The power in loving our neighbors

Written By Mark Hackett

“Have there ever been people in history who in their time, like us, had so little ground under their feet, people to whom every possible alternative open to them at the time appeared equally unbearable, senseless, and contrary to life?”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, After 10 Years

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By this point, you’ve seen the videos or heard of what they show: an American citizen in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti, being executed by Republican Party paramilitary forces. This brutal crime came on the heels of another American citizen, Renee Good, being murdered just weeks earlier, as well as a host of other unlawful acts that have been unleashed on American cities.

Pretti was an ICU nurse who served veterans. Like many of his neighbors he was protesting and documenting the human and civil rights abuses being committed by paramilitaries. This is perfectly legal and necessary activity given the state of lawlessness and disorder being inflicted. One day, when this ends and everyone pretends they were always against it, such evidence will be necessary to prosecute those directly responsible, hold to account social institutions and public figures who refused to slow or halt the crimes, and restore the rule of law.

Sadly, today is not that day. Today we witness an alarming number of Republican elites and their paramilitary henchmen breaking the law and ignoring court orders. Using our tax dollars, legal immigrants are being harassed and tortured, war crimes are being committed abroad, American citizens are being illegally detained and beaten, and state violence is being imposed on communities. They blatantly lie about what we see with our own eyes and blame victims. They are telling us this is who they are and what they stand for. We should believe them.

As for those who claim to hold to the Christian faith, we are deeply divided on everything from the basic truths about what we are witnessing to what should be done about this crisis. I’ve written extensively about the why and how behind this fracturing (see here, here, here and here) and don’t see much good in recycling old arguments. The only thing worth adding is that, for far too long, many of us have confused our ability to change people’s hearts with God’s absolute ability to do so.

We must understand that many who claim to be Christian today are operating in bad faith, caring about the name of Jesus and what Scripture says only so far as to clumsily hijack both as tools for self-serving ends. More importantly, we must recognize that some of these people are seemingly beyond the reach of other humans. This is easy to grasp historically, such as with Nazi Germany, but it is much harder to accept when such people are sitting in the White House or roaming the streets heavily armed. It is even harder to receive when such a person sits next to you in a pew at church, or at the church just up the road.

The past few months I’ve been party to several conversations and listened as fellow Christians try to get at this reality without knowing how to name it. This feels like new territory after decades of being ensconced in the postwar order —with its facade of permanent rules and now disproven expectations of progress— and the now shattered bubble of American Christendom.

Yet I’ve often found these conversations vexing, especially in self-described centrist spaces, where they often veer into a strange kind of shadowboxing. Concern for our times shifts into worries about how negative outside perceptions of Christians will limit our impact. There is little to no recognition that this kind of dithering is part of what makes public criticism of Christians warranted. The widespread silence in the face of culture warring evangelicals loudly claiming they speak for all Christians means there is often no clear alternative people can see. Thus, from the view of most outsiders, the only kinds of Christians are those who are horrible or who lack a spine.

This all misses the point, of course. We should be much less concerned with how we are perceived and instead do and say the right things in the face of what is uniquely wrong. We should be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves as we go about the work of the Kingdom (Matthew 10:16).

But that is much easier said than done in the kind of church environment I’m referencing. While we need to unpack the unhinged response of some mainstream evangelical leaders during this violence —as they are instructive in clarifying the realities above and can help guide us away from wrong action— I mostly want to highlight some inspiring Christian responses to this chaos. Scripture and the broader tradition offer plenty of ways to act justly and some Christians are already proving it.

The bad, the ugly, and the hypocrisy

Throughout the month of January, a number of well-known evangelical elites called for or supported extreme violence and encouraged people in countless churches to do the same. Rick Piddock with Baptist Global News is reporting that some of the worst desire for bloodshed comes from John Piper’s acolytes. Piper, of course, is one of the most well-known figures in contemporary evangelicalism. This includes a prominent professor at his seminary, Andy Naselli, using Psalm 58 as a prayer for extreme harm and death to be inflicted on Minneapolis city leaders. Joe Rigney, who previously taught at the same seminary for 16 years, quickly jumped on the bandwagon.

Other evangelical leaders less directly connected to Piper have chimed in as well. Al Mohler blamed peaceful protesters and the victims for the killings. William Wolfe called the execution of Alex Pretti “the appropriate Christian response.” Prominent evangelical Allie Beth Stuckey only seemed concerned about how to spin Pretti’s execution, writing “Dems are winning the media war in Minneapolis…we need more stories and images showing the professionalism and compassion of ICE and border patrol, as well as stories/images of the victims of illegal alien violence.”

Andrew Walker, Professor of Christian Ethics and Public Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, wrote “claiming the mantle of civil disobedience does not confer automatic moral legitimacy in every instance, especially when the standards used to define legitimacy—common in leftist frameworks—are contested, superficial, and self-generated.” Yes, that’s from one the top ethicists in the Southern Baptist Convention at one of the denominations leading schools, not even three hours after Pretti was executed.

More examples abound, but you get the point. There are two driving forces behind these revolting views. First is the elite evangelical fetishization of authority, which is rooted in a theology that worships extreme violence and adores innocent bloodshed. The second has to do with masculine hypocrisy.

Let’s start with authority. It’s no secret evangelical elites love authority. Biblical authority, pastoral authority, church authority, a husband’s authority…authority, authority, authority. Evangelical leaders are often so obsessed with notions of authority that they believe it to be absolute, especially when it comes to their own authority. Questioning authority, even when severe wrongdoing has been done, is frowned upon at best and often not permitted at all.

This fetishization of authority is rooted in deeply problematic theology trumpeted by Piper and other evangelical elites, which in turn has birthed a brutal culture that has given way to all manner of abuse. Here are a few excerpts from last month’s article that summarizes this catastrophe:

“Penal Substitution varies from place to place, but it often goes something like this: individuals are guilty of sin and this has separated us from God. We are born into it and are not capable of bridging the divide. We are threatened by God’s wrath as a result. We need a savior from God’s wrath, so God provided His son Jesus and punished him in our place. Believing Jesus replaced what should have been me on the cross means I am saved…

Harsher styles of PSA especially are equated as being The Gospel to such an extreme degree that those in the fold are wholly unaware other theories of atonement and understandings of God exist. This has all manner of negative knock-on effects, from narrowing what is allowed to be discussed in biblical interpretation to equating brokenness and finiteness with sin and evil, from individualizing all sin to rejecting the fact that sin can be systemic, to confusing painful and unjust ancient cultural practices with ‘being biblical.’

The kind of penal substitutionary culture described above leaves no clear path to learning how to act responsibly in times of social crisis. In some environments the theory even leads people into authoritarianism and a desire for violence, as false beliefs that harm creates order and punishment equals justice take over. When notions of divine violence are turned into an idol —i.e. Jesus was punished or killed for my sins— the skids are greased to wish violence upon others you disagree with or think are wrong. Far too often, we focus on a narrow interpretation of the Cross, cherry picking the parts of Jesus’s life that we like as we downplay the parts we find inconvenient, and cultivating noxious social and cognitive effects from a severe misunderstanding of the Cross.

Indeed, it is because innocent bloodshed on the Cross is glorified through the near-sightedness of cultural PSA that modern abusers are still demanding well-meaning Christians accept the suffering being inflicted on them because it is ‘Christlike’ to do so. The picture of God punishing His innocent Son on the Cross, to satisfy His wrath, has been wielded far too often to justify spousal and child abuse. Some evangelicals even fetishize being persecuted because Jesus was persecuted, or convince themselves they are being persecuted in the face of the most mild disagreements. Others wish or openly call for state-sanctioned violence against their neighbors.”

According to this theology and culture, Republican Party paramilitaries can do no wrong and should be praised, even as they gun down innocent people who are peacefully protesting bad authority and the intentional misuse of power. Hence Piper’s acolytes saying “In many ways, they’re the heroes.”

The second driving force behind this perniciousness is more obvious: the highly performative nature of evangelical masculinity. The “warrior” ethos pushed by many evangelical elite onto men in the pews has always been deeply problematic and produced a lot of crappy results. Jay Mallow, a former U.S. Marine and philosopher/theologian, recently republished this excellent piece on this issue. A few excerpts:

“One does not have to look far in Evangelical circles to see an emphasis on a type of ‘warrior’ masculinity. On one hand if we were to assume it was an emphasis along the lines Lewis dictates in his ‘Necessity of Chivalry’ one could argue for it. Lewis notes the medieval chivalric code demanded men who were, ‘…not a compromise or happy mean between ferocity and meekness; he is fierce to the nth and meek to the nth.’ Yet what I have often seen in a Christian defense of a ‘warrior ethos’ is more near the fear Lewis expresses in the quote I put at the beginning of this blog post. I wonder if he would be surprised that the ones embracing a ‘neo-heroic tradition’ scoffing ‘chivalrous sentiment’ as ‘weak’ and ‘effeminate’ would be Christians. Indeed there are many who seem to worship Achilles without understanding that the Western world moved beyond him, Christians should reject him, and that they know not what is required of true soldiers in their faux masculinity…

Jesus himself does not portray himself as a warrior but rather calls himself ‘the good shepherd’. In this role Jesus states that it is not a willingness to battle the enemies of the sheep that distinguishes the ‘good shepherd’ from a false one but one who is willing to lay down his life for the sheep. There is today a false ‘shepherd’ mentality that infers that the protectors in order to keep the sheep safe need to be wolves just pointed outward. This assumes a ‘we need to be as bad and scary’ mentality and looks nothing like Jesus riding a young donkey into town. We need to ask whom we are following when Jesus consistently walked away/turned down people who wanted to make him an earthly king and associate Him with the trappings of Earthly power…

There is a militaristic masculinity that in actuality knows very little the reality warriors go through to be able to do what they do. Boot Camps and police academies train persons to ignore their humanity. The goal is to forge someone that can, in a moment, pull a trigger without thought and emotion. This conditioning towards instant obedience, towards emotional repression and training to act on a learned instinct result in a loss of humanity even before someone pulls the trigger or gets in a fight. The scars from those who have been to war are extensive. Both the conditioning and the experience of combat are not something to be desired.”

I’m not a veteran, but this tracks after spending time in two war zones and with my experiences around veterans, most all of whom spoke with ease about their wariness of violence being an answer for anything. Having been in and around evangelical spaces my whole life, this contrast between actual soldiers and many evangelical men who take up a “warrior” ethos is sharp. I’ve heard more than enough sermons and read too many screeds that attempt to “train persons to ignore their humanity” and condition them “towards instant obedience” when it comes to the evangelical approach to masculinity, all in service to culture warring and self-gain.

One would think that the evangelical elite mentioned above would be in awe of Alex Pretti. He stepped in to shield a woman who was being assaulted by a paramilitary and asked her if she was okay. In response, multiple paramilitaries surrounded him, threw him on the ground, beat him and disarmed him (Pretti had a carry permit and never brandished his weapon), and then shot him repeatedly in the back. Multiple videos document the execution. In one, a paramilitary can be seen clapping mere seconds after the execution.

Pretti behaved just like these evangelical elite said a man should behave when a woman is attacked. Yet they celebrated or signed off on his execution. Why? Because two self-proclaimed ideals collided with each other, and these men did what they have done countless times before when this happens. They showed that protecting authority, even bad and illegitimate authority, is infinitely more important to them than a healthy masculinity. Even when someone expressing the masculine traits they seem obsessed with has been murdered.

The message these leaders are sending is the same one they have been transmitting for years: question or challenge the authority of the Evangelical-Republican blob and we don’t know what will happen to you. Maybe we’ll ignore you. Maybe we’ll laugh at you. Maybe we’ll gossip and bear false witness against you. Maybe we’ll cast you out. Maybe you’ll be harassed and threatened.

Now they have added this: maybe you will be killed.

Searching for ground beneath our feet

But what of the self-described centrist Christians who persuade themselves there is little they can do? This ongoing silence in the face of sin and evil can be interpreted as tacit approval, but I know for at least some that it isn’t. They’re worried or scared. Some are even angry. But their theology has not prepared them to engage others in times of social crisis. And their church culture has no mechanism to help them find a path forward. So they sit paralyzed in frustration, not knowing what to do in the face of a white identity politics that is now armed and deputized by the state to do harm.

Can anything be done? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, quoted at the top, has words of wisdom for us. In his powerful essay After 10 Years he observes the ruins of Germany and the German Church under Nazism and questions what the Christian witness should be. Bonhoeffer wrote this at the end of 1942, during the final days of his freedom:

“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds. We have become cunning and learned the arts of obfuscation and equivocal speech. Experience has rendered us suspicious of human beings, and often we have failed to speak to them a true and open word. Unbearable conflicts have worn us down or even made us cynical.

Are we still of any use? We will not need geniuses, cynics, people who have contempt for others, or cunning tacticians, but simple, uncomplicated, and honest human beings. Will our inner strength to resist what has been forced on us have remained strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves blunt enough, to find our way back to simplicity and honesty?”

Bonhoeffer’s hindsight is our invitation. The dark shadow of fascism creeping across our country is far from absolute. We still have time to persuade ourselves and others into being useful. Time to love our neighbors. We need neither be geniuses nor cunning. We simply need to be honest.

Is this not how Jesus resisted the oppression of his day, too? The God-Man who intentionally entered into a specific time and space for our gain (Luke 2)? The One who listens and sees and responds to the needs of those around him (Matthew 14:13-21)? The Jesus who crossed hardened cultural boundaries, hatred, and distrust to meet the woman at the well (John 4:1-42)? The Savior who went to the Cross and who rose again so we may live?

Following these patterns Jesus left for us now comes with risk. We know that peaceful protest and loving our neighbors may be met with haphazard intimidation, legal harassment, and even deadly force. Trying to live as Jesus and the early Church did by feeding the hungry, safeguarding and breaking bread with the outsider, making peace, caring for the sick and poor…it all involves risk for ourselves and increasing peril for the marginalized and outcasts of our society. And yet we know that standing up for basic decency stands out and is attractive to ordinary people.

The Apostle Paul writes in Roman 12:17-21:

“Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’ Instead, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The good news is that Christians and many of our neighbors are already engaged in this kind of Christlike and biblical response. This crackdown is spread very unevenly across the country, as such, much of what can be done depends in large part on where you live. I’ve grouped several such examples below, mostly from Minneapolis. This is not an exhaustive list, but I hope you find that these stories inspire you to get more involved in securing peace for your own community.

Worship and Community

Christians are called to worship the God of the universe. In our current environment, genuine Christian worship in community with others is now an act of resistance, as it refuses to bow to the idols and false authority of white evangelical culture and the Republican Party. Here are just a few examples:

Right worship, of course, can help lead to right action in daily life.

Loving and Informing Neighbors, and Creating Safe Spaces

As we think through more direct actions, again, keep in mind that First Amendment rights are no longer being fully respected. Safety is not guaranteed even if you behave legally and peacefully. Still, loving our neighbors is biblical (Mark 12:30-31) and there are endless ways to do so.

Many churches have unused space during the week that are perfect for community organizing and more. We should freely offer our spaces to organizations, community groups, and individuals who need it.

Statistics and vague calls for justice and fairness are not as impactful as real stories of harm being done and good leadership. People tend to be upset when they see harm and intentional disorder. Most people want to follow good leaders behaving rightly and who give permission for others to do the same, including people who are searching for guidance about the chaos we see.

When you see a news story highlighting the harm being done to our neighbors, share it on social media. Text it to friends. Bring it up in your Bible study and say you want to pray about it. You don’t have to be annoying and do it every day about every story, but there are still a lot of Christians who are tuned out from what is happening right now. Help fix that.

Reclaiming Scripture and the Faith

One of the most important things Christians can do right now is to take the power of Scripture away from nationalists and challenge them directly on their claims to represent the Christian faith. Providing a few sentences of cultural context around the handful of verses evangelicals cherry-pick for their own gain is an easy way to defang them. You probably won’t convince a nationalist who has hardened their heart, but you have a decent chance of persuading others who are listening, especially if you do it with humor. Here’s a great example.

Art & Music

Pay attention to, participate in, and amplify the work of creatives and artists who are sustaining advocacy and humanitarian work. Visual art and music can be powerful symbols that motivate more people to hope and right action.

Repentance & Repair

If you were once a part of the Religious Right or its various evangelical predecessor sub-movements that exist today, and you have not yet apologized for the role you played in the lead up to our present crisis , offering a sincere apology in word and deed will mean a lot more than you think. Here’s one beautiful example of that.

More Resources

Finally, a few books you may find helpful for this time:

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” All else to be done is in our power. I pray the Lord gifts all of us wisdom, empathy, and joy as we continue wading through these uncertain times.

About Me

I explore faith, church culture, and formation in the American South from my hometown of Memphis, TN. I’m an institutionalist who believes the means are just as important as the ends. Everything on this site is an expression of my faith and love for the Church.

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Mark Hackett https://markhackett.com
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Atonement for our times: Scapegoating no more