Last week on The Mona Charen Show there was a stimulating and substantive conversation between the host and her guest—the American author, journalist, and activist Jonathan Rauch whose latest book Cross Purposes: Christianity’s Broken Bargain with Democracy has just been released.
A Jew by birth and an atheist by conviction—he has adopted the term apatheist to describe himself since he has no problem respecting people’s choice to be religious and does not have any desire or burning need to win people over from religion to atheism. He disagrees with the late strident, anti-theist Christopher Hitchens saying,” I don’t think it is religion that makes people stupid. I think it is people that make religion stupid.”
In his new book, he argues that increased secularization in American culture, given a boost by the politicization of the Christian right, has been detrimental to liberal democracy as outlined by James Madison. In his conversation with Mona Charen he said, “I believe Jesus Christ is far closer in his teachings to James Madison than to MAGA. No comparison.”
The most poignant moment in the interview came when the atheist Rauch disagreed with the notion that is often floating about that secularization is simply due to people losing interest in God and nothing is going to change that. Then he said this:
Isn’t it possible that the Church would be in better shape now if it were following the word and teachings of its Lord and Savior Jesus Christ instead of following a political movement that models in many ways the opposite of what the Church is teaching? Shouldn’t we decide before Christianity is exhausted—shouldn’t Christians try Christianity?
Zing! Zap! Pow! I couldn’t have said it better myself—and he wasn’t mocking or trying to Zing Christians. He is putting forth his belief that liberal democracy as laid out at the beginning of the formation of this country, would more likely be manifested and flourish if those who identify as Christians would develop a civic theology and enact a subsequent spirituality that was intent on being aligned with and faithful to the vision, values, teachings, and lived example of Jesus of Nazareth.
In the next four years, it is not only democracy and its guiding principles that will be hanging in the balance, but also what it means to be a Christian and what it looks like to live the Christ life amid a nation whose public administration kneels in fealty to a “leader” who not only happens to be an extremely insecure, unhealthy, narcissistic, vindictive, mendacious man but also the person who poses the greatest threat and danger to this country, its citizens, democracy, and the human and more-than-human earth community?
Daniel Berrigan used to remind us that we are American Christians, not Christian Americans. We must be sure to get the placement of the adjective and noun just right. It is not a grammatical issue. It is that our identity and integrity are at stake. Will Christians allow Donald Trump to pose a threat to our allegiance to Christ, to our faith commitment to live out the gospel message he preached that is succinctly captured in the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), and to a love ethic incarnated in mercy, compassion, and justice that flies in the face of Trump’s agenda, abuse of power, disregard for the law, lack of concern for and compassion toward the most vulnerable in our land—the anawim—the least of these? In whom do we and will we trust?
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