of course, quite absurd. It would be like someone who has been a music lover all his life going to a concert of heavy metal rock and deciding that if that's what music is all about, they want no part of it! This would go against all reason and past experience. Not all religious groups are made up of Islamic extremists! And if you abandon Christianity because you don't like Christian conservatives, I can assure you that there are plenty of people who profess Christianity who are not conservative at all. It also seems that religion is on the decline for other reasons in places where it was once quite thriving. Christianity was once on the rise in many Third World countries and places where the church was under severe persecution. Now, many of those places are enjoying a degree of affluence; and in other nations, religious persecution is much less severe than it used to be. So the rural folks are moving to the cities. Many who scratched out a living as best they could on rugged farm land are now earning wages in city factories. The sons and daughers of those who came to know Christ through the work of western missionaries decades ago are now turning away from the faith of their parents. This is truly sad. I do not deny that the church needs to be more vigorously engaged in evangelistic and mission work, spreading the Gospel again in nations around the world. Too often, mission efforts seem to have replaced proclamation with public service. Again, however, we are not dealing here with an inherent flaw in Christianity. We are dealing with the age-old problem of worldliness, the sin of self-centeredness. People will find any excuse they can to turn away from godliness. The problem is not our message, but mankind. Let us deal realistically with the non-discerning non-believer and realize that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit, the worldly person will be blinded to the glorious gospel and the saving truth of Christ. I hope to have more on the changing impact of religion, especially Christianity, in later posts.