September 2020

When I was a young pastor, I used to bemoan how evangelical Christians, and I considered myself one, were portrayed in the press and popular culture. Evangelicals were described as morally rigid, stiff and unyielding, firmly placing people, events and cultural phenomena into right or wrong, black or white columns in our Christian ledgers. Dana Carvey’s hilarious portrayal of The Church Lady on NBC’s Saturday Night Live in the late 1980s provides the perfect visual.

Many Christians today have confused the gospel of the kingdom with the politics of the nation-state and have embraced worldly political leaders as ultimate heralds of truth. One influential Christian voice, who until recently led the largest Christian university in the U.S., stated “there is nothing that the President could do that would cause him to lose his support.”

The word of God reminds us to restrain ourselves from idolizing worldly leaders. “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day, their plans come to nothing” (Psalm 146:3-4).

In 2013, the controversial Black Lives Matter movement had its genesis as a hashtag after George Zimmerman was acquitted for killing 13-year-old Trayvon Martin the year before. The movement was further fueled in 2014, when two more stories of African-American men dying through police action made the national news—Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in New York City. Soon it seemed as if each new day’s headline featured a black man dying a violent death, and new protests. This year, 2020, has certainly been no exception, with the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and others. Black women, like Breonna Taylor, have also not been exempt.