Get Heaven Into People by Jack Sullivan Jr.
I live in Findlay, Ohio, a micropolitan area just below Toledo in northwest Ohio. Findlay has a population of roughly 42,000, with the African American population percentage coming in at a robust 4% level. While Findlay is delightful, in many respects, I cannot find a local radio station that plays my favorite music: classic rhythm and blues.
Fortunately, Toledo has such a radio station, one that plays my favorites songs from Earth Wind and Fire, Natalie Cole, Donny Hathaway, and Jeffrey Osborne. Here’s the catch: this station’s signal is weak during the day. In fact, the signal is so weak at times that it gets eclipsed by a powerful signal from a radio station someplace in southeast Ohio. If this competing station had a music format I liked, I would not mind the interruption. However, the invading format does not involve music at all. It involves talk, and not the kind I gravitate toward.
“My” station’s signal is frequently blocked by conservative-evangelical Christian preaching and teaching and it’s symbiotically-connected right-wing brand of political commentary. It is not uncommon for me to be listening to Jeffrey Osborne belting out, “Can you woo, woo, woo?”, only to have it abruptly ended by a “Christian” show that focuses on families that are not black or brown, or a talk format featuring dramatically under-educated and frequently hate-frenzy inciting hosts who scandalize, blame and attack every social justice, diversity, and anti-oppression effort that comes to their attention.
Of course, the marriage of conservative-evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics is one that was consummated well before my birth. It is a relationship that has publicly boasted of allegiance to Jesus Christ while rejecting the demands, expectations and costs of his love and grace for all people. It insists on the correctness of conservative-evangelical Christianity while endorsing, and even baptizing, social and political policies that brazenly deny the worth and dignity of human beings who look, live, love and worship differently than they. Finally, this marriage has weaponized patriotism, conferring the label of patriot on all who essentially love and defend the country as-is, while labeling as anti-American those who risk and sometimes lose their lives and jobs while attempting to force the United States to make available “liberty and justice for all,” as advanced in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Yes, this is the broadcast of conservative-evangelical Christianity and right-wing politics that chokes out my favorite music. Its hypnotic, reactionary rhythm gives the blues to all who value love and prioritize justice. Of course, it is the broadcast of a marriage that has produced the problem child offspring, President Trump.
Rather than print a litany of the well-documented over-the-top obscenities and ogre-like tendencies of the occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, suffice it to say that he is the child that was born when unashamed and unrepentant white supremacy was wed to immature, anti-analytical, pro-white religious fervor. This president has enabled bigotry to come out of its proverbial closet and for hate to remove its hood and proudly parade around in business suits and dresses.
Now it would be fair and correct to point out that not all past and contemporary Christians were accepting of the above-mentioned white-racist-driven marriage that brought us President Trump. After all, the Historic Black Church, born as a freedom-focused corrective to racist, heretical white Christianity raised up scores of women, men and youth who faithfully and bravely resisted systemic racism and hate, while giving the nation and world a spirituality that has sparked and sustained liberation movements in the United States and around the world. These courageous individuals and all who struggled and sacrificed their lives for Civil Rights are true patriots.
In addition, there have been scores of white Christians and churches that have been driven by a freedom and justice faith orientation that has led them to challenge systemic oppression, even as they came to terms with their complicity with it. Of course, several of them lost their lives and jobs as a result.
While I most certainly value and have been nurtured and shaped by both realities, I know something is missing. As much as I value and willingly participate in sacred marches and demonstrations for the sake of freedom, justice, peace, clean air and water, and human dignity, I know something is missing. The missing element becomes more clear to me every time the conservative-evangelical, right-wing political radio segments aggravatingly bleed into my soul music station. What is missing and what I would like to hear is the bold, intentional, and deliberate broadcasting of the vision and voices of those of us who are shaped and guided by the love of Christ and its call for justice and grace.
Somehow, Christians of goodwill and civility, people who proclaim love with justice have surrendered the teaching and information-generating airwaves to those who seek the permanent national concretization of laws and policies rooted in hate, nurtured in indifference, and celebrating the nullification of other human beings.
It seems we have failed to calculate the numbers of people whose daily commute includes talk radio formats that do not offer versions of the faith that we hold dearly. Scores of Christians and non-Christians are subjected to views and information that demonize and dehumanize large segments of the human family. Very often, these views go unchallenged and uncorrected. Many Christians just go on with their affairs, hoping that somehow, people will figure things out for themselves. They don’t.
Somehow, much of Christianity has been shaped by a sense of white-driven spiritualized/nationalized faith that calls us simply to believe in Jesus, trust that we will go to heaven “one glad morning, when this life is over,” and live as law-abiding people who enjoy a live-and-let-live kind of Christianity, never questioning authority, never critiquing social systems, never analyzing who holds power in our communities or why some are rich and others are poor. It is a maintenance/comfort-driven way of being Christians.
When churches function this way, they become what I call credit-union churches, seeking only to maintain their organization, and provide goods and services only for their members. While wanting new members, they only seek those who fit the membership profile (race, class, sexual orientation, language, gender identification). There is no real emphasis on evangelism and engaging in unfiltered outreach.
Credit union churches do not expect their leaders to actually lead the faith. Instead, they pride themselves on minimalizing leadership functions. The typical leadership nomination process includes a recruiter telling a recruit, “You won’t have to do much. Just stand here at the table once a month, give a prayer and – poof! – you’re done!”
Needless to say, comfort/maintenance-driven credit union churches offer little challenge to the white-nationalist America that Trump is molding it into. Their bake sales, praise/worship services, and cantatas are lovely, but will not be enough to slow the Trump-led progression our country is making toward reclaiming its hate-celebrating past instead of becoming the shining example of democracy with diversity it could be.
The challenge is to those of us Christians who affiliate with the love-justice ethic of Jesus Christ. Just as it is not the job of public-schools to teach prayer to our children, it is not the job of MSNBC or the Huffington Post to teach pro-love/non-oppressive Christian faith to the public. That job belongs to those of us who identify as disciples of Jesus Christ, people whose lives are being transformed by the love of God made known through the liberating life of Jesus Christ.
It is work that is called (come on, say it) evangelism. Listen, there is no rule that says evangelism is the private property of conservative Christians. We who believe in love and justice must take a moment to organize our thoughts, recall the ways our lives are being transformed by Jesus Christ, and develop narratives that convey, with passion, God’s story, supplemented by our stories and our faith-driven aspirations not only for people to get into heaven, but for heaven to get into people. When heaven gets into people, love flourishes, justice becomes attainable, and peace is made possible.
We must transform Sunday school and Bible study classes into evangelism training forums where we learn to tell the stories of our faith, what God is doing in the world, and how people can participate by living God’s love and doing God’s justice work. Newsflash: The Bible belongs to us, too! Learn it! Teach it as God’s tool for liberation, not oppression! No longer can our Christian education and worship experiences be in neutral gear. The way forward is to be intentional about love, intentional about justice! Do not let others make us feel ashamed to call for love and justice. We are not wrong!
Once we craft our narratives, take to the airwaves! We, too, can purchase airtime. We, too, can produce shows for radio, the internet and cable! We have the resources to carry out such bold actions, particularly if we work ecumenically. Engage the public with messages on love and justice. Broken and alienated people need to know that God cares for them. It is our job to tell them.
I do not believe there is a meaningful future for a church that will not teach the faith in ways that transform members into disciples who carry out the love-justice ministry of Jesus Christ. In large measure, that ministry calls for evangelism.
We must refuse to live as if progressive Christians are in the witness protection program! Rejoice! God, who began a good work in us long ago, is faithful to complete it. Keep marching and demonstrating while participating in the relational aspects of being a Christian. Let us engage apologetics and thus vindicate the faith. Finally, do evangelism, share the faith, bring people of no faith to faith in Jesus Christ, and thus add numbers of people who will not only get into heaven when they die, but while they are yet living will reveal heaven to people through the acts of love and acts of justice. Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr., is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the US and Canada. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Sullivan is the Senior Pastor of First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Findlay, Ohio, and Adjunct Professor, Lexington Theological Seminary. He is also the Board Chairperson of Ohioans to Stop Executions; Co-President of the Disciples Justice Action Network; and Board Member of Journey of Hope: From Violence to Healing.
A life member of the NAACP and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Dr. Sullivan holds a B.S. from Ohio University; M.Div. from Lexington Theological Seminary; D.Min. from United Theological Seminary (Dayton); and D.D. (Hon.) from Bethany College. He is married to the Reverend Sèkinah Hamlin. Together they are parents of three adult children and two elementary-age children. Currently, Dr. Sullivan is touring Uganda with Journey of Hope, promoting a message of “love and compassion for all humanity,” as an effort to thwart executions.