‘Left’, ‘Right’, or Christian?
A recent conversation with a brother has brought to the forefront of my mind a certain set of ideas which, unfortunately, are spreading confusion (and thus prejudice and judgmentalism) throughout the Christian sphere. Certainly, I have noted a degree of this misunderstanding within the not-so-serried ranks of Christians on campus at York. The conversation was, in fact, a disagreement of terms, with one member claiming a statement as fact and another disputing this outright. The gist of what was put to me was this: the evangelical wing of the Christian Body, which is Bible-believing, can be readily equated with conservatism, and can be labelled ‘Right’; meanwhile, the liberal theology which has grown up during this century is essentially radical and ‘Left’. I, personally, believe this statement to be not only wrong but, more importantly, essentially meaningless in the context of the Christian faith.
We would do well, to start with, to establish some definitions of these two ‘sides’ of the Christian Body. Firstly, evangelicalism involves a belief in the Bible as the authoritative ,eternal Word of Almighty God; it then advises that we accept the timeless values of the Kingdom and apply them consistently within our daily lives and witnesses; finally, it maintains the centrality of the Gospel message of good news which brings salvation to those who accept Jesus Christ, and Him alone, into their hearts as Lord and Saviour. Liberalism is more difficult to tie down, partially because it is constantly changing and developing. However, it’s approach to Truth is subject to some degree of analysis. Tony Cummings, in his essay ‘How the Church Was Lost’ describes the liberal approach as an “existential methodology of the Bible”, or what is less directly referred to as “neo-orthodoxy.” He goes on to define this standpoint as a tolerance towards a whole range of issues on which there are clear Bible guidelines — ranging from divorce and other religions to homosexuality and abortion. Francis Schaeffer, whom many consider to be the greatest Christian prophetic voice of our century, said in response to this: “Real Christianity is a robust belief that has nothing to do with this cringing, wimpy kind of evangelicalism. Christ stood up for things. He took controversial stands on issues.”
The argument, we must understand, is not between ‘Right’ and ‘Left’, but between real Christianity and nominalism. The liberal wing is building a road to destruction and self-deception, which it refuses to stop travelling down. As the Rev. Clive Calver, the director of the Evangelical Alliance, has said recently: “Liberal Theology has within it the seeds of its own self-destruction.” We must avoid, at all costs, losing the vision of a world in need of God’s restoration. We might, else, have a totlally distorted view of His creation, such as the theologian Reinhold Neibuhr suggests, in terms intended to highlight the fallacy: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgement through the ministration of a Christ without a cross.”
In the meanwhile, it may be helpful tio look further into the issue of ‘Right Vs. Left’, in analysing some of the politics of our faith. In this section I openly confess my debt of gratitude to, and reliance upon, the late Dr. C.S. Lewis, as expressed in his book, Christian Behaviour. As he says, Christianity neither has, nor professes to have, a detailed political programme for applying the Golden Rule for living in society, namely “Do as you would be done by.” The reason for this is fairly plain: if the gospel is meant for ALL people, at ALL times, and in ALL the forms of society in which they may find themselves, which it is, then it is obviously nonsense to expect one detailed solution to political strife. Similarly, when Jesus tells us to feed the hungry or clothe the naked he doesn’t leave us a cookery-book or knitting-patterns. WE have to decide how to apply that Golden Rule in our own lives and in our own society, according to individual needs and merits. The Bible is not ‘Right-Wing’, nor is it ‘Left-Wing’ — it is simply the Word of God.
Nevertheless, a fully Chrisitan society is a real concept, but we shall never see it until we have entered into the fulness of the Kingdom and the old things have passed away. The New Testament does hint about what this society would be like. There would be no parasites in the system: if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Everyone would produce something with his (or her) hands, and that thing would be good and useful. There would therefore be no production of silly luxury items, and no even sillier advertising to persuade us to buy these superficial goods. There would be no putting-on of airs — classism and snobbery would not exist. In modern terms, this all sounds fairly Leftist and socialistic. But, running alongside these descriptions, we have others about members of society showing obedience and outward signs of respect, to properly appointed magistrates and judges, from children towards parents and from wives towards husbands. We hear about a cheerful society, which is always full of singing and rejoicing, with none of those sort of people which the Bible might term ‘busybodies’.
Evidently, we have here a very curious society. Its economic life would appear to be very socialistic and, in that sense, advanced. But, it displays a degree of family life and a code of manners which appears old-fashioned, ceremonious and even aristocratic. Throughout all of this we have the ever-running theme of charity-love, something which belongs in no political ideology anywhere. C.S. Lewis concludes upon the matter by showing us where our real priorities should lie, rather than in labelling each other with meaningless political tags:
“A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat “Do as you would be done by” until I am black in the face, but I can’t really carry it out ‘til I love my neighbour as myself: and I can’t learn to love my neighbour as myself until I learn to love God: and I can’t learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward — driven on from social matters to religious matters. For the longest way round is the shortest way home.”
Social matters are thus sublimated into loving God and being obedient to Him. Tags such as ‘Left’ or ‘Right’ are modern, contemporary terms, useless at describing the everlasting gospel, and therefore meaningless.