Seeing the future, at least some of the broad stokes, is not overly difficult. You don’t have to be a prophet. You just need to read some history. Humanity often repeats history because humanity hasn’t changed very much in the past hundreds and even thousands of years.
Sure, our context has changed. Technology is completely different than what existed a thousand or even a hundred years ago. But all social media did was giver everyone a microphone. Having read books like Careless People and Winners Take All, I’m not the least bit surprised that pioneers of companies which run such platforms believed their products would fix the world, only to discover it does no such thing.
This also works well in the realm of organized religion. Some years ago, a man named Harold Camping announced that Jesus would return on May 21st, 2011. The fact that he previously had predicted the second coming in 1994 did not reduce the widespread attention his 2011 prediction gained.
I was in the midst of completing a Master’s Degree in Theology when this movement was taking place. In fact, I was on a beach in Virginia Beach some weeks prior to May 21st that year when a woman approached me wearing a long sleeve shirt and ankle length wool skirt. As soon as I saw here, I knew she was going to tell me that Jesus was about to come back. I was correct.
Some people in my life asked my opinion about the topic, knowing my focus of study. I explained that Camping would change the date into the future, then when that second date passed, he would announce that the second coming had, in fact, occurred on May 21st, but that it had been a spiritual rapture.
When that was exactly what happened, I was asked how I knew. I explained that all of these events have happened before and each group followed the same formula. I wasn’t seeing the future, I was seeing the past repeat itself.
As I watch the American Christian Church continue to become a servant of the American political system, I cannot help but see the same path the German Christian Church walked less than a hundred years ago.
As an economic crisis grew, political leadership in Germany sought scapegoats. This gave the population a focal point for their frustration as it boiled into a rage. A focal point other than the toxic and foolish civic leadership, of course.
Much of the leadership of organized churches fell all over themselves to align with political leadership as it gained power and influence through the focusing of the outrage of the populace.
When democracies fail, they almost always end in an autocracy. I have no idea if Trump will be the autocrat who transitions America away from democracy. But I do see elements of American Church, Inc. throwing itself at a political leader in a manner which is great practice for whoever will be the man or woman in charge as America transitions into its next phase, whatever that is and whenever it is.
Dr. King used to say that the church should never be the servant nor the master of the government, but rather the conscience. I’m sure Dr. King was thinking of the prophets of ancient Israel who would stand up to the King, often times at great risk to themselves.
Whether churches are adamantly for or adamantly against Trump, they are missing the point. Paying attention to a politician gives him or her power they are not supposed to have Elisha seemed to spend most of his time busy about his work rather than concerning himself with the government.
When I see churches with political messages on their front lawn or bulletin board, I know they have wondered off the path.
However, know that eventually the elements of the church which side with whoever decides to wield power to dominate our nation (or whatever parts of it exist) will likewise dominate power over elements of the church they don’t agree with. Yes, I’m sorry to confirm, it will only get worse.
However, there is reason to hold onto hope. Beyond the understanding that such seeming victories will be utterly temporary — Christian scriptures are clear that all the wrongs in our world will one day be made right — we can look once again to Germany to see that the true church can thrive even where Church, Inc. would seek to snuff it out.
Leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller are two examples we can look to for encouragement and guidance as we move toward a refrain of the days they faced. They launched secret societies called The Confessing Church which refused to confirm with the changes being mandated on churches by government designs and pressures.
Listen, I don’t think this message will have much, if any impact.. To paraphrase something Jesus says in Luke 16, if people won’y listen to history, they certainly won’t listen to me. I’m shocked by how accurately Dr. King predicted trouble we’ve been dealing with, yet have we put a stop to our ways and made changes? Absolutely not.
I finally learned in the past several years that it doesn’t matter if you correctly predict trouble ahead. No one will thank you for it, and no one will come back later and say ‘we should have listened’.
I write it hoping that perhaps one or two will recall it in the dark days ahead, take heart, and set themselves on the difficult path of standing up for values of the eternal Kingdom. Bonhoeffer was killed by the Nazis and Niemoller was sent to a concentration camp, though he survived. But both lived their lives for honor bestowed by someone greater than a tyrant could give.
It is my hope that when I face perhaps the same challenges they did, I will show the same courage. And I know there will be brothers and sisters in faith who will do the same thing, even as popular ministers and ministries function like any other social media company, trying to gain followers for the benefit of their own power and influence.
May we all pray for wisdom to see what is right and true as well as courage to refuse that which is easy and popular.