Locating Jesus in our Political Moment | Gordon-Conwell Dean's Forum
Zack Eswine · Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary ·
Watch on YouTubeA pastor's lecture at a seminary forum argues that Christians in a polarized political moment must locate the Jesus of the Bible rather than an edited Jesus shaped by conservative or progressive worldviews. Surveying Jesus's own political world, he argues that Jesus refused political kingship, showed no partiality to his nation, and disrupted every political strategy of the day, and that his disciples slowly overcame nationalism and zealotry. He offers "check engine lights" for detecting partisan distortion, and in Q&A discusses moderation, pastoral prudence, anxiety and fear in politics, and discipleship in war zones.
Reviewed
Its text teaches none of the positions Doxa lists.
The Infancy Gospel of Thomas portrays Jesus as a wicked bully and sounds nothing like the Jesus of the Bible.
Christians must discern the Jesus presented by the Bible and the apostles from competing, edited versions of Jesus that erase what people dislike and add what they wish were true, as the earliest Christians had to do.
- Endorses a source· Tom Holland
Tom Holland's article "What I got wrong about Christianity" is a useful account of the violent brutality of Rome.
Jesus did not fit any of the first-century political strategies (looking back, looking forward, withdrawing, fighting, political maneuvering); he offered a different kingdom in a different way, announcing a king who is neither Herod nor Caesar.
Jesus refused political kingship when the crowd tried to take him by force and make him king, and he never stirred up fear that Rome would take their nation, way of life, or children; he said "Blessed are the poor in spirit."
Jesus loved his own people but showed them no partiality, and his disciples, Peter, Paul, James and John, were originally nationalist, ethnically partial and prone to violent zealotry, but did not stay that way.
- Rejects· Richard Dawkins
Jesus was a real Jesus whom Richard Dawkins recreates in his own image when he claims Jesus would have been an atheist today.
Conservatism and progressivism are worldviews that exist apart from Christianity; both co-opt Christianity, and Christians can end up reading Jesus through the lens of their politics instead of reading politics through Jesus.
Progressive-leaning people tend to embrace "God so loved the world" but struggle with Jesus's exclusivity, the virgin birth, bodily resurrection, and atoning death, producing an edited Jesus who is love but not truth.
- Adopts· Christopher Hitchens
Anyone who does not believe Jesus was the Christ, rose from the dead, and forgave sins by his sacrifice is not in any meaningful sense a Christian.
A conservative worldview can also edit Jesus, folding the gospel into love of country (as in a children's wisdom book ending with the American flag) and neglecting that God so loved the world.
The sin of murder includes both unborn and born people.
Hearing biblical words like immigrant, justice, and the poor through partisan talking points, as when Republican hearers suspect a Democrat, or hearing words like sin, the cross, and the unborn as signs of a Republican, shows that politics is the lens for reading the Bible.
Biblical wisdom corrects both worldviews: the progressive forgets the wisdom of the past (do not move the ancient landmark) and the conservative wrongly believes the best things are behind us (Ecclesiastes 7:10); both misjudge sin and good in past and future and neither believes there is hope in the present because Jesus is alive.
Christians' political talking points should differ from non-Christians in the same party, Jesus's kingdom should still challenge one's own party and leaders, and judging statements true by tribe is partiality, which the Bible calls sin.
Believing that God's purposes rise or fall with one's own nation, or that the interests of God will fail unless one's nation and people are preserved, is a warning sign of a distorted Jesus.
Christians should not treat a middle way or moderate neutrality as the answer; Jesus is not a neutral moderate but announces a completely different kingdom that confronts everything.
Pastors should apply politics to their congregations prudently and gradually, with approaches such as welcoming everyone without asking how they vote, small-group conversations, and brief applications from the text, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Politicians and Christians should practice a politics of vision (arguing policies and consequences) rather than a politics of fear (portraying opponents as evil enemies who will take your children and way of life); fear-mongering makes people afraid.
Voting options usually reduce Christianity, each having aspects Christians affirm and others they do not, so Christians vote by conscience but must still live differently, loving their nation without partiality, refusing to take up weapons in God's name, and loving enemies.
No comments yet.