Like Salt (Part IV): Resourcefulness

Christians in America are spoiled, largely because we get our way most of the time.  Not all the time, of course.  But enough to delude us into thinking we can and perhaps should be able to get our way all the time.

Our situation is hardly the historical norm.

How long was Israel an independent nation, controlling a swath of land it could call its own and governing its own affairs?  In its entire history it functioned as a united and independent nation for a mere 200 years (out of a 3000 plus year history), first under the monarchy and later under the Maccabees.

Yet the people of Israel survived.  They learned how to be resourceful, as the stories of Joseph, Esther, and Daniel illustrate, even when were dominated by a foreign empire (e.g., Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman) or scattered over the face of the earth.

The early church faced the same challenges.  The Christian movement grew up under the shadow of Rome’s suspicion and hostility.  Roman officials accused Christians, as the apologist Tertullian stated, of “the crime of a name [being “Christian”], not the name of a crime.”  To which he cried foul!  What actual wrongdoing did Christians commit?  None, it would appear.  If anything, Christians prayed for the emperor and served the common good of society.  As another unknown apologist claimed, Christians “went beyond what the [Roman] law requires.”

They lived like salt.  And the church grew—in numbers, reach, and influence.  By the year AD 150 there were churches in nearly every city in the Mediterranean world, though these cities followed a pagan way of life.  Christians mastered the art of quiet, steady influence.

They learned how to be resourceful.

Circumstances changed in the fourth century when the emperor Constantine gave legal recognition to Christianity.  The church grew exponentially, from perhaps 5 million in the year 300 to over 20 million by the year 350.  Bishops assumed positions of power.  Emperors built large and beautiful basillicas, attended worship, and passed laws that favored Christianity.  In the late fourth century the emperor Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the empire.

Surely the church gained something during this transition.  It was spared, for example, from persecution, and it became more visible and powerful as an institution.  But as the church gained one kind of power, it lost another kind.  It started to get its own way, and often in the wrong way.

This is the legacy that Christians in America have inherited.

The church’s grip on power in America, however, is slipping, which is creating panic.  How will Christianity fare without the church’s accustomed level of cultural influence and power?  Panic tempts the church to take shortcuts, thinking that the secret to reclaiming America as a “Christian nation” is to vote in the right members of Congress, secure the appointment of the right judges, and advocate for the right laws and policies.

Not that it is wrong to pursue these goals.  After all, we do live in a democratic republic.  Active political engagement is our duty.  It is what good citizens do.

But, though a legitimate way, it is not the best way.  If anything, it can create more problems than it solves, deluding us into thinking politics, and even coercion, as we observed January 6, is the quickest and easiest way to “take America back for God.”

History provides cautionary tales.  The church—evangelicals in particular—rallied the masses to pass the 18th Amendment in 1919, which prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcholol.  But that effort did not make the country dry.  America repealed the Amendment in 1933.  Today Christians enjoy alcohol as much as everyone else, even planting churches in breweries.

The church lobbied the government to protect the Christian sabbath as a day of rest, keeping commercial establishments like Sears Roebuck & Company closed.  They lost that battle, too.  Today Christians spend Sunday like most other Americans do—shopping, sporting, and enjoying entertainment, though the faithful do attend worship, too, on average 1.7 times a month.

The church once opposed easy and convenient divorce, arguing it would undermine family values.  It lost that battle as well.  Today Christians divorce at the same basic rate as the rest of the population.  

How did the church lose these battles?  Was it the church’s failure to get its own way by persuading Congress and Courts to impose its will on the nation?

Or was it the church’s failure to provide an alternative form of witness and example, even if it required the church to stand alone, like a sentinel?  We consider America a Christian nation.  We think everyone should live like us.  If we don’t get our way, we often give up and give in.  We are the ones who end up living like everyone else.

Politics and coercion rarely work unless the majority of citizens believe the cause is right, true, and just, obey it willingly, and encourage others to do the same.  Christians can lobby to teach sexual abstinence in the classroom or to outlaw abortion or to impose prayer in public schools or to display the Ten Commandments in government buildings.  But little will change if the American people are not persuaded to believe and practice these things as a matter of principle.

Christians in America assume that top down accomplishes more than bottom up.  It seems easier, to be sure, for it does not require Christians to set an example, to make sacrifices, and to live differently.

Persuasion is the harder way; it is also the better way.  It makes Christians resourceful.