Some Notes on Recent Personal Reading

Today, I read a chapter from Andrew Murray's book Full Life in Christ which focused on the importance of conforming to Christ's example in suffering wrong, and I wondered: Do people in America who take the name of Christ suffer wrong?

It seems that if they do, the wrong is of a far different sort than the kind that our Lord suffered 2000 years ago--no whippings, no remorseless jamming of razor sharp thorns into a man's skull, no hours of agonizing pain on a cross designed to extend the victim's life as long as possible, no spitting, no frenzied attempts by one's own townspeople to tear their victim to pieces with their bare hands, and absolutely, positively no homelessness.

I suppose that what goes for "persecution" today in the eyes of contemporary American evangelicals is name-calling, stereotyping, and the annual attempt by non-Christian groups to prevent the traditional display of the Nativity in the local town square during the Christmas holiday season. I wonder if the Jay Sekulows, the James Dobsons, and the Ralph Reeds of the world would be surprised to learn that even 400 years ago, Christians faced torture, mutilation, and fiery death--without complaint--as martyrs for Christ. I wonder if the same people within our nation's politico-religious establishment who regularly decry the evils of "Islamofascism" remember that the Christian-Muslim wars of today are simply skirmishes in a long (and equally sad) history of violence between brothers. I wonder if God is shedding tears over the malicious use of his Son's name (and sacrifice) for selfish human purposes, or if he has instead resolved to teach his so-called children a lesson . . .

Personally, I think that a nation with a 60% divorce rate in its churches, that kills 2 million babies (and then some) a year and that swallows the rest of us (born and unborn) in a tidal wave of materialism, substance abuse, and greed dares not invoke the name of the same God who destroyed the ancient Canaanites--as well as the nation of Israel--for engaging in similar practices. I think that a church which mobilizes against groups such as NOW and Planned Parenthood without addressing the very real vacuum it has created in an entire generation's sexual development dares not assume that Christ looks upon its disdain for young pregnant mothers with any less contempt than he would have looked upon those who scorned his mother Mary. And I think that a person who invokes the name of Christ in the cause of his own growing material prosperity without bothering to help those who are poor, blind, pitiful, and naked should read the Bible with a healthy dose of fear.

There are some within American Christendom today who would paint a nightmare scenario for us of Muslims slowly but surely infesting and taking over every formerly Christian institution, nation, and culture in the world--turning churches into mosques, forcing American women to wear burqas, and outlawing the use and/or dissemination of the Bible. Having known a few Muslims, I highly doubt that such a complex conspiracy is in the offing, but if it were, I will only say that I place more trust in the care of my beloved Savior than I do in my own life, and if my Lord were to require my life of me in His service, I would gladly give it, as so many generations of Christians have been called to give of themselves for the glory of the Cross, even unto death.

Those who so vigorously defend the institutions of American Christendom fail to consider that perhaps the Lord wishes sometimes to deal his self-proclaimed servants a few defeats in order to test how wide and how deep their loyalty really is. Christianity, from its origins to the present day, has not only thrived but rejoiced in its persecutions, and it seems that the purity of Christ's adherents shines the brightest when their lives are at stake. Is it so repugnant to the American psyche to lose one's life for Christ's sake (and the sake of the Gospel) that we cannot bring ourselves even to help the homeless, the widows, and the orphans in our own neighborhoods? Are Americans so ashamed of the Gospel their forbears held as sacred that their laptops, Gameboys, and satellite televisions mean more to them than the traditional family Bible once meant to generations that passed before us?

Herein is the mission of my blog: not to make you feel ashamed (after all, I am no less a failure in these matters than you are) but to call everyone--man, woman, and child--who invokes the name of Jesus the Christ to the standard this name implies.