Factions and Party Spirit

 My father was once invited to join an anti-communist association. He refused. He was certainly not sympathetic to Communism, but he did not want to base his life on a negative, to be focused on what he was against.

The people who invited my father were refugees from Russian oppression in post-war Hungary, so their anti-communist preoccupation was easy to understand.

Many Christian women are struggling to get free of oppressive religious patriarchy. That is necessary and good.

But it is important to focus on God Himself. One famous preacher said: “Jesus is perfect theology.” Jesus was the great liberator of men and especially also women.

I am currently reading an excellent book by Dan Kimball. “How Not to Read the Bible.”
In spite of the negative word NOT, he focuses on how God is positive towards women.

A lot of the ideas are familiar to moderate Christian feminists or egalitarians, but he approaches gender issues from a different point of view.

He is not addressing evangelicals wrestling with patriarchy. He is appealing more to people who may be rejecting the bible and God himself because of the way God seems to be endorsing oppressive patriarchy. 

He is showing readers how to understand the Bible in historical context.

When Joshua was leading the Hebrews into the Promised Land, he had a visitation from God, the Commander of the Army of the Lord.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Jos 5:13–15 NIV

The heavenly commander must have been Jesus, because Joshua worshipped him. Angels do not allow you to worship them.

God had told Joshua to kill all the idol worshippers in the Promised Land, but one of them was Rahab, a prostitute who repented and helped the Hebrews. She married a Hebrew leader and became an ancestor of Jesus.

It is easy to become so committed to a political party, or a Christian cause, that we assume Jesus is a member of our party. Jesus also loves your adversaries. Your theological or political opponents may not be entirely in the wrong in every way.

Today, we see Christians divided between Conservative and Progressive factions. So many of us define ourselves by what we are against. There are rights and wrongs on both sides.

Billy Graham was mostly conservative, although he insisted that black and white Christians should not be segregated in his meetings. He also ministered to US presidents on both sides of politics.

Martin Luther King Jr was opposed by many conservative Christians because his civil rights cause was considered to be rebellion against divine order.