Sorry to be the one to state the obvious, but it’s not like any of us can’t see it. I’m not sure exactly when it all started, but it seems it has taken over our movement. Some think it started with the anti-abortion movement, others with the confrontational style of conservative media that has infused much of evangelical Christianity.
As a kid, I remember Pastors that focused on doctrine which was their way of showing how our church and denomination was right . . . and everyone else was wrong. Perhaps that laid the groundwork for our quarrels of today. But if so, at least back then we weren’t abandoning our morals in the fight.
In the end, I’m not sure it matters when it all began. The reality is that it is where we are today, and I don’t see us dialing back the fight. On the contrary, we seem increasingly ready to fight about the dumbest stuff.
When it First Became Obvious
I don’t know when it first became obvious to you, but for me it became obvious in 2016, when conservative Christians unequivocally backed Donald Trump for President. Most of my conservative Christian friends voted for him. I couldn’t reason with any of them. It didn’t matter what scriptural arguments you made. They knew what the Bible said, but their minds were nonetheless made up.
It was bad enough he was a compulsive liar. But when the tapes came out with him talking about how he grabbed women by their private parts, it pushed me over the edge. Sorry, there’s no way to justify it. Don’t bother to tell me you’re electing a President, not a Pastor. Read Deuteronomy 17:15-20:
be sure to appoint over you a king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your fellow Israelites. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself . . . He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law . . . It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left.
He fails every criterion. We’re without excuse. But in the end, we couldn’t resist electing someone who would fight for us, a real quarreler, just like us!
Just Like Us
Some may wonder how backing a quarreler makes us quarrelers. But think back to the 2016 election. At that time, Russell Moore was the head of ethics in the Southern Baptist leadership. Anyone remember what happened when he publicly stated that the church should not support Trump because he was an immoral man who lacked character?
Over 100 pastors went into revolt, refusing to send the required monetary support for the Southern Baptist leadership until they fired him. Tell me that isn’t proof we’re just like Trump, loving quarrels more than morals!
Since then, Trump has taken over the Republican party and now our lawmakers love quarrels more than morals. As a conservative Christian, I’ve never seen such a gang of corrupt criminals in our party. Trump attempts to steal a fair election and anyone in the Republican party who won’t fight the charges gets booted out. Those moral enough to stand up for the truth got dumped.
He’s now been found liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial, is facing nearly 100 charges of law-breaking, and all he does is quarrel with his opponents, claiming he’s taking the high ground by suffering these indignities for his base. Manifestly immoral, in a never-ending quarrel. And we all know how the conservative Christian church will vote in November! Give us Barabbas, the insurrectionist!
If you still think I’m wrong, just look at what’s happened since. We’re now quarreling state by state over abortion, we’re leading the fight on book bans, fighting to keep LGBTQ’s out of our public spaces, making hostile takeovers of school boards, fighting against vaccines, fighting the green weenies, you name it. There’ll be no end because we love quarrels more than morals.
The Long Shadow of our Self-Righteousness Blocks the Light of the Truth
The scary part is that we can’t see our self-righteousness. The common denominator in all these quarrels is that we think we know what’s best for everybody else! It’s the definition of self-righteousness. We think we’re justified in championing all these fights because we’re right and we know what’s best . . . for everyone else.
But if we were really moral, we would know that we’re not to lord it over the pagan but to be their servants (Matthew 20:25-26). But self-righteously, we’ve inverted morality. We’re convinced that if we’re in charge, the world would be a better place. That arrogance is rooted in ignorance of church history. No good thing came out of any of the times the church decided it should sovereignly take charge.
Who are the victims of these quarrels? Who are the losers? They are all those we’re called to bring to Christ who in anger and outrage of our oppressive behavior, will never accept Christ because our behavior is so un-Christlike. They’re the losers . . . and so are we. We’re losers for failing to see that we’ve failed the mandate to compel them into the kingdom of God.