The Silence of the Church

Doug Newman has a post up today that's well worth reading. An excerpt:

When will we ever hear a sermon condemning America’s policy of perpetual war? America now reserves the right to wage war wherever and against whomever it wants. While the Bible talks about war, it does not condone all war. There is nothing godly about invading a nation that has never done anything to you and killing tens of thousands of innocent people. God hates hands that shed innocent blood. There was very widespread support in the CAC [Bartleby's note: Contemporary American Church] for the totally unprovoked invasion of Iraq. There is now similar support for war against Iran and Syria. You reap what you sow and if you live by the sword you die by the sword. Hundreds of millions of Muslims hate America not because we are free and pure and good, but because we insist on endless military and political meddling in the Arab world. Either America stops this nonsense of perpetual war or it is only a matter of time before somebody “pre-empts” us. God forbid that they do it with a suitcase nuke in Times Square.

And when will we ever hear a sermon condemning the cult of personality surrounding George W. Bush? When, in 2000, he said one thing about Jesus and millions and millions of otherwise intelligent people disengaged their brains. George W. Bush is a tyrant (he acknowledges no limits on federal police power), a socialist (his budgets run 40 percent larger than his predecessor’s) and a reckless warmonger. He is not pro-life and he does not oppose the homosexual agenda. He says he is fighting a war on terror, and yet the Mexican border resembles a screen door on a submarine, a company from the United Arab Emirates is about to take over several of America's major ports and mainstream news sources tell us that terrorists are actively training in upstate New York. We have it on good authority that he has referred to the Constitution as “a g**d***** piece of paper.” The only difference between him and any Democrat is one of rhetoric. And yet millions of Christians are in total denial refusing to inspect the fruit on Dubya’s tree. Many would rather die than read this paragraph.

He makes a good point: the church isn't supposed to devote itself to politics -- much less to a particular brand of politics -- but is supposed to be devoted to truth, and should pursue truth across all boundaries, including those of political controversy. Any church that isn't frequently offending both the so-called "left" and the so-called "right" is not being faithful to its Master.