Our relationship with the Bible and with our faith should be the same. We’re not supposed to leave these stories in our 8 year-old brains; they’re supposed to grow with us.

“Human rulers become beasts when they assign divinity to their power and economic security and demand allegiance to it.”  (The Bible Project)

I am not a fan of the book of Revelation. It’s weird and I had enough “spiritual warfare" teaching in my youth to make me afraid of overtly spiritual language, but I’ve come to make peace with it as a timeless warning to not give in to the Dark Side of the Force.

When we’re conditioned to obey, we become capable of the most horrible things imaginable; we become capable of endorsing cruelty and excusing murder. We will become the people who commit unimaginable horrors without even being told.

Christian authoritarians abuse Romans 13 and Ephesians 6 to convince their followers that obedience is the ultimate Christian virtue and that disobedience (sin) leads to death. That is slavery and it is the opposite of the Gospel.

Christianity proclaims that Jesus came to set the captives free.

As we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, I thought it would be a good time to remind us of the lessons learned from the past on fighting tyranny and specifically, the responsibility of Christians to resist.

When the early followers of Jesus proclaimed Jesus as Lord, they were making the statement that the way of the Most High God was not the way of tyrants and Empire.

Part One: Introduction

I just finished listening to Rachel Held Evans read her audiobook, A Year of Biblical Womanhood and I wept.

It was through those stories that I was introduced to Rachel - can I call her Rachel? - when she spoke at the VAUMC Fall Youth Retreat in 2012. She taught me that it’s okay to grow in our faith and the importance in helping others grow, too.

Last week, I referenced a speech given by Vice President Vance in which he talked about the need to defend a “certain” Christian civilization (see Part Two), I suspect he did not mean a civilization built on the teachings of Christ.

If the Christian Nationalist movement is interested in Christian civilization, perhaps we should look at what the oldest Christian communities were like.

Running bibliography of books and podcasts.

Several weeks ago, the Vice President of the United States went to Hungary to praise the authoritarian regime of Viktor Orban as the “the defense of Western civilization,” and “the defense of the idea that we are founded on a certain Christian civilization and Christian values that animate everything…” (CBS News)

When I heard this, everything clicked. 

“…a certain Christian civilization…” 

I pledge allegiance to the Bible,

God’s Holy Word.

I will make it a lamp unto my feet,

and a light unto my path,

and will hide its words

in my heart that I might

not sin against God.

I had never heard of this “Pledge to the Bible” until I taught in a Christian school in the 90s. I found it odd, but didn’t really question it.

I grew up with the Apostle’s Creed, which goes like this:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the story of the Fiery Furnace this last week.

If you’re unfamiliar with the story, it’s found in the third chapter of the Book of Daniel, which is set in the time of the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BCE.

In the story, the King Nebuchadnezzar had a large golden statue made of himself, and at the dedication ceremony, he declared that when the instruments sounded, the people must bow down and worship it or be thrown into a fiery furnace.

Just over a year ago, I was compelled to leave a job that I loved because it became clear that if I was going to insist that my memories were real and demand adherence to an evidence based reality, I would have to look elsewhere.

I finally understood that this is why I have fought against biblical inerrancy for as long as I can remember; I am just wired to resist anyone and anything that asks me to reject the evidence of my own eyes and ears.

“…woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

Pope Leo IVX’s statement sums up why I do what I do (although the irony that these words came from the Pope is not lost on this Protestant).

Christianity has a long history of being hijacked by people in the pursuit of personal gain. We can find news stories going back decades detailing individual stories of spiritual abuse - when clergy used their positions, and the words of Scripture to enable various forms of abuse.

The last week has been hard. First there was the genocide thing. Then came the blasphemy thing. The audacious display of narcissism sent me into a spiral and I succumbed the lies that of those who declared that I am worth less. Who am I to think anyone would listen to me?

Then I came across a Substack that someone wrote a few months ago and it was exactly what I needed. Toward the end, the author wrote: “I still believe telling the truth matters, even when it doesn’t seem to change anything. Maybe especially then.”

The truth matters, while narcissism thrives on lies, the truth sets us free.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” These were the words of the President of the United States this morning.

This president has had the unwavering support of too many Christians for far too long. The key word in that sentence is “unwavering.” It’s idolatrous.

He is Risen!

The other day, I watched an interview with someone who used to be an evangelical New Testament scholar who is now an agnostic/atheist New Testament scholar (Bart Erhman). He doesn’t really believe in God anymore.

Last night as I listened to the story again, I heard the same words over and over again, “the Jews.” I suppose I can understand how that part of the story has been used to fuel antisemitism for millennia, but I don’t think that was the intent - I hear something else.

I hear the deep pain of betrayal.

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus. Many of us were taught that because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, our sins are forgiven. 

A popular theory as to how this works is that because humans are totally depraved we are worthy only of God’s wrath, therefore God sent his own son to take the punishment for our sin to reconcile us with God so we can go to heaven when we die.

I realized this week that it’s this characterization of God and understanding of salvation that I’m fighting against. 

Several years ago, I learned an interesting backstory to Palm Sunday.

In the time of Jesus, the king would enter the city before Passover through one of the city’s gates. The “king” (royal governor) would ride his horse and enter with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal parade.

And so it was that Jesus chose to enter the city at around the same time…

“Americans came to liberate, not to conquer; to restore freedom and to end tyranny.”

These are the words inscribed at the base of the flagpoles at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

I used to think that something we could all agree on was that tyranny, as a general principle, is bad. There seemed to be consensus around the idea that tyrants are bad. 

It was seven years ago this week that I spent hours building a play house in the wooded section of our yard in a cold drizzle, and in those woods, I saw two roads that diverged.

 I chose one and it has made all the difference. 

 What I saw was that I could continue on the path of American “biblical” Christianity or I could follow Jesus.