Driving the Flock Over the Cliff

Recently a prominent pastor made some comments on his TV show that, while they drew a lot of applause, would be absolutely guaranteed to thin out the ranks of the newly evangelized, and make folks who are feeling drawn to Christ pitch their tents somewhere else.

Anywhere else.

In referring to 9/11, this chap intimated that God was showing His displeasure with current American immorality by 'removing the hedge of protection', thus allowing the terrorists to attack as a punishment, and a warning of worse to come unless we repent.

He claimed that in the 20th century the US won two wars that it shouldn't have been able to win, thus showing that we had God's favor - this, in trying to contrast the present situation of losing His favor.

In general, and at first glance, it sounds pretty straightforward. We're all concerned about the direction that the US is heading, and one would assume that God is, as well.

However - when you start zooming in, it becomes a message of unspeakable cruelty, based on doctrine that is questionable at best.

Doctrine first - there's no reference to the US in Scripture. None. There are certainly passages that can be interpreted as referring to the US, but this kind of model-building takes on a life of its own. It's a hypothesis, but enough people repeat it to say that it's real. And it is not. It's a theory.

The comment about 'winning two wars that we should not have won' is ludicrous. We didn't 'win' the First World War. We arrived in 1917, and contributed to the ultimate victory, but the Germans and their allies were already in a losing situation, and they knew it. We helped the French and British, who'd borne the brunt of the fighting and the losses. We didn't win it. 

Concerning World War Two, the comment beggars belief. The only way the Axis could have won was by keeping us out of the conflict. The existence of the US manufacturing and manpower resources, largely untouchable by either the Germans or the Japanese, made eventual victory inevitable. There was no way the Axis could have won, after December 7, 1941.

The other side of the argument can be viewed by looking at some of the pictures that were burned into the national memory after 9/11 - the pictures of office workers leaping to their deaths rather than burn.

If one of these unfortunates were my wife, and a preacher would tell me that it was God's punishment on America, or worse, just a warning, I would never darken the door of a church. A God who would summarily consign these people, beloved of someone, to a terrifying and fatal fall simply to make a point about gay marriage and low church attendance (both of which Preacher X mentioned) would be something on the order of Baal.

Not something that Jesus would do.

I realize that there's a need to pull for the moral high ground, and that sometimes a shock is needed to get folks to wake up to what';s going on around them, but using questionable Scriptural interpretation, incorrect history, and a dash of viciousness isn't the way to do it.