JIHAD, AMERICAN STYLE
by Elwood McQuaid
The
saying “Nero fiddled [around] while Rome burned” may overdramatize an
historical event; nevertheless, it makes a point that should not be
lost on this generation of Christians. A war is on—one aimed at us. And
many evangelicals are fiddling while the foundations of our faith are
being blown out from under us.
Statistics tell the story for
this country. Eighty percent of Americans claim some association with
Christianity. In fact, we are told that probably 95 percent celebrate
Christmas. And though you may argue about the depth, genuineness, and
core beliefs of segments of the “Christian” community, the fact remains
that sentiments at the grass roots are decidedly pro-Christian. The
same, unfortunately, cannot be said for much of the media, the
left-wing political establishment, or the rabidly anti-Christian
minorities sounding off in virtually every public forum.
This
truth came to mind when the predictable assault was launched during the
Easter commemoration of the resurrection. Major networks aired a
succession of programs that claimed to debunk the credibility of the
foundational, biblical essence of the Christian faith. They relegated
the Gospel accounts to the fictional rantings of men bent on inventing
a means to capitalize on the hopes of gullible followers in order to
promote their own agenda.
Not that we have not come to expect
these annual excursions in denial. But as I remember it, years ago the
crusade to deny Christ’s physical resurrection was generally led by
liberal theologians and preachers. They spun theories of the disciples
hallucinating or wishing Christ arose to the point that they believed
their own “delusions.” But, for the most part, these promoters of
neoagnosticism, or functional atheism, were confined to their own
circles of devotees and failed to shake the foundations of the
faithful.
What has developed in recent years, however, has a
different cast to it—one that, by its very nature, is agenda-driven and
acerbically malicious beyond what we’ve ever seen. For all practical
purposes, it is a jihadist-type war to destroy the Christian faith,
with an emphasis on slaying evangelical Christianity in particular and
replacing the traditional Judeo-Christian social order with an
anything-goes, pagan, secular society.
When the prestigious
National Geographic Society this spring hawked its spurious
“revelations” challenging historic Christian beliefs, its
sensationalized trailer for the Gospel of Judas “documentary”
claimed that this “biblical text” would “challenge our deepest beliefs”
and “could create a crisis of faith.” It did nothing of the sort, of
course, but the tone of the promotion and program illustrates how
deeply the lines are drawn in this ever-intensifying war between the
secular and sacred.
Playing Politics
Awhile
ago I watched a TV show where media talking heads were supposed to
tackle a question about religious beliefs during an hour-long
discussion. The issue was, “Should religion be in (A) the church, (B)
the synagogue, or (C) the voting booth?”
The question seemed
rather rhetorical; and the answers, tiresomely predictable. Those who
lean to the left consistently warn of the imminent danger of
evangelicals taking their beliefs into the voting booth.
In an article titled “The Media’s War on the ‘War on Christians’
Conference,” columnist Don Feder wrote:
Evangelicals
have been described as “a clear and present danger to religious liberty
in American” (former Labor Secretary Robert Reich), determined to
“Christianize all aspects of American life” (the ADL’s Abraham Foxman),
“moral retards” and “an ugly, violent lot” (City University of New York
Professor Timothy Shortell), possessed of “the same kind of
fundamentalist impulse that we see in Saudi Arabia” (Al Gore), and
responsible for moving America “each day closer to a theocracy where a
narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule” (a
full-page ad in The New York Times, signed by Jane Fonda, Ed Asner and
other Hollywood savants).1
The strategic word in this litany of
vituperation is theocracy
- the idea that evangelicals have a unified, conspiratorial plan to
elect an ultrafundamentalist, apartheid-type government to rule over
every aspect of the lives of hapless Americans caught in their
clutches.
The fact that these “intellectuals” publicly make
this absurd accusation would be embarrassing were it not for their
motives. Certainly, evangelical Christians take their convictions and
values into the voting booth. We “render . . . to Caesar the things
that are Caesar’s” (Mt. 22:21). It is what citizens in democratic
societies are expected to do. And it would compound the absurdity to
assert that liberals, feminists, gays, abortionists, neoconservatives,
Republicans, Democrats, and Independents do not do likewise. Free
people have both the right and obligation to vote their conscience.
By
maligning a single segment of the population and attempting to deny it
participation in government is to conspire to create a system
controlled by anti-Christian forces. And those forces, unfortunately,
are committed to a minority-driven intolerance that brooks no
opposition from the vast majority, whom they see as obstacles on the
road to their particular vision of a ruleless, secular nirvana.
An
even more unsettling manifestation of this crusade involves the forces
that are casting evangelicals as subversive, conspiratorial members of
lobbies that jeopardize the security of America. Two prominent American
international relations and political science professors have released
an inflammatory work, “The Israel Lobby,” accusing Israel of so
strongly manipulating U.S. policies that America has become a virtual
puppet of Israeli interests, to its own detriment. Stephen Walt,
academic dean at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and John
Mearsheimer, from the University of Chicago, assert, “The combination
of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread
‘democracy’ throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion
and jeopardized not only US security but that of much of the rest of
the world.” 2
And
who are the members of this “Israel Lobby” that pulls the strings and
puts the world on the chopping block of Arab and Islamic hatred? They
are a “loose coalition of individuals and organizations who actively
work to steer US foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction.” 3 In her Jerusalem
Post column on the subject, Caroline Glick wrote:
Members
of the Lobby include most US media outlets; Jewish American
organizations generally and AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs
Committee] and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American
organizations in particular; pro-Israel evangelical Christians
[emphasis ours]. . .” 4
Lumping pro-Israel, conservative Christians
with conspiracies is reminiscent of The Protocols of the Elders of
Zion,
which slanders Jews by doing the same thing. Evangelicals have been
compared to the Taliban, Osama bin Laden’s terrorist cadre, the Nazis,
and on and on it goes. And the fact that these baseless, slanderous
accusations are on the rise portends what the future will hold for
evangelicals.
Scrapping the ‘Majority Rules’
Connection
The
mind-boggling attacks on Christian commemorations are emblematic signs
of the times. Consider the animus of secularists toward Christmas—and
the astonishing success of a handful of radical minority groups in
intimidating the majority of Americans. Wrote Washington Post
columnist Charles Krauthammer:
School
districts in New Jersey and Florida ban Christmas carols. The mayor of
Somerville, Mass., apologizes for “mistakenly” referring to the town’s
“holiday party” as a “Christmas party.” The Broward and Fashion malls
in South Florida put up a Hanukah menorah but no nativity scene. The
manager of one of the malls explains: Hanukah commemorates a battle and
not a religious event, though he hastens to add, “I don’t really know a
lot about it.” He does not. Hanukah commemorates a miracle, and there
is no event more “religious” than a miracle. The attempts to
de-Christianize Christmas are as absurd as they are relentless. The
United States today is the most tolerant and diverse society in
history. It celebrates all faiths with an open heart and
open-mindedness that, compared to even the most advanced countries in
Europe, are unique.” 4
TV
commentator Bill O’Reilly was right when he said there is an
anti-Christian bias in this country, and it is more on display at
Christmas than any other time. It is also well documented that the bias
is spilling over into other arenas of American life.
“Other
battle zones,” wrote Don Feder, “include Ten Commandments monuments,
God in the pledge of allegiance, stigmatizing the Boy Scouts, advances
in the culture of death, and attempts to impose homosexual marriage by
judicial fiat.” 5
To
be sure, these symptoms may seem superficial on the surface. But at the
core, they reveal the battle taking place for the survival of all that
we value.
The Freedom Elixir
An elixir
is a substance thought capable of prolonging life indefinitely: a
cure-all. In present context, the “elixir” is the idea that the
freedoms lavished on us in the Western democracies, particularly in
America, are inherently bestowed in perpetuity. That is to say, as it
has been, so it will ever be; there are no threats of change blowing in
the wind. The viewpoint reminds me of the end-times attitude of those
so satisfied with their personal status quos that they renounce those
who speak of the Lord’s coming by saying,
“Where is the
promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things
continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Pet.
3:4).
Unquestionably,
we are the most materially blessed society in the history of the world.
For that reason, it may just be that our unprecedented affluence is
creating an indifference to what is happening in the wider world around
us.
Why is it so difficult to convince Christians that we are,
in fact, in a terrorist-driven war of jihad that is killing people,
mostly Christians, the world over? And why is the horror of the 9/11
attack so rapidly becoming all but forgotten by all too many? And why
do we put up with those who tell us we should blame ourselves for so
aggrieving Muslim fanatics that they were driven to strike back. That
actually, we are the aggressors, not the victims.
A big part
of the problem is that we internalize our freedom and prosperity to the
extent that we have become insulated from some of the harsh realities
of the real world. We have become self-immunized against feeling a
personal obligation to actually participate in the conflict. For even
if we indulge feelings of passivism toward military combat, we must
recognize and respond to the fact that behind every attack leveled
against us—social, political, terrorist, or whatever—there is a
spiritual battle being waged that is as old as the Fall of Man.
Therefore, no true Christian can afford to fiddle while we are engaged
in such an immense conflict.
Whether you are a pastor,
parishioner, Bible teacher, or student, you must learn what the issues
are for yourself, your country, your world, and your brothers and
sisters in the faith the world over.
Perhaps some of the last
words to a church from the last book in the New Testament are most
appropriate: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain”
(Rev. 3:2)
Endnotes:
1 Don Feder, “The Media's War on the ‘War on Christians’
Conference,” March 31, 2006
2 Caroline Glick, “Column One: The Jewish Threat,” March
23, 2006
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
4 Charles Krauthammer, “Just Leave Christmas Alone,”
December 17, 2004
5 Don Feder, “Christmas—Going, Going
. . Gone?”