The Influence of Politics on Christian Faith
Over the past few months, I have had an increasing number of contacts from Christian friends whose identity and time have been wrapped up in the US political scene. It’s really interesting because I never talk about politics with any of them, but for some reason, they feel the need to talk to me about them. In the last month, the intrusions have been oppressive. We have long established the stance in this ministry that if you are a believer led to be in politics, fine, but if you are a believer who uses your faith in your politics, you have missed the mark; that Jesus didn’t do this, nor his apostles, and that He clearly pointed out that His kingdom was not of this world.
I’ve spoken and written about this topic repeatedly. And I maintain that if God had not called you to serve in a political position, but has called you to be a Son or Daughter, that attention to politics and the time and energy it requires will, in all probability, work to take your eyes off the Kingdom and serve another master. In the least, once everything is said and done, you will look back and see your focus diverted. All the people who contacted me about the presidential elections were insistent on promoting to me President Trump. So much uproar, so much angst, so much fear, and even some hate. Turmoil. Very little faith. A tremendous amount of self, flesh, and the strength of Men.
Online I was told about statements that said things like, If you’re a Christian, you would vote for Trump! Or President Trump: The ONLY Christian Vote. And now the dust has settled. And Biden has won. One of the most ardent voices for President Trump in my ear, upon hearing the news that he lost, simply said, “I’ll just keep living the way I always have.” And this is my point. Christians keep living like we always have and always will. With faith for him in our hearts! With an eye on the heavenly perspective and allegiance to a King who is NOT of this world. Once again, politics have done more harm to the Good News than help as people associate political views with the discipleship of Christ and love of God. It shamed me in the past and it shames me today. Had to speak to this – yet again.
Understanding Totalitarianism
Because I have (for the past few weeks) stepped in and used the principles of Classical Liberalism as the desired standard for the faith and my justification for being a Christian Anarchist (as a means to get back to true Classical Christian Liberty), I want to use our show tonight to take a look at the faith through another comparison to the way the world works and talk about Totalitarianism – first from a secular perspective, and then relative to Christianity. We have a lot of words that are thrown around out there – especially today and relative to the political climate. Words like communist, socialist, democracy, fascist, totalitarian, Nazi, cult, and so on are passed around like Covid 19. Let’s take a few of these terms and explain them as a means to then see how they have also taken form in organized religion today.
Totalitarianism in Government
The first overall term I want to use is TOTALITARIAN. As the name implies, Totalitarianism in government is when a government takes control of the total of everything: Labor, Economy, Religion, Education, Media, Family. They have their hand in everything, right?
Totalitarian Influence in Religion
When it comes to religion, we see the overall impact of Totalitarianism on a scale – Waco Texas and David Koresh and Jonestown with Jim Jones – Totalitarian to the max, right? And from there, we work our way down incrementally. Perhaps a key term to assign to the super rigid, more totalitarian groups might be “fundamental or orthodox” like Fundamental or orthodox Muslims, Christians, Mormons, Jews. Each of these has what are called, “Orthodoxies,” but then as the groups loosen their grip on people, they become less and less orthodox (or fundamental) and therefore less Totalitarian.
Totalitarianism and Religious Institutions
Totalitarianism can be seen as three distinct expressions of a similar principle. In government, it is expressed in three main ways: Nazism, Communism, and Fascism. All three are totalitarian, but they approach their totalitarianism differently, akin to the distinctions between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. However, what is common among them is that they are often led by a dictator, are anti-democracy, anti-free speech, anti-individual, and pro-surveillance.
Comparing Religious Institutions
Now let’s take our institutionalized religions and hold them up to these general descriptions of totalitarian governments to find similarities. The more similarities that exist, the more totalitarian your church or faith is. I am adamantly opposed to any form of religious totalitarianism. First, because it is in direct conflict with the Classical Liberalism that Jesus established when he gave his life for the sins of the world. It was both prophesied (in Isaiah) and reiterated by Him several times over that he came to set “the captives free.”
Look at the religious institutions around you, or perhaps one you might even be involved with, and ask yourselves: Is my Pastor a dictator? Does he claim authority that cannot be justified? Are his teachings held up as supreme, and does he demand that they be kept? Is he unapproachable? Does he have a special clique of insiders who are the only ones who have real access to him? Or does he give all people liberty to access him? Does he support your personal freedoms, loving and accepting you as you are, including your thoughts and opinions, even if they differ from him and his? Does he treat people equally who do not give money to the church, or does he treat his biggest financial supporters better? How does your pastor and staff respond to the group as a whole? Is there any give on what goes on, is taught, or said, or is it “his way or the highway?” Can you ardently disagree with your leader or denomination on anything and remain welcome?
Free Speech and Control
This leads us right into free speech, which totalitarians hate. Looking back at Mormonism, remember when their leadership instructed people “to stay off the internet.” When I was a kid, you could only teach out of their manuals, and the leaders were always warning against reading books that were not printed by the church! That is an aspect of totalitarianism.
God wants people to love Him with their everything. Jesus said in Matthew 22:37, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Religions fear what people read that cause them to think, and the more totalistic they are, the more restrictive the reading list. But God wants us to love Him with all of our heart, all of our soul, and all of our mind. I personally think that for those seeking truth and who are open to Him from the heart, nothing we read or consider will harm them—nothing. In fact, there is great honor in considering all forms of information, and even changing when necessary, retaining a love for Him all the while. Search everything out by the Spirit. Bring Him into every book, every film, every conversation. He is not offended. He is there, guiding us through by His spirit.
Every now and then, a book will come out that brings out the totalitarianism in even churches that appear to have the most casual hold on their people. Remember when Dan Brown’s books came out? The Harry Potter Series? The Shack? “Don’t read them!” was the war cry. There’s no fear, no laws, no information that any believer ought to reject or fear—so long as Christ is at the center of their faith journey.
The Issue of Totalitarian Religions
Totalitarian religions do not want God to control you with liberty – they want to control you with restrictions, on everything – including your mind. This brings us to Totalitarian churches being anti-individual. Anti-unique. In the end, anti-YOU. They want you to “think like them,” “act like them, speak like them, dress like them, worship like them, believe like them, live like them, and the more you completely conform to their standard, the more you will be “received and loved” and sometimes even rewarded. But every act thought or opinion that is contrary to their culture and way will ultimately be called into question, ridiculed, mocked, rejected and in the end you – your person – will be alienated from the flock.
The Loss of Individuality
It’s so convoluted. On one hand we rejoice in the God of diversity – all the colors of the rainbow, the variants in nature, spouting on about how He Himself has uniquely and wonderfully made each of us, giving us different fingerprints, different eyes, different shapes and sizes and colors and backgrounds. But many churches seek to erase this individuality – with the hope to remake you in their image. Look at the dark powers of Totalitarianism that have been established in the world – Communism, Nazism and Fascism – all of them HATE individuality. At the end of the day, so do corporations, and in reality, so do most religions.
But the LIVING GOD made us unique and different. Don’t ever let a religion or church tell you, or sway you to change. God will change in you what he wants, and you will notice that when he does it, he just removes the dark, but never the uniqueness, never the individual. Isn’t it funny that the Holy Spirit reaches into individuals, that we are all responsible before God as individuals, that we are born individuals (unless conjoined) and that we die as individuals that we will all give him an account of our own individual lives? But while we are here on earth almost everything and everyone under the sun tries to get us to lose the unique ways in which God has fashioned us together?
Embracing Individuality Through Faith
I therefore conclude that it is far far far more “God honoring” to let him fully into your heart and mind WHILE retaining what he created you to be in your life, than to modify your person to fit cultural expectations of any kind. Finally, Totalitarian governments go to great lengths to survey their people as a means to make sure that they are not straying outside the established lines. The Communists have their KGB, the Nazi’s had their Gestapo, Mussolini had OVRA and every totalistic group have their in-house spies and rats. Ever feel like you are being vetted by people in the faith? “My God, it’s a constant whenever I run into a Christian.”
The constant size-up. “So???? Where are you at now with hell?” Have you come back to the Trinity? Are you attending a church? When you are part of a Totalistic Group this part of it can get really taxing. But policing the faith is vital if the other demands on the group are going to remain intact and in power, right? Step back a minute. Look to what God did through His Son. Remember he said, “it is finished.” Remember that He had the victory – for all. Remember that you and I are saved by grace through faith. Period. Remember that the body of Christ is in the control of the Holy Spirit, not any human being. Remember that all the elements of material religion were destroyed by God in 70AD and that from then on God writes his laws on the minds and hearts of those who are His. That is you. We are His. And we embrace this by faith.
Rejoice in who God made you, and in that capacity let him mold you, and move you and direct you in His ways. At the end of the day trust that He will refine you to be exactly what He wants you to be, and exactly who you are comfortable being, with all the liberty and freedom that you can manage.
