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The Future of the Apostolic Movement: The People of
(Political) Principles
November 17, 2008
In what feels like 1,000 years ago, I wrote an article entitled “The Future of the Apostolic Movement: The People of Principles,” in which I argued that the forces of history were making certain abiding rules within our movement obsolete and we would have to adopt more flexible biblical principles to remain successful. It wasn’t about jettisoning doctrine, but reevaluating non-doctrinal rules that infringed on our effectiveness within society.
Readers either got it or they didn’t. I still get nice letters now and again from the former, while the later seemed to think I was advocating the razing of our biblical foundation.
Not much has changed since then. In many ways, we’re still casting about for our public identity. That’s why the flare ups over hymns vs. praise choruses, home friendship groups vs. traditional church, and splits from mother organizations continue to challenge us. We’re recreating ourselves, making choices of whom and what we want to be—and what we don’t.
Diminished Political Power
After this last presidential election, so is the Republican Party. Right now you hear cries for change from both the traditionalists (i.e. “We’ve lost our way because we’re no longer truly conservative”) and the reformers (i.e. “We must change the way we react and inform others about real-life issues and their solutions, showing them practical conservatism positively affects their everyday lives”). These disagreements are remarkably similar to current modes of thought within the Apostolic and the Evangelical movement.
Of course, Evangelicals and Fundamentalists yoked themselves to the GOP in the days of Ronald Reagan, but the times are clearly different. Obviously, there are dangers in pairing ourselves with any worldly other, especially a political party, as the general public perceives their faults as ours yet we can exercise little control over fixing those faults.
Likewise, this often has the unintended side effect of cramming our infinite God into a tiny political box, tacitly keeping God out of the other political boxes (i.e. “God is a Republican so God hates Democrats.”).
As a political centrist, I’d like to see us unshackle ourselves from the Republican Party, define our beliefs and identity in a clearer fashion, then let both parties know what values they must match to earn our support (with the understanding that neither party is going to be a perfect fit). Yes, I realize there’s no single decision-maker for our movement to make this apparent, but there will be if we form a loose coalition of Apostolic organizations for this purpose. Then we can be independently active, not speaking on every issue, but choosing those most important to us—even to the point of taking the president-elect at his word for change, and join him in causes we both support.
Increased Political Influence
Others disagree, stressing the importance of believers in the Republican party—with a twist. BeliefNet’s Rod Dreher states that any reform within the Republican party must include religious conservatives:
“As the Southern Baptist leader Richard Land points out in today’s Wall Street Journal, religious conservatives can easily move toward a Reform agenda that keeps them faithful to their core principles. Indeed, my entire Crunchy Cons book and its reformist ideas is based in my religious conservatism. The key will be to convert Evangelicals, observant Catholics and other religious conservatives to a conservative Reform agenda.
The emerging leadership class among younger Evangelicals totally get this. When I wrote my original Crunchy Cons cover story for National Review, I heard from an Evangelical seminarian who said Jim Wallis had just been to speak to their class, and everyone there had agreed with what Jim had to say about addressing poverty and the environment as part of our Christian commitment—but they couldn’t take that last step Jim asked them to, and embrace a progressive Democratic agenda, because, said this seminarian to me, “We’re pro-life conservatives.”
See, this is really interesting to me. These Christians know themselves to be conservatives, but they found nothing in principle to object to the call to serve the poor and to be good stewards of creation, as articulated by the most prominent Religious Left pastor in America. But they knew how far they could go in sharing common ground with him--and it stopped at abortion, at the very least. Still, there’s a lot to work from in that common ground, and a solid basis for a Reform conservatism informed partially by a new kind of religious conservatism.”
This observation synchs with nun-turned-screenwriter Barbara Nicolosi’s denunciation of Christians who voted for Barack Obama. With the fury of a prophet, she seethes:
“Hmmmmm.....
Please one of you Christians for Obama, please help me out here with one of
your swift and tortured rationalizations about how an Obama presidency won’t
mean more abortions. Because, two of Obama’s three FIRST ACTIONS AS PRESIDENT
seem to be all about killing the Jews. Oh no, excuse me, I meant oppressing the
slaves. Oh! What is wrong with me today? I meant, of course, killing the little
inconvenient humans in the womb. She insists that, like slavery in
the 19th Century, abortion remains the single most
important issue of our day and we dare not be on the wrong side of
history. That reinforces the seminarian’s viewpoint. That would synch with the
views of most Apostolics, as well.
Pentecostal Tipping Point
These grinding historic forces and new attitudes fascinate me because real change is occurring everywhere. I see our teen and 20something Apostolics supporting issues like poverty and the environment (and child soldiers in Africa and…) with their time and money. That’s why Project 22:39 at Youth Congress was such a success—they could do something tangible for others. That’s why sparks flew at the Forum 2008 when the college students found themselves disagreeing with 30somethings about whether and how Apostolics should go green. Young Apostolics want to change the world and bring non-believers to God.
It’s time we created a coherent message that allows for 21st Century concerns without minimizing our 20th Century spiritual fundamentals. Salvation and discipleship must always remain the top priority. Saving unborn innocents from murder must always rally us. Yet, we can’t ignore feeding the hungry, visiting the prisoners, and clothing the naked (Matthew 25:31-46). We can’t be good spiritual stewards without including the care of our financial and natural resources.
Nature and society abhor a vacuum. If we all aren’t willing to make thoughtful adjustments in our Christian walk, in our choices of Christ-likness, then those decisions will be made by time and events in their usual jagged fashion.
It doesn’t take a national official or an influential pastor to lead the charge. The one universal in every field is that success is always imitated. Become successful at aiding the lost with their physical needs and winning them to the Lord, and imitators will follow. This can be done by:
Not Politics as Usual
I know everyone’s sick of the never-ending election cycle, but these expanding issues of salvation and social concerns are now part of the choices we must make to reach souls in our surrounding society. Part of our message, whether we ever want to see another campaign commercial or not, will always remain in the political arena. Now is the exact time to redefine it.
ninetyandnine.com
© 2007, Kent d Curry
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Kent d Curry is an executive editor of ninetyandnine.com, a
college and career speaker, and collector of first edition books.
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