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Note: This essay first appeared in the
July 2006 Baptist Studies Bulletin.
The Christian Right wants us to believe that
they believe in a literal Bible. They sometimes throw out phrases
such as “biblical Christianity” or “biblical worldview,” the latter a
new construction employed by the theocratic Christian
Reconstructionist movement, now a mainstream part of the Religious
Right and including names like DeLay, Dobson, and Richard Land. (See
Michelle’s Goldberg’s excellent volume,
Kingdom Coming, for further analysis.)
But is the Christian Right really biblical? In a
well-documented exposé of the Christian Right’s own published
materials, Margaret M. Mitchell, professor
of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of
Chicago, reveals that the Christian Right does not believe in the
entire Bible, nor do they believe in a literal Bible. Biblical
references within the online literature of the Christian Right are
sparse; the few references are typically vague. Instead, the
Christian Right most frequently employs such non-biblical language as
“family values,” “traditional values,” “Judeo-Christian heritage” and
“Christian worldview.” Mitchell concludes that the Christian Right is
biblical only in the sense of “seeking biblical support for an agenda”
and in using select passages as “weapons to define themselves against
their enemies.”
Mitchell’s conclusions come as no surprise to many
traditional Christians who have long watched fundamentalists slice and
dice the Bible to fit their own agendas, while placing their faith in
personal interpretations of a neutered biblical text rather than in
the Bible itself. The key for fundamentalists is “belief.” As their
literature emphasizes, one must “believe” in a certain way, in a
certain “worldview,” in order to be a true Christian. Unfortunately
for the Christian Right, the Bible which they largely ignore does not
support the concept that belief in overtly political, non-biblical and
quasi-biblical positions equates with righteousness.
Biblically speaking, belief in and of itself is
meaningless. Obedience to God is about doing the will of God
as revealed in scripture, rather than mentally affirming any given
doctrine or theology. And there are few people I know that understand
and embody the biblical mandate of active obedience more than Chuck
Poole.
While the Christian Right rants and rages over the sins of
others, such as abortion (a topic not addressed in the Bible) and
homosexuality (one of the most rarely referenced subjects in the
entire Bible), Chuck Poole consistently challenges the people of God
to simple obedience to the commands of Christ: helping the poor, the
oppressed, the downtrodden, the less fortunate—in short, the
helpless. By some calculations, more than 2000 Bible verses speak of
God’s love for, and our responsibility to, the poor, the marginalized
and the needy. Yet as Chuck reminds me each month, believing
the Bible is not enough: doing the Bible is what counts. By
obeying the overwhelming biblical mandate to help the helpless, we
bear witness to the love of God. And in Chuck’s own life, his actions
on behalf of the poor and the helpless speak even louder than his
biblical preaching.
There is nothing more biblical than being the
presence of God to the poor, oppressed and marginalized, for the Bible
itself is the record of God reconciling helpless humanity to Himself
across the ages. Whether or not those to whom we extend the helping
hand of God ever stand on their own or embrace our faith is beside the
point. After all, God loves us regardless of how we respond.
Biblical Christianity is about doing what God asks of us. In
the midst of a “Christian” world filled with the cacophony of angry
voices demanding allegiance to a watered-down bible and a god
fashioned piecemeal from self-righteous human agendas, Chuck Poole’s
quiet yet insistent voice and ministry clearly demonstrates genuine
biblical Christianity. His words often make me wince in the knowledge
of the sin of my own inaction, but they convey the Jesus of the
Gospels, and they compel me to live out that which I profess to
believe. |
