“Stars for Jesus” Begin to Fall

A wise
person once told me, "All sin goes back to 'I want to be somebody.'" Every time

I maneuver to be noticed, I remind myself of that simple sentence that is so
convicting.

A wise
person once told me, "All sin goes back to 'I want to be somebody.'" Every time
I maneuver to be noticed, I remind myself of that simple sentence that is so
convicting.

Growing up as kids, we Evangelicals were intent on becoming somebodies.
God's expectations were drummed into us in the form of "gifts" that, if left
fallow, would invite the same rejection experienced by the servant who buried
the one talent to avoid losing it.

Thus,
many of us were obsessed with the belief that God's Kingdom could only be
advanced by those who were committed to personal success. The problem was that
personal success as an agenda precedent to "seeking first the Kingdom of God" is
a prescription for disaster.

As the
former owner of a small chain of Christian bookstores here in New England, I
have known a number of rising stars and a number of falling stars over the
years. I also have known several whose fame has not turned their heads or hearts
away from the Christ they have served — at least to my knowledge. This, under
incredible pressures none of us could imagine in our lives kept reasonably safe
through relative obscurity.

There
are, however, those who have built empires that, thank God, are beginning to
crumble.

Last
week, former House majority leader, Dick Armey, rattled the saber of divorce of
the Republican Party from the Christian Right. They are beginning to pull each
other down. He singled out Dr. James Dobson as a "bully."

The
fact is that Dr. Dobson is a bully. I
have known two best-selling authors whom he made every attempt to destroy by
blackballing in the industry following their divorces. There are
others.

David Kuo writes that evangelical leaders were invited
to the White House, patted on the back and then called "goofy" behind the
scenes. The fact is that they are goofy. He begs the question, "Why is
the Republican Party in bed with the goofy?"

The antics of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are
legendary. Their coarse disregard for the restraints on their 501 c-3 status has
awakened an IRS that has beforehand looked the other way and will adversely
affect local churches for decades to come.

Some years ago, while in seminary, I attended a
church-growth seminar conducted by a luminary at Willow Creek Community Church,
at that time boasting 14,000 members. In the coarse of a talk on using aptitude
tests for determining gifts of the Spirit (if you can imagine), I asked a
question, the answer to which has haunted me ever since: "What do you do when
you decide that somebody you have put into position is not working
out?"

"That's easy," was the answer given before some 150
people in the audience. "We call the person in, tell him or her that they have
great gifts but that those gifts do not fit our church. We suggest that God is
calling them to another church that can use those gifts." Out they
go!

What we Evangelicals have forgotten in our prayers for
revival of the other guy and America is that "judgment begins in the house of
God." We are seeing a revival taking place in America — everywhere but within
the empires of the Stars for Jesus, it seems. That is, however, the way it
should be. If the sleeping giant of faith is to be awakened, it must begin with
the weak, vulnerable and broken – members of what I call the "Church in Exile."
Faithful Democrats fall into that category, I suspect.

This administration has taken hypocrisy to an art
form and showcased it for the entire world to see. It dishonors God and the
Church of Jesus Christ — again, for the entire world to see. But beneath the
surface are the seeds of faith that are being watered by a hope that is at last
encouraging to those of us whose take on faithfulness differs from the
evangelical party line.