I was enjoying a
pleasantly cool and overcast late summer afternoon. As I was scraping the side of an old
house back in the woods, the news came over the radio...
Ian Paisley is dead at 88.
These moments always hit me. It
will stay with me forever.
He was right about the Pope. He
is little more than an evil agent of the Antichrist.
Though unlike Paisley, I
wouldn't call the Pope 'the' Antichrist.
But as I grew and learned I
realized Paisley though right about Rome had got it all wrong. Paisley's gospel
was a gospel of power and the idolizing of a Protestant tradition that I don't
think he really understood.
He understood the sociological
implications. This was clear as he celebrated the 'progress' of Ulster, its
industry etc... over and against the 'backwardness' of the Irish Republic.
But reading his material over
the years and listening to his sermons his theological grasp was pretty poor.
He was man of action, not a man of deep thinking.
He was leader... but I'm not
sure his leadership qualities in any way benefited the Kingdom of Christ. In
truth he was little more than a political demagogue though at times a formidable
and dangerous one.
He viewed himself as a champion
of historic Protestantism and to Paisley the streets of Ulster were the front
line of the ongoing battle between Protestantism and the False Church of Rome.
In many ways he helped to
foster and perpetuate many Protestant myths and not a few of its flaws.
The man had blood his hands. He
and his followers try and deny it, but I don't think they can. He had ties to
militia groups and his sermons promoted violence. You don't have to verbalize
'go bash some heads' to get your message across.
He wrongly believed the Kingdom
of God could be built through the seizing of power, political alliance with
Great Britain and frankly through violence.
This is not to defend the IRA.
For a long time I've realized the only response is...
A plague on both of your
houses!
In terms of history the plague
goes back to Henry II, Henry VIII, Elizabeth and James I all of whom
erroneously thought they had a right to conquer and steal land that did not
belong to them.
The IRA has historical
justification... but the new IRA of 'The Troubles', the IRA post-1960's lost
its moral justification in the eyes of many.
The British started it all. You
can't deny that.
And of course the worst villain
of all... perhaps even worse than the IRA is Oliver Cromwell. I once admired
him and but venerated John Owen the chaplain who accompanied him on his Irish
campaign. It was mass murder and cannot be defended.
Of course how many Protestants
were killed during the 1641 uprising? Two thousand or Forty thousand (if you're
Paisley)... who knows?
Did it justify Cromwell's
response? That's the question for Paisley.
I think it's the wrong
question.
My own family history is
heavily tied to the Ulster Plantation. Several lines of family departed in the
18th century and made their way to the green fields of America...
happy to leave it all behind.
Of course then they proceeded
to do to Blacks and American Indians what the English had done to them and what
they had done to the Gaelic Irish.
Paisley was good friend with
Bob Jones University in Greenville South Carolina and one of his congregations
was established in that town. I attended there once and heard Alan Cairns
preach. That was enough for me.
Juvenile Legalistic Political Premillennarian
Presbyterianism? No thank you.
And since then I've met others
in Pennsylvania who attend one of his 'Free' congregations. As I said, it's a
unique blend of what can only be called Fundamentalist Presbyterianism. Only
the Bible Presbyterians resemble them in any way.
Mostly they come across as Bob
Jones-type Baptists.
Paisley influenced the American
Church and it certainly influenced him.
It's interesting how the Irish
Struggle played out in parallel across the Irish Sea in Southwestern Scotland
and on the East Coast of the United States. From Presbyterian Congregations to
the streets of Boston... the ghosts of Ireland haunt America.
To many people, Paisley was a
staunch warrior for the Kingdom. To others he was a buffoon. To others, a force
for evil and hate.
I guess I think of him as all
of these at once. When Falwell and Colson died I felt burdened and I did today
as well. Matthew 7 comes to mind. Perhaps he's in the Kingdom but I am
confident that if he is, he has now learned that almost all that he built was
hay and stubble for the burning. He's now learned that Great Britain isn't so
great after all and the heritage he celebrated was largely a lie. The glory of
Britain is actually a great source of shame.
Almost everything he laboured
for was ultimately a waste of time and energy and harmful to the Church and to
his fellow man.
Paisley is gone but he won't be
missed.
