I haven't blogged much lately because I've been too busy home schooling, attempting to promote my book and have actually started graduate school (part time). I thought about closing this blog to help focus my attention elsewhere, but decided to keep it opened for times I wanted to write about something that I thought was important. As such, that time has come.
There are few things that grieve my soul more than the twisting of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are many things that I believe to be morally wrong, but few things that grieve me in this way: American Civic Religion. And, yesterday I saw a website that I found so disturbing that it actually gave me nightmares! As so often is the case, the perversion of truth starts with a grain of truth. In this case, the poor handling of debt and stimulus in our federal government. What is so frightening to me, is the way those who pervert the truth do it so cunningly and make it sound so "good." Unless, of course, you commune with the only One who is truly good, and so can recognize His Presence or the lack thereof.
The Prophetic Ministry of Bob and Bonnie Jones has managed to gain a fairly significant following as they pervert and twist scripture to meet the needs of their political desires. I'm not certain if their perversion is the product of years of poor Biblical teaching or if they just openly desire to manipulate people by preying on their fears in a politically tumultuous time. Either way, I would go so far as to call them blasphemous.
Isaiah 61 in no way references the Tea Party of America. The Tea Party is a legitimate political movement that contains many faithful Christian people. It is not inclusive of the entire church. There are Christians who simply are not as conservative in their political views and are not part of the movement. There are Christians who are politically polar opposite of them. To reference a current political movement as scriptural is not only academically laughable, it shows that they a have a complete misunderstanding of scripture.
The good news being proclaimed in Isaiah 61 is the good news that we are all forgiven! The good news that Jesus is evidence of the fact that God, directly after the fall of man, sought us out in relationship despite our fallen nature. It is NOT the proclamation that "taxation without representation" is unacceptable. The Bride in the Bible is not the Tea Party of America. It is the church -- which is comprised of every tribe, every nation and EVERY POLITICAL PARTY.
We are not ancient Israel. We are not a theocracy. If we are a theocracy then we are scripturally very off base and according to the book of Acts should be pursuing socialism rather than capitalism. I, for one, am very glad we are not a theocracy.
Every Christian is called to political action, but our political action will not manifest itself in the same way. By proclaiming the Tea Party some kind of movement of God, Bob and Bonnie have totally cheapened Christ's sacrifice, furthered a political agenda that risks removing real Christianity from the public square and probably made a few bucks in wake of it all.
Christianity is about following Jesus Christ. It is about pursuing the Kingdom of Christ while living in the Empire that we were born into. Don't legitimize the empire by trying to make it the Kingdom it simply can never be. Make the empire the best it can be by living Kingdom principles in it.
