What Have Nukes Got To Do
With The Gospel?
By
Jan Markell
December 6,
2011
What is an evangelical? I believe
the definition has morphed a bit over some decades now.
Evangelicals stress a born-again experience, have a high
regard for biblical authority, and stress the sharing of
the gospel of Jesus Christ. When I finally became
"churched" at age 14, it was in a Bible-believing,
fundamental church that was committed to the gospel, to
missions, to Bible memorization, and to the abstinence
from some worldly pleasures. Several decades later, I
remain an evangelical but I fear that evangelicalism may
have left the train station without me.
Right from the get-go I knew I was
not a part of the "social justice" agenda. I did not look
down on those folks; I just knew that we looked at
biblical issues differently and even looked at the Bible
with different glasses. To me, poverty, climate-change, war,
immigration, and women's rights were not evangelical
issues.
Or were they? The times began
a-changin' in the 1970s and by the 1980s, some were
concerned that evangelicalism could get hijacked. By the
1990s, the term was being redefined. And in the last ten
years, I fear some of the founders of the National
Association of Evangelicals (NAE) who first
met in 1942 to counter the liberal Federal Council of
Churches of Christ (which would become the National
Council of Churches) were pretty grieved! The 21st
century brought a shift to the Left. Let me clarify.
In 2006, evangelicals jumped on the
global warming bandwagon. The Evangelical
Climate Initiative was formed. Eighty-six
evangelical Christian leaders decided to back a major
initiative to fight global warming, saying, "Millions of
people could die in this century because of climate
change, most of them our poorest global neighbors." Many in the
evangelical community still see climate-change as junk
science and see it getting our eyes off of the prize;
that is, sharing the gospel while there is still time.
In 2010 and 2011, immigration
became the new evangelical cause. Okay, what had I
missed? How had this slipped in under the radar screen and
become headline news to Bill Hybels, Richard Land, Matthew
Staver, leaders at the National Association of
Evangelicals, and others? Wasn't this owned by the
religious Left? Or maybe the Right had just moved Left. I was starting to
connect the dots.
Then came the "Circle of
Protection" in the spring and summer of 2011. This
was a push from both evangelicals and Leftists to see that
Congress not cut the federal budget for the poor. The
National Association of Evangelicals and religious
Left icon Jim Wallis yoked together and suddenly the "What Would
Jesus Cut?" effort appeared in headlines. Hundreds
of outfits -- mainly left-of-center -- signed on.
But on November 8 the stunner came
along and had millions scratching our heads. This time the
founders of the NAE from back in 1942 just had
to feel betrayed! The National Association of
Evangelicals came out calling for
nuclear disarmament. I can't make stuff like this
up! I wish it had happened on April 1 and it was a joke. Say
it ain't so! Their position statement falls just
short of urging total nuclear disarmament while
surmising that reliance on nukes might be idolatrous.
Was this position acceptable to all of the 45,000 local
churches who make up the NAE? Does this statement (and the
other issues I've raised) represent them? None of
these edicts represent me!
Here's the answer to that question.
Religious Left watch-dog Mark Tooley
writes, "Although most of the NAE's about 100 board
members likely remain conservatives, few have openly
dissented from the NAE's recent stances on the
environment, enhanced interrogation, immigration, budget
policy, and nukes."
This isn't your grandma's evangelicalism.
Change happened incrementally but what I've always
believed had left the building!
In October, NAE officials met with President Obama.
They released a statement saying, "A growing body of
Christian thought calls into question the acceptability of
nuclear weapons as part of a just national defense, given
that the just war theory categorically admonished against
indiscriminate violence and requires proportionality and
limited collateral damage. Scripture shows that national
military might too often takes the place of trust in God."
I am having trouble connecting the scriptural dots here.
NAE board member Joel Hunter
stated, "We are looking to the Lord for security.
Stockpiling weapons for our security may be a form of
idolatry." Other NAE spokesmen talked about loving our
enemies. Are they delusional that Iran and North Korea
want to love America?
We have a fallen world! A world
without violence would be welcomed, yes, but on this
sin-stained planet it won't happen until much later. We
have to address such issues realistically and not
idealistically. The
enemies of freedom are rogue regimes that won't disarm
just because America does.
Eric Barger of Take a
Stand! Ministries says in conjunction with my
report, "Methodists, Presbyterians,
Anglican/Episcopalians, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ,
and many other churches and groups had been the
'evangelicals' of their day 80-150 years ago,
until liberals gained control. Gradually, Bible schools
and seminaries filled with unscrupulous -- and unsaved --
individuals, denigrated the Scriptures, mocked the
supernatural, and attempted to instill doubt and not faith
in all who dared enter their classrooms. The creeds, which
the Apostles and countless believers throughout the church
age had given their lives for, were unceremoniously
ridiculed.
"As the Bible was denounced, denial became the norm and
heresy replaced truth as liberalism appealed to the flesh
and corrupted all who embraced it. Within a relatively
short period of time ideals, science, and human reasoning
systematically replaced the Bible and began to poison the
minds of future ministers, teachers, and countless lay
people. All of this took place but not without a
formidable fight."
Is
anyone fighting today? All I see is capitulation.
Once again, we see a vain "fix the
earth" mentality. The wrongs of this world cannot be made
right until Christ's return. Since that just might be
soon, could we please go back to the fundamentals of
soul-winning, the calling card of evangelicals for
decades? We can't fix anything on this planet
because the devil is in charge right now. One of the
things our government is assigned to do, and rightly so,
is to protect its citizens. One of the things evangelicals
are to do is to share the gospel. Nuclear disarmament is
not a church issue. Somebody do a reality check.
Liberal theologians, even if they
call themselves "evangelicals," don't speak for me nor do
they represent me