Erick Erickson: A Quiet Existence

Last week, my writing focused on the “He Gets Us” campaign. It was too late to realize that I had mistakenly identified the Servant Foundation that funded this campaign. It wasn’t the Methodists in Oklahoma that had a connection to a church; it was a Kansas-based donor fund.

I was informed that the majority of the advertising campaign’s funding came from one family. Many denominations refused to help, even my own Presbyterian Church in America. However, the piece provoked a discussion about the future for Christians in a country that is seemingly falling apart.

Jeremiah 29’s warning to exiled Jews in Babylon to seek welfare in their community has been a constant reminder to me. There they will find their welfare. A few wealthy conservatives have provided funding for private schools that are open to children from poor schools. These schools could harness the brains of those who have been drilled into failing public schools. A multimillion-dollar campaign to provide scholarships for students in classical Christian education schools seems like a better resource than a nonpersuasive, quasi woke ad campaign.

Even more important, there is an increasing number of American Christian who want the government to help advance Christian values. Although I support that idea, I feel that Christians should be elected to power and use their moral principles to shape public policy and vote. This is the way the country has worked since its inception. People win elections and use their positions for causes they believe in.

There is an authoritarian strain of this on right that is subtler. These Christians love to flirt with powerful men in Europe and Asia. Their plans and policies are based on winning elections and working to prevent them from happening again. American Christians must resist this. This is what the political Left is doing. They are trying to make America Christian all-Christian, and some online Christians are even embracing these labels. “Christian nationalist” This makes it easier to discredit the entire project for Christian liberty in America.

The phrase is used when a part of the intellectual Christian Right praises President Xi Jinping (China) for his social programs and embraces Russian and Hungarian leaders. “Christian nationalist,” A Left in America that despises all of Orthodox Christendom and a press that does not know the difference between Baptists, Presbyterians, and is intellectually uncurious have no incentive to nuance with any other visions of Christendom in the United States.

American Christendom at local level is American Christendom at it’s best. The Church’s best uses are in America when it is able to feed the hungry, provide for widows and orphans, educate our future generation, and share the gospel with those who are hungry for answers.

Paul encourages Christians to live a quiet and peaceful life several times in the New Testament. American Christians have enjoyed the security of a society that has largely agreed with them for a long period. These days are ending and old hostilities towards Christians are creeping back into national dialogue. According to a YouGov religion survey, Democrats favor atheists and agnostics over Catholics or Protestant Christians. In particular, Democrats are more open to Wiccans that Orthodox Jews, Lutherans and Southern Baptists.

The Roman Empire did not believe that the early Christian church understood Jesus. Its members did not stand in the streets to claim their rights to be heard. Americans enjoy these luxuries. However, they should not forget that the early Christians put their communities first and looked after the weak and the powerless. They transformed an Empire with love, not commercial appeal.

Erick Erickson is a creator and you can read more about him and other Creators Syndicate writers or cartoonists at the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.