Confessions of a Recovered Fabian Socialist

 

When I was young and living in Canada, I read “News from Nowhere”, and felt the draw of Fabian Socialism, and voted for the New Democratic Party in Canada. When I immigrated to the United States and became a naturalized American Citizen I also became a registered Democrats. Really, who wouldn’t want to vote against Nixon!

When Nixon was pardoned by President Ford I wrote Ford a letter explaining that as the Rector of a Massachusetts Episcopal Church, and as a Democrat who had voted for Ted Kennedy, I was of the opinion that although Nixon was pardoned, rather than brought to the bar of justice, that the country had had enough of the whole painful saga and that Ford had done the right thing.  I was amazed to receive a personal thank you letter from Ford who also let me know that he had forwarded my letter to Ted Kennedy. 

Subsequently I received a scathing letter from Kennedy asking how, as a man of God, I could take such a sinful position?  To which I replied that as one who had voted for him, but was not as wealthy as him, I wasn’t sure that justice had been done at Chappaquiddick, and if I were he I wouldn’t say anything.  Shortly after that two men in conservative blue suits turned up during a Sunday morning Eucharist, took notes through the sermon, and left at the passing of the Peace.  My guess was that, like many dissenters during that era, my name was on a list somewhere.

I had voted for George McGovern, and I also voted for Jimmy Carter, but the second term for Ronald Reagan made me wonder about the Republican Party. For several years I wavered between the two parties. What finally soured me on the Democratic Party was Bill Clinton’s sexual adventures with Gennifer Flowers.  Regardless of theoretical principals, I just can’t get myself to vote for the Clintons. I can’t get beyond their immorality, fabrications, and their version of big money sponsored government.

When I became a citizen I was never asked where my true allegiance lay.  My allegiance lies with the Kingdom of God and with its King.  That allegiance determines the nature of my response as a citizen of the United States. 

The Coming Storm

Over several trips to Uganda we had noticed a growing presence of Islam.  On our last short term mission trip to the Diocese of Kinkiizi we led two conferences; one for the clergy and one for the lay pastors.  Our theme was the doctrine of the Trinity and how we relate to the three Persons of the Trinity in our lives and experience.  Preparing the basic outline for the course I had no idea of its relevance to the spread of Islam in Uganda.

We westerners are naïve about the doctrines, teaching, and customs of Islam.  Inscribed around the inside of the dome of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem in Arabic is the following exhortation directed to the People of the Book, to Jews and Christians, “O People of the Book! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning God save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a Messenger of God, and His Word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in God and His messengers, and say not 'Three' - Cease! (it is) better for you! - God is only One God. Far be it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son. ... Whoso disbelieveth the revelations of God (will find that) lo! God is swift at reckoning!”

Islam is in militant opposition to the doctrine of the Trinity, and to the Incarnation of the Son of God.  Did you know that lying is permissible in Islam?  That is known as Taqiyya.  The Quran says that a man may lie to his wife to please her, or he may lie to spread Islam.  Unfortunately Muslims will lie about the history and traditions of Islam and their intention to spread Islam throughout the world. Jihad is their equivalent of evangelism, and will include violence as well as other means.  As part of the Muslim outreach Idi Amin started the building of a huge Mosque in the middle of Kampala.  It is known as the Gaddafi Mosque because Muammar al-Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator provided the funds for its completion.  They broadcast their prayers on loud speakers from their mosques and believe that wherever the sound of their prayer is heard belongs to Islam.

The position of women in Islam is degrading.  Muhammad had twelve wives, one of them was nine when the marriage was consummated.  Islam now allows for four wives, including child wives.  A woman is property, and has fewer rights than a man.  In some Muslim communities, men can marry, even for an hour, a prostitute, then divorce her.  That is not considered adultery.   

Islam buys and lies its way as is spreads its doctrine and Sharia law. As Sharia law spreads, persecution of Christians spread.  There are numerous accounts of persecution from Northern Nigeria and other places.  We are already seeing the effects in the United States in cities like Detroit where many of the taxi drivers are Muslim and a single woman may have to wait for a non-Muslim driver in order to get a ride.

Uganda, like other places in Africa, is a spiritual battleground; and it is coming our way.  America with its dry as dust religion may well go up in flames as it comes our way.  In Uganda Islam encounters an intensely personal faith and there are many instances of people won to Christian faith through dreams, visions, and people hearing the voice of God; but what of us with our pseudo-sophistication and cultural humanism?

The best media news available in Uganda is Al Jazeera.  Al Jazeera’s coverage of world events is much more comprehensive than our American media news, but it comes at a price.  That price is an undercurrent, not of anti-Americanism, so much as anti-Christianity.  The problem that Islam has with Christianity is simply that we believe in the Trinity, and that we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

We Live in the Habitation of Dragons

Isaiah tells us we live in the Habitation of Dragons, “And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls” [KJV].  Modern translators render the word for dragons as ‘jackals,” because they don’t believe that there are such things as dragons.

The translators have a harder time re-interpreting the New Testament Greek word, “drakon” as anything other than “dragon.” One primary text where the word “dragon” occurs is in Revelation 12:1-12 where the devil is depicted as a fiery red dragon who is cast down from heaven to earth by Michael and his angels. The Book of Revelation goes on to add, “woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

That is indeed the problem! Humankind tends to operate on the assumption that we live out our lives in a neutral zone where most of our spiritual struggles are with ourselves or with other people.

In reality the place where we live is a habitation of dragons, and in specific, one most unhappy dragon, the devil. This particular dragon has discovered to his chagrin that he is not as lofty, as beautiful, or as powerful as God. Not only that, but he has discovered, to his great wrath, that his time is short. In his wrath the dragon has resolved to rob everybody of the life, joy and vitality that he has lost himself when he was cast from heaven by Michael and the angels of God.

Some limitations of the dragon's ability need to be acknowledged; Unlike God, he is not Omniscient, Omnipotent, or Omnipresent. In plain language, he is a created being; he doesn't know everything, he isn't all-powerful, nor is he present everywhere.

Unfortunately for us the passage in Revelation tells us that when he was cast to earth in great wrath he took his “angels” with him. The New Testament refers to these entities as “devils,” “demons,” or as “unclean spirits.” What it means is that we play out our moral and spiritual struggles on an uneven playing field where unseen malicious enemies are doing their very best to make us as unhappy as they are. The old saying, “misery loves company” is remarkably true in this regard.

We actually live in the habitation of dragons.  St. Paul says, “Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” On the other hand, living in paranoia and fear only serves the dragon and his fallen angels. James 4:7b also says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” John the Apostle adds, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4). Another way of putting it is in the modern proverb, “To be forewarned is to be fore-armed.” In Texas terms, if you are walking through a field with vipers in it, wear a good pair of cowboy boots. Watch where you are walking and keep your guard up.

Stop Enabling the Bred in the Bone Sinner

A Contribution From the Midnight Skulker

All of us within the Church wrestle with those who stubbornly refuse to respond to the truth of the Gospel.  Often these bred in the bone rebels against God claim the things of the Church as their own, even the very highest offices.  Anybody who has been through the long Lent of Church life has slammed up against the concrete wall of “entitlement” that is so often a mark of these claimants to the privileges of the children of God.  They often take the high road assuming a righteousness tinged with viciousness. 

Every church that has tucked some history under its belt, has experienced this problem.  Too often the vestibule of the church has a closet full of the robes of the Pharisees and Sadducees who still look for ways to crucify the Christ.  Of the traitorous, Sir Launcelot du Lake said, “Hard it is to take out of the flesh that which is bred in the bone” (Mallory).  What is needed is not just a heart transplant, but a bone replacement.  The very structure of their lives needs to be torn up, so that God in his grace can begin again.  They are the ruined pot on the wheel, and the Potter seeks to scrape them off the wheel, pound the lumps out of them, and reshape them one more time. 

The problem arises when those within the church, who perceive the reality of this challenge, say, “Bring out the dead.  Bring out the dead;” these bred in the bone rebels cry, “I’m not dead yet.  I’m not dead yet.  I’m feeling better.”  The true children of God then surrender to the sin of enabling.  We won’t risk rejection by confronting the hard impenitence of these fellow travelers.  Why?  Because these fellow travelers are relatives and friends, people we love, people in whom we have invested much, and people to whom are beholden, because we ourselves too often seek approval and applause. 

Making the modern parenting mistake, we fail to differentiate between acceptance and approval.  And instead we not only give them tacit approval by our silence, but elect them to our vestries, hire them on our church staffs, send them to seminaries, ordain and consecrate them, and make some of them as professors in our seminaries so that they can become teachers of the faith that they don’t really believe.  Unlike Archie Bunker we are reluctant to call a spade a spade, because that type of attitude seems loveless and judgmental. 

In our sweet and companionable righteousness we are more righteous than the Christ himself, who says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28). 

If it is not only that, it is also another thing; the pathological tendency to over-identify with the bred in the bone sinner.  Out of false humility we cry, “You! hypocrite lecteur!--mon semblable!--mon frère!”[1]  and thus fail ourselves to see that we are the broken hearted tender children of God. 

Here is a prayer that reflects true penitence and a love as tough as Christ himself: “Break their hearts O Lord, that You may enter in!” 

Will they change?  Not if we can help it!  It is time to stop bowing to the children of the world within the Church and press on unafraid, with our hearts on fire for God.

[1] You! Hypocrite reader! my likeness, my brother! (T. S. Eliot, The Wasteland).

THE UNDERLYING DREAM OF HILARY CLINTON

Underlying both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the radical socialist political theories of another Chicagoan, Saul Alinsky, who has been quoted by President Obama, as having “the wisdom to see the world as it is, but also the courage to see the world as it should be” [Obama’s speech in Jerusalem in 2103]. Obama and Hillary have a vision for America, but it isn’t the American Dream, nor is it a particularly Christian vision. In his Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky has said, “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical… the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.” [Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals]. That is a far distance from one Nation under God.

Saul Alinsky’s  12 Rules for Radicals

* RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

* RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

* RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

* RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

* RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

* RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)

* RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)

* RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

* RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

* RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

* RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

New-Old Gnosticism

When I was very young, Brian McDuff and I were invited to preach mini-sermons at a Canadian Presbyterian Church youth event. I took the time to share the story of my own conversion.  McDuff’s response to me later was that he could understand Scripture because he was going to seminary, but I couldn’t because I wasn’t being trained in seminary.”  

That is not an uncommon attitude in some circles.  Some years later I attended his seminary.  Its professors were expert at demythologizing Scripture but had no apparent heart for its meaning.  Their application of the Wellhausen approach to the Old Testament left you with a pile of clippings instead of a workable document.

I recently received the same put down from an old friend who is quite a scholar.  In essence his view is a form of gnosticism; the claim to superior knowledge on the basis of much study and insight.  Solomon warns us, “My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.  The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:12-13).  It is true that much study may give you “special knowledge” but there is also a danger.  If you think that special knowledge can lead you to safely contradict the plain teaching of Scripture and Tradition, you are not only wrong, but you are also foolish.

The truth of Scripture must remain plain and simple so that “he who runs may read it,” understand it, and be called to the challenge of surrender to the voice of God speaking truth through the words of Scripture.  Once you resort to an ingenious “deeper knowledge” of Scripture to defend current changes in morality, you are running against rocks of Charybdis and the dangerous whirlpool of contemporaneity will pull you under.

McDuff is always with us with his new-old Gnosticism.  “I have special knowledge and you don’t, so Scripture doesn’t mean what you and most of the Church thinks that it means.”  That is not only spiritually dangerous, but it also is arrogant.

Contend, O Lord, With Those Who Contend With Me

In reading Margery Kempe, a 14^th C mystic, I was reminded of a verse that I have found alarming in the past. The Psalmist prays, “Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me” [Psalm 35:1]! In her prayer Margery asks the Lord not to punish those who contend with her. Several churches ago, in another state, I was in a church that was under severe stress, and as the parish priest I was targeted by those who needed a target. Like Margery I prayed, “Do not contend with them on my account!” Sometimes in our prayers we love to tell God what to do, and sometimes what not to do. There are times that the Lord tells us to butt out and let us do what he needs to do for sake of his Kingdom.

An older woman in the congregation, a Margery Kempe in her own right, called on me one day at the rectory. She was very hesitant and humble but finally told me that the Lord had given her a word for me. Usually my response to that is, “Then pray for me that the Lord will give it to me himself.” But her hesitancy and humility moved me, and I told her to go ahead. She said, “The Lord will contend with those who contend with you.” I tucked that away in the lumber room of my mind and went about my business. A couple of weeks later I was at a Woman’s Aglow Meeting and another pastor asked if he might pray for me. He prayed, “The Lord will contend with those who contend with you.” Shortly thereafter the central vocal opponent to the Kingdom had a massive heart attack and I apart from the paramedics I was the only person present at his death. As he died I prayed the Office for Ministration at the Time of Death for him, “Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light” [BCP p. 465]. 

I have a point in sharing this. When the Lord speaks to you, zip the lip; sometimes it’s not about you but about the Kingdom and the salvation of others. Pray the Palms and stop telling the Lord how to answer your prayers. The Lord is God, you are not.