Christian conservatives need to be a little more serpent and a lot less dove

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Christian conservative serpents doves conservatism

Christian conservatives need to be a little more serpent and a lot less dove

My Christian faith and conservative values are often called into question by people who don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with me when it comes to my criticism of the Republican Party. According to these critics, I need to show Republicans more grace, even when they are caught lying or breaking their promises, because Democrats are much worse.

These critics — many of them members of the Trump cult — openly accuse me of not being “Christlike” when I point out how:

Self-professing Christians, conservatives, and constitutionalists have besmirched me personally on a routine basis with accusations of not being pro-life — Erick Erickson called it “doing the bidding of Satan” — for opposing COVID vaccines and mask mandates.

I have no intention of defending myself against my accusers. I have fully documented a myriad of reasons for opposing Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and other so-called conservatives over the years. And if that means people choose to conclude that I’m not showing the proper amount of Christian love in the process, that’s their opinion.

Some of these former allies have gone so far as to report me to Facebook and Twitter, resulting in suspensions, shadow bans, and other damage to those accounts and my website traffic.

Fortunately, the measure of my faith and Christlikeness, or lack thereof, is above their paygrade; it’s God’s call, not theirs. It does, however, cause me to consider exactly what Christian love looks like.

Was Jesus showing Christian love when He drove the moneychangers out of the temple with a whip personally handmade specifically for that purpose? Was Jesus demonstrating love toward the religious leaders of his day when he referred to them as a “brood of vipers” and chastised them for seeking an escape from the coming judgement?

Actually, the answer to these questions is a resounding YES! Why? Because love means dealing with things as they are, not only as we wish they were.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the minister Adolf Hitler imprisoned and ultimately hanged for standing in defiance of the evils of Nazi Germany, had a name that described the social climate of the church in Germany during WWII which led to her collapse — cheap grace:

Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth; the love of God taught as the Christian ‘conception’ of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins…. In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin. Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God.

Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner. Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before. ‘All for sin could not atone.’ Well, then, let the Christian live like the rest of the world, let him model himself on the world’s standards in every sphere of life, and not presumptuously aspire to live a different life under grace from his old life under sin….

Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession…. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

I’ve never been shy about defending my faith and being a Christian conservative. I’ve never been shy about pointing out how today’s lukewarm cheap grace church has destroyed the Good News of Jesus Christ; creating political conditions similar to those that gave rise to Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Nor have I been shy about the stand I take in defense of my constitutional conservative values and how today’s Republican Party and their Democrat counterparts are working hand-in-hand to destroy liberty.

America has drifted away from the nation envisioned by our Founding Fathers and has replaced liberty with tyranny. Evangelicals have drifted away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have replaced it with the cheap grace lukewarm gospel of progressivism and Christian nationalism.

Fascism. Socialism. Trumpism. Nationalism. These are the tyrannical labels of today’s Republican Party. Lukewarm. Cheap grace. Compromising. These are the damnable labels of today’s evangelicals.

As I witness these destructive trends, I refuse to stand by and allow this great country to fall under the tyranny of indifference and inaction; I refuse to allow the destruction of our faith.

Taking a stand against these abominations isn’t a demonstration of hate, but the ultimate display of love . . . for my country and my God.

Scripture instructs Christians to be “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” (Matthew 10:16). And as I look at the current state of conservatism in America, I believe today’s Christian conservative needs a little more serpent and a lot less dove.

Liberty and the future of our great Republic depends on it!

 

David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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