Photo by Melanie Wasser on Unsplash
Last week the president of the U.S. suggested that Christians needed him to ‘guard their religion’. Raising the spectre of ‘left-wing’ alternatives, he presented himself as the only leader they could trust to defend them.
I’m not particularly interested in whether he’s right or wrong about any of that. My heart aches, though, for those who believe that their religion needs to be guarded. (I mean that sincerely, not in a barely-veiled, Mr. T, ‘pity the fool’ kind of way.)
There are people who believe their religion needs protecting (maybe you’re one?); these people are not idiots. They are reacting exactly as anyone else would when feeling threatened. If you look at the political and cultural landscape, the threat is not imaginary - there is a culture war happening. If you are one of those people feeling overwhelmed, I am sorry for the constant attack you must feel.
There is good news, though - dare I even say, Good News? Whether you lean to the left or to the right, you don’t have to fight those fights. If you, like me, identify as a Christian, the very heart of the good news gives us hope, joy, and an imagination for something better than any government can bring about or prevent.
Our faith does not need to be defended. As I write this, Christmas Eve is mere hours away. A baby in a manger in a backwoods province of the great Roman Empire; that is how an all-powerful God chose to enter the world.
In that time, Roman Emperors called themselves ‘Son of God’ and proclaimed the ‘Good News’ of their own reign. In that time, the people of God were subject to cruel rulers and an oppressive occupying force. And God saw fit to face that as a helpless child born to a family without wealth or status.
The Good News allowed the early Christians to face down an empire - and the empire blinked first. The Good News allowed these people to face the sword or the arena with peace and joy, believing with every atom of their being that no human could take away the life that God had given.
The Good News tells us today, as it told us then, that God’s people need no earthly rulers to defend their faith. Rather, the subversive, enemy-forgiving, fear-driving-out perfect love of this faith was something rulers needed desperately to be defended from themselves.
If people cannot be made to fear, they cannot be made to serve. If they cannot be made to serve, then those who would rule have lost their authority. And so, from that time, rulers have sought to restore fear to the people of God.
I recognise the pain people feel as they see their culture changing and shifting, perhaps from one they felt supported their faith and practises to one which scoffs at them. I also recognise the pain of those who see their brothers and sisters respond to this pain by embracing values which wound them deeply; I feel that pain myself.
At times like this, I wonder if we have forgotten that Good News is literally good news. That we need not be caught up in the endless cycle of action and reaction; that we are people of hope and not fear.
If the only religion you recognise, in yourself or in others, is one of fear, this Christmas I offer you Good News. There is hope. There is joy. There is beauty beyond anything we could have imagined. We don’t need to defend it and we don’t need to guard it; we need only drop everything and pursue it.