home Social Issues Being the Church in the Trump Years (Part 2)

Being the Church in the Trump Years (Part 2)

From Brian McLaren at OnFaith

People who survive cancer often call it a gift. It comes as a great disruption and forces a kind of personal reckoning. Something similar could be said about the election of Donald Trump for churches in America.

As we saw in Part 1, the default mode for most churches is to cooperate with the political and economic powers that be. It is only when a great disruption occurs that churches realize that the “go along/get along” strategy doesn’t square with Jesus’ words about the impossibility of serving two masters, whether God and Money, God and Country, God and Party, God and Race, or God and Violence.

A great disruption such as the one being provided by Donald Trump and his supporters are motivating surprising numbers of Christians to look for the next exit ramp from the Highway of Cooperation, seeking instead the Path of Spiritual Activism.

Activism means that we must not only resist evil but overcome it with good. And Spiritual means we must dig deep beneath our political, economic and social controversies and grapple with the deep questions of life: who we are, why we’re here, what is good and beautiful and true, where we want to go, and how we plan to get there.

When Christian communities put their feet on the path of spiritual activism, they experience a conversion: from a quiet chaplaincy of the status quo to a dynamic “school of revolutionary love” — a formative space where people of all ages can learn the values, skills and practices of working for the common good. Take this path and you’ll shelve all repetitive religious busy-work and instead you’ll start aligning every sermon, prayer, Bible study, meeting and song to build joyful resilience during oppressive times. The more the untruth, demagoguery, and hostility, the more you’ll be energized to overcome evil with good.

What might that look like? Continue reading.