Yesterday was my “day off.” I also took a break from listening to the news and commentary on the political scandal of the day and just focused on little things like reading a good story, cooking a nice meal, talking with people I love and watching a good college basketball game. It was a really good day! In the break, I determined that I must have “scandal fatigue.” There are so many things to be angry about my angry tank is nearly on empty and I need a day off just to refill it if I’m going to continue living angry. There are just too many things to be angry about! Just sayin’…

My respite made me realize how toxic the public discourse has become for me as a consumer of it and for our culture. It’s heartbreaking to me to see “freedom of speech” turn into freedom to hate. And this does not bode well for a society’s future.

It leaves me asking myself, “How did we get here?” It’s complicated, of course. But I have a thought to share. Maybe I need to give you a trigger warning here before we go on.

TRIGGER WARNING: I’m going to write about God and naturalism a little bit. So, if this subject gives you anxiety you may want to prepare yourself if you choose to keep reading. But keep reading…

In our culture, choosing a side or a group to identify with has become a higher priority than listening and reasoning with each other. If you watch enough FOX or CNN news, you start to think only in terms of liberal versus conservative, anti-immigration versus pro-immigration, pro-abortion versus anti-abortion, progressive versus traditional and sadly, Black versus White. We are so attuned to choosing left or right we have totally forgotten there is an up and down!

The voices receiving air time for right and left create anger and protest. If the person doesn’t create enough anger, the news anchor or comedian or radio host will do their best to get them to take a side or stir anger within the interview. Angry sells. Candidates and office holders seem bent on creating angry responses today. We have protests against the violence and criminality of public officials constantly now. Isn’t it strange that many of those protesters against violence turn violent themselves? Directing public discourse with Twitter is not a good idea, by the way. Sound bites and tweets feed our anger. But that is where we are. It will make us angry or depressed if we let it.

If you want to know where I stand on a certain cultural issue, I’ll be happy to share my thought process and why I believe what I believe about that issue. But I’ll also listen to you if you think differently about it. I will not attack you personally when I feel like your view starts to make more sense than mine. I will not resort to quoting Bible verses at you as a defense for my lack of knowledge. And I hope you will listen with the same kind of willingness to think together about important things. Sometimes, we need time to think and research and even pray before we explain what we think. I’m fine with that. I need the same grace. Go ahead and think… then come back to our discussion. Wouldn’t that be a cool way to do things?

There have always been some illogically angry voices in our public discourse. That’s the price you pay for free speech. But that was once the exception not the rule. Now it seems like all we hear! So how did we get so far from culture where respect and sincere discussion was the norm?

I’m going to use a Bible story to illustrate because that’s what pastors do…

There was a moment in the Old Testament book of 1 Samuel when the old prophet named Samuel was coming to the end of his life. He had been the connection to God for the people of Israel and he appointed his sons to take on that role for the nation. The people demanded a king “such as all the other nations have.” Maybe they should have taken a closer look at how that had worked out for those other nations!

The question the story poses is, “Why didn’t God want them to have a king and why did it lead to the ruin of the nation Israel?”

I’m not arguing politics. This is not a discussion about the “biblical” model for a government. This is not about whether America was once a theocracy but now it’s a godless place. You can correctly say that we are still a Christian nation because of the presence of so many Christians in our culture. But that is the wrong argument for a nation to be having in the first place. Jesus himself didn’t say, “Go and create Christian nations.” He did say, “Go into all nations and make disciples…” (Matthew 28)

We didn’t start as a Christian nation because our government decided to create a Christian theocracy. This nation was decidedly Christian because of the personal freedom to seek God and because of the presence of so many incredible Christian people at all levels of society and government. Those “self-evident” truths found their way into our founding documents and systems of government because of those people and their faith. It hasn’t resulted in perfection but is has served us pretty well up to today. You want to try something other than religious freedom?

Let’s go a little deeper than yes king versus no king or the argument for a Christian nation or a secular one. The problem with demanding a king was not that Jehovah God has control issues. He doesn’t. What they wanted was a change in the god they worship. In my generation, our nation has made a rapid and definite shift in which god we worship as a people, too.

Everyone has a “god” they ascribe to or worship. Naturalism is the god of this age. There is one big problem with making science your god. Modern science is entirely designed to answer the question, “How does this work?” So its disciplines are almost all deconstructive by nature. In other words, science breaks things down to understand how things function.  That’s why you dissected that frog in 7th grade!

Faith has something to say about the “how” questions but it is focused on the question, “Why?” Faith can be dissected, even physiologically like a frog dissection, but it can’t be experienced through deconstructing its components and causations. Most people think science and faith are in conflict because they are on the opposite ends of some imagined spectrum for worldviews. They are not even meant to answer the same questions! They can’t. I have an idea… how about we take a break from placing everything on “different ends of the spectrum” for a while?! That isn’t the place where real reason and helpful discussion start. If anything, science and faith should reveal knowledge useful to each other and empower each other. At the core that conflict doesn’t exist.

What god did Israel replace God with when they demanded a king instead of living in the freedom and protection God had always promised them? They chose the god of autonomy. The king protects them but each person wants to be a “law unto themselves.” Naturalism makes a poor god because it leads to that same god called self-rule. In fact, it’s an even more ancient thought than that king story. In the Creation and Fall of Man story of Genesis, Adam and Eve are not just tempted by pretty fruit. The great temptation they eventually give in to is this, “You won’t really die from this! You get to be your own god! You even get to define good and evil for yourselves!” A lot of religions and worldviews promise that same thing. One faith debunks this notion.

I am trying not to preach, but imagine my best preacher voice for a moment here, “Let me tell you! Yes, living like this really will kill you! (And probably before you die physically) You are going to make one pitiful god for yourself! Defining what’s good and evil on the fly will ruin your life!” Amen, brother Mark! Can I get a testimony!?

I’m not saying atheism is a vast conspiracy to wipe out Christianity and destroy our nation. It isn’t. It’s a worldview held by an increasing number of good people. What we see happening is a natural result of autonomy and denial that is as old as Creation itself. The seething anger we see in our culture is the symptom of serving self, denying our own brokenness and defining good and evil based on our own opinions or feelings. It’s the same deception humankind has struggled with forever.

If claiming our own rights is the focus of our existence then the public discourse of a culture reflects that. Nothing makes a person angrier than attacking their god in public. And when my god is ME then watch out! There is a better way for us to live. Just sayin’…

There are some things that are always true. Not just true for me or true for you, but always true. Naturalism can explain how I think something is true in my little brain. Faith is the heart evidence of things you can’t see or measure or dissect.

There are some things that are and should remain very valuable to us but we are devaluing them as a culture. There is one thing so valuable that he is worth giving your very heart, soul, mind and strength. In fact, he demands that. I’ve never been sorry I discovered the “self-evident” truth author and built my life around that unchanging Truth. Life is different when you go from knowing how to exist to knowing why. I don’t have all the answers but I know I’m looking in the right place for them today.

Do you get it? The battle is not over a Republican or Democrat king or a certain issue or cause. It isn’t left versus right or whatever versus whatever. The battle is for the hearts of the people God loves. (That’s all of us) Where the hearts of the people go, the soul of a nation will follow.

There is a life that is bigger than your cause or your rights or your intellect. When your heart is restored by God’s grace, you can live from your heart with authentic freedom, not just political freedom. Give heart, soul, mind and strength to serve the only King worthy of that.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Mark