Co-belligerents?
Recently "The Purpose Driven Pastor," Rick Warren, convened an AIDS conference with people of different political, social and religious persuasions. His goal was to see if these leaders could come to the point where they could reach consensus on how best to encourage the religious, political and business communities to come together and fight the scourge of AIDS, especially in Africa.
Pastor Warren has taken considerable heat from the evangelical community for inviting Senator Barak Obama to speak at the conference, because of Obama's stands on gay rights and abortion. The religious right felt that many could be led astray because of the appearance of Obama. I am continually amazed by the heat that Warren has taken. He also invited very conservative politicians such as Senator Sam Brownback to speak at the conference.
When asked by Wolf Blitzer on CNN how Warren would respond to the criticism leveled at him by the religious right, in particular the Southern Baptist leadership, Warren responded that he and Obama were not necessarily allies. Allies agree on basic principles of life. He and Obama differed vastly on the issue of abortion. They were in complete agreement on the issue of AIDS and its need to be eradicated. They were "co-belligerents." They had one issue on which the had joined forces in order to advance their cause.
Co-belligerent was not a term I had heard. It is very interesting concept. Can we align ourselves with non-believers on issues of morality? Should we do that? For example, can we come together with them around the issues of the causes of poverty? Can we accept money won from the lottery to fund our ministries? There is always the debate around the issue of government contracts and the privilege of "preaching" being taken from us. But isn't our presence as Christians more important than getting people immediately persuaded to believe like us?
Can we be co-belligerents? I think our roots as Christians and Salvationists would say, "YES." Has our sometimes pharisaical attitude as evangelicals caused us to think otherwise?
What do you think?
Pastor Warren has taken considerable heat from the evangelical community for inviting Senator Barak Obama to speak at the conference, because of Obama's stands on gay rights and abortion. The religious right felt that many could be led astray because of the appearance of Obama. I am continually amazed by the heat that Warren has taken. He also invited very conservative politicians such as Senator Sam Brownback to speak at the conference.
When asked by Wolf Blitzer on CNN how Warren would respond to the criticism leveled at him by the religious right, in particular the Southern Baptist leadership, Warren responded that he and Obama were not necessarily allies. Allies agree on basic principles of life. He and Obama differed vastly on the issue of abortion. They were in complete agreement on the issue of AIDS and its need to be eradicated. They were "co-belligerents." They had one issue on which the had joined forces in order to advance their cause.
Co-belligerent was not a term I had heard. It is very interesting concept. Can we align ourselves with non-believers on issues of morality? Should we do that? For example, can we come together with them around the issues of the causes of poverty? Can we accept money won from the lottery to fund our ministries? There is always the debate around the issue of government contracts and the privilege of "preaching" being taken from us. But isn't our presence as Christians more important than getting people immediately persuaded to believe like us?
Can we be co-belligerents? I think our roots as Christians and Salvationists would say, "YES." Has our sometimes pharisaical attitude as evangelicals caused us to think otherwise?
What do you think?
posted by Larry at 1:00 PM
1 Comments:
: ) Really, really good questions! And they’ve been on my mind a lot lately as well.
I grew up in a tradition (like most evangelicals) which suggested, in not so many words, that the world had nothing to offer us whatsoever. We were to abstain from their music, their movies, and quite often their television, books, and all sorts of art forms. We even believed that God did not hear the prayer of a non-believer. When asked about “the sinner’s prayer” we would pause, look stupid, and then respond with, “Well yeah. He hears that one.”
There are so many adjectives I could use to describe that type of theology. Arrogant and closed minded are the first two that jump into my head. God spoke through a donkey, you don’t think he speaks through non-believers??? This is all His. In fact, somewhere in the New Testament (sorry, no reference at the minute, but I believe it’s in Philippians) Paul tells us that if it is true, it is of God. That any truth comes from God so, if it is true, embrace it because it is from God.
It’s a shame that we are unable to comprehend Jesus’ selection of disciples. In those days, disciples were people training to be Rabbis themselves. They were the best of the best. They had made it through several eliminations and so, by the time they were counted among a Rabbi’s disciples, they were the top students of their class, were trusted and had amazing references, and were believed to be the next generation of great teachers and spiritual leaders. Jesus, on the other hand, chose some very controversial figures to be among his disciples and, while the fishermen usually get the sermon mentions, the decision to add a tax collector to the group has to be the most controversial of all. These guys were hated. They were, in fact, the bully of their day. And yet Jesus saw something of value in Matthew. I’d like to suggest that there wasn’t another Rabbi in the land who would have allowed a tax collector to be called his disciple.
People, God’s big issue isn’t homosexuality, it’s justice. Justice for the poor and oppressed. It’s the second theme of the entire Old Testament and the theme of the majority of Jesus’ messages. I’d like to suggest that, if it’s wrong to align ourselves with a politician who doesn’t believe that homosexuality is wrong, then it’s doubly wrong to align ourselves with politicians who pass laws that oppress the poor.
The older I get the more embarrassed I am for allowing myself to be manipulated by so-called right wing politicians. These men claim to believe what we believe, but they don’t. They just want our vote and have figured out some very clever words and phrases to get it. The political advisor who came up with the phrase “family values” is a genius. Ronal Reagan will forever be in his debt…and so will our Christian values.
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