“Indeed, God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
(John 3:17 NRSV)
Back in the early days of Christian Media, I got hooked on the televangelist Jim Bakker. I was a true fan and listened to the PTL Club faithfully. It was a time in my life when I was not worshipping in a congregation and did not have a church home. I felt a lack of purpose to my life even though I was climbing my career ladder. I will always credit him with redirecting me back to the faith of my youth, but I still had a few lessons to learn about the media and how charismatic people can play you for their own gain. At one point, I donated $1000 to his ministry. His theology also slid me quickly into fundamentalism and the prosperity gospel where I lived for about two years before I became active in a church again and was accepted into seminary. By that time, Mr. Bakker was convicted of fraud, in jail and facing a divorce.
At seminary, with the loving care of a Christ centered community and the intellectual challenge of theological studies, I quickly out-grew televangelism and its prosperity theology and fundamentalism. My faith broadened out of the small box the charismatic televangelists created. I had learned the value of Christian Community and was too busy to watch Christian television. I hold no grudge to Mr. Baker. He paid his debt and was held accountable. In fact, I am glad to have come through that lesson with a faith stronger in the tradition of my baptism as an Evangelical Lutheran. But I had to do the work of processing my beliefs as an adult.
Therefore, this early trip, into the world of the Christian Right helps me understand the language and culture before this demographic became a movement in American politics. I understand the pain of citizens who lost their entitled American dream. I served as interim pastor to farmers in Iowa who confessed they had signed papers at the bank for loans their grandchildren would still be paying, if the farm did survive. I felt their fears about life in general in this land of opportunity. I sympathized with their financial and emotional loss and feeling of uselessness. They had lost the American Dream. They seemed trapped with no place to go. Some moved away, but most lacked any vision for opportunity. Farming was all they had even known and loved. Feeding the world was their God chosen mission. The myth of America failed them. I treasure those memories because they help me understand where we need to go from here as people of faith in God’s realm and as citizens of the USA. Here are some of the woke lessons I learned:
1. Charismatic leaders can be mesmerizingly charming, but do their words match their actions? I learned to be careful and get details to be sure they are telling the truth and displaying real discipleship including allegiance to principles of the Kingdom of God. Do their words build up community for the greater good or just support their own exclusive group of followers?
2. Follow the money. I learned to do research and be much more careful with how I contribute my hard-earned money to causes.
3. Get the opinions of other people. It is too easy to fall for a leader or a movement when you are only listening to one source of information. I learned to ask other people what they think about the situation. I value op-eds from many sources to get a bigger picture of what God may be doing from more than my singular and potentionally myopic viewpoint.
4. Forgive myself. I learned to forgive myself for my mistakes, but always to learn a lesson from the mistake or I will be doomed to repeat that same mistake until I learn what God is trying to teach me.
5. Take the time to process strong feelings BEFORE acting on them. I own what I feel, but I act not just on passion, but also on information from Lesson # 3. I can take the time to think things through first because I trust in God’s providence over my life.
There are over 72 million people who choose to vote for Trump. They are people for whom Christ died. They are not going away. Their issues are kitchen table concerns. They are not all radical or violent! They are probably more worried and afraid. They are family –parents, spouses, children, uncles, aunts, cousins. They are not the enemy. Their fear is the enemy. The opposite of fear is faith and perhaps they have misplaced their faith. I believe violent and illegal actions require accountability, but most of them are not violent. Psychologists tell us that you cannot reason with people when they are bottled up in emotions. But you can love them back to reason. Talk with them calmly about the lessons you have learned in the last four years. Help them to process what happened politically and emotionally. Help them find their faith again. Discuss the lessons they may have learned–lessons of life, lessons of citizenship and lessons maybe about how easy it is to be played when you are really hurting and can no longer rely on the America Myth. Remind them that God loves them and wants to be the authentic and ultimate leader in their lives. Live and learn to never get played again.
May I suggest:
Share what you have learned about the political process in the last four years with family and friends. Let’s all work to be better informed citizens. Be calm, and trust God has a plan–even if it is not the one you had in mind, it will probably be so much better than you could even imagine. And put on a mask when you are with other people because we are really all in this together—”of, by and for the people.”
Jackie, this is the first post I have read and I am blown away. You have a gift and I love your testament to where and how you came into your Christian beliefs today. Thank you for sharing! I look forward to reading more.