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My Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,
Before I was ordained an Episcopal priest, I was a human resources executive and employment lawyer. In those roles, I assisted in the management of the bottom line. While the Church is not a business, the concept of stewardship certainly supports reasonable efforts to improve efficiency of operations that do not impair mission effectiveness. I believe this is true for the Church, private businesses, and for all levels of government. I am a staunch believer in pursuing continuous, incremental improvement.
In my experience, to properly balance the drive for efficiency with mission effectiveness there must be fact-finding followed by careful deliberation. To do this in a Christ-centered and Christian way, there must also be empathy and compassion, lest it become a ruthless "blood-letting" born of indifference or callousness. After all, as Christians we are to respect the dignity of every human being.
Believers - people of faith who follow Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior - are more than cultural Christians. We take seriously, for example, what Jesus said on the Sermon of Mount. I was profoundly disappointed, then, when Elon Musk said, "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." And I am shocked by the lack of Christian outrage in this supposedly Christian nation.
Empathy - the understanding of how someone feels, along with the effort to imagine how oneself might feel in the same or similar circumstances - is inherently bound up with Christian virtue. Empathy is the gateway to compassion - of feeling another's pain or suffering and being motivated to take action to help or to heal.
Today many Christians in the United States are silent or, worse, cheering the lack of empathy and compassion in society. Is there any better evidence that we need to repent for our sins and the sins done ostensibly on our behalf?!
Historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt said, "The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism." The disdain for empathy that we are witnessing today goes hand-and-hand with the rise of Christian Nationalism and is equally repugnant and heretical.
As I said from the pulpit last Sunday, the Gospel is clear. If we do not repent and return to the Way of the Lord, we’ll be left to a house of our own making. Woe, then, to us for our house is proving to be a cruel, cluttered, and confused mess!
There's another popular American heresy that is similar in its operation and with which people are generally more familiar – it’s the Prosperity Gospel. Like Christian Nationalism, it uses the image of Jesus and the trappings of Christianity for achieving other goals. Believe and behave rightly with generous giving, for God wants His heralds to own mansions, private planes, and sports cars. Do it without question and God will bless you with your heart’s desire. … Sadly, this is an outrageously popular message in our country.
But here's the difference. Lots of Christians recognize the problem with the Prosperity Gospel. They recognize that it's not what Jesus and the apostles preached. They understand that the goal of the Christian life is not about amassing money, sex, and power. Astoundingly, however, when these very same prosperity formulas are applied in the Christian Nationalist context, people somehow lose sight of the problem.
Perhaps the ubiquitous use of flags leads people to confuse patriotism with nationalism. Perhaps the extensive use of crosses and “bible-speak” blur a faith that is – at its core – self-centered, promoting a love of the like-minded and the like-looking.
Neither Christian Nationalists nor Prosperity Gospel advocates have as a goal encountering and deepening one’s relationship with Jesus Christ, because it’s not really about Jesus at all. For them, Jesus is just a means to an end - frequently to gain and amass more and more money, prestige, and/or success. Or, in the case of Christian nationalism, to have and wield political and cultural power.
In reality, we are struggling with the same old heresy. It’s just dressed differently and chasing a new and shiny goal. Famed biblical scholar and Anglican Bishop N.T. Wright correctly described Christian Nationalism as impoverished because “it seeks a kingdom without a cross. It pursues victory without mercy. It acclaims God’s love of power rather than the power of God’s love.” As such, Wright continued, Christian nationalism is a Christian facade for “nakedly political, ethnocentric and impious ventures.”
Don't be fooled. It's not what Jesus taught, nor what the apostles preached. It's not the mission of the Church described in the New Testament. And it is not the surrender of power that we see on the Cross. Instead, it peddles false guarantees of God's blessings for the nation if we put the right people in power and pass the right biblical laws. It is a message that has seduced many. But any message or movement in which Jesus is a means to an end rather than the goal is not orthodox Christianity. It's idolatry. And woe to us if we’re left to a house of our own making.
Our response needs to be as determined and heartfelt as Jesus’. We must not be cowered or dissuaded from our ministry to reconcile all people – all people – with God and each other in Christ; for if it’s not about love, empathy, and compassion, it’s not about God.
Continue, then, to love your neighbor. Continue to be generous and hospitable with the stranger. Heal old wounds and care for God's Good Creation. This is the work of ministry to which all followers of Jesus Christ are called. Continue to do this life-giving work. It is even more important now.
In Christ's Love,
Mark Andrew+
"Anxiety weights down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up" (Proverbs 12:25).
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