ADVENT 11 (Boat): Navigating Stormy Waters

The association of a boat with the ministry of Jesus can actually remind us of several aspects of His life and teaching.  A boat is today's symbol in our 25-day Christmas Advent-ure from Faith Radio. For instance, Jesus chose some of His disciples from the ranks of fishermen, and invited some of them to follow Him and He would make them "fishers of men." Today's verses, from Matthew 8:23 and 26, say: “Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him…He said to them, ‘Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?’ Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

Here on Day 11 in our Advent Guide, we can think about our own spiritual journey and, while we would like to have smooth sailing, that certainly is not the case for the child of God. There will be trials, there will be pressures, but through them, we can know that God walks with us and that He is doing His inner work through them.

Religious faith can certainly aid people in acts of service, but in cases we have seen throughout the years, the faith of nominees to office has been questioned and chided.  Russell Vought, in his original hearing for a high-ranking position in the Office of Management and Budget, as well as Amy Coney Barrett, in her hearings for the U.S. Supreme Court, were questioned regarding their Christian faith. 

The U.S. Constitution says, “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”  Will Russell Vought, who has been nominated to be OMB Director, face similar religious harassment?

Will the nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, face religious discrimination?  Consider these three headlines from Google News from this past weekend, which one could say indicates that the secular media is working in tandem to oppose this nomination:

From Politico, there's "Pete Hegseth’s Crusade to Turn the Military into a Christian Weapon." New York Magazine's article had the headline, "Pete Hegseth’s Christian Nationalism Is Fair Game for Confirmation Hearings."  And, The New York Times ran an article with the headline: "Pete Hegseth and His ‘Battle Cry’ for a New Christian Crusade."

The media wants to not only paint Hegseth as a morally bankrupt individual who is unfit to serve, but a Christian who is unfit to serve.  The implications of this are enormous and if lawmakers take the bait, they are doing a dangerous constitutional dance. 

Can you say coordinated?  It's been charged - and I believe with good evidence - that the so-called "mainstream media" and leftist politicians have worked together to determine what is and what isn't acceptable in our nation.  And, a Christian who speaks out about and lives his or her faith is certainly regarded as a threat. 

The Politico article opens with a reference to an interview Hegseth did with popular podcaster Shawn Ryan.  It says:

Early in the interview, Hegseth reads aloud the dramatic tagline on the back cover of his new book, The War on Warriors: “I joined the Army to fight extremists in 2001. Twenty years later, that same Army labeled me one.” Later, Hegseth flashes his right pectoral muscle, and the tattoo that, he says, led to the label: a large, inky Jerusalem cross associated with the Christian right.

He also had another tattoo that apparently was used during the Crusades.  His orders to guard President Biden's inauguration were withdrawn.

Politico fears that Hegseth will bring His Christian faith to work, stating:

Based on numerous public statements and writings, it’s likely he will aim to undermine the military’s long-standing nonpartisan pluralism by scrubbing diversity from the ranks, banning women in combat, urging the military to choose sides in a “civil war” against “domestic enemies” on the left, and orienting the military’s mission around his fixation on the Muslim world, which he feels represents an existential threat to Western civilization.

So, if they can't get him for moral failings, some documented, some rumored, there are those who will attempt to paint him as some sort of Christian nationalist zealot.  The article says:

Since his 2021 resignation from the military, Hegseth has increasingly turned to his other tribe, Christianity. Two years ago, he moved his family from New Jersey to Tennessee, where Hegseth joined a school and church associated with reformed reconstructionism, an ideology helmed by the far-right theologian Doug Wilson.

Wilson is certainly a lightning rod and has some views that have been challenged by others in Christianity, including his desire to integrate Christian principles into governement; of course, making him a Christian nationalist. But, is the association disqualifying for Hegseth?  And, who gets to decide?  People that don't have training in theology who carry their own religious biases?

But, certainly Hegseth has been outspoken about his devotion to God.  The Politico article notes:

In a recent appearance on the “Reformation Red Pill Podcast,” Hegseth explained that a factor in his faith journey was the “wreckage of my own life,” a veiled reference, perhaps, to his multiple marriages and infidelity, which, he has written, risked “family breakdown.”

The article goes on to say: 

In his recent interview with Nashville Christian Family magazine, Hegseth acknowledged that, for a long time, “I had a Christian veneer but a secular core,” adding “many people miss Jesus by 12 inches — the distance from their head to their heart.”

On the Red Pill podcast, Hegseth said another factor was his realization that both politics and culture were downstream from religion, and that he should “start at the source.” He’s taken his own directive literally, making a series of trips in recent years to Israel, which exposed him to another pitched Middle East conflict that he views in sacred terms. It was on one of these trips, Hegseth writes, where he first spotted the Jerusalem Cross and later tattooed it on his chest “to show that my religion is front and center in my life.”

But, the article stokes fear of, well, extremism, which seems to be a popular theme in government circles over the past few years, in which people of faith have been regarded as somehow dangerous.  The article says:

Hegseth’s belligerent anti-government views, wrapped in religious crusade rhetoric, also threaten to worsen a problem of extremism in the military; according to a 2023 study by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, people with military backgrounds are now “2.41 times more likely to be classified as mass casualty offenders than individuals who did not serve in the armed forces.”

So, it seems that the coordinated campaign against Pete Hegseth wants to have it both ways - they point to questionable moral behavior in the past.  And, Biblically speaking, I think that can be a dealbreaker for Christians who desire for their government servants to exhibit a sense of morality and decorum. But, those who chided Hegseth for his moral failings and his religious fervor seem to be ignoring that fact that His devotion to Christ actually may be a contributing factor to his cleaning up these areas where there are doubts.  But, if a person is not spiritually-minded, he or she may not acknowledge the power of redemption, preferring to see religious fervor as a threat rather than a triumph over evil.

Jesus called imperfect fishermen to be His disciples; today's imagery of a boat related to Jesus can remind us that He will use those who are surrendered to Him.  That imagery also directs us to the difficulties we may face in life, including opposition because of our faith and a variety of trials which can strengthen our faith.  Jesus slept in the boat while the storms buffeted it.  The disciples didn't exhibit the calm that our Lord did - not that He was unconcerned; no, He was unfazed, solid in the face of turbulence.  That's the character of a Christian - our travels with Jesus will not always be routine, but we can know His presence wherever He leads us.