20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,
21 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
22 And on some have compassion, making a distinction;
23 but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
We are called to be a witness to the world, and to exercise spiritual discernment regarding what is taking place around us. We can make it a goal in the new year to be more spiritually-minded, a topic that Paul addresses in 1st Corinthians chapter 2:
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
13 These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The events in and around the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 were certainly disturbing and represented overzealous individuals and groups who, in their commitment to show emotional protest over the results of the 2020 election, overreacted and engaged in criminal behavior - lawlessness; those who have committed crimes should be granted due process and swiftly brought to justice.
But, you can condemn the lawless actions at the Capitol and be alarmed at the way that those events have been used to mischaracterize entire groups of people, including evangelical Christians. There are many evangelicals who have expressed alarm at the execution of the 2020 elections, and people can disagree about the validity of the results while still recognizing that Joe Biden is the President of the United States, praying for him, and holding him accountable.
But, January 6 should not be weaponized in order to divide Americans and to bludgeon political opponents. The overt drama that will be carried out today will certainly be reflective of partisan politics; it won't bring Americans together and won't bring us closer to the truth about what occurred that day.
Polling data seems to have some common threads, with results no doubt being driven by the media narrative. A summary by the Forbes magazine website offered these snapshots:
- A 32% plurality of respondents in a NPR/Ipsos poll conducted December 17-20 believe January 6 was an “attempted coup or insurrection,” while 28% say it was a riot that got out of control and 17% believe it was a conspiracy carried out by Trump’s political enemies.
- A 64% majority of poll respondents believe American democracy is “in crisis and at risk of failing,” while 70% believe the same about America itself.
- Approximately 60% of respondents in Post, Morning Consult and ABC News/Ipsos polls believe Trump bears at least some responsibility for the events on January 6—though the percentage in the Post poll who say he bears no responsibility went down from 28% to 24%.
In looking over data from a variety of surveys, it is clear that Americans are divided about so many different aspects of the events of January 6 and their significance.
So far, there have been 700 arrests regarding the breach of the Capitol, which is a relatively small number when you consider the multiple thousands that came to the nation's capital that day. That is not to minimize the destructive nature of what took place inside the building that day.
There are many unanswered questions about January 6, including its place in our history. Those that liken it to 9-11 or other violent events in our nation's history, I think are trafficking in hyperbole. And, one should not condemn the January 6 events without also condemning the violent protests and destruction of property that occurred in cities across America during the summer of 2020.
And, unfortunately, you have just over a quarter of Americans, in a Public Religion Research Institute survey, released in September, that believe that white evangelicals were at least partially to blame, according to ReligionNews.com.
I wrote in a Front Room commentary released on February 1 of last year these words:
...there are those who want to tie evangelical Christianity to the events of that day. Yes, there were a number of Christians who attended a rally the day before, including Brian Gibson of Peaceably Gather, who told me on The Meeting House that he preached the gospel to the crowd gathered and people came to Jesus. I would dare say that since Donald Trump gained a significant amount of Christian support in his two electoral runs, that believers were also part of the crowd that heard his speech on the Ellipse on January 6, and perhaps there were even Christians who were part of the events outside the Capitol that day - after all, it was a publicized event. But, what occurred inside was not a representation of the practice of Christianity or proper Christian involvement.
I used excerpts of a piece by Jamie Dean of WORLD Magazine, who had related some of the seemingly spiritual motivation of some of the Capitol protestors. I said that, "Law enforcement used Leo Kelly’s online interview in a statement of facts about the incident, and the FBI arrested him on charges that included knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building without lawful authority." Kelly said, 'God will judge us for what we did,' he said. 'I’m redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. There’s no judgment that stands against me—perhaps I did something wrong. ... What are Americans supposed to do?'”
Dean wrote:It wasn’t immediately clear whether the accused rioters using Christian language have roots in local churches, but the answer to Kelly’s question isn’t complicated: Praying for elected leaders is Biblical, and peaceful protests are lawful. But invading the seat of government as part of a spontaneous mob is antithetical to Scripture.
I went on to say:
This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Christian-led event or a demonstration or practice of Biblical Christianity, regardless of what Bill Maher says; Faithwire reported that on a recent episode of his HBO show, the talk show host and political commentator stated:
I also quoted from Laurie Higgins, who wrote a piece for the Illinois Policy Institute. She wrote about those who "...claim that the image of Christianity is now marred in the view of leftists, many of whom already hate Christianity and seek its eradication from public life. But is that true? Or are leftists cynically exploiting the indefensible acts of those who falsely claim to be Christ-followers?" I stated that:“As long as we’re going to go to the trouble of another impeachment trial,” he told his audience, “we might as well be honest about what it’s really about: the events of Jan. 6 were a faith-based initiative.”
Maher explained that — in his view — those who support former President Donald Trump are part of “a Christian nationalist movement” of people who believe the real estate mogul “was literally sent from heaven to save them.”
Laurie Higgins poses these questions, too: "Who is doing more damage to the church (small 'c'): the Capitol rioters or the heretical wolves in sheep’s clothing who have infiltrated every denomination and are corrupting doctrine and leading flocks astray...?" And, regarding the fascination that some have with this infiltration of QAnon into the Church, she suggests: "If crazy QAnon ideas have infiltrated churches as heretical views of sexuality have, they must be purged. In my experience, however, heretical views of sexuality are far more prevalent in churches than are QAnon ideas and far more dangerous."
This year, we have to be dedicated to the truth. And, certainly errant ideas are continuing to be put forth in social media; why, just in the last few days, you had a prominent former pastor who suggested that Christians ought not to used the word "should" regarding the practice of our faith, opting for the word, "can." That's a clear misuse of Scripture. You also had a pastoral staff member in a large evangelical church present the false notion on a video that people who struggle with or embrace transgenderism are similar to Jesus, who inhabited a body in which He didn't belong. Are you kidding me? We have to double down on the truth.
I also contend that we should can be dedicated to praying for our leaders. There is enough political rancor to go around, and we should rightly hold those who serve in leadership positions accountable for their actions. But, we should do so with firm conviction, but we also should be holding them up before the Father.
We also have to continue to be spiritually-minded. There are authors, commentators, speakers, politicians, and others that want to breed fear - we have marched for two years with a fear-based drumbeat regarding public health. On this anniversary date, there are opportunists who are stoking fears about the potential for political violence. We have to make sure that we are not held captive by fear nor driven by anger - don't become caught up in the trends of the day to the extent that you damage your witness.
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