Although I was very young during the Civil Rights Movement, I remember the images on the news of people being attacked by the police with dogs and firehoses; I remember the peaceful marches that led to police brutality and arrests of people like M.L. King, Jr. I learned a little about it in school, but it wasn’t until I went to college that I began to understand the incredible courage – and the scary risks – that these protesters lived with. The age of Mainline Christian Nationalism was ending, and we had no idea how to deal with it. Before there was today’s perverse version of my faith that we see passing for much of Christianity, there was an uneasy relationship between the church and state. For Christians, it began when Emperor Constantine allowed Christians to practice their faith freely in the early 4th century, C.E. Later that century, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. If we take history seriously, we must admit that faith and secularity have always clashed.
In Ocean City, MD, there is a battle going on between an Episcopal Church and the city government. Since there is very little available for the homeless community there, the congregation decided to set aside part of their building for people to sleep in at night. They arrive at 7pm, eat dinner, then leave after breakfast. The church serves between 25-30 people a night, and the main issue is that the setup is barrack style, and there are concerns about safety. My congregation went through a less problematic situation 20 years ago when we became a site for Family Promise, a program that used to house families in local congregations for a week at a time. I told the people who argued against it that the church has always been a place of sanctuary, so we will do what we are able to help vulnerable people in need. I don’t think I could have had the courage that this congregation does – they are doing God’s work in difficult times.
In recent years we have seen a growing movement towards believing, once more, that God elects government officials (Romans 13 and Hebrews 13), which, therefore, means that we must do as they say. All leaders, we are told, are chosen by God. This is utter nonsense, and for those who believe this, many also believe that Democrats can’t be Christians. Their thinking is that Christians do not have the right to disobey civil authorities, and as a law-abiding American, I mostly agree. What happens, though, when our faith teaches us the exact opposite that our elected leaders believe? There are many ways we can see this happening, and it is practiced by people on the entire spectrum of faithfulness. This is not an easy problem to solve, and it strikes at the very core of what we believe. The diversity of opinions about what it means to be faithful is not making this conversation any easier. Ultimately, the question is this: in the midst of an unsolvable choice, which do we choose – our version of God or the Law? More to come as this situation unfolds.
Prayer – Holy God, You have called us to do You will, but knowing what that is isn’t always easy to discern. Help us, we pray. Amen. Today’s art is “Church and State” by James T. Berryman, from around 1950, the year he won a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning