HOLOCAUSTS

“Hear this, you elders;
    listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
    or in the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children,
    and let your children tell it to their children,
    and their children to the next generation.”

-          Joel 1:2-3 (New International Version of the Bible)

January is a month that calls on people to remember. On January 22^nd, hundreds of thousands of Americans, almost all women, marched in Washington, D.C. While many claimed they were coming to advance rights such as gender pay equity, gender identity equity, etc., the primary reason for the march was to show support for the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand. The date chosen for the march was clearly significant. January 22^nd was the date our Supreme Court legalized abortion.

In the 43 years since that decision, women have had about sixty million abortions, an average of one and a half million per year. The arguments made on behalf of the decision range from protecting women’s health, women’s choice in the matter, dealing with a problem pregnancy, etc. The most potent argument in the case for abortion is the health of the mother. After all, that’s what medicine is, or should be, all about. The health of the patient is the reason doctors also perform a half a million tonsillectomies and about three hundred thousand appendectomies every year. 

While the argument relating to the health of the mother appears relevant, it is in large part a fig leaf. In 2005, the Guttmacher Institute released a study that included data on the reasons women get abortions. The most common reason cited revolved around what Guttmacher termed “Having a baby would dramatically change my life.” When the data is stripped down further it becomes ever more revealing. 38% of women surveyed said a baby would interfere with their education or career. 19% said they would have to find a new place to live. Those who claim the pro-choice mantle claim that they’re trying to protect women in cases of rape or incest. Of course we should protect them in those cases, but the Guttmacher data reveals that only one percent of women get abortions in case of incest and less than one percent in cases of rape

.

As the march proceeded that day, there were plenty of signs expressing their outrage at Donald Trump, Roman Catholics, and anyone else who disagreed with them, including some that read, “Keep your rosaries off my ovaries,” “Keep abortion safe and legal,” or some that were quite clever like “This pussy has claws.”

Since 1973, abortion on demand has been legal. I doubt that it will ever be overturned. The pro-abortion lobby is very powerful. Organizations like NARAL and Planned Parenthood have convinced a lot of Americans that abortion is nothing more than removing a bit of problematic tissue. They’ve convinced many of us that the in-utero photos of children sucking their thumbs or responding to external stimuli are figments of our imaginations, that what we’re seeing isn’t a human being. We’re only seeing a conglomeration of tissue. Then, when the abortion is complete they sell the remains as human body parts to be used in laboratories. Useless tissue one moment….human body parts for sale the next.  Of course, they want us to believe their purposes are utterly altruistic. The hypocrisy and sleight of hand are astounding.

A week later there was another march held on January 27^th. Since 1974, Americans have marched in Washington on behalf of the innocent unborn who have been sacrificed on the altar of choice. Their plea this year is the same as it has always been – “Give life a chance!” While Roe v Wade is still codified in law, they continue to march. While the body count continues to go ever higher, they march. They continue to march with signs that read, “We choose Life,” “We are a pro-life generation,” or “For those who can’t.” Some even carried signs that read, “I regret my abortion.” They’ll continue to march as long as the slaughter goes on. They’ll be mocked and vilified, but they will keep marching.

The date of the March for Life coincided with another commemoration this year. Throughout the world, and particularly in Israel, Jews have commemorated what has become known as the “Holocaust.” They’ve been doing so since 1953.  The solemn remembrance falls between the end of Passover and Israel’s Memorial Day for its fallen soldiers.  The date, January 27^th, was chosen in a resolution passed by Israel’s Knesset in 1951.

Nancy and I have been to several of the world’s memorials to the Holocaust. We’ve walked around the six large glass columns in Boston’s Carmen Park. As we walked around the columns, we could see smoke or steam rising from the memorial’s floor. We spent some time reading the names of the six million Jews who were murdered in Hitler’s death camps. It was a moving experience.

We’ve been to our national memorial to the Holocaust in Washington, D.C.  Our visit started on the upper level, where there were artifacts, photos and other memorabilia that showed how innocently the Holocaust began. Then, as we made our way downstairs, the artifacts and photos got increasingly graphic. The temperature got colder and colder. By the end of our visit, one thing became very clear to us. Madness never elevates mankind. It descends, sweeping the innocent up in the apparatus of terror like chaff in the wind.

As moving and memorable as our visits in Boston and Washington, D.C, few can compare with three other sites we’ve visited. The first was Dachau. Until we had visited the extermination camp, I had always thought that the Nazis would want to hide what they were doing from public view, but Dachau disabused me of that notion. The camp is about 10 miles northwest of Munich. To put that in perspective, think in terms of what it would be like to have a death camp operating in Overland Park, Kansas, which is about 10 miles from downtown Kansas City, or Hoboken, New Jersey, which is just across the river from Manhattan with its vibrant theatre district along Broadway, opulent hotels, or the serenity of Central Park. As for the town of Dachau itself, it’s a short bus ride from downtown Munich. Again, I thought the Nazis would want to hide what they were doing, but I was wrong. The camp was just a short walk from the bus stop. It’s interesting to note that the town of Dachau had a long history of being a center for arts and culture. The people of Dachau were justifiably proud of the city’s twelve hundred year history of love for the arts. 

The camp itself was every bit as stark and foreboding as we had expected it to be. The barracks, now empty, seemed quite large until I considered how many Jews and other “miscreants” were housed in each unit. There was a large trench in front of the barbed war fence that encircled the camp. In the days before the efficiency of the gas chambers, Jews were taken to the fence and shot. The trenches conveniently swept all the blood away. When the Nazis discovered they couldn’t shoot the Jews fast enough, they set their engineers to the task of solving the problem. The answer was Zyklon B and incinerators to destroy all traces of those they considered vermin.  The ovens in the crematoria, with their metal doors squeaking when you moved them even slightly, were absolutely sickening. The idea that someone as civilized as the German people could strip another human being of anything they considered valuable, including hair, gold teeth,  money, books, jewelry, and yes, even their dignity, then gas them to death and incinerate them to ashes sickened me. I wanted to vomit. 

There were pieces of the Holocaust that couldn’t be considered large or grand, but it was every bit as much a Holocaust as the ghastly events taking place in the death camps. A few years ago, Nancy and I walked along the Danube River as it meandered through Budapest. Not far from the national parliament building we came across shoes that had been placed in neat rows along the riverbank. They were commemorating those Jews had been caught when the Nazis overran Hungary, rounded up as many as they could find, marched them to the river, shot them, and dumped their lifeless bodies in the river. Before disposing of the bodies, they took the shoes off the corpses. It was a testament to the strange mixture of human cruelty and efficiency that were hallmarks of the Holocaust.

The third memorable site was Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem. Translated, the words Yad Vashem mean “a place and a name,” They mirror a promise of God given to the people of Israel through the prophet Isaiah - “Even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.”  (Isaiah 56:5).

The museum holds hundreds of thousands of photos and other artifacts that give witness to the evil that was inflicted on the Jewish people. After touring the main museum, we walked to the Children’s Memorial net door. We entered a room that was dark. The darkness was occasionally pierced by a small flash of light, sort of like the light that emanates from a flash camera. Then, following the brief flash, a child’s voice reciting his or her name filled the air. I stood there, stunned, as flash followed flash and voice followed voice. I slumped over and began to sob uncontrollably. The process went on and on until the names of the one and a half million children who died at the hands of the Nazis were recited. Then, the process started all over again.

I occasionally look back on that experience and when I do I think of Jesus’ words from the gospel of Mark – “If anyone causes one of these little ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.” A million and a half! A million and a half! If that can’t reduce a person to tears, nothing can. Were these children vermin? How much evil could a human heart hold to think such a thing? I can’t imagine, not even at my wickedest. Yet, today many consider the unborn child to be even worse than vermin. To them, they are nothing more than tissue to be discarded like yesterday’s garbage. 

Most of us think in terms of one Holocaust, a one-time event that is long since passed. To most of us it’s ancient history. But, the commemoration in Jerusalem and the March for Life in Washington, D.C. are both part of a whole. They are both holocausts. The commemorative events in Washington, D.C. and Jerusalem call upon us to remember, to heed, and to choose life. 

While one Holocaust has thankfully ended, another continues unabated.

Tragically, there have been other mini-holocausts going on all around us since the 1990’s. In the nineties we had genocide in the Balkans while the United Nations dithered. We had genocide in Rwanda when Bill Clinton and his diplomatic team debated the definition of genocide while they advocated pulling all peacekeeping forces out of the country. The result was hundreds of thousands of deaths in just a few short months.  The most recent holocaust is taking place right now in Syria. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, thousands more wounded and maimed, and millions displaced to forage for food and shelter like wild animals. In response, supporters of one President cheered when he drew a red line, ignored it, then capped it all off by turning the war-torn country over to two brutal tyrants to do with as they pleased, thus abandoning those caught up in the brutality of poison gas and barrel bombs. Many supporters of a new President cheered when he recently closed an avenue of escape to those who have been ravaged for far too long.

Are there other holocausts waiting in the wings? I pray not, but I fear they are, like sin couching at Cain’s door. 

The prophet Joel warned ancient Israel of the doom that was to befall them. He spoke of locusts devouring the land, vines dried up and fig trees withered. He told drunkards to howl, priests to put on sackcloth, and virgins to mourn. Yet, paradoxically, he told the people that God still loved them and would deliver them. In bringing his message, he told the people they were to remember the things that were about to happen   – “Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your day or in the days of your ancestors? Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.”

As it always is when God interacts with humanity, there are both warnings and blessings. That was the crux of Joel’s message to Israel. The meaning of his words should be clear to us today. We must listen to his voice and heed what he is telling us so that we don’t repeat, in our own unique ways, the evil that poisoned Israel. If America is to be, like Israel, a “light to the nations,” we too must tell ourselves, our children, and our children’s children. If we ever fail to do so or refuse to give heed and voice to the prophet’s words, we will be doomed.

THE BROAD AND THE NARROW

On Sunday the 22^nd, Nancy and I attended worship services at a small community church, King’s Family Church, in Kansas City’s River Market. 

I’ve had a myriad of worship experiences in my lifetime. I grew up in the Episcopal Church in Massachusetts. There are times even now I feel a longing for the “high church” experience, with its vestments, liturgy, and sense of mystery. I abandoned those roots when I began to feel increasingly alienated from the God who seemed distant and impersonal. I even spoke to the rector of the church and got little satisfaction. I went away from the conversation sensing that God was very busy and didn’t have enough time for my concerns. For years, until I went to Vietnam in 1965, I professed atheism. If God didn’t have time for me, I reasoned, I didn’t have time for him. Then, a series of remarkable events led me to a military leadership school in Ohio. That was when I became a Christian.

My early Christian experience after conversion was in Panama, where I was fortunate to hook up with an Australian missionary named Bruce Haste. Bruce had a mission to an indigenous tribe called the Guaymi. I have fond memories of Bruce and me taking a couple of trail ponies on a trek from his home base in the foothills to the tribal village in the mountains. I can still feel shivers up and down my spine when I think about the free form services the native Christians conducted. I didn’t understand the language at all, but I felt an intense connection with God and the small band of pilgrims gathered in that thatched hut. It was the first time in my Christian experience that I fully grasped the words of Jesus – “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

I’ve been privileged to walk in great cathedrals like Notre Dame in Paris, St. Paul’s in London, or St. Peter’s in Rome. They are all magnificent, but none of them can ever surpass the experiences I had in the mountains with Bruce and his small “congregation.” The smallness….the intimacy….the power….It was all very life-changing.

Since those early days in Panama, I’ve attended Southern Baptist churches, American Baptist churches, Vineyard churches, and independent Charismatic churches. I currently attend a vibrant Foursquare fellowship. While I’ve learned, grown, and contributed in those settings, there’s always been a part of me that’s longed for what I experienced in that small thatched hut in Panama.

I’ve read John Wesley’s account of that fateful meeting in Aldersgate where he felt his “heart strangely warmed.” As I sat there in that small River Market church on the 22^nd, I could feel that same sense of intimacy and power I’d felt so long ago in Panama. I felt a sense of stirring and shaking. Something within me was being rearranged and “strangely warmed.”

In the week since I’ve been giving thought to what it means to be a Christian in a culture like America, where we all too often operate under the notion that we are free to express our faith. But, are we? Or are we bound by an invisible ball and chain of civil religion, which in turn keeps us complying with “societal norms?”

What should our role in society be? Should we just accept the economic and cultural benefits of what Father John Neuhaus once described as “American Babylon” and ignore the headlong rush America is making into the darkness? When the culture tells us to just get along are they really telling us to surrender our core convictions? Are they telling us to “shut up and keep drinking the Annie Green Springs like everyone else?”

When the powerful among us fire a shot across our bow and insist that our “deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed,” do we, like many in the institutional church, just give in to get along? Or, do we push back and risk alienation, loss of privilege, and worldly wealth?

How do we respond?

One of the most rewarding relationships in my adult life was with a man named Woodson Moore. He was, in the truest sense of the word, a mentor. He was a member of the same church Nancy and I attended. He was part of a leadership team that had a firmer grasp on what eventually turned out to be destructive events and decisions that were being made in the name of God. As it was unfolding, I could sense that Woodson was struggling with the things going on and his role as a leader. I asked him about it and he said very little, other than to gesture with his hands holding them far apart and then moving them closer and closer together. He did it several times and then asked, “Do you get it, Phil?” I told him I didn’t. He kept gesturing and said with each movement, “It’s the broad and the narrow, Phil…It’s the broad and the narrow.”(see Matthew 7)

Over time, we grappled with what was going on, particularly how to respond to a church that refused to take the narrow way to life and had instead decided to take the broad path to destruction. It was during those times that he reminded me of the role the prophets played in the Old Testament. He asked more than once, “What was their role in Israel’s religious and social fabric?” I offered my usual sophomoric answers and he told me emphatically that he’d studied it over and over and concluded that their task was to disrupt and disturb. They issued warning after warning and the people refused to listen. They reminded them that God had delivered them from the bondage of Egypt and had given them the law. When they continued to turn a deaf ear to the prophets’ words, they issued dire warnings. “Your enemies will overtake you and you will live in bondage once more.” They were mocked, but in the end they were proven right.

But, what does this have to do with 21^st century Christianity in America?

Everything!

When I was in grad school back in the seventies I came across one of Peter Marshall’s sermons from the 1940’s. While most people today have no idea who he was, in the seventies Marshall’s work was still quite well known, especially his work as the Chaplain of the Senate from 1947 till he died suddenly two years after he’d started. 

The sermon I listened to was his exposition from Exodus chapters 8 through 10. My synopsis of that sermon follows.

The Exodus account of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage is as powerful as it is instructive, even for nation states and communities of faith in the 21^st century.

As Marshall recounted it, the children of Israel had been slaves in Egypt for over 400 years and the time of deliverance was at hand. It was all part of a Master plan to shape a nation of former slaves into nation that would become what the prophet Isaiah would hundreds of years later describe as “a light to the nations.”

God had sent Moses to the court of Pharaoh to deliver God’s message to Egypt. “Let my people go so they may worship me.” Pharaoh, being a powerful man, wasn’t going to give in easily to the demands of a people who were slaves. It took a series of ten plagues – blood, frogs, gnats, flies, the death of Egyptian livestock, boils, hail, locusts, total darkness, and finally, the death of Egypt’s firstborn children.

The plagues were so terrible that Pharaoh would intermittently give in and offer to let the people go. The first offer, made to stave off the plague of frogs, was to let the people go “tomorrow.” God seemed to relent and agree. The plague was abated and Pharaoh apparently read it as a sign of weakness, much like tyrants like Bashar al Assad and Vladimir Putin read the intentions of the civilized world today. He refused to let the people go. A plague of gnats followed, then a plague of flies, which seemed to do the trick, at least temporarily. “Make your sacrifices here. I’ll let you do that.” Moses refused. Pharaoh sweetened the deal. “You can go to make your sacrifices, but don’t go too far.” What an amazingly 21^st century approach. How often have we Christians been told, “Don’t get too carried away with this religion business. Don’t go too far. Cozy up to us, give your religion lip service and everything will be okay.”

By now, you know the drill. The plague of flies was lifted and Pharaoh dug his heels in. Next came the plague on Egypt’s livestock, then boils, then hail. With the threat of locusts looming, Pharaoh offered another compromise. The men could go, but the women, children, and the livestock had to stay. Again, Pharaoh’s approach is being mirrored in 21^st century societies, some of which claim to be free and democratic. How often do we men surrender give our families, particularly our children, to the elements of our society, our entertainment media, our schools, and, in some cases, our churches that entice, then eventually snare and capture them.

When the plagues of locusts and darkness descended, Pharaoh offered a final compromise. “You, along with your women and children can go, but your livestock must stay.” The offer was rejected.

It all ended tragically for the people of Egypt. Their firstborn died and it seemed that Pharaoh had seen the light. But, evil can be stubborn. Egypt’s chariots and its military might were sent to pursue the fleeing Israelites. You know how that ended. Even today, archaeologists are finding chariot wheels embedded in the mud of the Red Sea. 

God’s intent for Israel was clear. It was to be all or nothing. If the people of Israel truly wanted to shake off the shackles of bondage, they would have to become totally dependent on God for their welfare.

God was true to his promise, but the people weren’t and they paid a heavy price for abandoning the covenant that had been sealed at the Red Sea, the wilderness, and Mount Sinai. 

That begs the questions for us today. How willing are we to live our faith out in the face of the forces buffeting us and enticing us? How willing are we to disrupt the status quo, the stale religion, the corrupt politics, and the cult of money, power and celebrity that seems to rule our affections nowadays? And, how willing are we to live as exiles in a society that would have us surrender much that we hold sacred? 

There is, as there always has been, a broad way and a narrow way. With these two paths before us, we must choose. Let us hope we choose wisely.

 

A POST MODERN BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY

“Exile remains exile, and Babylon remains Babylon, but both are penetrated, are charged, by the promise of deliverance. For Old Testament Israel, deliverance is understood as return and rebuilding of Jerusalem. For New Testament Israel, deliverance is arrival at the destination of the long pilgrimage toward the New Jerusalem.”

-          Father Richard John Neuhaus – “American Babylon” (2009)

Ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President, I’ve argued as passionately as I could that he was not presidential material. I spent a lot of time outlining why, from policy differences where I could find them and by trying to determine his character traits based on the wealth of information that was readily available. To me, and many others, he was manifestly unfit for the high office he sought.

That was months ago. Since then, he has swept through a small army of Republican candidates like a hot knife through butter. That list included the candidate I was supporting, Marco Rubio. We’re now a month out from the general election and it appears that the Republican Party, and Donald Trump, are on the cusp of an unmitigated disaster. While I can’t predict it with certainty, I suspect that Donald Trump will lose to Hillary Clinton and the Republican Party may well lose the House and Senate. It’s the doomsday scenario that would give Hillary Clinton complete control of the agenda, including the nomination of Supreme Court justices, expanding the Democrats’ battle with the pro-life movement by repealing the Hyde Amendment and continuing America’s retreat from principle on the international stage.

Over the past few days I’ve been interacting with some of the people I know on Facebook. Most, but not all, are fellow Christians. Some aren’t pleased with me because of the positions I’ve taken vis a vis Mr. Trump. That’s fine. We’re all free moral agents.

I find the vast majority of their arguments in favor of a Trump candidacy unpersuasive, but there is one that I believe I need to consider. The argument they’ve forwarded is that Donald Trump is now a Christian and because of that he deserves a chance to be the President.

Does he?

I’m sure there are a lot of people who are howling that the idea that Donald Trump is now an Evangelical Christian. The internet is buzzing from coast to coast. The gloating is palpable, even through the airwaves. I know a few people here locally who’ve been savaging Trump since the now famous audio tapes were released. I get it. The defeat of their nemesis is immanent and they’re gloating, like the Philistines taunting Samson in the temple of Dagon or the Pharisees mocking Jesus at his trial. It’s going to be happening for a while, particularly as more and more revelations about Donald Trump surface. Trump’s adversaries and critics aren’t done and there’s not much we can do about it.

Is Donald Trump’s conversion sincere? Most would say no, but I’m not one of them. I take it at face value, in the same way I accepted Bill Clinton’s public repentance after the Lewinsky affair. I’m sure that a lot of people don’t accept Bill Clinton’s turnaround. But, as Abraham Lincoln said in his second inaugural, “let us judge not, that we be not judged.”

Having said that, does it now follow that I should vote for Donald Trump? 

I don’t believe it does.

First, conversion doesn’t erase all of Donald Trump’s character flaws in an instant. They were years in the making and I suspect rooting them out will also take years. Conversion to Christianity is just the beginning of what is, or should be, a life-long pilgrimage.

Second, and most important, I’m bothered that some Trump supporters, particularly Evangelical leaders, continue to push his candidacy. Why? Can’t they see that what they’re doing is lighting even more candles to entice the moth. If they truly care about Donald Trump and his soul they would do the things necessary to eliminate the temptation of political power and the obstacles the limelight have placed in his path. They need to ask themselves what is more important, temporal power or Donald Trump’s eternal destiny. They need to ask themselves, “Is my interest more in preserving my place of privilege and power than it is in Donald Trump’s soul?”

Donald Trump needs time and space, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to get it. I doubt that he’s read about the parable of the sower (Matthew 13), but many of his enablers have. They know full well that the early days after conversion to Christianity can be perilous. They know that the seeds of hope are sometimes sown into thorny ground, where “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.”

If Donald Trump is to have any chance of making his “confession” real, he needs to be separated from the thorny ground of politics. I fear that his enablers aren’t going to let that happen. Do they care more about maintaining their lofty perches than they do about Donald Trump? The best that I can say is that I’m suspicious of their motives.

I’m going to follow with the accounts of three people that will, I believe, demonstrate conclusively that what I’ve said is true. The first is Paul, the man who is considered one of the New Testament giants. He’s called an apostle. The second is Charles Colson, Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel, and the third is me.

Almost every Christian knows the story of Paul. The account of his conversion from Judaism to Christianity on the Damascus Road is high drama, particularly when Saul, as he was known prior to his conversion, was zealously persecuting Christians. The New Testament accounts shortly after his conversion show that there was a great deal of fear within the Christian community about him. Was his conversion sincere? There were, understandably, doubters.

What did it take to convince them? Time. Paul spent three years in Arabia, learning, absorbing, and having Christian truth “revealed” to him. You can read about it at the end of the first chapter of Galatians. It was time well spent. Well over half of the New Testament letters were penned by Paul. His missionary journeys brought Christianity to the Gentile world. In one sense, he established what has become, in some circles, a tradition. Graduate studies in theology are generally completed in a three year period.

There may have been doubters when Paul was “born again.” Time and Paul’s sincerity convinced them that he was indeed a Christian.

Charles Colson was once considered Richard Nixon’s hatchet man. As Nixon’s White House counsel, he was a key player in the skullduggery that became known as Watergate. He was ruthless. It was said he would have run over his own mother if it meant protecting Richard Nixon. Like the rest of the Watergate conspirators, he got caught. Unlike many of the others, he went to prison. While in prison he was, as we Evangelicals say, “born again.”

Was his conversion sincere or was he just lobbying for a reduced sentence? There were many skeptics.

In the end, he proved them wrong. Colson’s conversion was real. As I sit here, I’m looking at a couple of his books, “The God of Stones and Spiders” and “Against the Night,” which I’ve read. I’ve also read his classic, “Born Again,” which I’ve read but don’t have a copy of. 

While in prison, he started what has become one of the most dynamic Christian ministries in the world, Prison Fellowship, which provides support to inmates and their families on the outside trying to hold their lives together.

I’ve read many of the essays he penned over the years for Christianity Today. They reveal a man of remarkable insight and faith.

In 1993 he won the prestigious Templeton Prize for religion which” honors a living person who has made an exceptional contribution to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.”

Charles Colson died in 2012. I have absolutely no doubt I’ll see him in heaven some day!

I present myself as a third witness, not because I consider myself part of the pantheon, but because the process of my conversion demonstrates the same pattern.

People who knew me in the mid-sixties saw an amoral, ruthless man. In those days, I wouldn’t have hesitated to hurt, or even murder, if I felt I could get away with it or it was going to be to my advantage. That’s the man I was.

But, Christ changed me, from the inside out. I was “born again” in August of 1969.

People who knew me prior to my conversion were skeptical. I don’t blame them. 

The last thing I needed was the limelight. Thankfully, I was assigned military duty in Panama. When I got there I discovered that while I went to work, I really never had any work to do. That freed me up to study the Bible, which I’d never done, to meditate on what my conversion meant, and pray.  I was able to spend extended leave time with an Australian missionary, Bruce Haste, at his ministry base in the mountains. I still have fond memories of trekking up the mountains with Bruce and his trail ponies, visiting villages and delivering villagers from the scourge of superstition and witch doctors. I can still hear the voices of the Lutheran Hour and Billy Graham crusades flowing from the short wave as we rested at his home in the foothills prior to our next adventure.

I needed those eighteen months. They gave me the opportunity to start my pilgrimage as a grounded Christian who understood what his faith meant.

That’s what I believe Donald Trump needs. Unfortunately, that may not be what he’s going to get. The power brokers are being merciless. I believe they’re throwing him right back into the fire in a desperate attempt to protect their positions of power and privilege.

It’s a battle they’re going to lose. It’s a battle the Republican Party is going to lose and it’s a battle people of faith are going to lose.  The barbarians are at the gates and they’ve almost knocked the hinges off. 

What’s next? What does this mean for the Christian community?

In a word, it means captivity. In two words, it means Babylonian captivity.

What do I mean by that?

It’s interesting. Some current Trump supporters are saying that they’ll still vote for him. But, their anger is so kindled that they’re promising to vote out every Republican who has either disavowed or distanced themselves from Donald Trump. That opens the very real possibility of the Democratic Party re-taking the House and Senate. If I were a Democrat, I’d be salivating at the prospect. I can only imagine what they’re thinking. Reconciliation? Come on, now, you know that’s not true. How does it go? Revenge is a dish best served cold!

Before he died in 2009, Father Richard John Neuhaus penned a remarkable essay that foreshadowed where we are today. Toward the end of the essay, he cites the work of Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre:

“Abandoning the idea of moral truth, politics is no longer the deliberation of how we ought to order our life together but is now, in the words of Alasdair MacIntyre, warfare is carried on by other means. All politics is combat politics. There is no longer, some say, a common American culture, and we should stop pretending that there is. There are only subcultures. Choose your subculture, take up its grievances, contentions, and slogans, and prepare to do battle against the enemy. Liberated from the delusion that we and our opponents can together say “We Hold These Truths,” we are urged to recognize the futility of being locked in civil argument and accept the fact that there is no substitute for partisan victory.”

By the early evening on November 8^th, I believe we’re going to see that a great battle has been lost. The Babylonian captivity will begin.

Laws will change, gradually. In time the composition of our courts will change. There won’t be brown shirts marching or Nuremberg-like rallies. There won’t be any evidence of gestapo tactics. It will be done with the precision of changes in law. Social mores will continue to shift, from our current speed of a ballistic missile to light speed.  Targets beyond groups like the Little Sisters of the Poor will increase in numbers. People of faith will become the minority report. They will have no say in the decision making processes. For all intents and purposes, they will become the captives.

I’m painting a bleak picture. Believe me, I hope I’m wrong. But I don’t believe I am. Hillary Clinton is going to take control and she’s been waiting in the wings, like Madame Defarge at the foot of the guillotine, for a long time. She’s going to be releasing all that pent up energy on those she’s affectionately called her “enemies” for years. Once that happens, it won’t be long till those of us who are members of the household of faith will be “hanging our harps on the willow trees.”

The road ahead is going to be difficult. We’ll be passing by the “slough of despond” and the “pillar of salt.” We’ll be tempted to go along at the “hill of lucre.” It’s going to be a long, difficult journey.

But, I remain hopeful. At the beginning of this essay I offered the following snippet from Father Neuhaus’s masterwork, “American Babylon.” He said, “For New Testament Israel, deliverance is arrival at the destination of the long pilgrimage toward the New Jerusalem.” I believe it's critically important for people of faith to embrace those words.

The Christian church has, unfortunately, needed the chastisement that’s about to come. We’ve been stiff-necked and rebellious. Too many of our leaders have lusted for power and prominence rather than taking the Biblical road of servanthood. We’ve had a decades long affair with temporal power and we’re going to pay a heavy price for our rebellion.

Until that redemptive work is done, we’ll need to endure the taunts of those in power. We’ll have to stand firm in the face of their edicts.

But, if we’re patient and faithful, we will pull through. The grace we’re about to receive may seem to be painful, but it will be what we need.

Selah!