Rudy Barnes, Jr.
There have been several gospels since the original gospel of Jesus was proclaimed in 1st century Palestine. Gospel means good news, and the original one can be found in the New Testament accounts of Mark, Matthew and Luke. John’s fourth gospel is unique. It’s more a mystical gospel of the Logos, or the Word of God, than it is of the life and teachings of Jesus.
Jesus was a maverick Jewish rabbi whose gospel of love over law is summed up in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors, including those of other races and religions, as we love ourselves. It’s a common word of faith for Jews, Christians and Muslims today, but it offended ancient Jewish leaders who taught that Mosaic Law was God’s holy law.
Jewish religious leaders conspired with the Romans to crucify Jesus, and he would have died an obscure sage had it not been for the Resurrection. Paul’s atonement doctrine made the crucifixion the heart of the the gospel of the church as God’s blood sacrifice of his only Son, and Paul asserted that belief in the divinity of Jesus was the only way to salvation and eternal life.
It could be said that the gospel of the church is the gospel of Paul, since Paul’s letters get more pulpit time than the teachings of Jesus. Jesus taught his disciples to follow him, not to worship him, but Paul’s letters laid the foundation for exclusivist church doctrines that have taken precedence over the moral teachings of Jesus for more than 2,000 years.
The third gospel of worldly power, or empire, was born in the 4th century, when Emperor Constantine co-opted the Christian religion to sanctify the Roman Empire. From then on the church sought worldly power, conducting Crusades and Inquisitions and promoting the divine right to rule. Other worldly powers, including Great Britain, followed Constantine’s precedent.
In the 16th century Martin Luther’s Reformation doctrine of sola fide (faith alone) further denigrated moral works in the gospel of the church. That made it easier for Protestants to ignore the moral teachings of Jesus and support the unholy mix of faith and political violence that racked Europe with 100 years of “Christian” wars until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.
But the moral teachings of Jesus were not completely lost to Christianity. In the 19th century evangelicals opposed slavery in America, but then in the 20th century they promoted an American gospel of power with the same white supremacists who they had earlier opposed. And in the 1980s, Jerry Falwell made the Moral Majority a potent political force for Republicans.
Today Jerry Falwell, Jr. is the heir to his father’s religious regime at Liberty University. He and his evangelical cohorts elected Trump as president in 2016 and have since supported the gospel of Trump as the American gospel. Trump’s evangelical supporters consider him chosen by God, even though he personifies evil in the gospel of Jesus (see Mark 7:20-23).
Trump’s evangelical supporters have sacrificed Jesus on the altar of partisan politics--a politics based more on race than religion. Most blacks vote Democratic and most whites vote Republican. Jesus taught that God’s will is to reconcile and redeem humanity, while Satan’s will is to divide and conquer. But Satan has done a convincing imitation of God in the church and in politics, and his false gospels are now more popular that the gospel of Jesus.
Christianity has an identity crisis with its competing gospels. That’s dangerous to American democracy. But since Christians represent over 70% of Americans, they can restore the moral imperatives taught by Jesus to their faith and politics. They can save both Christianity and democracy from demise by promoting the common good with a politics of reconciliation.
Notes:
Elizabeth Bruenig has described the theology of Jerry Falwell, Jr. that led him to find his MAGA religion: “Falwell claimed, among other things, that Christianity offers no guidance on how states ought to operate (“Jesus never told Caesar how to run Rome,” Falwell says); that only theocrats believe Christians ought to govern according to Christian principles; that poor people are less spiritually capable than rich people; and that God has ordained “two kingdoms” for humankind, one of which is bound only by the rules of national self-interest, and one of which...is bound by the law of God. ...Falwell’s entire view of Christianity and politics...stems from a mistaken reading of Augustine, the fourth-century African saint who wrote “The City of God,” a massive treatise on history, philosophy and the Christian religion. In “The City of God,” Augustine develops a theory of two cities: ...According to this theory, there is little that isn’t permissible here in the earthly city, at least when it comes to the worldly affairs of politics and public life.”
Bruenig concludes, “It’s important to distinguish between abdicating Christian values to get ahead in business and politics, and the erroneous view that God sanctions some amount of immorality as natural or appropriate to life on Earth. There is no zone in Christian theology where malignant selfishness is permitted. The heavenly city is here right now, if you want to dwell there. See https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/02/how-jerry-falwell-jr-found-his-maga-religion/?utm_term=.1568f745a0d5&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1. For more on the evangelicals’ infallible new faith: the gospel of Trump, see Christine Emba’s commentary at
Michael Gerson is a traditional evangelical deeply offended by evangelicals like Jerry Falwell, Jr., who continue to support Donald Trump and corrupt Christian morality and politics. Gerson has noted that, “By all indications, the reluctant support by white evangelical Christians for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in 2016 has solidified into something like devotion. When asked recently if there was anything — anything at all — that Trump could do to forfeit evangelical allegiance, Jerry Falwell Jr. replied: “No.”
For Abraham Lincoln’s house divided speech, see http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/house.htm.
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