To Be or Not to Be

[written 9/8/05]

An article in The Washington Post, reprinted in today's Stars and Stripes, talks about the role of chaplains in the military, and focuses on Christian evangelical chaplains especially. The tone of the article seems to be, "Why can't those Christian chaplains just treat their role as a job like everybody else….why do they have to go interject their faith into everything? It's so very unpatriotic."

Welcome to yet another segment of the ongoing culture war here in America. The article went on to list a number of ways that Christians in the military are violating long established traditions and values, and subverting both our military and the nation. Christian chaplains at the Air Force Academy were criticized for encouraging Christian students to witness to their fellow classmates. Another "violation of decency" occurred during a funeral of a Christian sailor when the Navy Chaplain present mentioned, in passing, that those who do not accept Jesus are doomed for eternity. To add to their list of violations, Christian chaplains-in-training were also chastised for daring to pray in Jesus' name….of all the nerve! The article closes with the statement, "Could there possibly be a worse time for this fundamentalist Christianity to be pushed in our military, when we're in a war and the people we are fighting are recruiting their members by saying we're Christian crusaders?"

You see, it's fine to say you're a Christian. By and large, throughout history, it always has been (not to ignore the horror of those times when it has not). But you better not act like a Christian! The Christians hurled to the lions in the Coliseum were not murdered for saying that they were Christians. Christianity was a religion protected by the Roman Empire. The rub came when they failed to acknowledge the deity of Caesar. Hey, call yourself whatever you want, but you better be able to temporarily put aside your religious differences and worship Caesar when the time comes.

It wasn't for claiming to be Christians, that thousands upon thousands of Christians were tortured and murdered in Communist Russia. Article 124 of the Constitution of the USSR explicitly guaranteed all Russian citizens freedom of conscience. It was only when they began to act like Christians that men and women came into direct conflict with the Soviet state. It was not for being Christian, that men and women were slaughtered during the time of the Reformation. It was not for claiming to be Christian, that pastors were rounded up and murdered by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. Adolph Hitler himself stated publicly that "Christianity is the unshakable foundation of our people's ethical and moral law." And yet, any pastors who refused to pledge fealty to Hitler, who refused to endorse him in their sermons, were thrown out of their church and made to feel the terror of the Nazi regime.

It was not for claiming to be Christians that three Sunday School Teachers were sentenced to 3 years in jail earlier this week – their mistake was that they actually allowed children to come to the Sunday School. You can be a Sunday School teacher, just don't actually try to teach anyone. Sure, "be a Christian," just don't try to teach children at a Vocational Bible School in China right now. You can say you're a Christian all you want. You can write it on Christmas Cards, you can put Bible verse references under your name at the close of every letter you write. You can pray before meals, and even go to church (in China the government actually provides a church for you to go to---you can attend church right alongside some of the local Communist leaders). But it's not about looking like you're a Christian, it's about letting it affect how you live your life.

There have been times in history when merely claiming to be a Christian was indeed as good as a death sentence, but such cases are the exception rather than the rule. You can visit the Voice of the Martyrs Website any day of the week to see a list of a number of believers currently in prison for their faith. They aren't there because they registered as "Christian" in the latest census, or stamped "Christian" on their military I.D. Tags. They came into conflict with the government when they dared to act according to their faith.

It is not what you believe that separates you from the rest of the world, "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless ?" (James 2:19-20) It is not a faith in God that causes enmity between Christians and tyrants the world over. It is a faith in God that is immovable when push comes to shove; a faith that will not bow the knee on command; a faith that will not edit the graduation speech when ordered to do so; a faith that will not remove reference to the name of Jesus in a prayer; a faith that will not hold back from telling another person about the true condition of their soul. Daniel wasn't thrown to the lions for being a Christian. He was one of three rulers over the entire Kingdom of Babylon. The King planned to make him ruler over the entire kingdom. His position was secure. There was just one little thing that he had to do: not pray for a month. Actually, when you think about it, all he really had to do was close the window when he prayed. That's it! That's the one little thing that he was asked to do. Was it too great a request?

Daniel did not conform. To him, that one little thing was worth the lion's den. He was given the chance to keep himself in the clear with the Babylonian government, and he missed it! What of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego? They were rulers over the entire province of Babylon. Again, their position was secure. They were "in tight" with the powers that be, and they knew it! The request put before them was even easier than the one put before Daniel: The moment you hear the music, bow before the golden image. That's it! All they had to do was bow one little time, to one pagan, government-sanctioned, idol. To them, that one moment's disobedience was worth an excruciatingly painful and agonizing death in a furnace of fire.

Those that do not know God, simply don't get it. They assume that your faith is like everybody else's; important, but not that important when push comes to shove. A pseudo-form of Christianity is all many Americans know; a faith able to be turned off and on when circumstances require. After all, those that follow other religions can turn their faith on and off as needed, why should "evangelical Christians" be any different? You remember the speech by the man who came within a handful of votes of being our nation's current president? Do you remember when he was asked about abortion and responded, "personally I'm against it, but…"? That's the kind of Christianity that America has come to expect; a Christianity that can claim to be genuine without having any effect whatsoever on the way we live or the decisions we make. The communists in Russia, or in China, or in Vietnam, would have had no quarrel with such sentiments. (Perhaps that's why that candidate's picture was on display as a hero in a communist-run museum in Vietnam during the opening months of his campaign) Such Christians are "safe" in communist countries. But how important is it to be "safe?" How important is it to accommodate the voices of secular society that say, "this is a really bad time to be a Christian….we have enemies in Muslim countries that don't like Christians right now."

Martin Luther was put on trial, not for being a Christian, but for having the moral courage to follow through on what he learned from studying scripture. To him, the price was worth it. He went on to say, "If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved."

The question remains: To be or not to be? Which kind of Christian will you be today?