By the Waters of Babylon—I Cry and Sing!

“The two great words of Christian history,” wrote Elton Trueblood, are evangelical and catholic.  It is a serious mistake to use them,  he wrote, to refer to parties or denominations.  “The terms must never be permitted to become the monopoly or private possession of a single group, for each word is too big for that!  The reason why every genuine Christian is catholic is that Christ’s call is universal. We are called to be the salt, not merely of a little group, but of the whole earth.  In the same way every genuine Christian is evangelical, because a Christian is one who answers affirmatively the call, ‘Come to me all ye who labor and are heavy laden’ (Matthew 11:28).”

It is reported that 81% of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.  Like Benjamin Netanyahu, these alleged evangelical Christians compared Trump to the ancient Persian leader, Cyrus.  Netanyahu said this when Trump announced that the US embassy in Israel would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  But the evangelical Christians were saying it long before.  They argued then, and argue still, that just as Cyrus, who was not a believer, served as God’s agent, so Mr. Trump can advance the causes of their evangelical community and thus America.  A recent post on my Facebook Timeline lauded Trump for his tweet last month: “Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible.  Starting to make a turn back?  Great!”  The author of the post suggested, as many alleged evangelical Christians do, that “This is the man that God ordained for America. This is the man that’s going to make America Christian again!”

I am a Christian.  I am evangelical and I am catholic and I am white.  But I did not vote for Donald Trump.  Tony Campolo has said, “If I describe myself as evangelical, the red flags go up.  People immediately assume I’m anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-environmentalist, anti-immigrant, pro-gun—all these things I am not.”  Ditto! Neither am I any of these things. For these attitudes and positions are anathema to the what I understand to be the Gospel.  

It is written in Psalm 137 that the captive Hebrew people forced to live in Babylon, far away from their Zion (homeland) cried:  “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.”  Another version reads: “Beside the rivers of Babylon we thought about Jerusalem, and we sat down and cried.” So too, in this new and strange land, this Babylon of Trump and of alleged evangelical Christians, I sit and weep.  But, unlike those captives of old, I refuse to hang my harp upon the branches of the willows.  The Hebrew captives could not sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.  I will continue to sing the evangelical and catholic song of the Gospel.  (See Psalm 137).