What Does Big Government Have to do with Jesus?

by Lisa Sharon Harper 10-13-2009

“I’m here to stand up for Jesus,” said the anti-health reform protester to a CNN correspondent. “Government is getting too big.”

What does big government — or small government, for that matter — have to do with Jesus?

Non sequiturs like the one above are demonstrating to the world just how twisted the faith of many Jesus “followers” has become. Faith is being trumped by fear-based Left Behind hysteria mixed with a hefty dose of political ideology.

So here is a gift to the Blue Dogs; a cheat-sheet to help them navigate the syncretistic Conservative/dispensationalist worldview they may encounter back home:

Small government = Jesus
Big government = the anti-Christ
Small government = individual freedom and the American Way of Life = Jesus
Big government = communism, socialism, despotism, fascism, and all the isms you could possibly think of — except racism and sexism, of course. (“True Americans” don’t care about those).
Small government = apple pie and baseball and pick-up trucks and gun racks and cheerleaders = Jesus.
Big government = death camps, tribulation, all that is evil, and all that is un-American

My Christian faith sprang to life in a birth-place of fundamentalist America — South Jersey. I remember the first time I saw the 1970’s rapture movie, Thief in the Night. In Russell S. Doughten’s end-times thriller, a lone electric razor buzzed in the sink when all God’s children were beamed up to heaven without warning. The Rapture had come and the Anti-Christ ruled the earth. U.N.I.T.E. (United Nations Imperium for Total Emergency) marked every person left behind with the “mark of the beast.” (Note: fear of “big government”.) In response, young people across the U.S. turned to Jesus for fear of missing the Rapture and being caught in the web of the anti-Christ’s big government.

Then, in 1998, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins passed the torch to the next generation. The Left Behind series, 16 best-selling novels-turned-films, warned of the Rapture and the rise of the Anti-Christ, a Romanian leader of the United Nations.

This same compromised movement has recently proposed a ludicrous new version of the Bible, the Conservative Bible Project. Right now, they are working to change the scripture’s language by taking out all hints of a “liberal” agenda and replace the words of Jesus, and Moses, and Luke, and James, and Amos, and Isaiah, and Micah, etc. with conservative-friendly lingo. Okay, can they get any more obvious? Can the faith get more twisted?

Significant swaths of Blue barking constituents have been influenced by LaHaye and will thump self-constituted Conservative Bibles at rallies coming soon to super malls everywhere. So, with all the ranting back home, the Dogs of congress might be feeling backed into a corner.

Here’s a Blue clue. It is possible to be a true-blue conservative and support monumental change that honors the role of government in civil society.

Sam Tanenhaus, author of the book The Death of Conservatism, explained in Newsweek (August 29, 2009), “Mature, responsible conservatism honors America’s institutions, both governmental and societal.” According to Tanenhaus, the conservative movement commenced its slow death when it veered from founder Edmund Burke’s call to be enslaved to no ideology. Rather, Burke said, take stock of societal changes and adjust for the good of the conservation of civil society and “a state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.” William F. Buckley Jr. followed Burke’s lead throughout the turbulent 1960s, choosing the stabilization of society rather than ideological loyalty. Now it’s the Blue Dogs’ turn.

Everyone agrees, we must reform the health insurance industry and control sky rocketing insurance costs. The American business sector, the middle class, seniors, and especially the working poor will be broken by the health industry’s escalating costs within the next generation if we don’t act now. For the sake of civil society, Blue Dogs must follow their constituents’ founder, Edmund Burke. They must be a slave to NO ideology. They must do whatever is necessary to conserve civil society — even if what is necessary is monumental systemic change … the kind of change that includes a strong public option.

Lisa Sharon Harper is the executive director of New York Faith & Justice and author of Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican … or Democrat.

Categories: Faith and Politics, Health

Travis Mamone

I understand the fear of government getting too big, because I think we can all agree that power can be abused way too easily. But I never understood where in the Bible it says anything about how big or small the government should be.

letjusticerolldown

Ms Harper--this is the kind of piece that drives me into the arms (well maybe into the field of view) of the Blue Dogs. Your essential options:

A. Being for Jesus--I'm against big government (and a public option)
B. Being for the conservation of civil society (which any person in "A" would be) I'm for a public option.

Or in other words. There is no choice. We are all for a public option.

People that against it are crazy. Those who connect their faith to opposition are doubly crazy. But even the crazies, if they were honest conservatives, would back reform.

Let's just start with one small detail: To whom do you think the nation should enslave itself to (i.e. borrow money from) for another trillion$? Since the Baby Boomers in our peak earning years can't pay for our government--which generation do you anticipate is going to be large enough and productive enough to pay?

lsharper

Hi Letjusticerolldown,
I think a more urgent question is: "Which generation will be large enough and productive enough to pay if we don't act now to do what is necessary to bring costs under control and create a measure of equity within the heath system?" Economists agree, the cost of doing nothing or passing legislation with no public option to drive down costs would far outweigh the costs of true reform.

csack

i'd like to see evidence of your mysterious 'economists agree' line? 65% of rational intelligent people disagree with that statement.

lsharper

Let's start with Paul Krugman, whose keen sense of economics was recommended to me by a multi-millionaire who is also a Christian. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/opinion/21kru...

xfree9

Paul Krugman is a single economist, and obviously agrees with himself. His "keen sense of economics" is debatable, as well.

letjusticerolldown

I understand and believe it a good question. But one question does not negate nor answer the other question. And at this point--neither question is being answered.
But fundamentally the failure to manage the nation's checkbook is a failure of self-governance. Ms Harper, I thought, was rather dismissive of "anti-big-government" rhetoric. When is govt simply too big? When the government is unfunded--it is too big. We become its servants and forever slaves as it sells itself to others. We have burned hundreds of billions we paid into the health system (medicare) on wars. We have not reformed what we have. We can see how much reform is actually happening in the current reform. It is simply coming in as a bigger expenditure with minimal outcome. And they are arguing they must have it in order to then reform.

The Dems like being cozy with pharma and insurance--while pretending to take it on. Is it really BIG INSURANCE that controls the debate--or is it BIG GOVERNMENT? Has CORPORATION implanted brain chips controling the thoughts and actions of Congress--or might it just be Congress itself--and even a nation that ceases to have self-control or self-governance.

A people with no sense of self-control will have great fear of bigger government. This is a spiral. Lack of control breeds the need of external control/intervention--and the fear that such control will be oppressive.

The collapse in housing was very telling to me. The nation (from top to bottom) is very afraid. If we just allowed ourselves to reap what we have sown we are deeply afraid. We will not allow government to allow us to reap the consequences.

Universal single-payer with consumers charged back for their basic care (excluding regimen of prevention/screening servcies) that can be paid out of HSA's -- with the government not spending a dollar more and providers freed to practice. (My proposal)

striper111

Obama is not addressing the cost problem, other than the cost of insurance premiums. There is a far bigger cost problem and that is the cost of medical care. There is nothing addressing this in anything being discussed in Congress right now. Medical care will only continue to rise, which means, even with the reform being proposed, the cost of insurance will also rise. And how is govt. going to pay for it all? You really haven't answered that question.

How can you bring insurance costs under control if you don't bring medical costs under control? Insurance has to pay for the cost of the care, and if the cost of the care is costly... well, so is the insurance.

kansasmennonite

I remember "Thief In The Night" also. Now there's "Hell Night" instead of haunted houses for Halloween. Conservative churches are putting on their own programs to "scare" kids into being believers. Actually my son might be involved in one but I really don't care for scare tactics.

I suspect you'll get a lot of posters backing the conservative movement with this article. You did a good job of telling it like it is.

Joe_Allen_Doty

Wasn't the "Thief in the Night" movie the one where the last scene of the movie was identical the the opening one where the woman was awakened by her clock radio coming on and the newsman saying the very same thing as in the 1st one?

If that's the movie, I say that the people who did the editing of the movie mocked its contents and the people who paid for its production.

G.U.T.S Church (that's its real name) here in Tulsa, Oklahoma has one of those "scare the hell" out of folks Halloween type haunted houses every year. You don't get people saved by threatening them with eternal damnation.

striper111

"You don't get people saved by threatening them with eternal damnation."

I saw "Thief in the Night."
I heard about hell.
I found out about Jesus.
I believed and was "born again!!"

The fear of hell is exactly what led me to Christ.

The fear of hell is what led the criminal on the Cross to ask Jesus to remember him. He was a criminal on his death bed. He knew he was headed for hell.

Jesus saves us. From what? Damnation. Hell. Separation from him, and all that is good. The knowledge of this does, and should, produce fear, that leads people to Christ.

I wasn't raised in a Christian home, and I knew about God, but I had no knowledge of salvation and the gospel message. Hearing about hell and wondering what would happen to me after I died is what led me to the Lord, and afterwards, I grew in my knowledge, my love, and my maturity. But the initial fear is what caused me to first examine myself and question anything spiritual.

Read Revelation and see if the fear you might experience doesn't draw you to the Lord. God's wrath is a reality, and those who don't know Christ have every reason to be filled with fear, and it's our realization of God's wrath and our need for salvation that draws us to Him.

Everyone's story is different, and God works differently in people's lives. So don't discount the things that God can use to bring others to Him.

huntebo

This is quite on track, though I think of the health care debate in terms of Big government fears and fears of Big business. The right fears big government and the left fears big business. I think they both have a point, but in the health care debate there is no question in my mind that it is big business that is our worry. Because while there is always a chance that government could "come between me and my doctor" it is the insurance companies that actually do come between me and my doctor. If we are to reign in the power of business we need to balance that power with government. A public option is our only hope because only government is big enough to create the balance. Indeed the current economic crises has been caused by a couple of decades of weakening the power of government to balance business.

lsharper

Hi huntebo,
You raise a great point. What is unspoken in my reflections above, but made explicit in the Conservative Bible project is the other side of the small gov't preference on the part of the Conservative/dispensationalist set. The Bible the Conservative Bible project is putting out is called the Free Market Bible. There you go.

halflight

I find it telling that Sojourners' writers use inflammatory, disrespectful rhetoric to mischaracterize their opponents, yet delete comments that reflect the same style back to them.

Keep talking to yourselves, folks.

BlueDeacon

Well, anyone who challenges sacred cows can be considered "inflammatory," so ...

Eric77

I don't think that's quite it. The problem isn't that she's misrepresenting the people to which she's referring; there are actual nuts out there who believe some of this stuff, like Jesus would be in favor of a certain size of government. The problem is that she presents them as the opposition, as if the opposition to a powerful central government that attempts to run large portions of the economy is solely made up of lunatics that can be laughed at and dismissed. Nowhere in this commentary does she say something like "I realize the vast majority of Christians who oppose Obama's health care plan don't actually believe this stuff..." Her tactic is just as unhelpful to dialogue among Christians and non-Christians as the nuts who say “I’m here to stand up for Jesus. Government is getting too big.”

sgillesp

but I don't believe that the vast majority of Christians who oppose Obama's health care plan don't actually believe this stuff. Unfortunately, the Christians I know who oppose Congress's health care plans (Obama doesn't have one yet) say all these same things, like they're reading from cue cards. It's very, very discouraging. I'd like to hear from 10 Christians who oppose Congress' health care plans and DON'T quote any Republican talking points, much less, Rush, Sean or Glenn.

kansasmennonite

Name a conservative religious site that allows comments to go unmonitored. Actually, I'd like to see any conservative religious site that allows any kind of opposing comments to be posted, commented on, etc. like Sojourners site.

lsharper

Halflight,
I like your sense of humor. I actually laughed out loud. But I must say, if that's how you interpret the kind of Christians who would press for a public OPTION (not a government run health system) then I really don't think you're getting it.

It's funny that you conflated Marxism and Christianity in your description of the "Sojourners world". I am not a Marxist or a Communist, by any means. It is interesting, though, that the seeds of Marx's ideas were planted when he was investigating Christianity - Acts 2-4 to be exact. His mistake was that he took God out of the equation. God's kind of peace (as demonstrated in Acts) cannot be achieved without God. So, no, I'm not a Marxist. I'm a Jesus follower. I have "dropped my nets" (Mark 1:18) like Peter, Andrew and James and John. In response to scripture, I choose to follow the one who calls me to lay down my life so that I might find it.

On another note, you seem to be focused on the fear of big government because of its use of "coercive power". I wonder what you think of the National Parks project, interstate highways, city run garbage collection services, public schools, police departments, fire departments. Interestingly, many of these public initiatives trace their roots to the Evangelical reformer, William Wilberforce, who was compelled by his faith and a keen knowledge that the private sector does not possess enough capital nor the will to provide services for all human beings under the jurisdiction of our governing body.

I'm not against business. I actually side with Thomas Friedman on this - I strongly believe it is possible for capitalism to find its redemption as it works for the common good of civil society. The problem is driving force of capitalism is greed. That's basic. And leaving the health of souls created in the image of God, solely in the hands of forces compelled by greed -- well, we know what that gets us. It gets us where we are right now. It gets us a world where pregnancy and domestic abuse are considered pre-existing conditions. It gets us a world where 14,000 people are losing their health insurance every day. It gets us a world where Christian missions are having to cut staff because they can't afford to the health insurance. And it will get worse with inaction, by all accounts.

The Obama plan does do something to limit escalating costs; it provides a public option to compete with the rising costs of private companies.

This is not apocalypticism (if that is a word). These are facts. I'm the last person to rant about end times. This is not about end times. It's about human lives, suffering in the here and now. It's about the image of God being crushed to earth and an opportunity to reform the system that governs us all into one that nurtures and protects the inherent dignity in everyone. Yes, especially, the least of these.

Eric77

I'd like to make one comment to ask you to rethink your statement that the driving force behind capitalism is greed. I believe the driving force behind capitalism is actually self-interest, not greed. There's a difference. Self-interest compels me to get a job, to want to better my station in life, and to provide for myself and my family. It compels an entrepreneur to invent a better mousetrap, start a business, or provide a product or service someone else desires. Self-interest compels people to loan others resources and to invest their talents and resources in enterprises. This is not greed.

Are there greedy capitalists? Of course. Just like there are greedy people in every economic system. Are there greedy people who run health insurance companies? Of course, which is why we need certain regulations to protect people from their greed. I'm with you on that. But greed is not what drives capitalism.

RadicalChristianLibrarian

Interesting point and I do see the difference between greed and self-interest you point out. Self-interest is still self-centered (as opposed to others-centered) however.

Herein lies the danger of conflating an economic belief system or a political ideology with a religious belief system such as Christianity, which requires sacrifice, putting others before ourselves, and the relinquishing of the "self" in order to completely submit to the will of the One who made us.

Getting back to the original point of Harper's article (which I wish she hadn't strayed from- it's a legitimate concern) about the person who equates Jesus with "small government" (Republican code for all sorts of reasons to be for or against things)- this person or viewpoint is not an anomaly. This sort of melding of government with religion has been going on within the right wing for a long time and really came to a disturbing head post-9/11 in the "Christian" Nationalism we witnessed in which Jesus was wrapped in the American flag and Christianity (or some version of "morality") was used to cover a multitude of sins committed by our nation. Support for war, torture, and terrorism was justified by this strange religion, which horrified many of us here in the US and most people around the world. Especially Christians. It was (and still is) a Christianity unrecognizable to many of us here and most around the world.

So, I don't think capitalism is necessarily bad, but nor is it necessarily good. Left unfettered, capitalism devolves into the hoarding of resources among the very few to the detriment of the many. And I'm in total agreement with you about regulations to protect us from the greed of the powerful few.

I'm not arguing with you, just thinking out loud. If we truly lay down ourselves, when we are God-centered, trusting in Him for our provision, trusting that He has a plan and a purpose for our lives, we have no reason for self-interest. Of course, His plan for many of us may be building a better mouse trap, providing for our families, starting a business, following a certain profession or vocation, or living a life of poverty- using the talents He has given us, but always giving Him the glory and using those talents to better the Kingdom of God here on earth.