The Christ-Rejecting Ethic at the Heart of American Evangelicalism

While reading an article concerning the latest shake-up associated with Liberty University I was struck by this statement concerning their politically motivated think-tank, The Falkirk Center.

The Falkirk Center spearheaded an aggressive, no-holds-bared approach to the culture war.

“Bemoaning the rise of leftism is no longer enough,” its website read. “Although we do, as Jesus taught, turn the other cheek in our personal relationships, we cannot abdicate our responsibilities on the cultural battlefield. There is too much at stake in the clash for the soul of our nation. Bold, unapologetic engagement and initiative is needed on the part of every conservative American.”

This only further exemplifies a point I've been trying to make for many years. In the realm of ethics (which includes economics) the Evangelical movement as a whole (and the broader category of Christian Sacralism) rejects the teachings of Christ and in many cases does so knowingly.

They give the reason openly – There's too much at stake. In other words you cannot follow Christ's ethic in all areas of life. The claims of the Gospel and Kingdom are not universal. They only apply to a narrow sphere of personal life and ethics.

And they call us 'Sunday Only Christians'.

God is not mocked.

It can also be argued as to whether or not they even approach this ethic in their personal lives with their embrace of cultural attitudes about money, the courts, politics, guns, and so forth.

But this statement is an open declaration, a call for Christians to reject the ethic taught by Christ. Why? Because if you're engaged in the sacralist-Constantinian project to 'Christianise' culture (itself a heretical redefinition of the term Christian) then the answer is simple – the ethics of the New Testament don't work. If they're followed, the Church will not be able to capture or hold cultural and political institutions. Christians will be second-class citizens, not leaders or those able to capture the reins of power. They will be forced to live as strangers and pilgrims, foreigners in the lands of their birth and ancestry. The New Testament norm is something the Evangelical movement will not stand for. The very suggestion of it makes them rend their clothes and gnash their teeth or worse – pick up their guns.

The problem is deeper. Power is always wed to money. They go together and that's why Christ's Sermon on the Mount-ethic results in a simple but profound statement – you cannot serve God and Mammon. There's no negotiating this point. They are two different religions – one rooted in the Kingdom of Heaven, the other a functional Materialism. And they produce two very different types of ethics. The American Evangelical movement is Exhibit A – this principle being worked out in all its catastrophic implications.

As we watch Evangelical leaders fall into scandal we should not be surprised. They have given themselves to mammon and mammonism and it plays out in their lives. They have not heeded the warnings concerning the deceitfulness of riches and how such cares (political, social, and economic) choke one's faith and make it unfruitful. The Falkirk Center is just one of many such organisations that have fallen into functional apostasy and have given themselves to the goals of the harlot-beast synthesis depicted in Revelation. They very thing they seek – the Church wed to cultural and political power, is the very thing we're warned against. It's tragic but dangerous. They are to be condemned and yet also pitied. They are Matthew 7 False Christians, deceived, thinking they serve Christ and do wonderful works in His name and yet all they declare and all they are, reveal the painful truth – they do not know Him. The blood of millions both physically and spiritually is on their heads.