Jonathan Krogh Jonathan Krogh

The Fog of Politics

Dear Christian Soldiers:

When the current administration lost its stuff over the suggestion that American soldiers were not only free to disobey illegal orders but were required by military code to do so, their reaction became a crystallizing moment of clarity for me. 

My own Christian journey was forged in the incubator of the religious right. Its expression in my youth was detached and distrusting of politics. The key to a radically successful life was obedience to what God intended for each of us, and I was taught that governmental authorities could never possess the tools of righteousness. In fact, we made fun of mainline denominations because of their acquiescence to civil religion with their scout troops in their church basements, candidate forums in their social halls and anti-war protests in the streets. We taught that Christians made better citizens precisely because our allegiance was to righteousness, not politics. We believed

Dear Christian Soldiers:

When the current administration lost its stuff over the suggestion that American soldiers were not only free to disobey illegal orders but were required by military code to do so, their reaction became a crystallizing moment of clarity for me. 

My own Christian journey was forged in the incubator of the religious right. Its expression in my youth was detached and distrusting of politics. The key to a radically successful life was obedience to what God intended for each of us, and I was taught that governmental authorities could never possess the tools of righteousness. In fact, we made fun of mainline denominations because of their acquiescence to civil religion with their scout troops in their church basements, candidate forums in their social halls and anti-war protests in the streets. We taught that Christians made better citizens precisely because our allegiance was to righteousness, not politics. We believed our citizenship was enrollment in the higher eternal order of God’s Kingdom, not in the tainted temporal affiliations of political parties. 

What happened between my childhood and teen years was that idea makers of the religious right drank the intoxicating Kool-Aid of political influence. The formation of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and James Dobson’s Alliance Defending Freedom recruited many evangelical followers. They couched Roe v. Wade not as a spiritual issue requiring love and outreach to distraught pregnant women, but as a legal crisis demanding a full-scale political response. Dobson’s adept use of radio through his Focus on the Family broadcasts brought a format familiar to conservative Christianity. Evangelicals had been using radio to bring the Gospel within a decade of Marconi’s first broadcast; as a result, they trusted the communication mode, and it became an easy turn of the dial from “spiritual” Christian broadcasting to the overlapping political ideologies of the irreligious Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and later, Sean Hannity.

Over time, evangelical Christian influence was no longer a call to change hearts in obedience to Christ, but a battle cry to change laws in obedience to ideology. Faithfulness was no longer conveyed as spiritual detachment from corruptible secular systems, but as a war for full-fledged control over the levers of power to make them incorruptible. Political victory demanded uncompromising unity. No longer were we to pray for God to change hearts and save souls; now we were to pray to change votes and save the nation. Previously, spiritual evangelism required a diversity of methods and a variety of relationships; now, voting blocs require unquestioning obedience and loyalty. The conversion experience that once involved persuasion, love and community degenerated into authoritarianism, ostracization and humiliation. The world was no longer a mission field to be compelled into God’s Kingdom; it became a battlefield to be conquered for God’s victory. So now, under this new order, when a Secretary of Defense (note War) who is deeply immersed in Christian-battle ideology is reminded that the rank-and-file soldier is required to exercise agency in evaluating the morality of any given command, that reminder comes to his ears as treason.

I was reminded this morning about the cautionary tale of King Solomon in a video by Episcopal minister Joseph Yoo. Solomon is remembered for his great wisdom, a gift from God as recorded in 1 Kings 3. But, while his empire grew because of his wisdom, it also splintered because of his lack of character. Attempting to expand his influence, he compromised for the sake of political expedience, and the very coalitions that brought great political influence eventually brought even greater political catastrophe (see 1 Kings 11).

As Yoo noted, “wisdom helped Solomon build an empire, character would have reminded him why he was building that empire…Without character giftedness becomes permission, success becomes insulation, accomplishment becomes identity. The more impressive someone looks on the outside, the less anyone is to ask how their soul is doing on the inside. Solomon is the warning symbol, the one who asked God for wisdom, never asked God for character. Wisdom without surrender will eventually collapse, but character rooted in God, will stand; not because we get everything right, but because we are willing to be honest, willing to be corrected, willing to choose people over power and faithfulness over image.”

Leaders dedicated to defense welcome corrective criticism as they seek to improve their protection of others. Leaders hell-bent on war lose the power to discern good advice in its fog.

Learning that the real measure of my character is not how many people agree with me, but how I react when someone tells me, “NO!” I remain,

With love,
Jonathan Krogh
Your Pastor

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