The only thing worse than worshiping an idol is replacing it with a different idol and then looking down on the people who worship the other one.
Many people who classify themselves as Evangelicals worship the Republican Party. It’s where they find their identity. Their joy is determined by how well the Republican Party does. Their hope is in the Republican Party. And as we have seen over the past year or so, their so called Christian morals take a back seat to the success of the Republican Party. This all became unattractively obvious over the past month as some Evangelicals defended Roy Moore by saying that teen girls should be flattered that a man of his stature would sexually harass them.
There is no denying the idol worship that takes place among those on the political right. But the same is true for those on the left.
In response to those naive Conservatives who were placing all of their hope in Roy Moore, Christians with a more Progressive slant commented on the absurdity of it all. And for good reason. But then they proceeded to do the exact same thing for the politicians and ideologies of their side of choice.
They rightly saw the harm that Roy Moore has caused teenage girls and their families but they turned a blind eye to Doug Jones’ history of condoning the murder of unborn babies.
They cringed as some on the right spoke of Roy Moore as if he were Moses coming down from the mountain with a brand new Contract with America. I cringed too. But then they proceeded to do their best Chicken Little impressions whenever leftists policies from the Obama administration were swept away.
The tax cuts will kill people.
The Net Neutrality decision will kill people.
Changes to Obamacare will kill people.
Oh, and God will judge everyone of a different political stripe.
This hyperbolic talk, of course, was taking place while the real killing of the unborn was going on. But we’re not supposed to be worried about that anymore, or so I’ve been told.
The Church is going to be just fine but I have my concerns about the American church. It’s like we’re in a fight over which golden statue we want to bow down to, the donkey or the elephant. Opinions are good and political engagement is necessary, even when we disagree. There’s enough room in the kingdom of God for a host of political philosophies and theories. But as long as the church continues to whore itself out to the Democratic and Republican parties, they will look less like the body of Christ and more like a very sick body. The answer to the Republican idolatry in the church is not Progressive idolatry. It’s repentance.
Jesus didn’t die so that His church could carry the water for Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.
Until we learn that lesson, we’ll continue looking like the suckers that the political parties want us to be and less like the salt and light that Jesus called us to be.
