Great, great essay by Russell Moore: God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck. This is too important to leave until next Saturday's Best of the Week entry. You need to read it and share it today. Dr. Moore takes evangelicalism's embrace of Glenn Beck and rightly describes it as liberation theology of a right-wing kind:Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.
That is a devastating and valid indictment. Jesus didn't die for lower taxes or to preserve private property rights. I am heartened to see more and more Christians pointing out the obvious: Beck is a wolf in sheeps clothing and is far more of a threat to the church of Christ than Osama bin Laden or Richard Dawkins because he is deeply infiltrating the church and is welcomed in by those who are allegedly supposed to defend the truth. Too many Christians think the pursuit of the American dream is almost as important as the Gospel or worse yet cannot differentiate between the two.
Dr. Moore closes with this and I couldn't say it any better....
It’s sad to see so many Christians confusing Mormon politics or American nationalism with the gospel of Jesus Christ. But, don’t get me wrong, I’m not pessimistic. Jesus will build his church, and he will build it on the gospel. He doesn’t need American Christianity to do it. Vibrant, loving, orthodox Christianity will flourish, perhaps among the poor of Haiti or the persecuted of Sudan or the outlawed of China, but it will flourish.
And there will be a new generation, in America and elsewhere, who will be ready for a gospel that is more than just Fox News at prayer.
Amen!
3 comments:
Dave Black's book, Christian Archy or Vernard Eller's book, Christian Anarchy Speak very in depth regarding the Christendom and Nationalism dilemma. Good thing Christ has no need for either.
You don't seem think that the valid points that Glenn Beck makes about those basic freedoms, what makes this American Experiment so special, is that we can freely congregate? Where else in this world had the church grown?
I don't know what 'reformed theology' is, but I too tire of hearing only of 'Buddy Jesus', who wants to love on you and make you feel better, as he does call us to action. Too many want to attend on Sunday, or midweek to hear the energetic and inspirational teacher, all while grumbling about the lack of childcare, never thinking that they should be serving.
These people are dead. They are lukewarm and will be spewed out. There are those who have long abandoned the church who are for the first time seeing how much faith America's Founders had. How it shaped their decisions. Why it takes a Mormon to wake up America to this is like asking why the law returned to Judah during a temple renovation. Answer: because it did.
I am not saying that Glenn has been announced by God, but God chooses whom he will. Often the one that we least expect. Not since the Billy Graham crusades have I seen people desire revival. We have been happy watering our doctrine & ceding society and leadership to those who fear no God. Glenn speaks of truth: faith, hope, charity. God's Word corners the market on truth, and that is where Glenn tells them to turn. He doesn't mention the book of Mormon. He may be a profiteer, but so was Balaam.
SuperFast,
The greater point here is that as a Christian my first and only loyalty is to Christ. It is not even Christ first, America second. It is Him and Him alone. I am uninterested at all in seeing America reinvigorate the cultural Christianity that has prevaded this nation since its founding and given untold millions a false sense of security based on their civil religion. The only thing these "evangelical" ministers who are linking arms with Glenn Beck should be doing is calling him to repent, not following behind this wolf like sheep being led to slaughter.
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