Logs, splinters and religious duplicity
The hypocrisy of American Christians and American politics
I can just hear it now:
“I can’t vote for him. He used to party and sleep around.”
“Can you believe the way he uses social media? What a terrible person.”
“He made a joke about women once…it was pretty derogatory. Completely sinful.”
“Have you ever listened to his old interviews? He supported horrible policies!”
“He’s mean. I can’t vote for someone who’s mean. That’s just not a godly move.”
If I had a quarter for every fresh-faced suburbanite mother who posts political streams of consciousness on their Instagram story about why they couldn’t vote for Donald Trump in 2020 because he was “mean,” I’d be rich. Further, I’d be even richer if I had a quarter for every well-meaning conservative or public figure who professes to be a Christian who is quick to lambaste someone running for office because of the sins of their past.
It seems to be quite a popular thing to do these days: Christians (especially women), using their social media bullhorns to stomp on conservatives who had the guts to run for office. First of all, sure: most candidates are not what they seem. Very few candidates these days can be trusted. Second of all, it’s okay to vet your candidates and hold them to a high standard of honesty, dignity and morality. However, it’s not okay to place yourself on a pedestal above the rest of Christians and take it upon yourself to call out every sin in their life.
I know, I know! I’m really going to make some people mad right now. I digress.
This is a topic that can be really tough to write about, because its primary focus is calling out the mainstream Christian evangelical church of America – a community that I’ve been a part of for a long time. Often, when I write articles like this, I’m sharing an observation that I have frequently made over the years, until it bubbles and stews, reaching a boiling point that’s so hot I end up creating content centered on the subject I’m concerned about.
Today, I’m going to discuss the dangerous and weakened state of the average Evangelical Christian, the snare of self-righteousness, and the political shortsightedness of conservatives who would rather make a point than save the country from almost certain doom.
Duplicity Kills
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. (Matt. 23:1-4)
Perhaps the biggest problem plaguing the church today is legalism. That is, an overly strict or rigid adherence to the law or to a religious moral code. An extension of this definition is the implementation of an unnecessary technical rule or parameter.
Now, before you grab the torches and pitchforks, let’s be clear about the terms of how legalism is often used in the church. First of all, the law is a necessary part of the Christian life. The law is meant to guide our moral behavior. The law reveals our sin so that we can correct it (Romans 7:7-13).
However, there can be a type of rigid adherence to the law that supersedes the inward status of the heart. Often, it takes the place of heart change, and as we see in the verse that I included in this section, the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did not practice what they preached. Today, that can manifest as simply as church leaders encouraging kids to watch their language on Wednesday nights whilst simultaneously returning to work themselves the next morning and constantly using filthy cuss words with their peers.
Yes, I understand that everybody sins. Nobody is perfect.
But there is something especially duplicitous about the professing Christian who is constantly claiming to be one thing and even judging other people for their sins, while living a life of hypocrisy themselves. And therein, of course, lay the Devil’s greatest work: the corruption of the church family.
Legalism can also manifest in the false puffing-up of one’s own sense of moral code. For example, refusing to give someone a chance (perhaps even a presidential candidate) because of the sins of his or her past is a big one (As if the Christian who wants to pass such a heavy judgement on another is not the receiver of God’s gracious and undeserved mercy themselves).
I can think of a conversation I had with an individual last year outside of church. We were discussing the testimony of a man who had stood up during a fellowship hour and began to describe how he had prayed for the Lord to heal his knee (I can’t remember exactly how the story went, but that was the gist of it). God answered his prayer, and he was healed. Afterward, as we sat outside discussing the situation, this individual expressed how angry they were about the man’s testimony.
“He shouldn’t have shared that story,” they stated (I’m using the term ‘they’ to maintain total anonymity!).
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because miracles aren’t for sharing. They’re private.”
“They are? Where in the Bible does it say you can’t share miracles with your church family?”
“Well, I can’t think of a specific verse.”
“Show me in the Bible where it says this.”
This person could not show me. They had made up a rule that didn’t exist. It was “extra-Biblical,” or rather, it was predicated on the emotion that this person was having, because they were uncomfortable with being exposed to someone else’s spiritual experience. This is a form of legalism – making up a rule and adding it to the Bible.
Often, this type of legalism comes into play during election season, when candidates like Donald Trump, for example, throw their hat into the ring and every bit of dirty laundry they have is laid bare for the world to see. It can feel really good to tear someone else down, after all. It’s a real confidence booster.
Spoiler alert: it can become nothing more than bullying.
Self-Righteous Poison Pills
This is where the Evangelical church falls on its face. Self-righteous piety is as bad as living in unrepentant sin – because all sin is equal in the eyes of God. However, we have to look at the church differently. It’s the bride of Christ. The church exists to provide fellowship and shepherding to Christ’s flock. We are a testimony to the power and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross…so imagine how much damage the church does when the picture it paints of Christ is wrong.
I know a lot of people, personally, who will never step foot inside a church again because of the duplicity and the hypocrisy they experienced from church leadership and church members. I can remember thinking, too (especially in my early twenties), that I was more accepted and more deeply loved by non-Christians than Christians. In a way, I’d say that’s still true, because so many Christians in the church seem to take raucous glee in judging everyone around them. There’s a reason why Paul wrote so many letters to the early churches: because they were royally screwed up…and today’s churches still are. We have not ascended to the next level of Church enlightenment, for lack of a better term. We are not smarter or better educated than the churches of the early Christian era. In fact, we are lazy, we are complacent, and we tend to be non-confrontational about the things that matter (politics, policies, legislation) and confrontational about things that don’t (gossip, judging others, exercising legalistic views). Our seminaries by no means make our pastors or our church leadership any wiser than someone like the apostle Paul. If anything, our seminaries are making it worse, thanks to the radical Marxist indoctrination going on in schools today.
Look, there’s no perfect church. I get that. But at some point, the American church needs to realize that the only group that’s standing in the way of a revival in America…are Christians.
Christians get in their own way. They judge people for their past and forget that when we were still sinners (all of us), Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). They hold people to impossible standards of behavior while secretly nursing their own vices behind closed doors. Is it any wonder that the youth of today are running from the sanctuary and straight into the indulgent culture of self-love and gender identity confirmation? Truth spoken in love and kindness is a balm to the soul, but often, Christians are so eager to flex their theological muscles that they forget to consider the human target behind their poison arrows.
“How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while there is still a beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:7-5)
Suicide Avenue
American politics is a sorry state of affairs. Christians either don’t vote because they are too passive or apathetic to care, or they refuse to vote for candidates because they are not perfect. Let me tell ya: we live in a time in this country where our elections are shot, any candidate worth a darn is few and far between, and the clock of liberty is ticking down. While Christians fritter their time away playing the “you said something mean in your past” game, Democrat opponents who are pushing radical agendas like infanticide are winning elections and passing legislation that legalizes everything from baby killing to teaching sex to kindergartners. I ask you, Christian, if baby sacrifice and pedophilic grooming are two things that God says are lovely and pure?
Do you think that a refusal to engage in the political process is how the battle will be won? Decidedly not. Withdraw from the battlefield, retreat, and your enemy will only continue to advance. It’s not about personality, okay? It’s about policy. It’s about survival. It’s about realizing that there is an agenda in this country that needs to be stopped – whether it’s baby killing or the perverted over-sexualization of our children – and that Christians have to get off their high horses of perceived perfection and give some grace. Stop the judgement. Ask honest questions and hold people accountable but stop with the useless, time-wasting legalism and hypocrisy.
Unless Christians can stop the merry-go-round of delusional insanity, the American dream is about to commit suicide. Christian mothers and fathers are about to drive this country into the ground, because they are looking for Jesus in places where Jesus is not. You cannot - nor should you expect - anyone to be the perfect leader. You have to look at the bigger picture. Is it better to vote for someone who is pro-life or pro-choice? Is it better to vote for someone who will fight against gender curriculum in the classroom or someone who will push for it?
These are the choices that Christians have to make, and it’s not rocket science.
And yet, it becomes over-complicated because 1) the church refuses to equip their parishioners with the tools to participate in the civic process in a lawful and educated way and 2) because so often Christians are more concerned about someone’s mistakes rather than their triumphs. They are unwilling to forgive as Christ forgave. They forget that righteousness judgement should, at times, be tempered by second chances.
Warfare is about strategy, not subjective feelings. Great leaders of the Bible - leaders that pastors will give lengthy sermons on - were far from perfect. David, for example, was literally a murderer and an adulterer. And yet Christians rave about David for days. I ask you - if David were to run for president, would an American Christian give him a chance, or would they turn their backs on him? After all, he murdered a man. He committed adultery with a woman. He was a sinner.
How far do you take the judgment?
If the American church cannot cease the endless pining away for the perfect knight in shining armor, then they will waste away uselessly until Christ returns - because He is the only perfect ruler we will ever get. In the meantime, we have to do the best we have with what we’ve got.
Sometimes, that means taking a good, hard look at ourselves in the mirror.
It means letting go of made-up rules.
It means forgiving others. It means forgiving ourselves.
It means taking a leap of faith.
Because if American Christians don’t…the American dream is only a hop, skip and jump away from going up in flames.
Resources
Founded by Jack Hibbs, the Senior Pastor of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, CA, this organization seeks to education parishioners on legislation that is being pushed on both the state and federal level. Get involved in the civic process to stop satanic agendas that glorify, for example, the dismemberment of innocent babies.
This episode discusses how bad experiences with legalism in the church can lead people to leave the flock entirely. I’ve struggled with this. Everyone I grew up with turned their backs on Christ entirely. Most of them will cite the hypocrisy of the church body as the reason why they did so. What a tragedy - and an embarrassment - for churches today.
What is legalism? by John Piper
This is an excellent examination of legalism. John Piper says this: “The legalist is not broken. He is not stunned. He is not blown away by the fact that he is saved by grace.”
Should Christians be involved in politics? by Tom Hicks, Founders Ministries
Here, the author explores the two extremes of Christian political involvement, suggesting that there is a balance to be had neatly in the middle.
This is a wonderful coalition of the clergy across America to mobilize parishioners against the single most barbaric act that occurs on our soil every day: abortion. It brings Catholics and different Christian denominations together on common ground to restore the rights of unborn children. Yes, I realize that Catholics and Christians are different. No, I don’t think that we should be unwilling to politically ally with them to stop the slaughter of children.