Like the whole "good news, bad news" thing, I think I will begin by highlighting the end of the piece, on what Olsen calls "Christian Tribalism", because it is important, correct in all the right ways, and brings up points that, had he concentrated upon them, Olsen might have used to change both the tone and content of his article:
When we think of checking our national citizenship against our kingdom citizenship, we often think of some possible day when imperial storm troopers will tell us to renounce Christ or die. We tell ourselves that at that moment, we'll answer with Peter and the apostles: "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29).
But it rarely comes down to that. Being people of the kingdom of God is not a whatif question about choosing sides some day. It's something we do every day. And when we denigrate the image of God by bearing false witness or making ad hominem attacks—or by saying to other members of Christ's body, "I have no need of you"—we renounce and deny our true citizenship. We side with the wrong kingdom.(emphasis added)
The article begins with a discussion, wonderfully balanced (as these things should be), of the departure of the Southern Baptist Convention from the World Baptist Alliance due to a rise in anti-Americansim, and of protests among American Episcopalians against the, um, slightly imperialistic tendencies of the World Anglican Communion, in the guise of British bishops, trying to tell their American cousins what to do in regards, specifically, to the ordination and consecration of gay and lesbian prelates and bishops.
After showing the problem is not one limited to ideology, Olsen writes:
Churches, in fact, can breed far more jingoism than the place you might most expect it: Christian political organizations lobbying Washington. Despite the nearly universal stars-and-stripes motif on these groups' websites, a Republican-led amendment to ban flag "desecration" (that is, violating or removing the flag's holy character) got at best tepid support from Religious Right groups. While you'll find a fair number of references to "American values" on both the Right and the Left (it's actually the name of Gary Bauer's organization), most Christian organizations see these values as lost relics to be reclaimed. Jim Wallis sounds like Jim Dobson: "American morality has been destroyed. … " Tony Campolo sounds like Tony Perkins: "I don't know about America any longer. I see us going down the tubes." Evangelical Left and Right organizations are in perennial jeremiad mode, railing against American leaders, policies, and excesses.
While their views of international diplomacy differ strongly, these organizations share a common desire to be globally minded. Unfortunately, they can be tribal and insular when critiquing each other. "People on Christian radio … describe gay people as fungus on society that must be exterminated," one evangelical leader told The New York Times. When I later pressed him to name these people, he admitted that while he had heard gays described as promiscuous, pedophilic, and abominations in the eyes of God, "What I was actually referring to … was what a sensitive Christian gay guy [I know] believed and felt the evangelical community regarded him."
Another prominent Christian leader responded to Wallis's December speech on the Democrats' weekly radio address by saying, "Wallis loves to call himself an evangelical. But don't be misled. Wallis is a leftleaning socialist. … " The same leader at the 2004 Republican convention handed out fortune cookies with the message: "Number 1 Reason to Ban Human Cloning: Hillary Clinton."(emphasis added)
To deal with the highlighted sections in the second section first, I want us to notice a couple things. First, Olsen is trying to be fair and balanced, showing how both left and right Christians are equally at fault for their "tribalism", yet the differences are striking. From the left (as it were) is an anonymous tale of someone somewhere getting their feelings hurt (how is that possible?) by the rampant homo-hatred among the Christian right. The other is the smearing, hate-filled tactics of a prominent leader (never named) against Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. While in some universe where context doesn't matter there might be some sort of equity between these two stories, in fact, one (never sourced, third hand, and so about as reliable as a Michelle Malkin column) is an anecdote without any reference except to the rabid eliminationism among the Christian right towards gays and lesbians (why should queer folks fear these people? One wonders . . .) The other is the kind of sneering, snide attack, where the hatred is just below the surface, by a prominent, and most likely powerful person against a woman. There is not equality here; in fact, both are indicative less of an equal affliction among those on the left and right and more indicative of a strain of fear and loathing among those on the right, and the reactions it brings among the rest of us. As a side note, neither Jim Wallis nor Tony Campolo are particularly liberal. I am a fan of neither, and I find Wallis particularly tiresome. His only real concern is Jim Wallis being the leader of a movement. He may be a Christian, but he is a Christian hack for all that.
What Olsen misses, by trying to be "fair and balanced" is that the kind of tribalism he is describing is due less to a loss of focus on the Kingdom of God and more on disputes over theology and authority. Indeed, had he paid closer attention to what he wrote at the end, which I have highlighted , he might have recognized that. His point - about Christians facing a choice of renunciation or death, choosing death - is one that needs to be emphasized over and over again. These are the fantasies of too many on the Christian Right. I have yet to hear a serious mainstream Christian speak or write about the threat of secularism, liberalism, or any other supposed demonic influence as the sign of the coming of the anti-Christ. These are the fears of those on the right, fears that spawn all sorts of heroic fantasies, not the least of which is the horrid Left Behind series, where dispensationalist Christians can vicariously make it through the tribulation, taking all sorts of hell-spawn with them as they go (they can even buy the video game to go along with it, where bullets are blessed by God to kill all sorts of Christ-haters).
His larger point at the end of the article, however, is right on. Rather than being Peter in Acts, we are too often Peter at the end of the Gospels, denying Christ not just three times, but three times thirty times, to serve some end not of God, but of ourselves. There is something more than occasionally inconvenient about the Christian faith, and we are faced, not with demons threatening us with death, but the small-time decisions every day that whittle away at our faith bit by bit. It isn't tribalism that's the problem. It's a combination of fear, boredom, and blindness. Also, the problem he describes is far more prevalent, far more dangerous, and far more sinister among those on the right than on the left, precisely because, while their influence is dwindling (except among Republican primary voters), the Christian Right is still powerful, and a power not for good, in our society.
