Power vs the Cross

 Every day we watch it unfold and seem stunned and surprised by the brazenness, the arrogance, the vanity, the cruelty. 

But American evangelicalism’s intoxication with power began long before this. Honestly, I’m more surprised when I see displays of humility. 

I’ve been working with these dynamics for more than two decades, mostly among church leaders. For as much progress as I thought we made, I’ve seen a doubling down for the sake of power, persona, platform, patriotism. We’re addicts not yet ready to take the first step - the freeing first step of confessing our powerlessness and neediness. The first step of humility. 

The reckoning is taking longer and is far messier than I and many I am connected to imagined. We hoped that we’d be humbled by now…that we’d stand aghast at what we’d created and enabled, and repent, with deep grief and sorrow for what we had become. 

But we’re entangled in the idolatrous grip of nationalism, and too enamored with the faux-power and pseudo-supremacy it’s offering right now to see the costly sacrifices it demands… even how it’s hollowing out our very souls. It’s taking longer, and it seems to be getting darker. The daily public displays - even the AI generated visions of a New Babylon with its gold statue of the hoped for new Nebuchadnezzar - only seem to humor and embolden the intoxicated. Mercy. 

I don’t know much, but what I do know is that the way forward is not by matching power with power, but by following the crucified One. That is the path of tears, the path of solidarity with the lowly, the path of humility. 

Blessed are those who come to the end of themselves. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the hungry and thirsty for justice. 

This is the way. Stay hungry and thirsty, my friends. 

Chuck DeGroat