Spiritual
adultery
By Timothy Lamer
A case of infidelity
in the public square
http://www.worldmag.com/world/issue/10-07-00/closing_1.asp
On Sept. 14, a joint session of the U.S. House and Senate basically bowed down
to Baal. A
Hindu priest from Ohio, Venkatachalapathi Samuldrala, gave the invocation that
day, the same day that Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spoke to the
legislators (WORLD, Sept. 30.) It was the first time that a Hindu priest had
served as a guest chaplain on Capitol Hill, and the event showcased everything
that is wrong, from an evangelical perspective, with the congressional
chaplaincy in particular and civil religion in general.
How should evangelicals, who have fought so hard for
a resurgence of civil religion, react to officially sanctioned Hindu prayer in
the halls of Congress? Well, one response should be immediate: If any
congressman who is a professing Christian took part in the service, the elders
of his church should call him to repentance and, if he doesn't repent,
excommunicate him.
Sound too harsh? It isn't,
if we take the Bible seriously. God's Word teaches that a Christian who bows
down to a false god—or takes part in a prayer that denies Christ—is engaged
in spiritual adultery, which is every bit as serious as physical adultery.
Christ demands our exclusive spiritual allegiance, and the church must not
tolerate violations of the first two commandments among its members
But another response is appropriate: Perhaps Mr.
Samuldrala's invocation will cause evangelicals to rethink their devotion to
civil religion. As the United States increasingly becomes a gigantic Vanity Fair
of false religions, it will become more difficult every year for Christians to
see religion in the public square as a good thing.
Actually, America's increasing pluralism is only making
clear what has been true for a long time but hidden from view: Christians are a
minority in this country. America has a lot of nominal Christians in
theologically liberal churches, but as J. Gresham Machen argued nearly 80 years
ago, theological liberalism "not only is a different religion from
Christianity but belongs in a totally different class of religions."
A great number of mainline Protestant churches reject
the deity of Christ, the sinfulness of man, the inspiration of the Bible, and
numerous other essential doctrines of the faith; they are no more Christian than
Mr. Samuldrala's Shiva Vishnu Hindu Temple in Parma, Ohio. Christians shouldn't
be surprised to find that we are in the minority. Jesus said that few would
enter the narrow gate to salvation and many would enter the wide gate to
destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).
Nor should we be surprised
that an unchristian majority would reserve an
honored place for untruth in its civil religion. A
Hindu invocation is only an extreme version of this habit. Other forms of civil
religion routinely are calculated to be inoffensive to those who deny Christ.
(Witness the controversy when a legislative chaplain dares to say a
Christ-centered prayer.) Truth, it seems, is too polarizing and divisive. Polite
universalism is America's civil religion, and it is an absolute enemy of the
gospel. It assumes that those who are not in Christ are on good terms with
God—a lie, according to the Bible.
Usually that assumption isn't quite as open as it was
on September 14, but it will be more often as America becomes more and more
diverse. Get ready for Mormons, Muslims, New Age shamans, and, with the rise of
Wicca, even Wiccans leading congressmen in prayer on the floor of the House.
Don't laugh. Not too long ago, the thought of a Hindu guest chaplain would have
seemed laughable.
Or evangelicals could continue to fight for symbolic
civil religion. But, increasingly, the result of their effort will be a golden
calf in America's pluralistic public square. How will they react? If Mr.
Samuldrala's invocation is any indication, they will silently bow and not make
waves, for the sake of having religion—any religion, even soul-destroying
religion—in the public square.
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