BLOG 1/17/16. FAUX ‘EVANGELICALS’: POLITICIANS AND CHURCHES

In this political season in the United States, when the news sources are filled with more than we want to know about the presidential primaries, … it is inconceivable to me how many of the candidates are soliciting what the media calls the evangelical vote, and presenting themselves as in harmony with their ostensible evangelical voters, while as the same both these ostensible evangelical churches and politicians seem so totally oblivious to the teachings and commands of Jesus. Let me intentionally get into politics here and explain a few things about Jesus and the roots of the concept of evangelical.

In the introductory books of the New Testament in which the career and teachings of Jesus are spelled out, who he was/is, and what he did and taught, … are designated as: the gospel of the kingdom of God, (or the gospel of God’s New Creation). Jesus came preaching the gospel saying that God’s appointed time had arrived and the kingdom of God was at hand. So, first off then, we need to get a grip on the word gospel since it is the English translators’ choice to translate the common Greek word: evangel (or something like euangelion) which means: a thrilling announcement—something of monumental importance, politically, socially, communally, militarily, etc. and suffused with joy and hope. It was the word used of anything that would thrill those who heard it. Got it?

So Jesus came announcing that the New Creation, which God had been promising for centuries was now being inaugurated in and by himself. That was the thrilling news, the gospel. God had promised that he would make all things new, that a New Age would come into this age, and all of the alienation from God and the brokenness would be transformed by God’s anointed anointed one, the Messiah. Jesus declared that he was that Messiah, he was that Christ, that he had come to inaugurate a creation which was reconciled to God, by who he himself was and what he would accomplish by his life, death on the cross, and resurrection. He would inaugurate that kingdom/New Creation, which would, in turn, ultimately heal the brokenness and darkness of this whole present creation.

Here’s where my pique with these faux evangelical politicians and (ostensible) churches comes in. Jesus launched his public ministry with a declaration that Isaiah’s prophecy of the Messiah was fulfilled in himself, and that prophecy was aout: good news to the poor, liberty to the captives (frequently prisoners of debt), opening of the eyes of the blind, liberty to those who were oppressed (most often economically which resulted in working in intolerable conditions), and the fulfillment of the ‘jubilee year’ which is a whole study in itself, when everything was redistributed. That’s his opening teaching. It has healing/health care, and economic justice written all over it.

Near the end of his earthly ministry he says that at the end of time, all humankind would be judged by how they provided for the economic needs of the poor, the hungry, and the naked … how they took strangers in (translate: immigrants), how they provided for the economically oppressed, because those are the very persons he identifies with himself. That’s the evangel, that’s the thrilling news as it is communicated in one’s response to the needs of the human community. Those are the criteria for the authenticity of faith in Jesus.

But if that’s not sufficient, consider that in one of the only one-on-one confrontations with an individual recorded in the life of Jesus, is that episode in which Jesus calls out a guy named Zacchaeus, (who might be described as something of a first century executive of Goldman-Sachs) who had made a personal fortune off of the misfortune of others. After spending a long conversation in his mansion, Zacchaeus and Jesus re-emerge to the crowd of Jesus’ followers and Zacchaeus’ testimony has nothing to do with any personal spiritual experience, or forgiveness of sins, only … “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” Jesus response? “Today salvation has come to this house.” Conclusion: any church or politician or agenda that does not deal with economic justice, health care, and conditions that enable a healthy human community is faux evangelical.