As I teach this Sunday on “Seek first His Kingdom” and as we begin another election year, I thought I’d share this piece from 12/20/19. In re-reading it, I was surprised at how boldly I was confronting the growing political idolatry in my Evangelical tribe. It is also sobering to think how little I knew of how bad things were about to get in the coming months with Covid-19, 2020 election madness, George Floyd, January 6, and more. No wonder I would find myself in Colorado some 8 months later doing two weeks of intensive counseling for my frayed emotional and spiritual health. With that preface, let’s head back to the eve of the apocalypse as we prepared to usher in a most unHappy New Year 2020. -JB 

December 20, 2019

Just before Christmas in 2019, Mark Galli, the chief editor of Christianity Today, the mainstream Evangelical magazine Billy Graham founded, published a scorching editorial piece decrying Trump’s immoral character and calling for his removal from office. While tempted to give my commentary on the actual article, I’m more interested in exploring why so many Christians are caught up in the goings-on at Caesar’s palace the very week our heart and minds should be making their way toward Bethlehem’s manger. 

Shortly after the article was published, the Christianity Today website actually “crashed” because of all the traffic coming to read a critique of a human president of a temporary nation-state. On the evening of the release of the latest Star Wars movie, Christianity Today surpassed Star Wars on Twitter as the #1 trending topic. Again, as Trump realized in 2016, the Evangelical population is a very formidable demographic—large enough to get him elected then and large enough to crash websites and top Twitter when he is challenged by an Evangelical critic.

Now, I am one of many Evangelical Christian leaders weary of my Evangelical brothers and sisters who blindly accept the clunky red and blue boxes that American politics has chosen to lump all people into. I have a perspective that doesn’t get much air time and I hope it makes people think about things from a different perspective. You won’t hear this on CNN or FOX. And I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I’m an ambassador of a “Kingdom not of this world” (John 18:36).

For Kingdom-minded Christians, the world isn’t divided into liberal and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans. It’s divided into those who pledge allegiance and align their lives with Jesus’ teachings, his character and politics, and those who do not. It’s divided into people who pursue integrity and godly character, and those who don’t because the political ends apparently justify some pretty nasty means. It’s divided into Christians who believe Jesus’ message only pertains to personal salvation and the afterlife, and Christians (like me) who believe Jesus left his church with the job of establishing local beachheads of His Kingdom here and now “on earth as it is in Heaven.” Yes, Jesus has a ton to say about politics, social issues, the poor, worldly power, cultures of life and death, justice, racial inequalities, etc.—though he won’t be squeezed into either right or left box.

So why should his followers fit into these boxes?

There’s a large, silent tribe of Evangelical moderates and centrists who are distancing themselves from both the political left and the political right in this country. They don’t agree with the liberal agenda, yet they abhor Trump’s conduct and think many conservative Evangelicals have traded Jesus’ Kingdom values and politics for a version of American conservatism. This is Franklin Graham and friends. Blindly accepting a “liberals vs. conservatives” worldview, he assumes anyone who critiques the President must therefore be a liberal. This is plain ignorance and stupidity. When the magazine his father started published this piece, his narrow view of reality led him to conclude Christianity Today has now gone over to the liberals!

Let me speak for so many moderate Evangelical independents out there and say: Just because some think Trump’s character and behavior is beneath the dignity of the office of the President of the United States, and he’s unfit for office, does not mean they are suddenly on the political left. It means they still hold to the moral standards and traditional ethics that conservatives used to be known for — as recently as 1998 when Evangelicals raged over Clinton’s immorality.

For Christians, it’s dangerous to get too caught up in an “America first” platform when our baptism and confession of faith bestows on us a new transnational citizenship made up of believers from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and an obligation to seek Jesus’ Kingdom and international priorities first — yes, even above American self-interest. Christianity 101 should teach we’re no longer patriots of any earthly nation, but “our citizenship is in Heaven” (Phil 3:20).

Christians trained up in His Kingdom should bristle at, or at least question, any agendas motivated by self-interest, because we serve a King who calls us to “deny self” (Matt 16:24) and “consider others more important than ourselves” (Phil 2:3). Following Jesus requires we put “the other” first, not ourselves. Following Jesus, for example, requires us to “welcome the foreigner” with threat of eternal perdition for not doing so (see Matt 25:31-46). (See my piece on immigration.) And on and on.

Mainly, I’m just disturbed why Christianity Today’s website has never crashed before, despite publishing articles daily on the beauty of the Kingdom we are called to advance, the mission of the church around the globe, and the politics and values of the King we are called to serve and represent. Yet, one article focused on a one unsavory human king whose life is but a vapor and whose kingdom shall someday pass away, somehow drew millions of Christian eyes and stirred up intense emotion. I would give anything to see Christ’s base of supporters as committed and emotionally invested in furthering His platform (e.g., Sermon on the Mount) as they are in the platforms of the American Right or Left.

So, let me close by reminding us all of the intensely political nature of the Christmas story. Nearly 2,000 years ago all eyes were on the political intrigues of Caesar in the capital city of Rome. If Caesar had a Twitter account, he would have had as many followers as Trump. The Christmas story begins not with angels but a census to determine how many men could serve in Caesar’s military. As the super-power of the day, Rome had a wildly successful propaganda campaign known by the slogan Pax Romana, which boasted that Caesar and Rome were the hope of the world and bringers of justice and peace. Caesar had coins minted with his image and the words, “Son of God” and “Savior.” No joke. 

But now listen to how Luke tells the story. He starts with a brief nod to the political happenings on Capitol Hill in Rome, but quickly shifts the camera to where the real world-changing action is about to take place: some shepherds in a field outside a lowly village of Bethlehem. 

 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world… [Meanwhile] there were shepherds living out in the fields [near Bethlehem], keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the True Caesar. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2 My paraphrase)

Likewise, these days in America millions of eyes are glued to CNN or FOX, watching and debating the fate of another earthly Caesar. Moving into another election year, many will be duped into thinking the hopes of the world somehow are wrapped up in the political maneuverings of today’s great earthly super-power. People will continue taking sides and dividing up the population into liberals and conservatives, Pro-Trumpers and anti-Trumpers, so-called Patriots and so-called anti-American socialists, etc. Tragically, many Christians will also get caught up in the affairs of this earthly kingdom and spend far less time pursuing, propagating and representing the beauty of Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom that will have no end.

I’m challenging all who have ears to hear to stop crashing websites over Trump-related matters, and crash the Manger instead. Let’s stop letting FOX or CNN be our daily devotional reading and discipleship hub, and start reading the Gospels instead. Let’s pray for the day when “#Jesus is Lord” is the number one trending topic on Twitter.  Christian, as you worship this Christmas Eve remember which King and Kingdom you serve.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God…”-JESUS