Author: Paul Louis Metzger

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on November 29, 2012.

I took my family to see the new Spielberg movie Lincoln over the Thanksgiving weekend. The theater was packed. I sensed throughout the movie that the audience was engaged, caught up in the drama. The acting was great. So too was the subject matter. Lincoln, the man and legend, demands a commanding performance, for he seized his moment in history on the grand stage of the world and acted out his heroic and tragically flawed part to near perfection.

There is a scene in the movie, which you can watch in the official trailer (48-103 seconds), that shows President Lincoln talking with key associates and political operatives. They were quite critical of Lincoln’s drive to change the Constitution and abolish slavery at a time when the opportunity existed to bring a cessation to the war and peace with the South (which would have allowed slavery in the South to continue). Lincoln listens to their challenges and then responds with great passion, claiming that they had stepped out on the world stage and that the fate of the dignity of humanity was in their hands. They must not stop. They must not wait. He fervently exhorted them that they had to act now.

Lincoln loved theater. I recall reading how he would imitate the theatrics of preachers as he retold their sermons to his friends as a youth. He loved to tell stories to people. He often enjoyed attending productions in Washington. He even died at a theater—shot in the head by an actor whom he had earlier watched perform on the very same stage (Ford’s Theater). But this was no tall tale or great fiction. Even in his viewing box at Ford’s Theater, Lincoln was on the stage of life.

As I filed out of the movie theater with my family and a host of others this past weekend, I was left wondering if we were merely spectators. Is it only rare, larger-than-life characters like Abraham Lincoln, who perform on stage? Few people in the history of this great country are as great as Lincoln. But even Lincoln wasn’t born great. He was the most common of commoners in terms of his roots and upbringing. I guess that is part of his greatness: he did not allow his background to be an excuse or a deterrent to get up on stage. He had been seeking to move from the seats to the stage ever since he was a boy. He was not content with being a mere spectator.

We live in a culture that often divides people into performers and spectators. Even in the movie, there is a scene where Lincoln asks an aid if “we” are “fitted” (which I understand to mean destined) for the times in which we live. The aid responds that he does not know about himself, but thinks that such may be the case with the President. I believe Lincoln wanted everyone to perform on stage, including this young aid as well as slaves. Everyone is destined to be free. We should all cheer one another on to be truly free and pursue excellence as we climb on stage together, fitted for the times in which we live, seeking to act out our own tragically flawed parts to perfection, like Lincoln. Fear of failure, fear of others, fear of discomfort and pain often keep us from performing our parts well. We are often dead before we die because we fear to live. I fear at times that such paralysis grips me. Lincoln died living. He feared not living well his moment on the great stage of life. Which will it be for you—the fear to live or the fear not to live out your part well?

Let me encourage you: Don’t simply watch Lincoln. Don’t try to live your life through him. Let him inspire you with his rise from humble beginnings to greatness on one of the greatest stages in modern history to play your own part well and fulfill your destiny to care for others in need like Lincoln did, and at great cost to himself. This is no mere dress rehearsal. This is your moment. This is your life.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on November 26, 2012.

I was struck by a certain criticism of my “I Can’t Wait for Christian America to Die” blog post. The person specified that this is the same kind of speech hailing from churches affiliated with individuals like Jeremiah Wright, and which white liberals assent to in order to feel good about themselves. I appreciate the person’s clear criticism and will make use of it to develop further reflections on the subject.

In view of my recent post, I don’t think white liberals would necessarily like what I have to say about our nation’s history and present dealings with those of African American descent. While they may approve it in principle, white liberals didn’t and don’t always practice what they preach, just like many white conservative Christians such as myself. Liberal Portland, Oregon, where I teach, is very tolerant, but not very good at addressing racism in its historic or contemporary forms. Speaking of history, take Thomas Jefferson as a further example. As a liberal Christian or deist, he espoused the grand ideal of liberty for all, and yet mastered slaves. By the way, many conservative Christians of the past – evangelicals of the Civil War era – would have affirmed the claim in the article in question: America was and is not Christian enough. Many early abolitionists in America were evangelicals and fervently petitioned politicians like President Lincoln to abolish slavery. If anything, I would prefer that the evangelical movement today engage racialized structures with as much fervor and intentionality as our Civil War era evangelical predecessors. While some may agree in principle to challenging racialized structures, we are often not willing to make the personal sacrifices that are the logical and necessary responses to the situations at hand based on our convictions.

By and large, we evangelicals were nowhere to be found when Dr. King marched during the Civil Rights era, though we have made some progress in the march for freedom today. The Christian Community Development Association, co-founded by Dr. John M. Perkins, is one stellar example of a key initiative addressing racialized structures in our society. My own denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, is also very intentional in this sphere. Such evangelical mega church pastors as Bill Hybels are also engaged in addressing the subject of racism today. For more on the subject of American evangelicalism’s struggle with addressing racism and racialization, see the important work of Michael Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided By Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), and the literature that hails from their volume.

One of the claims I often find present among conservative Christians is that any and all such criticisms of our country are unpatriotic. Another claim I come across is that wanting Christian America to die is unchristian. I beg to differ on both counts. I will first deal with the charge that all criticisms of our country are unpatriotic and will reference the African American church tradition in its prophetic calling in this regard. While I do not claim to defend Rev. Wright on his vast pronouncements issued in public or the rhetoric in his speech that fueled the controversy during President Obama’s first run for the Presidency, Reverend Wright could very well have intended his statements decrying America in that controversial speech to read as a prophetic challenge to America in the prophetic tradition of the African American church so that America might repent of its indifference and institutionalized racism so as to receive the blessing of God. The African American church has always had a prophetic role in addressing such widespread problems as racism and discrimination from slavery to segregation to the present in order to call America forth to true greatness that includes its redemption from participation in oppressive systems as individuals and entire communities. If we assume Rev. Wright’s statements were intended virtuously, which I believe we should, then it is likely the case that he meant his statements to be read from within this overarching context. It is also worth noting that Reverend Wright served our country admirably during the Vietnam War in military service with the Marine Corps and the Navy, even serving on the medical team that cared for President Johnson at a point when he was in the hospital.

Regardless of whether or not we place Reverend Wright’s controversial statements in the context of the African American church tradition of prophetic preaching and whether or not we account for his patriotic service to our great nation, I doubt many white liberals would have favored President Obama during the Democratic Primaries of his first bid for the White House if he had championed Reverend Wright’s claims. They would have likely supported Senator Hillary Clinton, if then Senator Obama had defended Rev. Wright for his challenges concerning the United States. After all, for all of us – liberals and conservatives alike, it is very hard to challenge structures that cater to our own forms of privilege, including white privilege. Going further, in liberal and conservative Christian communities, Christian values are often confused with rights and privileges, but values are not rights and privileges. Rather, values are those core convictions for which we are willing to sacrifice rights and privileges in order for our values to take shape, as a friend of mine claimed. An African American pastor who had marched with Dr. King recently told me that President Obama is a politician, not a prophet. He himself did not think that President Obama had spoken out forcefully enough on the subject of racism in America following Rev. Wright’s claims during President Obama’s first bid for the White House; if President Obama had, he may very well have lost the election. White privilege is no respecter of conservative or liberal Americans, including Christians. We who are white, especially white males, all struggle with it.

Now I come to the second claim, namely, the charge that wanting Christian America to die is unchristian. It is not only conservative Christians who might struggle with my view that I long for Christian America to die (please refer to the essay on this subject to which a link is provided above). Many liberals may struggle with my view as well given that I believe that once we Christians are free of Christian America thinking we will be in a much better position to share the good news of Jesus with people of conservative as well as liberal persuasions. Many conservative Christians, perhaps liberal Christians, too, fail to see that Jesus as the only way as synonymous with the all-American way is one of the ideological tenets that most gets in the way of sharing the good news of Jesus with Americans and calling on them to repent of their participation in evil, including personal and structural racism in its various forms. Moreover, to challenge conservative and liberal America in view of Jesus, is on my view, not unpatriotic, but truly patriotic. Regardless of what one makes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s statements, Dr. King’s statements such as those found in his “I Have a Dream” speech were calls to America to live into its ideals as a country before God in Christ. I believe even Dr. King’s sermon on the Vietnam War, confronting what he saw as the triple evils of racism, poverty and militarism, was intended as a prophetic and redemptive Christian call to America to become truly great. I also believe that prophetic message lost Dr. King much support in various circles.

Regardless of what one makes of Rv. Jeremiah Wright, Jeremiah of old was seen as unpatriotic by many of his contemporaries, but he was supremely patriotic in calling Judah and Jerusalem back to the Torah. Unlike America, Israel was founded as a theocracy and it was right for Jeremiah to call on Judah to return to the religion of Israel’s founding fathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as the lawgiver Moses. Jeremiah was imprisoned and threatened with death by political powers in Judah for being unpatriotic. But if anything, he was a patriot for calling on Judah to return to God. Their idolatrous nationalism, not honorable patriotism, and their failure to obey God in such matters as ceasing to oppress the poor, as made known by the prophets, stood in the way of their nation’s survival. By failing to return to the God of the Patriarchs and the Pentateuch, the royal officials and false prophets brought destruction on themselves and the nation. By failing to heed Jeremiah’s prophecies that they should submit to God’s judgment and submit to the Babylonians, they failed to save themselves and their country from devastation at the hands of the Babylonians. In all this, Jeremiah loved his people, Jerusalem, and Judah. He remained with them to the end. He was not a politically correct nationalist who believed the nation was right even when it was wrong, but was rather a true patriot who loved his country enough to challenge it in view of God’s Word even if it brought him harm (See for example Jeremiah 1:4-19 and 32:1-40:6).

While I do not believe it is the church’s job to promote and produce a Christian America, I do believe we are to live and share the good news of Jesus Christ with America. If we are truly patriotic, we will call Americans, especially the American church, to live in view of Jesus’ kingdom that transcends and intersects all kingdoms, calling them and us to account on such evils as idolatry and racism and oppression of the poor, in view of his righteous rule that will never end. Only then are Christians in America truly patriotic and prophetic in the tradition of Jeremiah and other prophets of old.

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on November 22, 2012.

What are you and I most thankful for this Thanksgiving? A full stomach? A full listing of sporting events to watch? A full house of family-friendly noise? Certainly not a sink or life full of dirty dishes! If we were to ask the Apostle Paul what he is thankful for this or any day, I believe he would say he is thankful for God in Christ, who has cleansed and washed him clean of all his dirt and darkness, and thankful for those who have also experienced this divine cleansing action. In Colossians 1, Paul writes in this vein when he says to the Colossian believers in Christ that he gives “joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).

I have been meditating on Colossians this Thanksgiving, and have been struck by Paul’s focused attention on the fullness of Christ and fullness of life in Christ: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:9-10). In the Colossian context, there were false teachers who were claiming just the opposite about Christ, namely that he was not God in the flesh. Now if Christ is only half full of deity, we have to make up for the missing half. A half empty cup of deity leads to half empty lives. No wonder the Colossian Christians were struggling with trying to perform well, getting consumed with certain do’s and don’ts rather than being clothed in Christ (Colossians 2:16-23; 3:1-17). But since, as Paul argues, there is no lack in Christ for which we need to make up, we don’t have to perform well to experience Christ’s grace but can participate in his life and live godly lives in view of his gracious love (Colossians 3:1-17).

Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form. We have been given fullness in him (Colossians 2:9-10). Christ is the fullness of deity. There is no lack in Christ for which we need to make up. When this reality grips us, it will lead us to live lives of gratitude, and not simply on Thanksgiving. How grateful are we for him, regardless of our circumstances? Regardless of whether we get our fair share of stuffing, pickles, jams and yams this day, are we vitally aware of how great a share we have of him—all his fullness? Paul realized the fullness of life in Christ and that is why he could say in closing, “Remember my chains. Grace be with you” (Colossians 4:18). Paul wrote these words from a prison cell in Rome. But instead of demanding grace from the Colossians because of his needy condition, Paul could and did extend grace to those outside his cell in view of Christ’s bountiful provision of his life lived out in Paul (in fact, Paul opened his letter in this way in Colossians 1:2-3). So often, I am locked in a prison cell inside my soul, as I do not experience God’s gracious fullness, even though it is there for the receiving, if I would only open my heart and receive God’s grace with thanksgiving. A thankless individual and a thankless people are enslaved no matter how free they seem and no matter how many things they have to which they cling.

Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form in human history. He did not hide his grace, but brought it out into the open for all to experience, no matter their age or stage or position in life. There is no such thing as a secret society for some presumed spiritually elite group of people. In the Colossian context, those who did not view Christ as the fullness of deity in bodily form were fixated with seemingly secret knowledge and wisdom that could only be had by the supposedly spiritually elite. A disembodied Christ leads to a disembodied, privatized, secretive faith. How wrong they were about Christ! Christ is the fullness of deity in bodily form. While all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him, he is the mystery of God revealed on center stage in human history through the public spectacle of his embodied victory (over all oppressive authorities that weigh down on people through enslaving them to guilt and ingratitude, among other things) through the cross and resurrection (Colossians 2:3, 10, 14-15). We all have equal access to Christ’s wisdom and knowledge through faith in him. We need to make sure we are welcoming all others to Christ so that they can experience his fullness, too. How inviting are we in our outreach toward others on Thanksgiving or any other day? Do we invite into our lives only those we deem the elect, our bestest of friends, and the nucleus of our favorite nuclear family members? Do we extend grace or demand it from others? In view of Christ’s fullness in our lives, if we are really full of Christ, that is, we will share of his bounty with others. Gratitude leads to giving. An ungrateful heart can never get enough, and will try and take away the joy of others. Are we extending grace to others or seeking to take it away from them.

According to Paul, those who have received the loving Christ into their lives by faith have been given fullness in him. In view of this reality, we need to move beyond performance-based spirituality to participation-based spirituality that is bound up with this gift. With this in mind, we need to make sure we are taking the weights off people through Christ so that they can come to experience the fullness of loving freedom in him. Are we putting weights on people that they must lift before they can experience what it’s like for Christ to carry them? If so, they will not live grateful Christian lives, only guilt-based ones. A friend of mine who had failed to live into the fullness of faith in Christ tried to keep his closest friends from him. He believed that by sharing more of his dirty dishes and laundry with them, the more they would be repulsed and finally abandon him. But given that they had experienced Christ’s grace in their own lives, they extended it to him. Christ’s love for him through them clothed him, covering his nakedness exposed as he was through his misdeeds. Through the outpouring of Christ’s grace through others, he has returned to experience the fullness of life in Christ and is once again extending Christ’s grace to others. He is no longer bearing the weight of his past, for Christ is bearing it for him so that he can gratefully extend Christ’s grace to others in the present.

This Thanksgiving, are you in the prison cell of your dining room or family room, taking in food and football and family in the hope that something will fill your ungrateful need? Are you bitter because you have so little while those around you have so much? Your day does not need to end this way. Take it from Paul who likely didn’t have much food, family or fun in his prison cell, but he did have Christ and he extended it to those around him who may have had so much more than he did by way of this world’s bounty but who desperately needed what he could share with them of Christ’s world of boundless grace. May Christ’s boundless grace be with you and in gratitude for him, extend his grace to others. As you do so, your thanksgiving will increase. Today, I give thanks for you through Christ. May you experience his grace and extend it to others in increasing measure.

This piece was originally published at Patheos on November 19, 2012.

As an evangelical theologian, I can’t wait for Christian America to die. Why? I have at least three reasons.

First, Christian America wasn’t/isn’t Christian enough. I once heard Dr. John M. Perkins (the famed evangelical Christian African American civil rights prophet) say in response to the claim of many evangelicals that we need to go back to the religion and ways of the founding fathers: “I don’t want to go back there: I’d still be a slave.” No doubt, many or most all white conservative Christians today who long to go back wouldn’t tolerate slavery as it was practiced then again. But it is still disconcerting that they aren’t thinking of slavery either when they hearken back to that founding era. Their level of comfort with a preceding era generates a sense of nostalgia. I heard a noted white evangelical preacher lament a few years ago that our country is getting progressively worse. As I said in response to this fear in my recent blog post, “The Elections, End Times and the Elect,” “If this is so, why then do many African Americans, Hispanics and women feel our country is getting better? I can’t help but think if our perceptions on whether things are getting better or worse are often bound up with how much we think our special interests are taken to heart and how large or small our own voting bloc is.” All too often, the passion to protect and preserve and promote “Christian America” is about going back to a previous age in America which we often do not realize is bound up with a social contract established by deist and slave-owning Thomas Jefferson and his associates (some were Christians, some were not). What we really ought to seek after is to live into God’s eschatological future framed by the history of God’s covenantal act in Jesus. As liberating as our nation’s ideals are, they pale in comparison to the liberating love of Jesus that sets all captives free (See Luke 4:14-20).

Second, Christian America isn’t free enough. When we Christians claim that we have squatters’ rights—that we were here first, and that the government owes us certain Christian entitlements, we end up enslaved. As Karl Barth said, “Whenever the Church has entered the political arena to fight for its claim to be given public recognition, it has always been a Church which has failed to understand the special purpose of the State, an impenitent, spiritually unfree Church” (“The Christian Community and the Civil Community,” in Against the Stream: Shorter Post-War Writings,1946-1952, ed. R. G. Smith, trans. E.M. Delecour and S. Godman {London: SCM Press, Ltd., 1954}, 31). With Barth’s view, the church has the freedom to proclaim the good news of Jesus; whether or not the state gives the church special recognition, nothing can take away from this freedom. In fact, special recognition can take away from that freedom, for such freedom often if not always comes with political strings attached. Paul proclaimed the gospel, even while in chains in Rome. Nothing could stop him. Paul said himself, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained” (2 Timothy 2:8-9).

Third, Christian America isn’t gospel-centric enough. The other day I spoke to a group of Christian college students about the need to be discerning, humble and relational Christian witnesses in an increasingly multi-faith society. A young man lamented afterward to me that our country is divesting itself of all the Christian capital we had gained and that objective truth is waning. Whether or not he is right about objective truth waning as our country becomes increasingly pluralistic, our increasing pluralism as a nation allows for us to move beyond the false presumption that everyone is Christian. In the Bible Belt, so many who are not Christians, except perhaps in name only, presume that they are Christians because of the prevailing culture. It is so hard to share the good news of Jesus with those who presume they are Christian because everyone is born a Christian where they come from: they often think—why should one share with them, since they are already believers? The further we move toward a post-Christian society, the closer we will come to having open, honest, face-to-face encounters with people who know they are not Christians, as Paul did in Athens, including his engagement at Mars Hill (Acts 17:16-34). Such open and honest face-to-face encounters make it possible for us to be all the more gospel-centric in our sharing because the gospel is not seemingly diluted by cultural trappings.

Sure I have fears that keep me longing to have certain special privileges as a Christian in America. But at what cost to the gospel do those supposed privileges come? My fears trap me and enslave me and keep me from sharing the good news of God’s liberating love. Fears over such things as losing one’s tax exempt status or that Christians might someday be imprisoned for sharing their faith in America may be realistic or far-fetched. Either way, such fears enslave. But no matter what, the gospel can never be enslaved. Don’t get trapped into thinking that Christian America will help us Christians bear witness to the good news of Jesus. What Barth called “the emancipation of the world from the church” will lead to the emancipation of the true gospel to be emancipated from slavery to American culture and be proclaimed to one’s fellow Americans free of charge. (For Barth’s discussion of the freedom for gospel witness that occurred with the dissolution of the marriage of the church and state in Europe, see Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/3.1, The Doctrine of Reconciliation {Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1961}, pp. 20-21).

This piece was originally published at The Christian Post on November 15, 2012.

We all have blind spots. Whether we are talking about driving a car or moving along in an ethnically and gender diverse culture, we all have blind spots in our vision from time to time.

Since the election, political strategists have claimed based on demographic studies that the Republican Party and conservative Evangelicals are disconnected from minority groups, including African Americans, Hispanics, and women. It has been argued that Republicans and white conservative Evangelical males do not understand the needs and perspectives of these groups and that they have little interest in trying to understand them. To the extent that these claims are true, and to the extent that Republicans and these Evangelicals want to move beyond these barriers, they will need to account for their blind spots (For reports on the Republican party, see the following: link 1, link 2, link 3. Since 78% of Evangelical voters cast a vote for Romney, Evangelicals are also going to have a “minority problem” when it comes to politics and quite possibly how it influences their work in the church and the social issues they address inside and outside the church).

We can learn a thing or two about how to deal with our ethnocentric blind spots and related cultural barriers by attending to driving.

What do you do when you know you have a blind spot when changing lanes? You use your mirrors, ask those in your vehicle with a better view and competence to judge at that angle to let you know if it is safe to change lanes, and put on your turn signal to indicate you are changing lanes while requesting permission to enter the other lane, albeit slowly. People of other ethnicities and another gender can serve as mirrors and as those voices which can help you assess whether or not it is safe to change lanes in navigating the traffic patterns in society and when to do so. Of course, if you never have to change lanes, you don’t need to ask anyone for assistance. But most of us have to change lanes from time to time for the sake of traffic flow and impediments in the way. If we don’t ask for help, we may find that we will crash into others, similar to how Republicans and white conservative Evangelical males appear to be crashing into others in our culture today in increasing frequency.

Asking people of diverse ethnicities, and another gender, open questions about life as they see it in America is important. Listening inquisitively is also important. If the music on my favorite station is playing loudly in my car or head, I cannot hear when someone is honking the horn to warn me of an impending crash when changing lanes. So too, if I have already made up my mind on things based on what this or that radio talk show host or my social club or small group/home community has said, I cannot learn from diverse others. I should not try and speak for these diverse others or be rigid in my thinking that my view on all matters is always gospel; I have my blind spots, too.

One way to not appear disingenuous is to demonstrate that you are not seeking to use them to gain their vote or their tithe. No strings or bumpers attached. Rather, if anything, you are willing to give them your vote and your tithe if they end up revealing to you that you are really blind, not just in one or two places, but across the dashboard. You are the one in need and you want to grow. You are asking for their help so as to avoid crashing into them and to cultivate an America that creates space for drivers of all walks of life to be able to travel unharmed. After all, we all have a vested interest in making sure our physical and cultural highways are safe for travel.

In the end, and here I speak to everyone, we may end up becoming more convinced of our political and religious views through the exchanges on the interchanges of life with diverse others, but at least we will come away understanding better why others vote the way they do and believe the way they do. At the very least, it will make all of us more empathic and more cautious drivers, not offensive ones.