Irreconcilable voices

I came across the following interesting quote from a speech given by Rev. Bob Edgar, Secretary of the National Council of Churches, at the University of Pennsylvania's Christian Association in 2004. Hat tip to Chip Berlet at Talk To Action.

Bob Edgar describes what he sees as the two competing visions of Christianity in the world today.

I think there are two Christian Churches.  I think one Christian Church was fascinated with the Old Testament Messiah, who was going to come and lead a mighty army.  They see that Old Testament Messiah through the eyes of the Armageddon theology.  You hear them talking a lot about the second coming.  I think there's another Christian Church who was surprised that God sent the Messiah in a humble birth and a person who was a conscientious objector talking about peace and cared about the poor.  And this other Church think the second coming already happened.  We call it Easter.  God is in fact inviting us to help change the world in which we live.

And so when you hear that the Christian Church speaks with one voice, we actually have two voices that are not reconcilable.  And I happen to be part of this voice that sees God having already made the miracle.  We don’t have to wait for another miracle to occur.  We have to accept the miracle that's there.

Are the two voices irreconcilable? For the most part I believe they are. They represent not so much different understandings of Christianity as they do completely opposing visions of reality — one true and grounded in love, and the other false and grounded in idolatry.

It's not too fashionable or politically correct on the Christian left these days to talk about other religious viewpoints as 'false' or idolatrous. Liberal Christians speak sometimes of loving our enemies as if the command to do so means passively tolerating and accepting evil, rather than actively resisting evil by speaking the truth with love.

Not all views of God can be equally 'true'. Some are patently hateful and false. Any system of religion that uses God to legitimize injustice, hate or suffering is evil and idolatrous, no matter how many times its proponents squeeze the name of Jesus or Allah into each sentence. Idolatry doesn't deal with the true God, who is love, but rather with some poor facsimile based on fear, envy or love of power.

The New Testament teaches us that love comes from God, that God is love and that there is no fear in love. Everything that expresses love originates (by definition) in God. Conversely, nobody can truthfully claim to love God while acting in hate toward their neighbor.

There are irreconcilable voices both calling themselves Christian. One affirms the good news of God's kingdom of love breaking into this world, while the other deals in division, despair and judgment. We must all choose now and each day of our lives which voice we will heed, which path to follow.