Here’s the lesson I gave Sunday at the chapel of my in-law’s lake community.
What is the role of the Christian in a Global America?
The 4th of July is the holiday of patriotism in the United States, so I felt compelled to address the state of our land. I’ve entitled today’s lesson “What is the role of the Christian in a Global America?” I think it is a complicated question, one that is pause for reflection on our past, on where we are, and on what we can become.
Let’s start by asking the most unpatriotic of questions: has the Great American Experiment failed? One of the highest freedoms we hold tightly in this nation is the ability to ask a core question like this, to challenge our leaders and ourselves with the open communication of doubt, introspection, and criticism. As I bring us to look at this question, I don’t want us to get caught in what I would call the red herrings of America. Put aside Bush and Clinton and Bush, put aside Democrats and Republicans, put aside I was for the war in Iraq or I was against the war in Iraq. No, let’s put all that aside, because I think these things are distractions to the core question of what is the America that we live in. Let’s look at some facts.
We are the great democracy, yet almost 45% of eligible Americans did not vote in the 2004 Presidential election. And that’s the best turnout we’ve had since 1968, even though technology should have made voting more accessible than ever before. We are the great capitalist society, yet one US government study claimed that we waste 27% of our entire food consumption. Think about that for a second: 96 billion pounds of food in 1997, wasted. That’s probably grown to close to 110 billion pounds last year with the growth of the US population. Another fact: the cosmetic surgery industry is a $15 billion business in the US. Compare that to this fact, that 1.5 billion people live on less than $2/day in the world’s poorest nations. And here’s another fact. At a little over 300 million people, we have roughly 5% of the Earth’s population, yet what has our collective success bred? The United States uses 25% of the world’s oil production, more than China, Japan, Germany, Russia, and India combined. We have the greatest resources in the world, yet 10% of African-American men between 29-25 are imprisoned.
Somewhere along the line, we collectively and I individually have made choices in nearly every aspect of our lives that have turned what could be into what we have now. We fight fights that miss the point of our faith. We have chosen a lifestyle that often takes us away from the charter of Christ. As much as we would like to dismiss it, America is a Christian nation. It is estimated that nearly three quarters of Americans claim Christianity as our religion. Traditional denominations are declining while evangelical groups are growing. Make no mistake about it, the United States is predominantly Christian.
I’d like to read a passage from Paul and point us to a few aspects of our lives as Christians that I believe he speaks to. We’ll be looking at Romans 12 today.
Romans 12:2, Paul says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” This may be one of the most complicated directives for us in our America. Do not conform to the world, yet we have created the world. We are America. The world has been shaped by America, and America is a Christian nation. It is easy to see the world as someone else, those evil others just like the television show “Lost.” The world surely is the evil atheists or Muslims or the neighbor who does who knows what in their home.
Christians have battled with this verse probably since Paul’s days. Do you keep yourself apart from the people and culture in your midst, or do you embrace it? Why did Puritans live by such austere rules? Why do the Amish live without electronic devices and wear plain clothing? Because they understand one aspect of this charter from Paul, the corrupting influence of people and things that influence us, however subtle.
But who was Paul? Here was the epitome of a man who lived for Christ amidst the world. His life and actions give us a blueprint even today of what it means to be a Christian in an America everchanging. Paul lived in a time that is strikingly similar to 21st Century America. Paul’s world wasn’t an easy one for someone embracing the claims of Christianity, with a diverse population of different ethnicities and gods, loosely held together by Roman rule. The Roman empire was a melting pot of cultures and peoples, and Paul went among them all.
That describes our America much more than the United States of my childhood. The home town church no longer has a monopoly on faith. Young people today don’t simply recite how they were saved at age seven. Taking a path away from God was the sign of a dysfunctional individual. Turning to other faiths was the rare pursuit of the Beatles or some other celebrity. These strange faiths of Social Studies books are in our midst today. In the last three days, I’ve spoken to three women in my day-to-day life. One is a Buddhist poker professional from Vietnam. One is a Hindi fashion magazine editor from India. One is a Muslim professor from Egypt. These are some of the many men, women, and children who interact with me, my wife, and our boys. These strangers were lightly sprinkled in the United States of my youth, and it was easy to shove them far away from our daily walk. We were much more worried about nonbelievers and focused our attention on keeping alcohol away from them on Sunday’s, as well as working to legislate their behaviors and actions when they didn’t align with our Christian beliefs. Today, these are the people we interact with continually. Their faiths are available to us and to our children, with no repercussions for investigation or conversion.
Let’s also be certain we understand how America is changing and what it means to Christiandom. Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans as the second largest ethnicity after Caucasians in the United States, growing over 27% from July 2000-July 2007, a whopping 45 million men, women, and children. In that same time, Asians in America have grown to 14 million people, again up 25% from July 2000-July 2007. Hispanics have a higher percentage of Christians than any other ethnicity in America, including Caucasians. They are predominantly Catholic, and their more Pentecostal approach to faith has shattered the American Catholic church from a dormant, dusty institution into one of the most vibrant areas of growth in the Catholic Church. More and more are leaving the Catholic Church for more evangelical congregations as well, driving revival and shaping a new Christianity. Statistics on Asian Americans are more difficult to find. Their faith reflects the diversity of the term Asian. 20% of Asian Americans are Catholic, about the same as non-believers. 10% are Protestant but growing rapidly, while the remainder are divided among Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.
So in this America becoming increasingly fractured and diverse and shaped by the growth of an International America, what are we as Caucasian, Southern Christians to do? If we continue with Chapter 12, Paul gives us a laundry list of things that are easy to nod our head at when we read them, yet they have proven to be nearly impossible for me as a Christian American to live with. 9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. 17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Share with those in need? Practice hospitality? OK, we can give to charities and soup kitchens, maybe we can knock these out. Honor another before myself? Patient in affliction?
Do not be proud? If anything, I as an American am proud. Be willing to associate with people of low position? My idea of associating with people of low position is to be friendly at the Hispanic guy at our pizza joint. Bless those who persecute me? America is John Wayne, standing up to those who persecute you not giving them love. Do not be conceited? Again, one of America’s greatest traits. Heck, I’m most proud of how I’m not conceited. I am not into material things; I mean, I drive a 1999 Lexus. Just let that sink in—a 1999 Lexus. I am not into material things. Paul says “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” No, I don’t live in the world, I’m not one of them.
I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that we as the Christian Americana have gotten it entirely wrong. Christianity is a faith of exclusivity that lives through inclusiveness. Exclusivity in that our belief is there is only one polarizing way to God, through His son Jesus Christ. I believe that my salvation dare not come from my knowledge or works but solely through my conviction of my sin past and present, and my Savior’s sacrifice of His blood once and for all for every sin that I commit. A faith of exclusivity meaning that this Jesus is the single solitary way, that all others lead away from God no matter how difficult that is and how insulting that is to our kindred citizens here in America and in this world.
Faith of exclusivity that lives through inclusiveness. Spending every ounce of our being loving others, taking our energies to lift all Americans up. Luke 12:48 gives us this mandate from Jesus: “48From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Teaching a man to fish, I understand all that, but it means we cannot simply turn our backs on our world and what we’ve created. We have been given much, and we have taken more. Can we transform ourselves, as America, as Christians? A faith of exclusivity that lives through inclusiveness.
We are America, we Christians. It is our responsibility to reshape that faith in the midst of an ever increasing diversity of our people. It is our charge from Paul and our Father to reshape what America will be, and it is not about the president or the Christian Right. It is our charge to find these strangers among us, to understand who they are so that we can better understand who we are as Americans. It is about what we demand of ourselves, what we expect of our leaders in making choices for the long-term future of our children rather than defer those costs for our own enjoyment. It is our direction from our Father to be stewards of our resources, of our behaviors, of how who America will be in the 21st Century.
I end with this passage from 2 Chronicles 7:14, which is no less true for our Christian America today than it was for the peoples of Israel and the believers of Martin Luther and the followers of St. Peter. 14If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Wicked ways is so impersonal, so let’s change it to turn from our self-centered ways, our globally gluttonous ways, our superior ways, then will I hear from heaven and will heal their land. Maybe we don’t need healing, we Christian Americans. You decide.
