Book Review: The Spirit of our Politics by Michael Wear

Published in 2023, before our current total dysfunction, Michael Wear discusses how Christian spirituality should (and should not) interact with politics. He quotes heavily from several books by the late Dallas Willard (who died in 2013).

The book opens with a discussion of how sick our politics are, and explains it is the disappearance of moral knowledge. He is very clear on what the gospel is (Jesus as Lord comes to save us) and what it is not (a fixer to manage crises and help us manage our sin). Jesus is Lord.  Many are misled into believing various false ‘gospels’ that do not lead them into making Jesus Lord of their life. He is able to deliver from sin and its consequences, but the focus must be on Him, not on what He does for us. Our politics are sick because along with rejecting a political role for the true gospel, we have also rejected any basis for moral knowledge in politics. But people who are not Christians are still capable of understanding right and wrong, and acting based on moral principles, if they choose to.

Perhaps the best summary of the approach Wear advocates is his discussion of Ruby Bridges. She was a six-year-old black girl who initiated school integration at a specific school in New Orleans in 1960. She is perhaps best known through the Norman Rockwell painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which hangs outside the Oval Office in the White House. But her actions during that first year demonstrate the specific characteristics described in the book. She persisted in doing what was right; she smiled at those who cursed and spat at her; she prayed for the people in the mob every night; she trusted God; she had childlike faith, but what she did was part of what changed the nation.

A few key observations:

•  Does Christian politics mean mental assent to a few key doctrines, plus holding a particular position on one or two key issues? Does this view allow us to advance these positions in destructive and deceitful ways? The right and left both try to reduce Christianity to an affirmation of their politics. But Jesus is not a fixer or dispose of a decaying body who cleans the blood off the carpet. He is Lord. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

•  Dallas Willard’s The Allure of Gentleness (which I have not read but the author cites) advances the view that Christians should participate in politics not as an act of imposition but out of a spirit of loving service. We do it to help people, especially those who want to be helped. Jude 1:3 call to contend for the faith isn’t about beating an opponent into intellectual submission. It is about how we live in moral purity.  (See Jude 1:4-7) God is present in our midst and wants us to see our fellow citizens as He sees them.

•  How should pastors address political issues? Wear recommends that they use political and cultural conversations as a prompt to connect the needs and desires that these conversations reveal to God’s heart of love for all people. But it is not essential for pastors to regularly address politics from the pulpit; instead, the issues and needs can and should be addressed in other acts of service, outside of Sunday mornings. Pastors can model how Christianity transcends and confound political frameworks through active participation in civic life.

The end aim is that, even as we are building the kingdom of God on earth, with the church as a community of His people being His dwelling place, ultimately the new heaven and new earth will have people living in the light of the Lord, needing neither lamps nor sun. They will reign forever. (Revelation 22:3-5)

 

Migrant Deportation and China’s one child debacle

While seemingly unrelated, beware of the folly of defying God as a matter of national policy. 

From 1979 to 2015 China had an official policy limiting families to one child. This was motivated by concerns of overpopulation and the economic cost of large numbers of children to be raised. Implementation included economic coercion, various birth control measures, abortion, etc. In the natural course of things, the consequences included a preference for sons and a shortage of young marriageable women, and an age demographic distribution with fewer young adults to provide for a comparatively growing population of the aging. This includes a shortage of young workers, and in general the need for young people, especially men, to staff the military, which will persist for a generation from the end of the policy. This is not to say that China’s economy is struggling, because it is currently booming. Raising children is an investment in the future (very costly as parents can testify from experience), so having fewer of them increases resources available for present consumption at the cost of future return on investment - eating the seed corn. It appears that China finally realized this.

Satan tried to kill Moses (Exodus 1:16 & 22) and Jesus (Matthew 2:13-18), but he is impotent in eliminating God’s anointed. Satan’s effort in China similarly failed, and China’s deliverer will be revealed in due time. Lest we be tempted to judge the evils of abortion and infanticide associated with this policy in China, we must remember that Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973, and legalized abortion ran amok for almost fifty years in the United States.

In 2025 we have an initiative to deport illegal migrants from the U.S. The basis for this seems to be concern about crime, and economics such as competition for employment and higher burdens on social welfare systems, health systems, housing and public schools. Most studies that I can find referenced on the internet show no correlation between crime rate and birthplace or immigration status (other than the basic crime of undocumented immigrants not having legal status by definition). The hard work of immigrants is ubiquitous in our workforce, indicating that most migrants did not come here for a hand out, but for freedom and opportunity to work hard and make something of their life.

A policy of not showing hospitality to immigrants contravenes Scripture:

•  Exodus 22:21: You shall not oppress a stranger nor torment him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (See also Exodus 23:9, Leviticus 19:34, Deuteronomy 10:19.)

•  Matthew 25:34-35 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in. …  41-43 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ (see also Hebrews 13:2.)

The Old Testament commands from God cite Israel’s time as strangers in Egypt, a practical view that circumstances change and a cultural ethic of hospitality or lack of it will eventually be repaid. This is not a biblical command to allow for uncontrolled and unlimited immigration. Abraham brought trouble on himself when he went to Egypt during a famine without God’s direction. (Genesis 12:10-20). This contrasts with the blessing on Israel in Egypt beginning in Genesis 41. Joseph matured through trials before he was blessed and served God faithfully, also blessing Egypt during their famine. (Genesis 41:41-56) Israel was later invited by Pharoah to move to Egypt. (Genesis 45:16-20) And God also told Jacob to go there (Genesis 46:2-4) More fearsome is the judgment when Egypt treated Israel as slaves, refusing to let them leave. (Exodus 7-12)

In the context of Biblical values, immigrants must respect the basis of our culture and society, for example the U S Constitution and the legitimacy of elected officials they disagree with. To invoke God’s care and protection, migrants must honor and respect Him, and live accordingly - they need divine sanction for migrating.

The New Testament turns to Jesus repaying in kind those who welcome and care for strangers, or don’t. This points to a spiritual dimension of causation that should be a warning for us. Even if society as a whole does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord and live accordingly, there are cause and effect consequences to obeying or defying His moral law. A century ago, the roaring twenties were followed by the Great Depression. The debauchery of the 1920’s is of a different sort than mistreatment of strangers. And yet God cries out to us to not go this road, because of His love, He asks us to repent. He gives us object lessons – Scriptural and recent history. He offers us love and blessing if we respond to Him. We can only speculate what form God’s discipline will take for rejection of His ways. Are we on a path to find out as described at the beginning of this post?

Book Review: Forty Days of Decrease, by Alicia Britt Chole

 

Subtitle: A Different Kind of Hunger, a Different Kind of Fast

Written for a daily devotional for fasting during Lent, this book discusses forty different behaviors and attitudes that we can abstain from. The impetus is that by fasting them, we can decrease their influence on us. Each day has four sections: a discussion of one event in Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem; reflection on the relevant point of that event; a specific behavior or attitude that we can fast; and a short discussion on the historical evolution of Lent from the time of Christ to modern practice. The point of these is that Jesus did not divinely march to Jerusalem in confidence and faith, but that He humanly struggled with obedience to the Father’s plan, without sin.

The grand reduction began when Jesus fasted omnipresence and clothed Himself with flesh. He fasted the worship of angels and accepted the disregard of man. He spent thirty years in obscurity. He chose weakness. He fasted food in the wilderness after His baptism, but He had thirty years experience fasting from and hungering for the presence and glory of God the Father Himself, that He had voluntarily left.

A complete list of the items to fast, in the table of contents, includes (a few examples, there are forty):

•      Tidy faith

•      Fixing it

•      Isolation

•      Spiritual self-protection

•      Neutrality

•      Formulas

•      Escapism

•      Stinginess

•      Spectatorship

One example: fasting premature resolution. Do I make decisions too abruptly, or do I wait too long to make a decision? Jesus said, “My soul is troubled.” (John 12:27) This was in the specific context of the Father’s plan for Jesus to die for the sins of the world, as He contemplated His approaching death. A troubled soul is sometimes the signature of obedience-in-the-making. Obedience is a process, not a moment. We need to discern between two possible causes for our heart to be troubled: fear of the future; or obedience-in-the-making. This takes time spent in discerning the root of our troubled soul. The discernment process may involve questioning, agonizing, and weeping. Fasting premature resolution means going through the process to a conclusion instead of truncating it too early.

Another example: Fasting escapism. The disciples and other believers had varying reactions to shattered dreams after Jesus’ death and burial (before His resurrection). Some were healthier than others. What is your default when spiritually disappointed? Distraction with activity? Drowning in pity? Numbing entertainment? For the health of our soul, we must resist checking out when it looks like God just died. Instead, we need to address God directly and honestly about our pain, and let it remind us that we need to take time to heal, and embrace disappointment as a forward step in spiritual formation.

We are not in Jesus’ place of having left heaven. Yet, we can fast from attitudes and behaviors of the flesh in order to hunger more strongly for His kingdom and to be like Him. The essence of this challenge is that to grow so as to be conformed to His image, natural human behaviors and attitudes must be reduced to create space in us to conform to the divine spiritual kingdom of Jesus. Franklin Hall vividly explained that the power of fasting from food focuses our spirit on Jesus, that then manifests in atomic power with God through miraculous interventions that reveal His glory.  Alicia Chole explains how fasting from natural, human behaviors conforms our heart to become like His, which reveals His glory in a different dimension. What is God’s glory? Ultimately, it is His power to bring the dead to life, and His holiness, which is His authority to overcome and vanquish sin in our lives, to free us to do what He calls us to.

Book Review: Atomic Power With God thru Fasting and Prayer by Franklin Hall

I’ll start right off by saying this book is challenging. The topic of fasting is challenging to begin with, both to do and to understand. The writing is clear but there is a lot of repetition between chapters. The illustrations from actual events are compelling. They call to mind stories of the power of God from the second great awakening.

Hall discusses Biblical stories of fasting (e.g., Jesus, Paul, Moses), Biblical precepts about the practice, reasons why we should fast, the essentials of fasting and the human appetites to be mastered, very straightforward instructions on how to do it (drink lots of water, phases to expect, how to end one), the effects on the physical body (besides being hungry), and how to break the fast. On the practical side, he talks about the health benefits of fasting in terms of cleansing the body (digestive system, blood, etc.), conquering addiction to food or other things (smoking), and getting the body to readjust its metabolism to a healthier weight set-point. He also talks about healthy living post-fast, what foods to avoid (written in 1950, well before ultra-processed foods were the norm, and the bane of healthy diets).

He identifies four human appetites - spiritual, hunger, sex, and greed. In the normal human condition our lives are controlled by one of the last three. By overcoming hunger (which takes a few to several days) the other appetites are demoted in our soul. At the point our spiritual appetite can take control and urge us into Godly behavior. Hindrances and obstacles to a life of faith are removed, initially in small ways but eventually as an appetite altogether.

On the spiritual side, the first point is that after fasting forty days, Jesus told Satan that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then He started His ministry with preaching and miraculous works of power (healings, casting out demons, raising the dead). When we deny our bodily desires, we are open to focus on the essence of spiritual life - to hear God’s voice, to secure our faith in God’s presence, to know what God wants us to do and to pray for, and devote our whole heart to Him. In the quiet times that we need to set aside, any or all of these things empower us to become and to do in the spiritual realm. And this empowerment leads to the same kinds of ministry that history records both in the Bible and in more recent revivals. Yes, it seems that all revivals of which I have heard were intimately tied to intense fasting and prayer.

When I was forced to fast as a result of a medical procedure, the physical effects followed just as the book describes. More importantly, when I set aside quiet time to wait on the Lord, I was able to grasp just how helpless I am apart from the Lord. And the physical pain that could only be partially medicated and resulting hours of being awake in bed were perhaps a foretaste of what eternity will be like for those we cannot reach, who will regret their actions in this life that they cannot undo in the next, their separation from God, and their inability to do anything at all.  I did not sense any new spiritual depth to pray for lost sinners or nations at war (both of which desperately need prayer), but this was not primarily a spiritual fast.

And so the book concludes that a great spiritual awakening is in the making, a mighty revival of power, signs, wonders and miracles. The Holy Spirit is on the move and we must respond with fasting and prayer. This was written in 1950, before the Charismatic revival (portrayed in the movie The Jesus Revolution), or the Catholic charismatic conferences. But in the 21st century, we face unprecedented spiritual challenges discussed in The Return of the Gods (and innumerable other books and media). We need to buckle down and learn from prior generations how to experience God’s power and presence through fasting and prayer.

Worship

 What is the point of worshipping God? We show reverence and admiration for Jesus. He said that the day would come when we would worship in spirit and in truth. Singing praise is one dimension - when we declare His attributes aloud. The written words of the songs are complemented in our freestyle worship. We speak or sing of His nature and character and His works in unscripted declarations as the Holy Spirit gives them to us.

Jesus’ works are manifest in so many ways that they seem inexhaustible. He created the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. The beauty and intricacy of nature are beyond awe-inspiring. His hand in history is recorded both in the Bible and man’s written history. But equally important, His work in our individual lives shapes us into what He is calling us to become. Through teachings of the church, through fellowship and discipleship, and through chastening, the events of life, Jesus forms us into His image.

We have glimpses of Jesus’ nature and character, although obviously not the transcendent dimensions. He is perfectly holy - meaning that He is undividedly devoted to moral purity, doing what is right, and separated from evil and sin, even from sins of omission. By His very nature, He loves, and shows love to all who will receive Him. He loves those who reject Him too, but cannot show His love in any way other than trying to win them to Himself, and He will allow sin to reap its harvest in their lives in hope they will turn to Him.  He will not participate in evil. We have difficulty understanding how to choose or reconcile bad things happening to good people and God seemingly allowing it, but that is where His transcendence is paramount.

Jesus’ love desires and works for the best long-term interests and outcome of others. It manifests as being patient and kind. not envying, not boasting, not being proud. It does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs, does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Because of all these (above) Jesus is worthy of our worship. His glory is revealed. He has high renown and honor won by both His works and His magnificence. C. S. Lewis wrote an essay called the weight of glory, based on 2 Corinthians 4:17, that our current lives are should be focused on the unseen, eternal promises of God, and the weight we sense when He is present with us.

The point of worshipping God is not just that He is worthy to be publicly acknowledged for His nature and character, His works, and His goodness to us. It is to join together in public agreement, in detail, about His essential attributes, and to focus our own minds and hearts on these things. His holiness can be imparted to us, His love can flow through us to others. If we sense His in singing about Him in reverence and awe, we are closer to that eternal outcome, of becoming like Him.

We can sing and we can testify, but beyond that, we should devote our lives totally to Him. He gives us stewardship over His resources that He has given us: our time, our abilities, the money we have, our families, our energy. Worship also includes doing what He asks us to, as faithful stewards. Some He calls to travel to foreign lands as missionaries and evangelists. Some He asks to work building His kingdom locally. He asks all to be generous with their finances, while being faithful stewards. Generosity does not mean enabling others’ sinful or irresponsible behaviors, but helping those truly in need. Worshipful actions by us encourage others to similarly worship Jesus through their lives.

Book Review: The Return of the Gods by Jonathan Cahn

Complementing The Unseen Realm, which discusses the Biblical passages relating to the fallen elohim, the Return of the Gods addresses how these enemies of God are actively working to destroy Christianity in the modern world. The book focuses on how three specific ancient pagan gods - the dark trinity of Baal, Moloch, and Ishtar - are re-introducing their religion in the post-Christian western world. The longest discussion is on how the sexual deviancy of the modern world in all its forms - unrestricted sex, abortion on demand, homosexuality, transvestite apparel, gender redefinition and transition, the destruction of innate identity - is all traceable back to pagan worship of Ishtar (under many names) thousands of years ago.

  It seems odd that spirit beings (fallen elohim) would engage in the sexual debauchery described in ancient writings about Ishtar. Perhaps part of their fall from grace is sexual perversion, or perhaps it is a metaphor for the fervency with which they want humans to worship them, and certainly a tool to destroy Christianity in the modern world.

The fallen elohim are true to their character and have only one new tool (modern electronic media), but seem to be sticklers for dates and events. For example, the riot at the Stonewall Inn in New York City from June 28-July 2, 1969 started on the anniversary of the ancient celebration of Ishtar and Tammuz.  (Tammuz was one of Ishtar’s lovers, that she mourned when he died. ) Later, three Supreme Court decisions, in 2003, 2013, and 2015, related to homosexuality were decided on June 26 of each year. 

I often wondered why Aaron made the golden calf when Moses tarried in God’s presence, and then centuries later Jeroboam made two golden calves at the north and south end of the northern kingdom of Israel. The answer is here - this is one of Baal’s manifestations, one that he seduces religious people to worship when they rebel against YHWH. And … the charging bull was installed on Wall Street in 1989 (approximately twenty years after the Stonewall Inn riot). Does the emphasis of our culture on material success, epitomized by bull markets, constitute idolatry of worshipping Baal? And…  what is the significance of a display of artifacts related to the ancient gate of Ishtar in Babylon at NYU at the beginning of the COVID crisis (November 2019-May 2020)? 

The pattern of the introduction of anti-life values is directly correlated with the pagan religious practices into a post-Christian United States. The fallen elohim, whose history is recounted in the Bible and explained in Heiser’s book mentioned above, are attempting to lead as many as possible away from Truth. The weapons of our warfare are identified in Ephesians 6. Prominent among them are the belt of truth and the gospel of peace. Evangelization and teaching are the only hope for winning this spiritual battle. It is not so much that these fallen pagan wanna-be gods are fearsome or powerful (although they do have some power), but that they deceive people and our culture into self-destruction. 

Our future depends on peeling back the devil’s facade with Truth incarnate. Declaring the truth to our nation and culture must be buttressed with fasting and prayer to focus our hearts on the ultimate Victor, engage Him in our specific battles, and bring the power of the Holy Spirit directly into the lives of those who need to be saved from evil incarnate. Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church, based on the confession of Him, the keys to heaven’s kingdom and binding of the powers in heaven.

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:16-19)

Make America Healthy Again?

Since Robert F Kennedy, Jr., plans to get America to eat healthier foods, it seems like there are two steps in this, neither of which has, to my knowledge, been even outlined.

The first step is to identify what constitutes healthy food. 

• It is easy to generalize and say that refined sugar, fat, preservatives, and artificial flavor enhances, (snd other additives) are unhealthy, but how much? Is there a structured rating scale supported by medical research and having consensus by the relevant dietary and medical staff of how much of what is bad and how much is acceptable? 
• There are many variables in this because of the variety of medical conditions triggered - obesity is the obvious target, but there are cancer, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, liver disease to name a few - and the contributors to these are variegated as to both content and quantity. The public is drowning in warnings issued, both in media and on the packaging of the food items themselves. 
• So the first challenge is to develop a straightforward but simple framework so that the general public can understand what items are unhealthy, both in a general sense, and for specific medical conditions. 
• For the latter, it seems that diabetics and people with allergies of various types know what they need to avoid, unless some processed food item slips in an additive buried in the ingredients list that is not noticed. 
• But for the former, perhaps there should be a simple scale from -100 to +100 with -100 being extremely unhealthy in general (totally junk food that has no nutrition value and actively degrades health), and +100 being extremely healthy. (Fresh fruits and vegetables for example.) I know there are some diet plans that do this (assigning scores to foods) but there would need to be a consensus so that the general public and the food producing and processing sectors would have a common scale that is based on medical science.
• And there would probably need to be an ongoing open forum about the scores assigned to additives like potassium sorbate and the thousands of other preservatives and flavor enhancers. And also about how the scores of processed foods and fast food would be determined from the combination of the many ingredients.

The second step is how to get people to choose the healthier options once they are clear. 

• It is easy to propose something like banning unhealthy foods, but complex in practice unless we go to a quasi-totalitarian state. Prohibition didn’t work all that well a hundred years ago.
• The clarification of the health value or risk would likely incentivize many to choose better options, but not all. (Some people still smoke despite its undisputed health consequences.)  
• An incentive option might be to tax food with negative health consequences, in proportion to the score assigned, and maybe even subsidize the healthiest foods. The fast food industry would doubtless complain if it is forced to subsidize fresh produce, but it might also help poorer people choose apples and carrots and oatmeal over double cheeseburgers and French fries, if they were less expensive.   

For a Biblical context, instructions regarding food have four specific phases. However, health implications vs. religious implications (i.e. honoring God and His creation) aren’t always clear. 

• Initially, God told Adam that He gave him plants and tree fruit for food.  (Genesis 1:29-30).
• After the flood, God gave Noah everything that moves as food, with the caveat that he was not to eat meat with blood in it (presumably meaning raw meat). (Genesis 9:3-4)   The timing isn’t spelled out, but in Genesis 6:3 God reduced human lifespan to 120 years. Prior to that, the patriarchs had lifespans on the order of 900 years. Could there be a causal connection?
• When Moses received the law in the wilderness, very detailed rules for kosher food were spelled out.  (Leviticus 10:8-15; 11:1-47;  Deuteronomy 14:3-21). Although health implications are not identified in the Biblical text, the book None of These Diseases by McMillen and Stern describes some of them. Daniel 1:12-15 suggests that diet is healthy. (N.b., FDA under RFK, Jr.)
• Jesus declared all foods clean. (Mark 7:19) However, the context of the passage indicates that  Jesus specifically was referring to internal defilement, addressing heart issues like  sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly, and stating that physical uncleanness is insignificant compared to these. (Mark 7: 1-23)

It is also worth noting that the concept of processed foods did not exist in Biblical times. The only preservative was salt, and flavor enhancers were limited to naturally occurring spices. Hence it does not speak to things like  potassium bromate, butylated hydroxytoluene, red dye #3, monosodium glutamate, or high fructose corn syrup. 

Of course, poor health isn’t just due to junk food. The stress of modern life certainly contributes, as do excessive alcohol consumption and drug use.  The war on drugs has been going on for over fifty years, and its successes seem outweighed by its lack of success: drug cartels control large swaths of Latin America; roughly one in eight  people over age twelve use illegal narcotics at least monthly. More than six percent of the adult population have an alcohol abuse disorder. Roughly three out of four adults report stress-related physical or mental health symptoms. Stress can result from many issues such as living in poverty, dysfunctional domestic relationships,  job-related pressures, peer pressure, “social” media… the list goes on. 

Dealing with all this goes more to culture than government actions. Historically, small towns and their way of life reduced some of the stressors, but modern electronic media have erased their former isolation. The government can do little to change culture. It can perhaps find a new strategy for the drug war, raise taxes on alcohol, set standards for social media content. Government cannot impose the Biblical standards for a healthy, functioning society and culture, until the return of Jesus to earth to rule as the rightful king, nor can it provide the reassurances Jesus discussed in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 6:25-34). Only Jesus can exercise perfect justice for all, with faithfulness and righteousness being the accepted standard for social behavior. The Lord Himself will bless all people, and the rebel will be a small minority recognized as a sinner who will reap what he sows by rejecting Christ. 

In the meantime, it will be fascinating to see how the Trump administration, and RFK, Jr. in particular, approach the much more modest challenge.