Once again: Jesus Christ was not a right-wing Republican, nor a left-wing Democrat

In the years before the Conservative Resurgence, Southern Baptist Moderates, who ruled the SBC at the time, moved ever closer to total alignment with the Southern wing of the Democratic Party. This was personified by President Jimmy Carter, himself a former SBC politico. 

In their love for Carter, SBC leaders then failed to note a political shift occurring right beneath their noses across the country and even in their own denomination—a shift which eventually brought on the Ronald Reagan revolution and all of its attendant conservative philosophies.

Will history now repeat itself again?

The SBC today could be renamed the Republican Baptist Convention. When the Republican Party sneezes, SBC leaders pop up with handkerchiefs and hand sanitizers. Their alignment with the Republican Party far exceeds the love affair the Moderates had with Carter back in the late 1970s.

Recently Richard Land of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission produced yet another column in Baptist Press taking the standard Republican Party line, this time on the nomination of Supreme Court nominee federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor. That's just the latest of his and other SBC leaders' statements that read as though they fell right out of the Republican Party play book.

SBC leaders could take some important lessons from the late Pope John Paul II. In 1979 when he set out to corral the excessive political involvement of some of his priests, particularly the Jesuits, John Paul said, "Jesus Christ was no political revolutionary and his priests are not to be either."

I was at the meeting in Puebla, Mexico, where John Paul made that famous statement. I was impressed with the wisdom in his words then and have been increasingly so over the years.

I very much admired the way John Paul II dealt with this issue.  He was outspoken on various political points of view, yet no one could label him a particular party member. He had his own firm beliefs about many issues, yet he was able to speak out on social and ethical issues of his day without aligning himself with any particular political leader or party. He was, in other words, his "own man". He wasn't in the hip pocket of any politician or political party.

Through the past four decades I've often written and spoken on my basic belief that Jesus Christ was neither a Republican nor a Democrat and that church leaders err when they cozy up to one political party or the other. I believe firmly the church's agenda should never be fully aligned with any secular political party. 

Church leaders need to speak to social, ethical, and biblical issues as addressed in the Bible, not act in lock-step unison with one political party or the other.

SBC leaders today would do well to remember what happened to the former SBC leaders  when they became so obsessed with Carter and his version of Christianity as represented by the Democratic Party in the 1970s. Very soon they found themselves on the outs with the majority within the SBC, who opted to join in the Reagan revolution.

As with the days of Jimmy Carter, these are times of great political, social, and economic ferment and turmoil. If SBC leaders today keep opposing everything President Obama does and keep jumping at every play called by the Republican Party while the Republican Party continues to sink in public polls, SBC Conservative leaders today just could find themselves in the same mud puddle the Moderate leaders found themselves in during the aftermath of the Carter presidency.

Southern Baptists do not have a long history with the Republican Party. In fact, for more than 100 years, the Southern in Southern Baptist yielded a great disdain for the Party of Lincoln. A major component in the shift in the SBC's political loyalty occurred because of the rising affluence among Southern Baptists in general and the party's strategy to attract Southern loyalists in particular. 

Somebody needs to tell Southern Baptist leaders today that it's time to take a deep breath, stand back from all the political wrangling, and start quoting the entirety of their inerrant Bibles instead of dancing to the tune of the right wing of the secular Republican Party. 

Jesus Christ was neither a Democrat nor a Republican (also not a political revolutionary)

The time was late February 1979. Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtela had become Pope John Paul II less than three months earlier. Now he was making his first overseas trip to the Western Hemisphere. 

I was there standing on the tarmac at the Mexico City airport when John Paul's plane landed and he de-planed.  A few days later I followed the pope's limo to Puebla, Mexico to hear some of the most profound words the pontiff ever spoke during his nearly 28-year reign:

"Jesus Christ was no political revolutionary. And His priests are not to be political revolutionaries either." 

Spoken in Spanish but translated quickly in several versions into English, the words shocked those hoping the new, youthful, energetic pope would cast his lot with the Liberation theologians, who were stirring excitement in that day with their talk of blending church and secular politics into a potent political revolutionary force particularly in South America but also worldwide. 

Some tried to label the Liberation theologians as heroes ushering in a new era of church activism. Others tried to label them as socialists, communists or simply political revolutionaries. Meanwhile some Roman Catholic priests and leaders were enamored with the idea of marching off to political war. John Paul put a stop to it.

Ironically, John Paul II will always be remembered for his impact on secular politics because of the role he played as the ethical and spiritual voice in the downfall of the Evil Empire, as President Ronald Reagan called the former Soviet Union. But he did it his way--not following the path of the Liberation theologians of his time. He did it by firmly stating over and over his beliefs and positions on moral, social and ethical issues. And he did it in his usual charming fashion. At no time did I ever witness him pander after any politicians, though he seemed to greet and treat them all with civility and cordiality.

The pope's words are similar to a statement I've made often both in print and in person: "Jesus Christ was neither a Democrat nor a Republican." With the race for the occupant of the White House after next January 20 heating up, you'll hear me repeat these words many times over the next months. 

So often we Christians try to re-shape Jesus into our image, like the Medieval artists who fashioned the famous artwork that makes Jesus and His disciples look like Venice merchants in Medieval attire, complete with Medieval hairstyles, Medieval clothing, and so forth. American Christian leaders from both the left and the right have become adept at this same slight of hand. Each wants to re-make Jesus to match his or her own personal political preference.

Who would Jesus have voted for in the presidential primaries just ended?  No one, because he would have found registering as either a Democrat or a Republic—a prerequisite for voting in many primaries—to be difficult.

By their very nature, political parties are born of compromise and political realities in order to win elections. No political party is 100% Christian or reflective of Christ's teachings. Sadly, some on the Religious Right and the Religious Left seem to have forgotten that.

Like John Paul, Jesus stood above the political fray.  Yet His words dramatically impacted political leaders of His day. Jesus' teachings through the following centuries brought about a massive revolution in thought, belief, culture and action that people in His day would have found difficult to imagine.

During this political season in the U.S., may religious leaders once again hear and heed the words of John Paul spoken almost 30 years go. "Jesus Christ was no political revolutionary (and I add "neither was He a Republican nor a Democrat"). And his priests (pastors and other church leaders) are not to be political revolutionaries (party operatives) either."

Today U.S. presidents meet with Catholic pope and stir barely a ripple

President George Bush's visit to see Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Friday brought back memories of the first time a Roman Catholic pope called at the U.S. White House.  The year was 1979. The pontiff was Pope John Paul II. The president was Jimmy Carter. I was there standing on the White House lawn along with about 100 other reporters who had special press badges allowing us to accompany John Paul on his historic first tour of the U.S.

The papal visit actually began three days earlier when John Paul's plane arrived in Boston for the historic precedent-setting six-day tour of America. The president sent wife Rosalyn to Boston to greet the pontiff and welcome him to America and lay the groundwork for the upcoming White House visit.  Behind the scenes, U.S. protocol officials fretted whether Mrs. Carter should 1. stay airborne until the pope landed, or 2. stay on board her plane until the pope had stepped on Boston soil, or 3. be standing on the tarmac waiting to greet the pope as he stepped off the plane. While amused by that silly drama, I puzzled over why behind the scenes in the press room so many reporters kept making ugly remarks about Mrs. Carter.

Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter did what John and Jackie Kennedy never could have done. During the 1960 election, Kennedy was berated unmercifully with accusations that he, a Roman Catholic, would be subservient to the pope. Kennedy had to go out of his way to distance himself from any thought that the pope would influence his Presidency.

Carter, on the other hand, was a Southern Baptist. No one ever thought he would pay much attention to the pope. When the Carters welcomed John Paul to the White House, the visit was noteworthy for its lack of controversy. With a warm handshake and welcome to the nation's capitol, Carter changed the American political climate almost immediately. He, of course, rode the crest of America's great curiosity over the Polish pope's escalating popularity among Roman Catholics as well as others worldwide.

Because of the Carters, other U.S. Presidents have been able to meet almost casually with the pontiff both at the White House and at the Vatican. Such meetings have proven beneficial for the U.S.

George Bush's visit with Pope Benedict XVI on Friday hardly stirred more than a brief mention in the U.S. media.

Amazing how quickly America's political landscape can change and things once thought controversial can become commonplace! Makes me wonder what other changes we will see in the years ahead.

 

Witness to the Truth debuts today

    The debut of my new book, Witness to the Truth, at the 2008 Book Expo America, the largest book trade show in the U.S., this weekend produced the types of curious responses I expected and that I anticipate will occur over the next weeks and months.

    My book is subtitled Lessons learned by a veteran journalist through four decades of watching the church. I used raw, revealing anecdotes to paint the church as an authentically human institution but one that God still can use for His ongoing purposes, despite the sometimes disturbing antics and behaviors of church leaders.

    During the editing and proofing process, I laughed repeatedly at an email from Deborah Davies, one of our editors at Hannibal Books, who suggested I rename the book Forest Gump Goes to Church. She keyed off the fact that through four decades I managed to find myself strategically poised to witness cataclysmic religious developments such as John Paul's first steps in the Western Hemisphere, the Episcopal Church's historic vote to ordain women, and my unique skybox view at the 1979 Southern Baptist Convention, a meeting which forever altered the history for the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Over the years I've been fortunate to meet almost all the big-name religious leaders of our time.

    During the debut here in Los Angeles to bookstore buyers and librarians from across the U.S. as well around the world, my wife Kay tugged at my arm to get me to venture over and meet a librarian from the Houston area, where I spent the majority of my life and career. After introducing myself, I held out the book to the woman, who seemed to remember my years at the Houston Chronicle and literally jerked the book from my hands. Simultaneously she asked whether it had an index of names cited. Before I could answer her question, she found and started perusing the index.  She spotted the name of a pastor we apparently both know and turned immediately to one of the references.

    "Oh, my goodness, you saw him as very egotistical," she blurted wide-eyed.  After a long silence, she said smiling, "Well, I guess we all have our opinions."

    I offered to autograph the book for her. "Address it to my mother," she said. "I'm going to read it tonight and send it to her immediately."

    What struck me as so humorous was that the pastor she fingered actually is a very minor character in the book; the denomination to which he belonged is not a major focus. The book is chocked full of details about numerous religious leaders and denominations.

     Far beyond a mere chronicling of events, Witness to the Truth identifies 26 core "truths" that apply to a variety of religious groups regardless of their stripe. My parallels are designed to help readers better understand their own local church bodies and their roles in them.

     Visit www.hannibalbooks.com right now and read the first chapter of my book as well as that index that captivated my new librarian-friend. 

     Happy reading!