Somehow, when the Holy Father says to bear a more authentic witness

Somehow, when the Holy Father says to bear a more authentic witness July 2, 2015

lots of Christians hear that as “Scream harder at little girls.”

The worst thing that happened to the Church in these United States was Christians forgetting the gospel and becoming convinced that the goal was to win political power in the Culture War.  It was only a matter of time till it became clear that is not what it’s about and that Caesar was, at best, only playing us for suckers.

Now we have had a cultural watershed moment in which we have been strongly shouted down by our culture and the servants of Mammon and Caesar have told us that it’s splitsville.  David Koch tells us “Thanks, suckers!”  A growing number of GOP leaders are saying, “Sure I love ya, baby.  Now could you go back to the motel and wait for me?  I’m with some important friends from Vegas and I don’t have time for whatever drama you are into right now.”  Lots of conservative Christians are panicking, not about the actual victims of Obergefell (children, who have been definitively stripped of all rights to a mother and father) but about their poor disenfranchised selves in that way that a homely ex-girlfriend does when they discover that Chad only came to prom with her because he wanted her Daddy’s money to cover the cost of the tux.  Now he’s in the corner cuddling with that bully Brad and we are alone, fantasizing about the terrible things that Chad might let Brad do to us and simultaneously scheming about some fresh way to get power back.  The seething anger at the loss of power is palpable

The guy in the picture at the link is the image of that seething anger at the loss of power. He thinks he’s “bearing witness to the gospel”.  He’s not.  He has been sitting there in his prom dress ever since Obergefell, drinking the spiked punch and starting to talk too loud about what bastards men are. Finally, he erupted in that juvenile moment, screaming at a little girl, which got captured on film and will be useful for years to come as the face of “loving” Christianity, having a meltdown at the loss of political power.

Here’s the deal:  the gospel does not win by anger, violence, and force.  The entire attempt of Christians to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven by means of political power is increasingly being exposed to us as a snare and deception–and good riddance.  The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of this world, but the weapons of the Spirit and the sooner we get that, the sooner we start bringing to bear the fruits of the Spirit on a culture that sorely needs them.  Jesus triumphed, not by winning political power, but by losing everything for the sake of love.


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