Senator Grassley Reportedly Miffs Iowa's Political Religious Wing: GOP Payback at Convention?
Posted: Monday, July 21, 2008
by Jean Purcell
OpineBooks.com
I am not from Iowa, so I don't want to barge in on
Iowa politics and religion. However, I'm about to reverse myself and do it. If the Iowa situation happened in Maryland,
I would write a few letters or make a few phone calls. At least, I should do so
and hang my head if I did not!
On the way home this morning from a vacation,
my husband and I stopped at Chick-fil-A for a scrambled egg and biscuit
breakfast, and my husband picked up a free copy of The Washington Times
newspaper.
On the front page (July 21, 2008) this headline: "Grassley
won't be GOP delegate: Evangelicals deny senator." The report said that certain Republican Iowans, the Iowa Christian Alliance, have denied Senator Grassley a place on the Iowa delegation to the Republican Convention this summer in St. Paul, MN.
The reason, goes the report, is to deliver retribution to Mr.
Grassley for having "initiated a Senate Finance Committee investigation of six
televangelists for conspicuous personal spending."
That allegation toward the political group has been denied. If true, what are we to make
of it?
Religious-political activists have opened themselves up to worst assumptions. They have to go many extra miles to prove they do not practice retribution or payback.
They have earned their reputation, in their good desire to influence society, by too often adopting worldly, unbending activist tactics toward any opposition. Such tactics, well-known in Washington, boil down to: "Shun or punish, and then deny that you are doing so."
One may disagree with Senator Grassley's quite legal approach, and I probably do disagree; yet, should
he be punished for it? Is there no longer any room for disagreement on individual issues or approaches? What if he was trying to follow his conscience when he initiated the investigation? What about that?
This is time for professing evangelicals to stop acting
like business or lobbying groups in the name of religion. It is time for professing
evangelicals to return to fundamentals of evangelical fervor. In continuing as they have been, they weave very deceptive and paralyzing webs.
Is that what they want? The world has many big messes going on. Many people drift hopelessly
and feel disconnected by uncaring and judgmental people and institutions.
Isn't the church supposed to be about something else, something that does not make sense to the worldly-minded?
When I was a child, my mother initiated a conversation that
I will try to recreate. We were in Raleigh, North Carolina, the city where I
was born. We had later moved to a very small town, and so a trip to Raleigh was a very big
event.
That day in Raleigh, my mother pointed to a beautiful
clothing store in a strategic location in Raleigh's downtown, saying softly, "Do you see that store?"
I looked. The name outside said "Ivey's" in black cursive metal script
on the white building exterior. It was a very impressive-looking store and the dresses on display behind large glass windows looked very expensive.
"Yes," I answered.
"Well, on Sundays Mr. Ivey has shades pulled down over all those
big windows."
She paused, waiting for my question.
"Why?" I asked.
"He does not want even to encourage people to window-shop on
Sundays. He wants people to have their minds on going to church to worship and having
a day off from everyday things."
I had no idea or dream that years later, in Singapore, I would see a store whose owner did exactly as Mr. Ivey had done...a Chinese Christian whose award-winning store not only closed on Sundays, one of Singapore's busiest sales days, but also covered the display windows. That is what I observed one Christmas season in Singapore.
What I learned long before, on that day of childhood in Raleigh, NC, was that the probably very well-off Mr. Ivey did what he could do in a costly and yet very practical way. He did not want Monday's earnings to come from
Sunday's advertising, so he lowered the shades. That was the kind of Christian
living I was raised on--personal action that was quiet and costly. That was the
way of my parents.
In their world of faith, you aimed to live your life by
humble faith and good acts done in secret. You tried to do what would please God. You did not try to dictate to
other people, including people of your faith. You would stand up, if need be, for the weak.
That way grew on me, and I am now humbled by how well they lived it. It is a challenge. In the process, I am increasingly put
off by religious political-pressure methods that come close to arm-twisting, pressure
lobbying, and threat-making.
We are in an election season now. I may agree with some religious
political activists' views, but I do not want to be lumped in with them. I do
not like their tactics.
The Mr. Iveys of the world, trying to live what they profess in whatever ways they can,
have more influence in the long term than a multitude of hardened religious
political activists. In a world where Chick-fil-A also takes Sundays off,
shouldn't the religious use Sundays for worship, too, and not to prepare for another week of lobbying and
political action?
The mission of the Christian church is to proclaim the good
news of Jesus Christ, not to do official political business. Jesus clearly told
His followers to teach all that He had taught them, and to go all over the
world to do it. They did not need to worry about where or when to go: events of
the day pushed them out of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was, for a little over a month after Jesus' resurrection,
the center of Christian life. After the disciple Stephen was stoned to death a little
more than 40 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the church suffered severe and
planned persecution that drove most Christians out of that city.
The disciples that had been with Jesus, by then known as the
apostles and the leadership of the earthly church, stayed in Jerusalem. The
others went abroad by force.
Reading the Scriptures, one easily sees that being driven out
quickly opened the door to fulfill Jesus' command to "go into all the world." Suddenly
the opportunity for preaching to many tribes, tongues, and nations opened up.
The scriptures after that do not include letters of
complaint, fear, or railing against the religious or political leaders of
Judaism or of Rome. There is no sign of protest or forming action groups or
coalitions.
What do most non-Christians think of when they hear the word
"Christian" today? They think "political action," "money," "promotion," "advertising,"
"lobbying," "arm-twisting," and similar words. They think the church has gone
nuts.
How do I know? I know the reactions that I, as a Christian, get all the time.
There is such distrust of anything Christian among non-Christians that it is
hard to get a word in…in most cases, and I fully understand why. Sadly, I
understand.
Jesus' disciples trusted God so much that they knew that the
sufferings of their lives would be used by Him to open up more opportunities to
bear witness to what they had seen and heard from Jesus.
Today, many Christian churches and denominations in the U.
S. are not first thought of as witnesses to the life of Jesus Christ. They are
increasingly thought of in other terms. Due to this shift, non-religious people associate the name of
Christ with a return to legalism and an legalistic moral power expressed through
organized and fund-raising political action groups.
If you do not agree with the views just expressed, you are entitled to disagree. But don't
try to change my mind.
I know this will be misunderstood, but I assure you I have marched quietly for one issue dear to my conscience. I am not opposed to standing up. I am opposed to strong-arm tactics!
If you agree thus far, and if through your local
church or political group you have not spoken up about this religious arm-twisting, I hope you will do so and respectfully. Bottom line: speak up!
In closing, I must admit that a lot of things happen in
Maryland that I do not speak up about, and I'm going to
try to do better. Not as a religious activist, but as a voting citizen.
There, I feel a bit better. I will be a lot better, I admit, when I
follow my own advice. Thanks for reading!
I totally subscribe to this convincing argument. Religious political activism is out-of-hand. The non-religious regard us as a bunch of money-grubbing nuts. It's good to be reminded that not all thinking Christians agree with this diversion. And even more important, it's not scriptural.Jim, you're right. It's not scriptural. Thanks for your encouraging comment.
Hi Jane,This is a very good article. I agree with you wholly. I've never been to Singapore.BobHi, BobThanks for the feedback. It means a lot. I hope the article might make a dent somewhere. As for Singapore, hope you get to go there someday if you want to. I never expected to go twice.Thanks again for reading and commenting.
Very good article. It is not scriptural and yes if I were in Iowa, I would have to make some phone calls or hang my head if not. I wonder if the non-religious will ever regard christians as not being crazy or just people. I know, "we don't live in a perfect world"...Yet. Wait until we get to heaven. : )Michelle, thanks for reading and commenting! I hope we will see some good changes in this area.
