On Sunday the Trump administration joined forces with a certain sector of religious leaders to celebrate “Rededicate 250”, a gathering of “Christians” to remember the Christian roots of our country and to rededicate our nation to God.
The event was problematic on various fronts. Of greatest importance (for followers of Jesus), this event goes against the clear teaching of Jesus. Jesus hated the public display of religiosity for political, economic or personal gain. In his important Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against praying in public in order to be seen be others:
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven…. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. (Matthew 6:1, 6-7)
Unlike Jesus, I do not usually have the ability to look into people’s hearts and discern which are sincere and which are not. But it is obvious that the leaders of this event wanted to be seen by others (televised, on internet, etc.) If hypocrisy was a serious problem in the time of Jesus, it is just as prevalent and dangerous today. Therefore, the warning of Jesus is timely and necessary.
A second problem with the event was its emphasis on “Christian Nationalism”. Christian Nationalism is a heresy that conflates the goodness of a sector of Christianity with the fallen actions of a nation or political party. In this Church/State alliance, the church is the junior partner that sells its soul and receives the blame for the evil actions of the state. Historical examples include Constantinian Christianity which “blessed” the wars of the “Holy” Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition and its persecution of “heretics”, and Hitler’s National Church, together with its promotion of Nazi ideals. Within the U.S. experience, there are many examples of Christian Nationalism, including Manifest Destiny and the war against Mexico, which Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln correctly denounced as Polk’s evil imperialism.
Another problem with the event was its content. Justice is a central theme in the teaching of Jesus and in all of Scripture because it fights against interpersonal sin and seeks the wellbeing of all humanity. If I am not mistaken, justice was not mentioned even once in the plenary messages and sermons in Sunday’s event. Neither was love for the most vulnerable among us. According to the Holy Book, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27) In our better moments, we Christians have served the orphans, the widows, and other vulnerable people in our midst. At other times, we have not. We have not always been led by America’s best virtues, but by its worst vices: selfish greed, apathy, and indifference.
Just as Jesus transformed the hypocrisy of public religiosity into true love for our neighbors, may we do the same with Sunday’s event!
Lindy Scott 