Lesson 4: A Faustian Bargain?

As I write, the relationship between church and government is being maliciously manipulated. Popular public figures on both sides are using each other to get what they want. And, the deals being made threaten our souls. In order to understand how we got to this place, I find myself recalling what I have experienced during my lifetime.

When I entered the ministry in 1962, all of us were told to be very careful about supporting any particular candidate, party, or piece of legislation lest we have our tax exemption revoked. That was the standard observed by all church bodies, especially the new group of Evangelicals who claimed Christians were to focus on leading people to make a personal decision for Christ.

Roman Catholics and mainstream Protestants believed the separation standard enabled us to be the prophetic conscience of society. That included even very carefully using disobedience in the civil rights and anti-Viet Nam movements. Evangelical pastors refused to participate, chiding us for not staying out of politics.

Changes took place and alliances began to shift in the 1970s with the feminist movement. At first, there were balanced conversations and discussions about a variety of women’s issues. Then sharp divisions began to appear. Protestants were ordaining women. Roman Catholics refused. Evangelicals insisted on male supremacy in the family. These differences moved beyond church practice into politics when legislatures approved the right to certain forms of abortion and homosexual relationships.

Quite suddenly, Evangelicals changed their tune. Their radio and television celebrities were openly political. After conducting “I love America” rallies for three years, Jerry Falwell formed the Moral Majority in 1979, arguing that the moral decay in our society demanded political activism.

This group described this decay as taking prayer from the public schools, approving homosexual actions, promoting abortion on demand, and, significantly, supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, nuclear disarmament talks, and the mainstream press. They called for the return of family values that was defined as support of heterosexual nuclear families with two parents and children.

The Moral Majority openly supported Republicans. It only lasted ten years as an official organization, believing the election of Ronald Reagan achieved its purposes. However, its program was continued by the Evangelical megachurches that were growing rapidly.

Over the next 20 years, Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant churches were increasingly divided into two camps primarily in response to the political success of pro-choice and pro-LGBT advocates. Alliances again shifted. Some denominations divided.

In November 2009, high level Roman Catholic, Evangelical, and Eastern Orthodox individuals signed the Manhattan Declaration calling for Christians to unite in political action to preserve the dignity of human life and the common good. The statement focused on three concerns: laws that threatened the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly; the redefinition of marriage; and the freedom of religion. The first two are primarily designed to oppose abortion and homosexuality. The third is a new cause being heard much more these days.

Those claiming freedom of religion is being attacked argue that secular humanists have taken over the mainstream press and much of the government. This supposedly has led to laws that coerce people of faith to compromise their deepest convictions. Those signing the statement pledge civil disobedience by refusing to observe any laws that allow participation in “abortion, embryo-destruction research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any anti-life act or immoral sexual partnership.”

Wow! What a change! Pastors are still urged by some parishioners to stay out of politics. However, these days that usually means don’t criticize what is happening economically. Evangelicals along with conservative Roman Catholics and Protestants are openly engaging in political activity. Church bodies that condemn each other to hell in their theology unite politically to achieve political goals that boil down to opposing any kind of abortion and homosexuality. I regularly read conservatives maintaining Democrats and the mainstream media want to close all churches.

Perhaps the change is most apparent in recent photo ops. Poplular religious leaders are seen laying hands on the president. The president is seen raising a CHRISTIAN Bible. There is good reason to believe each side is using the other for their own advantage and power. And it makes sense to ask if this is not some kind of Faustian bargain that threatens the soul of both sides.

Tags: Christianity in the Pandemic, Separation of Church and State, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s “A Draft Social Message on Government and Civic Engagement: Discipleship in a Democracy”, The Manhattan Declaration, The Moral Majority, What We Have Learned from the Pandemic