Warning Flags, Parallels to Not Be Missed
By John D. Pierce
Why would professing followers of Jesus get and stay onboard with obvious acts of socially produced evil?
This important question has been rightly posed regarding German Christians amid the rise of Nazism and the scripture-quoting defenders of slavery in the American South. These are but two examples from history.
Sadly, the answer to that question is not particularly perplexing. It is a moral failure — by ignorance or design — of falling victim to lies, manipulation and all that fear promises but doesn’t deliver for good.
It has been said that the first person to mention Hitler loses the debate. Such comparisons were considered insensitive to the victims of Nazism since the holocaust is incomparable in its scale of human destruction.
However, ignoring some modern parallels to how such abusive power was exerted — and culpability extended by those claiming Jesus as Lord — would be a serious mistake. Similar birth narratives of American slavery and the rise of Nazism are now found within modern movements to limit freedom.
The best deterrent to such growing acts of evil is to wave a warning flag early on and to heed its caution. Among the parallels that deserve warning are these three:
One is the scapegoating of a particular group or groups of people.
Whether African slaves, Jews, Palestinians, LGBTQ persons or modern immigrants, the blame for whatever one is angry about is cast upon them. To advance such evil, the targeted persons are demeaned. They are treated as less than God’s creation — tagged as “animals,” “illegals,” “trannies” or whatever names help with dehumanization. Because once someone is dehumanized, then destroying them become acceptable.
Many who claim to follow Jesus but are driven by fear, insecurities and self-preservation eagerly join this practice. We see it in their social media postings. With just a little time, they will find a distorted scripture verse or the quoted words of a bloviating preacher to justify such hatred as being “biblical” and therefore Christian.
A second parallel is the unrelenting embrace of an unquestioned, authoritative leader who uses fear to extract one-sided loyalty.
Once that commitment is made it matters not what the leader reveals about himself — yes, almost always “him” — or his agenda.
That would require admitting being misled — and, oddly, vulnerability and confession are not easy expressions for many Americanized Christians.
Facts do not matter to those captivated by fear mongering. Nothing is more wasteful than providing evidence to those who find more comfort in their hatred and falsities than in love and truth.
One example is the response to the well-documented work of historian Kristin Du Mez in her book, Jesus and John Wayne. The very toxic masculinity she documents is precisely the way she is treated by toxic men — often those claiming to be Christian.
There are no valid counter arguments — just threatening behavior toward a woman who would dare reveal the long trail of abuses by powerful men within Americanized Christianity.
The same authoritative formula is used today to draw allegiance from particularly white men who feel a sense of losing personal privilege and power — due to aging, broadening equality and overall unfamiliar social changes.
Those grievances are stirred into a stew of fear, anger and untruth that blinds adherents to the leader’s own deep lack of basic human decency. The sales pitch goes: “Someone is trying to take something away from you and I will stop them in exchange for casting aside your values and being wholly loyal to me.”
A greater commitment is made to preserving “social order” (personal privilege) than to the one who called for self-denial and cross bearing.
Ready-made excuses — such as false equivalencies and misrepresentations of reality — are always at hand to justify that which is abhorrent, evil and in conflict with basic Christian values.
A third parallel is the capacity for so many Americanized Christians to be motivated more by fear and self-interest than by the life and teachings of Jesus.
The economic benefits of human slavery trumped the basic biblical truth of all persons being created in the image of God. Slaveowners paid the preachers to tell them what they wanted to hear.
Many German Christians took Hitler’s deal. It was a gradual capitulation that started with outsized patriotism and grew with fear and then every rationalization needed to excuse such evil.
Too often professing Christians find a way around the Way of Christ. Following Jesus is replaced with “believing the Bible” — which allows for extracting and mangling isolated verses in the same way many German Christians excused a holocaust and many Americanized Christians justified human bondage.
“But this is different today,” some say. No, it is the same formula, same fears and same goals. Just some different human targets.
Too often the needed warning flags are limp and lowered while the flags of hatred and hostility are waved proudly — and flagstaffs used as weapons. It’s time to speak up a bit more.
When someone promises to protect you by doing harm to others, raise a warning flag.
When a leader demands unquestioned loyalty that ignores basic human values, raise a warning flag.
When a presented ideology is in stark contrast to the life and teachings of Jesus, raise a warning flag.
When coercive power calls for rejecting the abundant life of following Jesus in advancing the common good of humanity, raise a flag.
— John D. Pierce of Gainesville, Ga., served for nearly 24 years as executive editor of Nurturing Faith Journal (formerly Baptists Today). Now he directs the Jesus Worldview Initiative, part of Belmont University’s Rev. Charlie Curb Center for Faith Leadership. This column was first posted at jesusworldview.org.
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