Evangelicals, the President and Mulligans

Bankrupt. Any insolvent debtor; one unable to satisfy any just claims made upon him or her; at the end of one's resources, lacking; utter ruin.

My first memory of Church was the brick building with the tall white columns. It set across from the school--and it was two blocks down from the mill where both my parents worked. But on Sundays we would don our finery and off to church we would go. Some of the happiest memories I have are those early years were walking through the columns, into the church foyer and finally the Sanctuary. I thought it was the prettiest church I had ever seen. 

Back of the Sanctuary were our Sunday school rooms. And year after year teachers would stand up and hold forth on what Jesus said, what Jesus would do, what the Bible said about just about everything. It was during the war years and soldiers from Fort Benning would come to our church and some to our homes after church. I never heard a sermon about politics in that church that I can remember.  

Of course our congregation was lily white like the rest of Georgia. And nobody ever thought anything about it. We never even asked about where the black woman that worked so hard in our house went to church. We never wondered where Shine, the man who shined our shoes and even brought them to our door--would be welcomed into our church.  No preacher ever said anything about the pay-day loan companies that fleeced my father.

But what there was no doubt about was that the Bible was true. We sang: "The B-I- B-L-E...Yes that's the book for me...I stand alone on the word of God--the B-I-B-L-E." We believed in those Ten Commandments. We believed what Jesus said. Even the turning the other cheeks part and walking the second mile. Of course our admonitions were selective--like ignoring Jesus' relationship to every woman he met. We never got what it meant--that John 3.16 passage: God so loved the world--not just Georgia or the USA. We never realized that the good Samaritan did not look like us. 

We went to camps in the summertime and Vacation Bible Schools and the centerpiece of it all was the Holy Bible. The Gideons gave out little tiny testaments to us in the school room. Of course we never read them but we put them in a drawer to keep the tiny books safe. But we did believe what the Preacher and all those Sunday School teachers said. Often reluctantly. And if the church's pronouncements were not enough our parents punctuated all those things when we got home. 

It was a world far simpler than ours today. But the lynchpin of our lives were those values that we were told you better live by. Things like the Golden Rule and John 3.16 and the Lord's Prayer. In some ways it was a harsh time. You couldn't serve as a Deacon if you had been divorced. And if you were a Preacher--well, forget it. The Bible said: Thou shalt not commit adultery and you shall not lie. And you better not bear false witness against your neighbor. There were rights and wrongs and do's and don'ts. And we carried a lot of guilt some days because of "what the Bible said." I never did understand where that no drinking', no dancing', and no mixed bathing came from.

Nobody told us how to vote. Nobody dragged politics into the church--though looking back there were some things we tip-toed around that we should have talked about. 

And how strange it is to wake up to church leaders who say they give the President a "mulligan" for all the things he has said and done. A mulligan! Whatever happened leaders to "Thou shalt not commit adultery?" Whatever happened to for better or for worse...in sickness and in health...till death do us part.  Whatever happened to lying and bearing false witness against your neighbors and coveting not only your neighbor's house and wife but also his oxen and donkeys and whatever else he might have. Reckon that list might include: Refugees...Mexicans...those from s...hole countries...those that disagree with us... and the poor? 

Evangelicals--I am sorry but I cannot buy you casually giving out mulligans. Character still counts--more than tax breaks and coddling prejudices. There are values that are sterling silver and though sometimes they get tarnished--we have to keep cleaning them off. They stand. And they endure.

German churches swallowed the Hitler line hook line and sinker. And people crowded into

photo by Jeena Paradies / flickr

those houses of worship to see the swastikas right next to the Holy Bible. He gave them VW's and the trains ran on time. And when it was over--the churches found themselves empty and those that followed the hate and prejudice of the Nazis grew quiet. Go to church in Germany today. Where are the people? Not there.

I don't fault all those good people who file into their churches Sunday after Sunday. Most of them are people hanging on by their fingernails and trying to keep themselves and their loved ones from sinking. But I do fault their leaders who have compromised that book they claim to preach. Some things just don't file underneath the strange term: mulligan.

I heard a funny story about a man who was being ordained to preach. And he knelt at the front of his church and the leaders filed by and laid hands on his head. His daughter was sitting with her Mama looking at what was happening at the front of the church. She whispered to her Mother: "What are they doing to Daddy?" And the Mama said: "Honey, they are taking his spine out."

Preachers who have somehow forgotten too "stand on the promises" are pathetic and spineless and they are bankrupting their churches. Character and values do not change.

The writer of another day Lloyd Douglas had a friend who was a violin teacher. Douglas saw the old musician one day and said, "Well, what's the good news for today?" The music teacher went over to a tuning fork that was suspended by a chord. He struck it with a mallet. "That is the good news for today, " he said. "That, my friend is an 'A'. It was an 'A' all day yesterday. It will be an 'A' all day tomorrow, next week, and for a thousand years. The soprano upstairs warbles off-key, the tenor next door flats his high notes and the piano across the hall is out of tune. Noise all around me, noise; but that, my friend is an 'A!'"

We're not talking about perfection. The treasure always comes in an earthen vessel. But our task always is to show the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us preachers or presidents or USA or anybody. No mulligans, I am afraid.

photo by Gerry Dincher / flickr

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com