Cover Story

October 2008

Where does faith fit?

Following Jesus  in America

The church’s job is not to teach us how to be ‘nice’ people or good Americans, but to form us into the countercultural likeness of Christ

By Stanley Hauerwas

One of the difficulties with being a Christian in a country like America — allegedly a Christian country — is that our familiarity with “Christianity” has made it difficult for us to read or hear Scripture. We have used faith in God to underwrite American pretensions that we are a Christian nation possessing righteousness other nations lack.

When presidents of the United States claim that the “God” of the Pledge of Allegiance is the God Christians worship, we have a problem. The Christian God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the only God worthy of worship. And the Christian pledge is not the Pledge of Allegiance, but rather is called the Apostles’ Creed.

There is no question that love between the persons of the Trinity is at the very heart of the Christian faith, but nothing is more destructive to the Christian faith than the current identification of Christianity with love. “Love” in this instance is often used as a substitution for being “nice.”

But if God wants us to be more loving, why do we need Jesus to tell us that? Why didn’t God just tell us through an appropriate spokesperson that God wants us to love one another? If that is what Jesus is all about — that is, getting us to love one another — then why did everyone reject him? Why would anyone have bothered putting him to death?

The offense of Jesus is not that he wanted his followers to be loving; the offense is Jesus himself. Jesus is the politics of the new age. He is about the establishment of a kingdom that not only cares for the poor, but is willing to be poor — a kingdom that not only refuses to participate in the world’s violence, but is willing to die at the hands of a violent world.

The politics of Jesus

©istockphoto.com photo by Lauri WibergWe should not be surprised that Jesus is the embodiment of such a politics. After all, Mary’s song promised that the proud would have their imaginations “scattered,” the powerful would be brought down from their thrones, the rich would be sent away empty, the lowly would be lifted up, and the hungry would be filled with good things.

Is it any wonder that the world was not prepared to welcome this kind of savior? Jesus was put to death because he embodied a politics that threatened all worldly regimes based on the fear-filled impulse to kill or be killed. The character of Jesus’ politics can be seen perhaps most clearly in the discourse between Jesus and Pilate. Indeed there can be no ambiguity about the political challenge Jesus represents before Pilate. Pilate is Roman authority; he is an authority who has the power to determine whether those who appear before Roman governors live or die.

Pilate begins in an inquiring fashion, “They tell me that you are the King of Jews.  Is that true?” Pilate’s question is obviously meant to see if Jesus is “political.” Jesus responds by asking if Pilate came up with such a view on his own or did others tell him such was the case. “I am not a Jew, am I?” replies Pilate. To which Jesus responds, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from here.”

Many have read this remark as a confirmation that Jesus was not about politics. But Jesus never denies being a king, nor does he deny having a kingdom. Rather he denies that his kingdom is ruled according to the politics of this world. So is there a politic of the kingdom of God? Yes, and the name of that politics is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The gospel is the proclamation of a new age begun through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  That gospel, moreover, has a form — a political form — called church. The church, as John Howard Yoder observes, is a society called into being by Jesus who gave us a new way to live. Yoder writes,

He gave them a new way to deal with offenders — by forgiving them. He gave them a new way to deal with violence — by suffering. He gave them a new way to deal with money — by sharing it. He gave them a new way to deal with problems of leadership — by drawing on the gift of every member, even the most humble. He gave them a new way to deal with a corrupt society — by building a new order, not making the old. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, between parent and child, between master and slave, in which was made concrete a radical new vision of what it means to be a human person” (The Original Revolution, page 29).

That is the politics of Jesus — the “good news.”

An alternative to the world

The church does not exist to teach us how to be good Americans, or how to make Christianity “cool.” The church exists to form us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, into the likeness of Christ.

There’s no need to make the gospel “relevant” to the current culture. Jesus doesn’t care about being relevant; rather, Jesus cares about making disciples, about drawing people into the community called church that embodies the life-giving politics made possible through his life, death and resurrection.

Jesus does not promise that we will be made safe. Rather, this Savior offers to free us from our self-inflicted fears and anxieties.

Jesus does so, not by making our lives “more meaningful,” though we may discover our lives have renewed purpose, but by making us members of his body so that we can share in the goods of a community that is an alternative to the world.

As followers of Christ we may be hated and rejected, but we have been given such wonderful work that we may hardly notice.

Why did Jesus have to die? Jesus died to show us life is about God — not us. That is the good news of the gospel!

We are not left to our own devices. We are not in charge of our destinies. Jesus is our destiny. Jesus died so that we might find life, and life abundantly, in him.

Stanley Hauerwas, named “America’s Best Theologian” by Time magazine in 2001, is a professor of theological ethics at Duke University Divinity School. This article is adapted from lectures given at Duke and Princeton Theological Seminaries and originally published in The Cresset.

Best-kept political secret

Congregations are superb places to learn about public issues

By Wayne G. Boulton

With one month left in what seems like an endless presidential campaign, Americans are still sifting through all the claims and counter-claims, the 24/7 news coverage and the complex issues to decide whom to support.

If it seems like more than you can manage, then you are not alone! But there is assistance available from a source you might not expect: your church.

In one of Jesus Christ’s politically incorrect moments, he told his followers that it was impossible to serve both God and money. “Therefore, I tell you,” he continued, “don’t worry about your life, about what you will eat or about what you will drink ... Your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:25–33, excerpts).

Along with the rest of Scripture, these words describe a perspective at the heart of the most remarkable yet underused resource for Christian voters: the congregation. 

The church is a critical resource because of its mission: to reintroduce the perspective of God’s kingdom into our lives. The realm of God calls us to do justice and love kindness and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). This perspective helps us approach politics more wisely, to enter public life with hope, but without expecting too much.

The Presbyterian congregation is a more than suitable place to discuss — “under God” — the relative merits and personal qualities of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. Most congregations are not politically homogenous — and are more valuable because of it: “Iron sharpens iron ...” (Proverbs 27:17).

Congregations are potential political schools — superb places to become current on public issues. Both worship and Sunday school are appropriate settings for an emphasis on faith and politics. (See “Faith and politics — helpful resources” below.)

Many churches feature issues classes for adults in which contemporary subjects are discussed from a Christian perspective. Local public officials and candidates for office may be invited to speak and answer questions. A congregation may choose to go one step further and host a public forum for local or regional political candidates, focusing on how values inform policy.

Religion still matters

The Religious Right may be declining as a political force in our national life, but our fascination with the political side of religion is not. The public interest in the remarks of Barack Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, is just one of the most recent examples.

American elections attend to religion for the most basic of reasons: Americans attend to religion. Described poetically over a century ago by an outsider (Chesterton) as a “nation with the soul of a church,” the United States has become arguably the most religious and the most tolerant of countries.

For Presbyterians religion is not some new, baffling social force. Rooted in the Reformed tradition, we are the beneficiaries of more than four centuries of profound teachings about religion. We know religion well. Our Reformed heritage points us toward the difficult task of never placing any religion (including our own) beyond discussion or above criticism.

Our tradition lifts up (at least) weekly encounters with the Bible and the words of Jesus. “Woman, believe me,” Jesus said to a Samaritan woman starting to quiz him about religious practices, “the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). Thus Jesus encourages us to look at religion from the standpoint of the end times, or the realm of God. Viewed this way, all religion is seen to be in flux, moving toward or away from the kingdom.

Understanding religion well is a skill we voters have every right to demand of 21st-century American presidents. Both major party nominees are Christian. Obama is active in the United Church of Christ; McCain, formerly an Episcopalian, is now Baptist.

Questions to consider

When speaking of their own faith, do the candidates’ words carry the sound of truth — of reverence for the divine, and of humility about themselves? And when speaking of faiths different from their own, are they wise?

In the life of which candidate do we see more evidence of following God’s call? Given the problems we face as a nation, which person is more likely to be the one God is calling in this time and place?

As Christians were instructed in the first century (I Timothy 3:1–7), we need to examine the way these two aspiring leaders have managed the little things, before asking either of them to manage a lot. 

Wayne Boulton, retired Presbyterian minister and former president of the Presbyterian School of Christian Education, lives in Wellesley, Mass.

The war in Iraq
TWO PERSPECTIVES

This is one example of a key issue on which the two candidates for president express very different positions, as summarized here:

©istockphoto.com photo by Larry coleJOHN McCAIN: The decision to invade Iraq was not a mistake. The war — though mishandled in the past — can be won. The war put on notice regimes and co-conspirators dreaming that terrible deeds against America might go unpunished, or that the United States lacked the will to fight a difficult conflict far from its shores.  In May 2008 U.S. casualties in Iraq dropped to their lowest point since 2003.

©istockphoto.com photo by Larry coleBARACK OBAMA: The costly and mismanaged war in Iraq is the worst foreign policy debacle in living memory. Slight military gains over the past year divert attention from the continuing failures of Iraq’s fragile government. In human and in financial terms, the cost of the war has been enormous. The war has not made America (or the rest of the world) any safer. Instead of repelling terrorists, the war has turned Iraq into a rallying point for them.

Faith and politics
HELPFUL RESOURCES

Christian and Citizen election year materials from the PC(USA)’s Washington Office offer worship themes and resources and information on how to set up church-sponsored forums for political candidates.

Religion and Politics Study Pack (7 sessions)

“Faith and Politics” is the theme of the May/June 2008 issue of Horizons, the magazine for Presbyterian Women.

Social witness policy statements of the PC(USA)

johnmccain.com and barakobama.com — information on the candidates as prepared by their respective campaigns

The Preacher and the Presidents (2007): In telling the story of Billy Graham’s relationship to U.S. presidents, two veteran Time reporters provide a masterful account of religion in American public life.

Christ and Culture (1951): H. R. Niebuhr’s still-helpful classic describes various ways Christians have moved (and still move) into the public square.

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