Ideology and the Constantinian Captivity

Some years ago I received a video from a member of my church; the video was a “Tour of Washington, D.C.” conducted by David Barton, a man who purports to be a historian and Christian.  The “tour” was filled with falsehoods, misleading statements, bits & pieces removed from context, and outright lies.  I quickly responded to my church member, advising that he should be wary of forwarding the video to anyone else.

His response left me absolutely flabbergasted: “Until you can prove it is wrong to me, I will believe it.”

This member was somewhat of a historian himself, having written several small but good histories of the local area.  We had been guests at his home, and he and his wife were faithful participants in worship, so presumably I had some credibility with them.  Yet because a video fit his pre-conceived ideology, he chose to believe a lying stranger over his pastor of six years.  Even after I provided proof of some of the most egregious distortions in the video, he just shrugged it off and changed the subject.

I thought of this interaction because of two events this past week, involving Franklin Graham (son of evangelist Billy Graham) and the radio showman Rush Limbaugh.  Mr. Graham, who should know better, bore false witness about President Obama’s commitment to Christianity, questioning, in spite of his own written words, the reality of Mr. Obama’s choice to become a Christian as well as referring to a racialist understanding of religion, stating that the “seed of Islam” is passed through the father and therefore Mr. Obama was born a Muslim.

In the case of Mr. Limbaugh, the falsehood involved an attempt at re-writing the Gospels.  In a rant presumably about taxes Mr. Limbaugh stated the issue was not “What Would Jesus Do” but rather “What Would Jesus Take” to which Mr. Limbaugh answered: “Nothing.”

Huh?  Matthew 16:25 sounds pretty demanding to me: “For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”  Or how about Matthew 22:21: “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”  Or how about Jesus’ response to the rich young ruler, who asked what he must do to inherit eternal life: “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”   Sounds to me like Jesus would take a great deal from us!

I am under no illusion about the elasticity of scripture and how it can be interpreted in various ways.  But there is a huge difference between difference of opinion and outright misuse.  The Christian story has been seized by a fringe group who would pimp Jesus for profit, turning this radical spokesman for the poor and oppressed into a shill for capitalist interests (by the way, I DO NOT believe Jesus was a socialist and in spite of its inherent weaknesses think capitalism is the best economic model currently available).  Such blatant misuse of my Lord for personal profit infuriates me and strengthens my resolve to take back the Christian story.

Many scholars refer to the forced Christianization of the citizens of the Roman Empire under Constantine as the “Contantinian Capitivity” of the faith.  They do so because it was at that time that the Christian faith became conflated with culture, serving as a support for the Empire rather than a call to Conversion.  The consistent and blatant misuse of scripture and faith so prevalent today, which argues for a particular ideology that continues to place undue burden on the poor and marginalized in society, suggests that our faith is still  held captive by the Empire. 

It is time for us to once again speak of the Kingdom of God as a direct challenge to the Empire of Man.  And there is no better place, nor people more suited, than Bellevue First Congregational Church.

See you in church.

kevin