Please don't call me an evangelical

Please don't.

Oh, I still believe. I believe God has come into our brokenness, walked among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and through the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus we are offered new life. God heals our brokenness and invites us to join the work of salvation in this world. I believe I am called to share that Good News with all of Creation. And so you might want to call me evangelical--which comes from the Greek word which means Good News. 

But don't call me Evangelical. The other day as the news organizations reported the results of the Iowa Caucus, they used the term Evangelical in the same manner they use the terms Democrat or Republican. One person even went as far as to create the term Teavangelical--the marriage of the Tea Party and Evangelicalism. Evangelical has become a political party.

Now the term Evangelical has been hard to define in the past century. There are those who would tie Fundamentalism to Evangelical. But one could be Evangelical without being a fundamentalist. Being evangelical at one time simply meant that you believed in sharing the Good News (probably an over simplistic view of the term) but denominations and theologies have attempted to lay claim to the term. They all wish to be known as the ones who care for the lost and bring the Good News.

But now the term has been hijacked by politics. Somehow Evangelical means being against abortion and homosexuality, being for small government, and voting conservatively. But no where in Scripture do I see the Good News being described as those things. I don't see Evangelical being described as large government, and regulations on businesses either.

It seems we have traded the Good News that God has come to dwell with humanity again, bringing healing and love, peace and hope to our brokenness for the American Dream. We have chosen to bring the Kingdom through political parties, when it came in a Savior who gave up his own rights and loved us with his life. Instead of following in the Savior's footsteps, having the same mind as Christ did and being like Christ, we have followed politics, the American Dream, and a list of things to believe and stand for and attempted to vote the Kingdom into existence. 

America's dreams and news, as good as they are, are not good enough. And so if being an Evangelical means bringing the good news of America, I must ask you to not call me evangelical. The Good News of Christ is so much bigger and better. And it doesn't come through a political party or through violence. It doesn't come through a list of rights or the constitution. The Good News comes when we the people of God allow the Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ. The Good News is God has come, walked among us, and made a way for us to be whole again. That is the news I choose to proclaim!

All you need is love.....part one

All you need is love.  So why is it so hard? I have been part of dialogs between friends, on line, on blogs, etc. where the tensions rise and accusations are hurled. In the middle of a heated discussion, someone will call people to love. Another will say "love the sinner, hate the sin." And then someone will ask, "how can we love someone who is in opposition to Scripture?" And yet another will state, "we cannot condone this lifestyle or these actions, or this sin. Christianity is not a feel good, hippie religion." Why is love so difficult? When Christ says "love your enemies," what did he mean?
I think part of the problem is our English.
I love ice cream. So obviously, when ice cream is served I am going to partake.
I love hockey. So obviously, I condone hockey games.
I love my sister. I accept her.
We use the term love for silly, temporary things and for deep, eternal matters. Our culture portrays another version of love which a highly sexual one. And so our understanding of love is blurred in our culture and by our language.
But the Greek, which the New Testament was written in, has more than one term for love. I am going to focus on the term agape, the love of God in the Septuagint and the New Testament, because we are to love others as Christ has loved us. It is the agape love we are to show.
I have often heard preachers discuss how agape love is the unconditional love. When I was in seminary, I did a word study through Kittle's Theological Dictionary on the term agape. Kittle looks at each word in the New Testament in the context of the culture--how did the Greek people in history and the contemporaries of Jesus use the word, in the context of the Septuagint and the Old Testament (the Jewish translators chose specific Greek words for specific Hebrew and Aramaic words when they translated), and in the context of the New Testament--how has the author of the Scripture used the term in other places or other NT authors used the term. I found the term agape is more than just unconditional love. The Jewish translators used the term agape for the love of God or the Hesed in the Septuagint because it is a choice love. While the other terms for love in Greek mean affection or brotherly love, agape denotes choice. God chose Israel out of all the other nations to love. God chose to love Israel, even though they turned from God, God chose them, loved them, and used them to bring the Messiah.
So how do we love people we disagree with theologically, politically, socially? Its a choice! We choose to love first whether the person will agree with us or disagree. We choose love before we know where they stand. Rachel Held Evans had an interesting post on the subject of disagreeing theologically with people: http://rachelheldevans.com/guest-post-david-nilsen  Choosing to love is to give people the benefit of the doubt and allow them to voice their view. That will be a discussion for the next post.

I just want to love Jesus

I just want to love Jesus.
But so much gets in the way.
I just want to love Jesus by spending time quietly in prayer and Scripture.
But instead, I press the snooze button or the laundry suddenly becomes a desperate need.
I just want to love Jesus by serving others.
But instead I many times treat people as interruptions to my daily tasks.
I just want to love Jesus in all that I do.
But doctrinal differences, political differences, cultural differences all get in the way.
I just want to love Jesus.

The Southern Baptist have reinforced their understanding of Hell in light of Rob Bell's book. There are numerous books out to combat Rob Bell's "unorthodox" view. "God's ways are higher than ours so just because an eternal Hell is repugnant to us doesn't mean it isn't God's way." And anyone who doesn't believe in a literal hell is dismissed or better yet, a heretic. We assume we can know completely about Hell, Heaven and all Spiritual Truths beyond any shadow of a doubt. And that assumption drives a wedge between us.
There is the debate over homosexuality. Actually it isn't debated much. We simply talk over each other, around each other, at each other. And somehow, if you believe one way you are a liberal heretic who doesn't take Scripture seriously or you believe the other way, you are ignorant, narrow minded and don't understand Scripture as well as you should. And our assumptions destroy our trusts.
The political realm is heating up for the presidential campaigns. And the Christian propaganda is churning. "We need to save our country, take it back." And we pray God's Kingdom come but we cannot understand why its taking so long to get here despite the fact we seem to be living for the glory of America instead of the glory of God. And our zeal burns so hot, we burn each other.
I just want to love Jesus. I just keep getting in the way. And I just keep letting lesser things get in the way.

Christians and Politics

On a friends facebook page, there has been a discussion on whether Fox News should be the voice of Christianity and if the Conservative Party really should be known as the Christian party. A few months ago (back in March I believe), I blogged about a Christian voice. I stated my concern with Beck and the Right Wing has been the blending of Christianity with Americanism--syncretism. One person who was in the discussion, assured me he is not blending his faith with his politics and went on to tell me I am in open rebellion because I have voted Democrat at times. I am not a party line voter. So yes, I vote democrat and republican and independent because no one party holds the Kingdom's voice. But I laugh, syncretism would not be as dangerous if it wasn't subtle and attractive to God's people.
It got me wondering though. Why are Christians so susceptible to someone using Christian-ese? Throw in God, faith, hope, charity, and suddenly, you are obviously a Christian and you deserve my vote. Speak against that candidate and Christians question your Christianity. Why are we so willing to sell the voice of God's Kingdom to one party? (I am aware that in some areas the one party is the democrats and in other areas it is the Republicans, and still now the Tea partiers.)In my opinion:
1. Its a power thing. We like to be in power. Get the Christian in the White House and in Congress. The only problem is: we have had this scenario. There have been plenty of times the "Christian Party" has been in power. Abortion remained legal under them. All of the "Christian values" they were voted in for, seemed to take a back seat. But we were in power and it was comfortable for us.
2. It is much easier to legislate morality than it is to do it Jesus' way. Oh, we are trying to save our country. Christ called us to be fishers of human beings. If we outlaw the "big sins" of abortion and homosexuality, we won't face the judgment. Or if we help the poor, we will not face judgment. But we weren't called to make Christian nations. We were called to make disciples of all nations. Disciples cannot be legislated into existence. But making disciples is a messy business. It means I have to get to know people personally who are different from me. I might find someone who has had an abortion or someone who is homosexual who loves Jesus with all their heart. I might hear a story which breaks my heart and my political agenda meets a real person whose life is broken. I might see Jesus in those broken people. And hear Christ's call to love them as they are. What would I do then?
Why do you think Christians want to have one party be the voice of the Kingdom?