Category: Leadership

How to Pray for Lying Leaders

One of the things I love about the Bible is its humanity, its expressions of a wide range of human experience—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sublime. This diversity of expression is true of the Psalms, a book of prayers and songs. The Psalms express our fears and joys, despair and depression, sin and guilt, grace and mercy, rescue and deliverance, gratitude and praise to God.

There are psalms that express deep suffering at the hands of others. The praying person cries out for deliverance from enemies and often calls God to bring judgment down upon their oppressors. Sometimes their prayer includes specific suggestions on how God should act. Some of these suggestions, I cannot imagine praying. But these prayers come from experiences of brutal oppression. And God hears our prayers, our deep suffering. But God does not necessarily do what we ask.

Still, we need to pray out what we are feeling. I had a member of my congregation share with me his anger toward God for his wife’s debilitating illness. His anger kept him from praying. He had been told that he was not to question God. I pointed to a psalm where the person praying was definitely questioning God. This member of my congregation could go to God and share freely how he felt toward God; it was not as if God did not know. And God was certainly “big enough” to take his anger, which was not so true with the people in his life.

Which brings me to Psalm 59, a prayer for deliverance from enemies. I do not feel free to pray for every manner of God’s wrath that the psalmist calls down on his enemies. But I can pray this:

“Make them totter by your power and bring them down,
O Lord, our shield.
For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,
let them be trapped in their pride.
For the cursing and lies that they utter.”

How do we pray when our petitions concern leaders and people of influence who lie, distort, and put out all manner of disinformation, who, in their pride and arrogance, show no compunction about leading people astray, who prey upon people’s weaknesses and self-absorption, their fears, prejudices, grievances, misplaced anger, and gullibility? How do we pray for leaders who bow down to and serve the god of personal power?

While many people are concerned with the undermining of democratic institutions (I have this concern as well, along with the undemocratic aspects of our institutions.), my main concern has to do with our basic humanity. After all, our democratic institutions allowed “we the people” to put Donald Trump into the office of president. The deeper issue is the way those in positions of leadership lead us further into our self-deceit and further away from our humanity created in the image of God.

All the lies and distortions ultimately take us away from living out our essential humanity as expressed by the prophet Micah: “He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?”

Lying leaders and influencers lead others away from their true humanity. They beguile people away from doing justice, loving mercy, and living faithfully. Which means that we, as a nation, are being led deeper into injustice, hatred, the despising of others, division, and violence.

So, how to pray when lying leaders refuse to change, refuse to repent. Considering St. Paul’s words about reaping what we sow and pride going before the fall, pray for the reaping and the fall that is coming:

“Make them totter by your power and bring them down. For the sin of their mouths, the cursing and lies that they utter, let them be trapped in their pride.” Amen.

Filed under: Justice, Leadership, PrayerTagged with: , ,

Donald Trump and White Nationalist Christianity

At Dordt University, a Christian college in Sioux Center, Iowa, in January 2016, Donald Trump said to a group of Christians, “Christianity will have power. If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.” (New York Times)

Eighty percent of self-identified White evangelical Christians remembered and voted for Donald Trump. He was the one that White nationalist Christianity chose for its president. Donald Trump, however, is not a Christian president nor a president for Christians, but a president that appeals to a White nationalism that has the veneer of Christianity and uses Christian language and a theology that shelters White supremacy. A Christianity that finds in Trump a protector and provider is far removed from the life and teaching of Jesus and our participation in his death and resurrection (dying to the old life and rising to the new).

What kind of Christianity looks to Trump to give it power? An idolatrous Christianity. The roots of its idolatry go deep, to the beginnings of a nation established as a White nation for Whites built on the free labor of enslaved Africans and the genocide of Native Peoples of the land. A theology was developed (some of it ready-made for the task) that justified, supported, and reinforced White nationalist values and commitments. This theology has remained, in one form or another, through Jim Crow and the new Jim Crow. While no longer providing a rationale for slavery, it remains White supremacist. Rather than being a blatant, ideologically framed White supremacy, much of it operates hidden (especially to participants) and persistent. As Ibram X. Kendi has so clearly pointed out, the opposite of racist is not “not racist” but antiracist.

A Christianity that follows Jesus is active in doing justice. It works to make right what is wrong. It seeks to dismantle in order to build a just society. We have a mission like that which was given to the prophet Jeremiah “to pull down” in order “to build and to plant.” In its most subtle forms, White nationalist Christianity simply overlooks or diminishes the racism, disparities, and injustices experienced by people of color and seeks to maintain a White supremacist status quo. It will not acknowledge this, but its denial is seen for what it is when it supports voter suppression (while calling it something else) and dismantling affirmative action (as if it were no longer needed), opposes true reform of the criminal justice system, and works against initiatives to address disparities in health, education, and housing.

I share with other Christians the concern for the life of the unborn, but I also believe that being pro-life means care for the life of the born and therefore health care for all. I oppose the taking of any life and therefore, as with the early church, oppose capital punishment and cooperation with war. I believe that following Jesus includes doing what he told Peter to do and that was to put down his sword. It is hard to follow Jesus in loving and praying for our enemies while killing them. Jesus calls us to be witnesses to God’s reign, not to the nations of the world and their security solutions.

Now, I do believe there are evangelicals (and other Christians) who voted for Trump that know and love God and have experienced God’s grace. There are all kinds of reasons people get caught up in various belief systems and do not recognize the inconsistencies with their new life in Christ. And, of course, God comes to us where we are and has us on a journey. We begin a journey that brings us out of many false, hurtful beliefs. For Christians, this happens by following Jesus daily. We expect transformation and growth. Increasingly, we become responsible for exercising discernment, with the help of the Spirit—discernment regarding leaders and teachers in our lives. The greatest responsibility, however, goes to leaders. James says that not many should be teachers for they will be judged more harshly. The greater the responsibility, the more required. And Jesus says, “Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!” (Matthew 18:7)

What, at times, happens is that a person “accepts Christ” in a genuine desire for a life change, perhaps from a drug addiction which is the immediate idolatry or obsession that they are aware of, from which they need deliverance. God is gracious and they experience healing from their addiction as well as help with other personal struggles. At this point, in their spiritual journey, theirs is a malleable Christ. (If only we would be malleable to Christ.) The guidance they receive is critical. What they may receive from an available pastor is a theology shaped by nationalist values and ideologies or that does not question these (which is fine with the person who holds them). The only way out of this false religious bubble is to actually follow the Jesus of the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, and the New Testament. Let Jesus’ teaching challenge, disrupt, and “take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5) Above all, this means that we do what Jesus tells us to do: Count the cost of following. It goes beyond initial acceptance. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves [including their present commitments and ways of thinking] and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)

Filed under: Discipleship, Justice, Leadership, RacismTagged with: , ,

No Substitute For Discernment

Those of us who are citizens of the United States of America are presently involved in making decisions regarding leadership in our nation, decisions about who to vote for. We are having to discern and decide among human beings, like us, who are flawed. People of faith pray for guidance as they listen to candidates and weigh various factors of our present situation. Some, however, may look to religious leaders for direction and may tell themselves that it is enough to get direction from this or that “man of God” or “woman of God,” as if we could simply rely on another person to tell us what to do without exercising discernment. However, Jesus tells us that we each have a responsibility to exercise discernment. He tells us that not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” is connected to God’s reign. Therefore, we are responsible to know them by their fruits; we are to exercise discernment in relation to religious leaders and what they tell us.

Jesus tells us not to be like religious leaders who are hypocrites or play-actors and who do what they do “so that they may be praised by others.” What we see of them, their outward actions and words, is a cover for what is inside. We are to exercise discernment so that we recognize false prophets. Outwardly Jesus tells us they wear sheep’s clothing, but “inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” (Matthew 7:15-16) They may talk religiously, read their Bible, and tell us that they are for a return to morality in America. But Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)

Jesus tells us that we know false prophets by their fruit, that is, by their actions and by what is important to them. What they treasure tells us where their heart is. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) We cannot see into another person’s heart; we cannot see what motivates them, but we can see their fruit. We see what gets expressed and acted out, and, in this way, we see what they treasure, what they go after, and what is truly important to them.

Do their lives manifest what Jesus calls the weightier matters: doing justice, loving mercy and living faithfully? Do they, like Jesus, actively care for the plight of the poor, the outcast, the refugee? Do they extend God’s mercy and welcome to the broken and the bound. Are they about healing and liberation? Or, instead of God’s welcome, do they lay heavy burdens on others by condemnation and blame, or even by belittling and ridicule?

Whether we are discerning our next steps or discerning whether to listen to a particular teacher, proclaimer, or prophet, it comes down to a matter of discerning God’s will: The one who enters God’s reign is the “one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” We must discern not only our next steps (God’s will for us), but discern false leaders and proclaimers. This is critical for our life together and for the building of true community. We must be careful that we are not led astray or that we lead others astray. If our prejudices, fears, and attitudes toward others govern how we see things, then we will be attracted to religious leaders that cast blame on others and demean those we do not like.

We must do what Paul tells us to do: “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice” and “be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God.” It is only by relinquishing our lives to God that we are able to discern God’s will. It is this discernment that enables us not only to see what is of God and what God calls us to do but to recognize the voices that declare God’s will and those that do not.

Filed under: Faith, Leadership, Prayer, SpiritTagged with: , , ,