Lori Walke: Christianity is a way of life, not a form of government. For the Bible tells us so.
Editor's note: As part of our commitment to foster civil conversations in Viewpoints, we're inviting faith leaders to submit edited versions of their homilies that transcend religion, with messages that can appeal to people of all faith traditions.
At the end of last year, I had to double-check the ending of the parable of the Good Samaritan. It’s not that I had never heard it before — studying scripture is a professional obligation for preachers. A city council member was attempting to codify the Good Samaritan’s approach to offering aid to those who need help, which the councilman claimed was to ... wait for it ... call the cops.
Spoiler alert: That’s not how the story goes. A basketball team’s worth of clergy showed up at the council meeting to point this out to the councilmember.
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Some were surprised by the councilman’s brazen attempt to try to revise such well-known scripture, but it is a disturbingly common strategy these days.
White evangelicals are trying it with another familiar verse, this one from the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth chapter of Matthew, where Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.”
They are working hard to transform the saying into a command to, “salt the earth” — the ritual of spreading salt on the sites of cities razed by conquerors to poison the fields and prevent resurgence. It was a threat and practice of oppression, domination and war.
It is now the strategy of Christian Nationalists, who insist that America was intended to be officially Christian and that our laws should enforce the doctrines of a particular version of Christianity. This explains why Donald Trump was/is so popular among many white evangelicals. He wooed them in a 2016 speech at the Faith & Freedom Conference with the line, “We will respect and defend Christian Americans.” He later sealed the deal at Dordt University, when he declared, “Christianity will have power.” This is Christian Nationalism in a nutshell, pursuing Christian power over Christian principles. Salt the earth.
Here at home, Gov. Kevin Stitt is the man in charge of the fight for white evangelical power and control. As he said after winning reelection, “[With] the authority that I have as governor, and the spiritual authority and the physical authority that You give me, I claim Oklahoma for You,” his intentions for a Christian theocracy made plain. Salt the earth.
His wingman, Oklahoma Education Secretary and state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, has been direct about his aim to target our children by mandating “Christian values” in school curriculum, saying, “Schoolchildren need to know that America is the greatest country in the history of the world because of the principles this country was built upon, because we believe that individual rights were given to you by God, and because we believe that morality and Christian values are the way to live your life.” Walters is targeting our children. He is also targeting those who teach them, vowing to mandate patriotic education training for teachers, through Hillsdale College, an ultra-conservative Christian college, which is also trying to establish a national network of charter schools. Salt the earth.
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Now is the time to double-check those Bibles, friends. The Sermon on the Mount does not include a license to coerce belief. It does not give us a plan to seek power, but instead provides us the principles of faith: nonviolent resistance to injustice (turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give your coat and your cloak), right relationship (love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you) nand humility (take the log out of your own eye first).
Christianity is a way of life, not a form of government. For the Bible tells us so.
The Rev. Lori Allen Walke is senior minister at Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Walke: Christianity should not be a form of government in Oklahoma
