Guardian: One miracle too many
Mark Lawson has a column in the Guardian [Guardian Unlimited Special reports: Mark Lawson: One miracle too many] reflecting on the perceived surge of “religiosity” in the United States, on the occasion of Billy Graham’s curtain call. Among the challeging things Lawson has to say (emphasis mine)…
The open religiosity of US society has always been a shock for European visitors, but it feels as if the rhetoric is intensifying monthly in a sort of galloping spiritual inflation. Last week an 11-year-old boy from Utah disappeared during a scout camp. After four days in the wilderness, the child was found, thirsty but perky. It’s true that even British phone-ins in these circumstances would have freely invoked a “miracle”, but the public comments of the boy’s relatives and family friends
resembled scenes from Iran of the ayatollahs unexpectedly dubbed into American .
Lawson makes some very useful points, if hyperbolically. He handles Rev. Graham with respect, I think well deserved. He captures neatly, in the context of Graham’s life, the paradox of modern American Evangelicalism:
Even so, such evidence of deep and simple faith in America should mean that Graham can retire on a high. Most public figures end their life in some kind of failure - politicians are forgotten, entertainers replaced by new waves - but the preacher seems to have won a landslide in his final term. While rival evangelists imploded in sex or financial scandals, Graham remained clean, except for some unfortunate comments about Jews caught on the Nixon tapes.
And yet, in one crucial sense, Graham’s mission has failed. One of his favourite texts as a preacher has been that religion should not be politicised. Since an endorsement of Nixon which he came to regret, Graham has refused to back candidates.
As Christians who participate (or not) in that odd beast that is the Christian church in America, we should all be asking ourselves if we haven’t failed in our scriptural call to radical engagement with society. Clearly Evangelicals wield a significant amount of political clout these days… have we become intoxicated by the power itself and forgotten that the only response of the Gospel to such power is humility?
We must demand from ourselves, our families, and our Christian communities — and our leaders in particular — radical humility before the addictive, corrupting, and often deceitful power present at the level of state and federal institutions in this country. To what does the Gospel call a “Christian” body politic, when the power of the Courts, the military, the massive federal budget, and the machinery of international relations are the playing cards?
–JA