. . . . You have the reputation of being alive, but you are in fact dead. Wake up and strengthen what you have left, teetering on the brink of death, for I’ve found that your works are far from complete in the eyes of my God. So remember what you received and heard. Hold on to it and change your hearts and lives. If you don’t wake up, I will come like a thief , and you won’t know what time I will come upon you. But you have a few people in Sardis who haven’t stained their clothing. They will walk with me clothed in white, because they are worthy. Revelation 3:2-3, Common English Bible.
Nothing in the New Testament suggests that the ends justifies the means. To the contrary, when we read the Sermon on the Mount we see God favoring the disadvantaged and downtrodden, that “the meek shall inherit the earth. “ When churches compromise their values to achieve political ends, they stain their reputations like the Church of Sardis in the fifth letter to the churches in the Book of Revelation.
In chapter three Sardis is commended for the few “who haven’t stained their clothing.” The fate of this church hangs on remembering “what you have received and heard.” What could these stains signify and what should be remembered that might have been impulsively discarded? What could contemporary readers learn from the warnings of John the Evangelist?
Suppose the Church at Sardis is the prototype of churches who bartered their moral standards for political power. When Christian churches conceive a political agenda to advance their moral convictions, they may forget what they “have received and heard.” Compromise is so fundamental to gaining political influence that moral compromise is an easy step down a slippery slope into the mire and the “stains” of guilt by association.
The Nation’s Founders foresaw the potential corruption of religion and politics by building a wall between church and state in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One point of the amendment was to prevent a single church from reigning over other churches by seizing political advantages.
That amendment had been truly providential until the 2016 Presidential election, when a conservative swath of Protestant and Catholic voters found a champion of their moral platform in Donald Trump. They weren’t a single church, but an identifiable religious battalion that lined up behind the man who espoused their moral views, without regarding his moral character.
Recently the Huffington Post critiqued the moral integrity of White Evangelical leaders who remained silent on the moral shortcomings of the President after they had railed against the character of former President Clinton:
Decades later, a new generation of evangelical leaders has been rallying around Trump. Falwell’s son, Jerry Falwell Jr., has said that there’s nothing Trump could do that would endanger evangelical leaders’ support. Franklin Graham, son of the famous evangelist Billy Graham, often uses his substantial social media following to defend the president’s policies. And Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas, has said evangelicals will continue to support the president because Trump is “the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty and pro-conservative judiciary president in history.”
[https://www.huffpost.com/entry/white-evangelicals-trump morality_n_5cc20d6de4b031dc07efb940ncid=engmodushpmg00000003&fbclid=IwAR1AbC0Act4H1yzkPmu2aPg9-y9SrCFhbl5uFEuNdUCv3d29U7UlluK21cU]
Having tasted the liquor of political power with two successful conservative Supreme Court justice nominations, White Evangelical Christians were less likely to critique the agent of those nominations. They defended his character, enjoying a power-surge instead of listening to their consciences. Some members of the contemporary church at Sardis incredulously read that Jerry Falwell Jr. believed “that there’s nothing Trump could do that would endanger evangelical leaders’ support.”
As the Huffington Post pointed out, it was the Southern Baptist Church of two decades ago that affirmed “moral character matters” for public officials. Back then, the SBC urged Americans to vote for candidates who “demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.” [https://www.huffpost.com]
Of course those were the Clinton years, and that President deserved moral outrage for his behavior. Yet today we have the same Southern Baptist Church professing that “evangelicals will continue to support the president because Trump is ‘the most pro-life, pro-religious liberty and pro-conservative judiciary president in history.'” Without regard for his demonstrable lying, his professed contempt for people of particular national or religious groups, and his documented sexual infidelity. These stains of character could eventually stain the churches that support him.
The activist stain is colored by hypocrisy, but the stain itself is the Faustian bargain the White Evangelical leaders made for the political power it has wielded through the Trump administration. Churches that invest their spiritual authority in political power lose their integrity. Jesus foresaw the danger when the Tempter offered him “all the kingdoms of the world.” “It’s been entrusted to me and I can give it to anyone I want. Therefore, if you worship me, it will be yours” (Luke 4:6-7). Political power was the essence of the Second Temptation.
Remember what you have received and heard: Jesus never marshaled his followers as a political force against the Roman Empire. Jesus quotably declared that his followers should “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Political power was not the means to better love God and neighbor.
The Republican Party will recover from the whirlwind that is President Trump, and so will the monied interests which will unscrupulously place their bets on contrary candidates and finish every election season with a power base. Hypocrisy rarely embarrasses the politician or the lobbyist. Their moral values slide below the value of junk bonds.
But what might be the cost to politicized churches loyal to the current President? He was the stock they refused to sell. When his power recedes, he will abandon the White House like a bankrupt corporation, and the stockholders will be left holding his valueless shares and wearing their stained robes. Or as Hosea says, “They that sow in the wind will reap in the whirlwind” (Hosea 8:7).
Christian churches who have adopted a political brand could lose members of more moderate persuasion. Churches with an older white membership could lose their most fragile constituency: the young, the peoples of color, the college-educated. Most telling, these churches could lose their credibility as a consistent spiritual beacons, undimmed by the smoke and fury of politics.
The church of Sardis was warned: You have the reputation of being alive, but you are in fact dead. The reputation of Evangelical Christian churches has risen with campaign rallies, prayer breakfasts, and Twitter feeds, where the President appears to be their best friend. The facts are that their President is a vulnerable link to political power on the verge of collapse, and their reputations, already at stake, may crash with his. Remember what you have received and heard.
To whom does the solemn Evangelist prophesy in Chapter 3? Could the “Church at Sardis” typify Christian churches who have sold their moral standards for political ends? They are the movers and shakers of the moment, who, in the next moment, may be moved and shaken.
If you don’t [change], I will come like a thief, and you won’t know what time I will come upon you. Generations have held these warnings up to the light of conscience. Whoever has ears, let them hear.