Woe to you lawyers! You load men up with burdens grievous to bear, while you yourselves do not lift a finger to help carry these burdens. Woe to you! You build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. You yourselves are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers: they killed them, and you build their tombs! Therefore also the wisdom of God has said, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will slay and persecute, so that the blood of the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Truly I say to you, it will be required of this generations. Woe to you, lawyers! You have taken away the key of knowledge. You have not entered in yourselves, and those who were entering in you have hindered.

I intend to be a lawyer because of, not despite, Jesus’ harsh words to lawyers. He implicates them in the destruction of Jerusalem and in the blood of every righteous man slain from the foundations of the earth. It would be an understatement to say that a negative view of lawyers has some scriptural basis. Nevertheless, it is because of the things the wisdom of God says about law that I am choosing lawyering as an occupation rather than trying to make my career in biblical studies, either in academia or behind the pulpit.

To read Psalm 119 is to feel the joy of a man experiencing law as all it was meant to be — a way that God interacts with and enlightens the life of man. The Psalm is dominated by ten synonyms for law: torah ‘law’, ‘edah ‘testimony’, derek ‘way’, pikkud ‘precept‘, hok ‘statute’, mitzvah ‘commandment’, tsedeq ‘righteous(ness)’, mishpat ‘judgment’, dabar ‘word’, imrah ‘saying’. For those who take Psalm 119 seriously as scripture, one thing is inescapable: law is something worth delighting in.

And yet it is also true that law is the means by which the strong oppress the weak. Jesus puts it this way in Matthew:

But woe to you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: you neither go in yourselves nor allow those who are going in. Woe to you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses, and make pretentious long prayers. Therefore you will receive the greater damnation. Woe to you, lawyers and Pharisees, hypocrites! You circle land and sea to make one convert, and when he is made, you make him twice the son of hell you are!

The law, as God intends it, is to be a means by which weak and strong, rich and poor, may be given impartial justice. The reality on the ground, on the other hand, is that it is often a means by which the weak prey on the strong. One formulation of this predatory principle, one which can be wince-inducing for those who too enthusiastically turn capitalism into a value system, is James’ rhetorical question to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, “Is it not the rich who oppress you?”

One response to the inequities of the world-system around us, a response not to be discounted, is to disengage from the structures of oppression. This will doubtless sound strange to modern democratic man, who sees the State either explicitly in the case of North Korea or implicitly in the case of the United States as the central institution of salvation.

The Amish and Hutterites, and to a lesser extent any other Christians who choose to handle their disputes out of court, are examples of this way of responding to systemic injustice. And while they are not perfect, they have made some very real progress in seeking justice. All the notoriety about shunning aside, it is true that the Amish have managed to build a peaceful society with alternative structures of conflict resolution that has worked more or less successfully for two hundred years. And their number has increased during this period, growing from perhaps 5,000 Amish about ninety years ago to about 500,000 today. To do this with acceptable levels of material prosperity and superior levels of physical and mental health to the wider culture is no mean task. We must not, as some Christians do, dismiss out of hand their model of approaching society.

It is in some ways similar to what the early church did. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul puts it this way:

Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? . . . I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law with brother, and that before infidels! Now therefore there is utterly fault among you, because you go to law with one another. Why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather be defrauded?

To the extent that early Christians heeded Paul’s words, to that extent they set up their own ways of dealing with disputes (including simply absorbing a loss rather than going to the corrupt unbelieving world-system for justice). To that extent they also took care of social welfare, doctrinal discipline, and other such issues “in house.”

But such a situation could not last indefinitely, and this is due to an inconvenient biblical principle that the shallower sorts of evangelical thinking ignore: diligent, careful, consistent following of biblical principles leads to numerical, economic, and material dominance in society. Try as you might to avoid it, the meek can and will inherit the earth. The unrighteous most assuredly are storing up their wealth for the righteous.

The Christians multiplied and began to replace unbelievers as the dominant group in the Roman Empire. All this was done without weapons, and through several different avenues. First, the Christian community took full advantage of human biology. While Romans often used abortion or exposure to destroy their own offspring, Christians refused to participate in either. The Didache, a document of the very early church written sometime between 50 and 120 AD, commands “thou shalt not murder a child by abortion nor kill them when born” (Didache 2:2, Lightfoot Translation). This in itself was an advantage. Secondly, Christians made the concept of becoming a Christian by adoption more than just a metaphor: they literally took babies that the pagans exposed to die, incorporating them into the community of faith. This practice added to Christian numbers significantly and was so threatening that the Roman Empire outlawed the practice on pain of death. Christians, emboldened by their faith, ignored the order and continued taking the pagan babies. Third, pagans who saw the manifest superiority of the Christian way of belief and action converted in droves. This started among the lower classes but it was not too long before the elites began to take notice as well. Because those in power have the most to lose from a social revolution, they resisted strongly, but they were eventually won over.

In short, Christians carried out a cultural conquest through faith rather than force, through moral rather than military means. Those segments of modern evangelicalism which seem to take joy in losing decry the reign of Constantine as the moment when the church lost its way, laying down its prophetic mantel as a select group outside of the world and calling it to repentance, and instead becoming worldly. While it is true that the seductive lure of power has worked no small corruption in the history of the church, cultural victory was not a betrayal but a logical outgrowth of the separate holiness of the church.

When I quoted Paul above, I left out the following and replaced it by ellipses:

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more so things that pertain to this life?

And so the verdict is this: the concept of the saints judging the world is embedded in the very passage which urges separation from its legal system. This paradox needs to be pondered carefully. We know from Genesis that the calling out of Abraham from the idolatrous nations was, paradoxically, the beginning of a process by which all of the families of the earth were to be blessed.

Similarly, it is true that the law was given to Israel to make it distinct, to separate it from the nations. But was the ultimate goal of the law the exclusion of the gentiles from God’s blessing? Heaven forbid. They were excluded that they might one day be included. The blessing of all nations through Israel was the end goal of the law, as Isaiah puts it this way:

And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountain of Yhwh’s house will be established on the top of the mountains, and will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will flow into it. And many peoples will go and say, Come, let us go up to the mountains of Yhwh, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion the law will go forth, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge among the nations, and will rebuke many peoples, and they will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, nor will they learn war any more.

Just as the separation, that is, the holiness of Israel was to bubble over into blessing for the wider world, so also the separation of the church was to do the same. In retrospect, it is no wonder that the Roman Empire was Christianized. Are we to be upset that a sustained three-hundred year evangelistic program converted the majority of people living in the Empire? Are we to be upset about the fact that the Emperor became Christian? Heaven forbid!

Now, if it is the will of God that none should perish, but that every knee should bow and declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ, this surely includes rulers. And, if the conversion of these rulers is meaningful, it will have repercussions for how they rule. Thus, the Christian Emperors, for all their faults, did many good things. They outlawed the killing of infants by exposure. They caused the gladiatorial games to cease, so that human beings no longer killed other human beings for sport. And as Christianity spread beyond the borders of the dying empire to new lands, further victories occurred. In the Middle Ages, for all its faults, the spread of Christendom lead to the elimination of slavery within its borders.

Those who look at Constantine as a disaster for Christianity must think seriously about what they say when they urge Christians not to become involved in “worldly affairs.” When those in power came to Christianity, should they have abdicated? I can imagine a Christian Emperor saying, “Christians ought not to legislate their morality. I will step down as soon as I can find a suitably pagan replacement who can ensure the continuation of infanticide, the murder of Christians, the sport-killing of men in arenas, and the enslavement and maltreatment of millions of people.” That this course should have been implied is the implication that modern pietistic Christians must face up to when they speak with unqualified disdain for the Christian-domination Roman Empire and the Christian-dominated Middle Ages.

The Amish today, if they continue to be prolific, will at some point face, and are beginning already to face, the same question as the early church: how long can a Christian counter-culture experience long-term sustained growth and still remain a counter-culture?

In 1920, 5,000 Amish made up one two-hundredth of a percent of the United States. As of today, they make up one-sixth of a percent of the United States. They are still decidedly a counter-culture. But if they continue to double in population every twenty years, they will make up about 1% of the US by 2060, and 4% by 2100. If present growth rates continue (and growth rates do change, I know) the Amish will make up one-third of the United States by 2160.

How much of the US has to be Amish before the Amish are forced to become involved in politics. If the Amish made up fifty percent of the US, would they be able to stand back and refuse to vote while our politicians launch yet another senseless war that kills countless innocent people overseas? If they Amish made up seventy-five percent of the US, do you think they would stand by as the remaining quarter allowed millions of abortions to occur? Of course not. The truth is that, no matter what the Amish may say, the current political non-engagement of the Amish is only a temporary holding pattern. Unless the Amish way of life collapses, they will at some point become activists.

In fact, that day may soon be upon us. My sources close to the ground in Holmes county tell me that Amish there are already discussing voting in the next election. It appears that their aversion to abortion and gay marriage are causing inner soul-searching over the morality of simply leaving politics to the current godless leadership. This soul-searching will only continue to increase as Amish faithfulness causes these meek people to inherit more and more of the earth.

What I am getting at is this. I understand that there is a time and place for Christian non-involvement in the unjust structures of the world. I understand that there are deep systemic injustices in modern law, that there are structures of oppression embedded in the law. (Anyone who doubts this has not looked seriously at the vast difference between the amount of legal aid that rich and poor can buy, the absolute mazes of loopholes that the guilty can hide in, or the destruction that the war on drugs is wreaking on the urban and often black poor.)

But there comes a point, both corporately and individually, when silence in the face of injustice becomes a betrayal of the gospel. For me, I am persuaded that this point is now. And so off to law school I go.

I begin where Romans begins – with the gospel. My proposal is this. When Paul refers to ‘the gospel’, he is not referring to a system of salvation, though of course the gospel implies and contains this, nor even to the good news that there now is a way of salvation open to all, but rather to the proclamation that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead and thereby demonstrated to be both Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true Lord. ‘The gospel’ is not ‘you can be saved, and here’s how’; the gospel, for Paul, is ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’.

Bonus question: In light of the very political connotations of a first-century Jew and Roman citizen saying “Jesus Christ is Lord,” does N.T. Wright believe in biblical theocracy in a way that approximates James B. Jordan’s use of the term? Jordan thinks so.

I will begin with the short answer given by Paul and Silas when a man asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They said to him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.” That’s the short answer.

Exploring the question further, we could perhaps look to the Old Testament patriarchs. It goes without saying that Christianity considers the pre-Christian saints to have been saved (see for example the position of Abraham in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus). May we say that they saved outside of faith in Jesus Christ? Well, in a historical sense, we might. It would be hard to argue that they believed in Jesus Christ by name as Christians do today. And yet they looked forward to something they only partially understood, and for that they are considered believers. (See the justification of Abraham by faith in Romans 4, and the extensive catalogue of the Old Testament faithful in Hebrews 11.)

Belief or faith, as it is portrayed in the Bible, is a large thing not easily reducible to simple terms. We are told by Paul that “a man is justified by faith apart from works” (Romans 3:28), but we are also told by James that “a man is justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24). John even goes so far as to picture a final judgment scene in which the dead are raised and then judged according to their works (Revelation 20:12). Through the limited ability of human language to represent deep truths, Paul, James, and John were all getting at something true. That, at least, is how I read them. Luther may have disagreed, but I think a careful reading of the gospel of John will show that all three statements are somehow at home within the Christian worldview.

In addition, some allowance must be made for the cognitive dissonance that exists in the mind of every thoughtful person, at least on this side of eternity. Jesus once asked whether a certain man believed, and the man’s answer showed a particularly striking self-awareness (Mark 9:24): “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief!” This man was conflicted, but Jesus accepted his fractured belief just as he had accepted Abraham’s.

Finally, I will leave you with a statement that I will not attempt to interpret (1 Timothy 4:10): “For this reason we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe.” And so we must not only grapple with what is meant in various passages by belief, but also with what is meant by salvation.

These are broad questions with broad answers. I am highly suspicious of anyone whose views of salvation can be easily graphed on a simple flowchart.

Therefore we labor, so that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted by him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of God, we persuade men . . .

2 Corinthians 5:9-11

Some Christian friends have told me that we Christians will not be judged according to our deeds, especially not according to any of our bad deeds. If only someone had told Paul about this.

1 What advantage, then, does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? 2 Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3 For what if some have no faith? Will their faithlessness make the faithfulness of God without effect?

4 God forbid! Yes, let God be true, but every man a liar.

As it is written, That you might be justified in your sayings, and might overcome when you are judged. 5 But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.)

6 God forbid! For how then would God judge the world? 7 For if the truth of God has more abounded through my life to his glory; why yet am I judged as a sinner. 8 And why not, (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? Their condemnation is just.

9 What then? Are we better than they? No, by no means: for we have before leveled this charge against both Jews and Gentiles: they are all under sin.

10 As it is written, There is no one righteous. No, not one. 11 There is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks after God. 12 They have turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good. No, not so much as one. 13 Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they have used deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, 14 whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. 17 The way of peace they have not known. 18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.

19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. 21 But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being witnessed to by the law and the prophets: 22 the righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, by the law of faith. 28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: 30 seeing it is one God who will justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision by faith. 31 Do we then nullify the law through faith? God forbid! No, we establish the law.

Romans 4

1 What will we say then that Abraham our father, has found according to the flesh? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3 For what does Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 4 Now to him who works the reward is not considered of grace, but of debt. 5 But to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

6 Likewise David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works, 7 saying, Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

9 Does this blessedness come upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. 10 How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which had as still uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all who believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed to them also; 12 and the father of circumcision to those who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had while still uncircumcised.

13 For the promise, that he should be heir of the world, was not given to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if those who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect. 15 Because the law works wrath. For where no law is, there is no transgression. 16 Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, that the promise might be made sure to all the seed, not only that which is of the law, but also to that which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, God, who quickens the dead, and calls those things which are not as though they were. 18 Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, as it was spoken, So your seed will be. 19 And being not weak in faith, he did not consider his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, nor even the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20 He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, 21 and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform.

22 And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. 23 Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; 24 but for us also, to whom it will be imputed, if we trust in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

We will use, for this exercise, the translation of the Didache made by Charles H. Hoole, which, because he died in 1902, has passed into the public domain. The first chapter consists of six short verses, and many are even shorter:

1 There are two paths, one of life and one of death, and the difference is great between the two paths.

The first verse of the Didache is referencing Deuteronomy 30:19, where, as Moses is concluding his presentation of the covenant, he sets obedience and disobedience in these terms. The Deuteronomistic content of the Didache has led some to speculate that it is a re-working of a document designed for Jewish proselytes. Whether that is true or not, this series will primarily concern itself with what the document sets out to teach, not how all its words found themselves here.

2 Now the path of life is this — first, thou shalt love the God who made thee, thy neighbour as thyself, and all things that thou wouldest not should be done unto thee, do not thou unto another.

It’s a curious set of things that summarize here the path to life. The whole path of obeying God summed up in many different ways in the Bible: as the first two of these commands (Matthew 22:40), as just the first commandment (1 John 5:2-3), as the manifold fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-24), as the golden rule positively stated (Matthew 7:12), the eleven principles of Psalm 15, the six principles of Isaiah 33:15, the three principles of Micah 6:8, and the famous single principle of Habakkuk 2:4 [1].

The Scriptures contain such a wealth of summarizations that the author of the Didache could not help but try his own hand at it. And he didn’t do half bad: he took Jesus’ own summary of the law from Matthew 22:40 and added the Old Testament’s statement of the golden rule (in its negative form) to produce a three-fold summary attested to by both the Old Testament and Jesus. Not bad, Didache guy. Not bad at all. Then he starts working through these “maxims” in more depth, working from the Beattitudes. (It turns out that it is not just modern Christians, including Mennonites, who treat the Sermon on the Mount as the “Constitution of the Church.”

3 And the doctrine of these maxims is as follows. Bless them that curse you, and pray for your enemies. Fast on behalf of those that persecute you; for what thank is there if ye love them that love you? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? But do ye love them that hate you, and ye will not have an enemy.

The comparison and contrast between the text as found in Matthew and the text of the Didache is interesting. The explanation begins with simple re-printing of Matthew (or pre-printing, if the Didache was written before Matthew), but moves on to something not found in the gospel: ‘Fast on behalf of those that persecute you.” That the church after the departure of Christ should have an increased emphasis on fasting is entirely fitting in light of Matthew 9:14-15. And the Didache also goes a bit further than Matthew, as Matthew tells us “love your enemies”, while the Didache, reflecting on Jesus’ commands, notes that Jesus’ commands concerning enemies cause those enemies to disappear.

The friendliness toward enemies which is characteristic of Christianity operated, as a sort of relational aikido, to conquer the Roman Empire without the use of force, saving it from injury in the process. The writer of the Didache appreciated the transformative and even conquering potential hidden within Jesus’ words.

4 Abstain from fleshly and wordly lusts. If any one give thee a blow on thy right cheek, turn unto him the other also, and thou shalt be perfect; if any one compel thee to go a mile, go with him two; if a man take away thy cloak, give him thy coat also; if a man take from thee what is thine, ask not for it again, for neither art thou able to do so.

It’s hard not to see the Didache as a pacifist document. It not only teaches the standard wording about turning the other cheek, but develops the principle far enough to require that one not even ask for the return of stolen goods. It would be easy to suppose that such as would fall off the face of the earth if it refused self-defense, and perhaps Josephus assumed they would when he said that the tribe of Christians had not yet disappeared, but if that is what he had in mind, he repeated the common fallacy of underestimating the power of the non-violent. But the Didache goes on even deeper into the seemingly impractical. One is not only to allow theft, but to give indiscriminately, it would seem.

5 Give to every one that asks of thee, and ask not again; for the Father wishes that from his gifts there should be given to all. Blessed is he who giveth according to the commandment, for he is free from guilt; but woe unto him that receiveth. For if a man receive being in need, he shall be free from guilt; but he who receiveth when not in need, shall pay a penalty as to why he received and for what purpose; and when he is in tribulation he shall be examined concerning the things that he has done, and shall not depart thence until he has paid the last farthing.

The Didache has now turned a corner. Going from exhortation to boundless generosity, it moves on to discussing one of the pitfalls of generosity: people who take advantage of that generosity to enrich themselves at the expense of other. The phrase ‘until he has paid the last farthing’ is particularly striking. Here it is used for the penalty of the greedy charity recipient, while in Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, it is the penalty of the greedy unforgiving servant. But it would take a naive view of human nature to think that simply exhorting generosity on the part of givers and responsibility on the part of takers will do enough to regulate charity. Paul knew it wasn’t, and so did the framers of the Didache. Both Paul and the Didache demand, at least in some cases, investigation of some sort prior to giving:

6 For of a truth it has been said on these matters, let thy almsgiving abide in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou hast given.

And so the Didache appears to have turned around. First we are told to give indiscriminately and not even think of getting anything in return, and then we are told not to give until we have checked out the recipient adequately. The Didache refuses to over-simplify things and gives full weight to the tension between the principles of generosity and responsibility. It simply presents them, gives some pointers, and leaves the reader to work out the implications in day to day situations.

As Gary North might put it, the text requires disciplined biblical intuition in its hearers. Or, as John Hobbins might say, it elicits strong readers. Regardless of how you put it, its approach is interesting enough that I look forward to putting together installation #2.

[1] I owe this list of summaries of the law to Greg Bahnsen’s book By This Standard, and especially page 126, where he collects most of these examples.

The fireworks event is a major annual display here in Columbus, and it is accompanied by a patriotic / musical presentation on the radio machine. Immediately before the fireworks began, the radio told us to stand for the singing of our national anthem.

My church is Mennonite. That’s too simple. It’s an inner-city church founded by historically rural Mennonites. It doesn’t have the name ‘Mennonite’ on the door. If you sat in on a church service, the only tip-off would be a few girls who cover their head. Head-covering, for those Mennonites who still practice it, is both an honest response to a command from Paul and a potent cultural symbol. But some Mennonites have wandered from their historical roots. Some Mennonites are moving toward a watery liberal Protestantism, even ordaining gays. You can bet those Mennonites don’t head-cover. The passage which institutes head covering, after all, does so in terms of male headship, which is neither hip nor cool nor with it.

These Mennonites live in the city, and no doubt they’re smart enough to realize that the hierarchy of the Mennonite Church USA has been captured by theological liberals whose politically hip beliefs they find offensive. Meanwhile, my church doesn’t have the word “Mennonite” on it, and it has drawn in folks who, like me, have no previous Mennonite background. They haven’t tried to make us Mennonite. Us “outsiders” are a variety of evangelicals: Christian church, baptist, other. We have a rotating group of seven or eight German interns coming and going all months of the year too: some Mennonite, some not. We’re an eclectic bunch.

A crowd of men and women more clearly Mennonite in appearance visited last night. So did some non Mennonite Christians, from the US, China, and Panama.

And we were all on top of the roof when the voice on the radio machine told us that we must please stand in respect for the singing of our national anthem.

Some springing to their feet, others looking about bewildered, the group rose. But not everyone. One fellow, not from this country, declared that if he wasn’t patriotic in his own country, he had even less reason to rise patriotically for this country. Everyone else stood. Hands were placed in various places — on hearts, in pockets, clasped, or awkwardly held to the sides in uncertainty. Mennonites, after all, don’t go to war (unless it’s WWII, I suppose) and July the fourth is about our first war as a nation. Our flag adoration, similarly, is both implicitly and explicitly tied to the honor of our military.

No one, so far as I could hear, sang along. A variety of interesting comments and conversations, showing the varied nature of responses in this motley crowd, followed. I heard concerns about America not being what it used to be, concerns about distinguishing love for country from approval from war, and even some folks trashing Reagan and hoping for another John Birch. At least one person found out for the first time that Mennonites are anti-war that night.

Things are changing. Where it’s all going, I’m not sure.

L: What about religion? Dr. Paul is a Christian…

Doug: Most people who are Christians are Christians only by an accident of birth – because their parents were. The same is true of Muslims. And Jews. And Hindus. And almost all religious types. It’s the same as politics, actually. Most people are Democrats or Republicans because their parents were. It’s reflexive and it’s easy – even if it’s totally irrational.

I lose some respect for people who believe things because of an accident of birth, but I’ve got nothing against Christians being Christian. It’s when they try to force their religion on me that I have a problem. More and more, though, religion in the West has nothing to do with theology; it has much more to do with a general sense of shared identity and values. Even if it’s mostly just lip service.

Anyway, I think Ron is sincere about his Christianity. But I feel confident he’s the type of Christian who admires Christ – who was actually very admirable in many ways – as opposed to the uptight kind of Christian who mimics the strictures based on the aberrant theories of Paul.

L: Something Christ, I think, would have objected to.

Doug: Yes. I suspect if Paul had tried to join the apostles Jesus would have politely, but firmly, asked him to go away. Jesus was a rather Buddha-like figure, whereas Paul was a proto-Leninist.

The number of murders, massacres, and whole wars fought in the name of a peaceful carpenter who taught people to turn the other cheek and forgive just shows you how capable of willful ignorance and self-serving myopia people are.

But that’s getting in to a different subject… Back to Ron; he’s not the type to impose his religion on people. Thank God Huckabee, that smarmy, slick preacher, has dropped out of the race. In any event, I believe Ron’s libertarian principles would restrain him from seriously mixing his religion with his politics, even if he were tempted.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ; even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love; having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely bestowed favor on us in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him; in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his will; to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ: in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation — in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory. For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him; having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

You were made alive when you were dead in transgression and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we should walk in them.

Therefore remember that once you, the gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘uncircumcision’ by what is called ‘circumcision’ (in the flesh, made by hands); that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

For this cause I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you gentiles, if it is so that you have heard of the administration of that grace of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in few words, by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ; which in other generations was not made known to the children of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; that the gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel; of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all the saints, was this grace given, to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord; in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him. Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.

For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love; being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all. But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Therefore he says, ‘When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.’ Now this, ‘He ascended’, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.

He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head: Christ; from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts; who having become callous gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you did not learn Christ that way; if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus; that you put away as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands that which is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for building up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.

Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance. But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate, but rather giving of thanks.

Know for sure that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance of the Kingdom of Christ and God.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is well pleasing to the Lord. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of. But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light. Therefore he says, ‘Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’

Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise; redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body. But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself gloriously, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord also does the assembly; because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones. ‘For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will be joined to his wife. The two will become one flesh.’ This mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and of the church. Nevertheless each of you must also love his own wife even as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’, which is the first commandment with a promise: ‘that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.’

You fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Servants, be obedient to those who according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ; not in the way of service only when their eyes are on you, as men-pleasers; but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men; knowing that whatever good thing each one does, he will receive the same back from the Lord, whether he is bound or free.

You masters, do the same things to them, and give up threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven, and there is no partiality with him.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having the belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints: on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

But that you also may know my affairs, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant of the Lord, will make known to you all things; whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts.

Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love. Amen.