SUNDAY SERMON

OPINION: Tennessee's Bible-thumping Republican Party needs to read the book they're thumping


Pam Sohn, Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
Sat, November 20, 2021

Nov. 20—Hate trafficking is alive and well in Tennessee — and particularly in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Last Monday, Tennessee state Rep. Chris Todd, R-Jackson, accused a Christian foster care organization — the well-known Bethany Christian Services which has an office in Chattanooga — of facilitating human trafficking by working with the federal government to place unaccompanied migrant children with vetted sponsors in this country.

"This whole thing reeks of impropriety, and I'm very concerned about these children that are being pushed into this trafficking situation," Todd said. "Our own federal government is trafficking. They're hauling them all over the country and dropping them in neighborhoods, flying them in in the middle of the night."


Sound familiar? Of course it does. It sounds just like the wild and false hate-trafficking rhetoric thrown around in Chattanooga last spring and summer after a television news report aired about unaccompanied children being flown into Chattanooga — sometimes at night — and housed in a shelter in Highland Park operated by the Baptiste Group.

In fact, Todd's comments came during the final meeting of the state's special committee to investigate issues surrounding refugees and immigrants — an effort that began with concerns about the now-closed Chattanooga shelter.

It began here, with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty all flogging the Biden administration, making similar, false "human trafficking" accusations.

The trouble with their message was that Lee and his Department of Children's Services had approved the Baptiste Group's shelter for the very purpose of temporarily housing unaccompanied minors until they could be placed with vetted sponsors. And they had approved it a year before — when Donald Trump was still president. Yet suddenly all these Trumpian Republicans were aghast and wondering why these children were being snuck in here.

Raise your hand if you think they would have grabbed for their pearls and accused a Trump administration of human trafficking to a shelter they themselves approved.

But the resulting kerfuffle in Chattanooga was just as ugly as the initial slurs. Not long after the Republican politicians put up a racket, an allegation of abuse was filed with the state.

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services punted on the first allegation of an adult kissing a child, then punted again on a second allegation, saying "kissing" is not listed as an act of sexual abuse. On June 3, the state made an unannounced visit to the Baptiste Group shelter and interviewed six children, one of whom told a DCS worker he saw a shelter employee kissing a child there. State inspectors wrote in their summary on June 3 that the "physical inspection had yielded no findings or need for corrective action."

But the news coverage sparked both an internal investigation and a probe by local and federal law enforcement, eventually leading to three arrests. The state also suspended the residential child care license of the Baptiste Group.

Baptiste has sued the state, charging discrimination and claiming that despite similar allegations against other shelters, the Tennessee Department of Children's Services suspended only one residential child care license in the past five years — that of the Baptiste Group.

But judging from Chris Todd's screed last week, that's not enough to appease the rabid, anti-immigration, anti-Biden members of the GOP in Nashville.

Bethany, a national organization following longstanding federal immigration policy, has supported unaccompanied children since the 1960s and helped settle 40 unaccompanied children in Tennessee last year through a transitional foster care program, said Amy Scott, state director for the group.

The organization has received around 100 children since March 2019 (yes, even when Trump was president), with about 15-20 staying in Tennessee after locating a sponsor, she said. The program is federally funded and does not receive any money from the state.

"Children are children. An unaccompanied child wants what every child wants — to be with their family and to be safe," Scott told the panel in her opening testimony. "We help unaccompanied children as a faith-based organization because Jesus calls Christians to welcome the stranger, love their neighbor and serve the overlooked and ignored. We believe that all children, no matter where they are from or what they have been through, deserve to be treated with dignity and care."

Someone needs to preach that sermon to our GOP leaders and lawmakers. They missed it.

Todd said he wouldn't trust the documentation of the children's immigrant relatives in the U.S., and he asked why organizations like Bethany were not placing unaccompanied children with a family member in their home country.

Another lawmaker, Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, said it is a commandment in the Christian tradition to provide for those in need. But he added: "We [the U.S.] can't go and solve all the world's problems unless we had all the world's resources and we still might not be able to do it."

Clearly those two missed many Bible lessons. They should brush up on the "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" sermon, along with the "miracle of five loaves and two fish" — the makings Christ used to feed a multitude of thousands.

Michael Flynn is wrong. Christians shouldn't mandate one religion for everyone in America.

Ed Stetzer
Sun, November 21, 2021, 2:39 PM·6 min read

Former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn caused a firestorm with his recent comments on Nov. 13 at the "ReAwaken America Tour" in San Antonio.

"If we are going to have one nation under God – which we must – we have to have one religion," said Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump last November.

The tour, organized by Clay Clark, whom The Guardian calls a "media figure and Christian entrepreneur" from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has included stops in Florida, Michigan, California and Texas. Flynn followed the pattern of Christian nationalism by taking a biblical passage aimed at Christ's disciples and applying it to the United States.

"You have to believe this, that God Almighty is, like, involved in this country, because this is it. ...This is the shining city on the hill," Flynn said.

Hint: It’s not.

President Donald Trump and Michael Flynn, on Dec. 21, 2016, in Palm Beach, Florida.

'The Great Sort' demonstrated

That the response to Flynn has been both swift and polarized is indicative of what I see as the "Great Sort" in American Christianity. For the past decade, we have begun to see a transition in the rationale for how many self-identifying Christians make decisions about their local church membership, relationships and serving.

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While politics and culture have always played a significant role, in recent years we are beginning to see religious identity being primarily driven by broader political debates. Now, instead of Scripture, doctrine or worship providing a central role in church association and participation, political identity is squarely in the driver’s seat.

Michael Flynn on Dec. 12, 2020, in Washington, D.C.

As I explained in Outreach Magazine, Christians are increasingly sorting themselves into churches that reflect their ideology.

Politics has always played a major role in religious identification, but now Christians are more actively disassociating and associating with churches based upon their political affiliations. This is primarily why once-fringe voices like Flynn, Stella Immanuel, Mike Lindell, Charlie Kirk and Lin Wood have been able to find significant followings in churches around the country.

As opposing or moderate voices leave and new members are attracted by a political alignment, churches are becoming less politically diverse and more vocally partisan.

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Critically, this is not a sort between patriotism versus Christianity. Often maligned, patriotism can be good and noble. Rather, this sort pits Christianity against Christian nationalism, a perversion of the faith that subverts its mission.

The rhetoric of the ReAwaken tour reeks of such Christian nationalism. It utilizes Christian ideas, language and spaces but submits these to nationalistic ends. By identifying America as God's chosen nation and calling for a religious establishment, Flynn and others offer a gospel mission that is a distorted caricature of the one to which Christians are called.

The genius of religious liberty

As we look for ways to respond to the Great Sort, Christians and non-Christians alike should reflect on the genius of our political tradition of religious liberty. Beginning with the Founders and proven consistently throughout our history, providing people with freedom to believe and practice their faith strengthens our democracy, our communities and our institutions.

This is, in part, why the Baptist John Leland is a personal hero. Standing for religious liberty in America’s early years when few others would, Leland argued, “All should be equally free, Jews, Turks, Pagans and Christians.”

Attorney Lin Wood speaks during a rally on Dec. 2, 2020 in Alpharetta, Ga.

What Leland understood – and what many Christians today must relearn – is that when one faith is enforced or even preferred by the government, society loses. When those of us who identify as Christians allow the government to pick whose freedoms are recognized, we undermine our own religious liberties. It is a misnomer to think that protecting the rights of people to believe whatever they choose is a tacit endorsement of other faiths. On the contrary, for Christians to stand for religious liberty is a statement of our confidence in the Gospel.

Beyond the importance of religious liberty to our democracy, any ideology that attempts to establish Christian political domination – in other words, a theocracy – reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of Christ and the Christian faith. At its core, the power of the Christian faith is in its ability to transform the heart, not coerce behavior. Jesus modeled this in his own ministry, refusing to set up a political theocracy on earth even as many in his day expected the Messiah would do just that.

At every turn, Christ confounded these expectations and modeled an understanding of a kingdom "not of this world." (John 18:36). Instead of power and domination, we find Christ modeling sacrifice and forgiveness.

When professing Christians are far more enthusiastic about the glory of America than proclaiming an ancient faith that transcends our nation, they reveal themselves to be at odds with this model.

The message of Jesus seems to be far less a priority for many who name the name of Jesus than "standing for truth" and conflating Christianity with a nationalistic bent. When speakers at events held in the name of Christ are also speakers who wonder aloud whether America needs a coup like we saw in Myanmar, the Great Commandment and the Great Commission have been replaced by exceptionalism and nationalism.

If we believe that the Christian faith transforms lives, we must resist the pull to coerce people into words and behaviors that we know are worthless before God. Instead, we must trust in the power of the Gospel – and only the Gospel – to save.

Christians should embrace freedom of religion because we believe that the Gospel is light in the darkness, hope for the lost, liberation for the captive and revival for the dead. We believe that it is, most fundamentally, good news for a burdened and beleaguered world that is crying out for it.

Seeking God in America

Flynn is right about one thing: God is at work in this country.

Yet his vision of a reestablished church so sadly misses the point. God’s involvement in this country, indeed his involvement in the whole world, will not come through coercion. Rather, He is already working to revive and renew through thousands of churches who chose sacrifice and forgiveness over power and domination.

Former Defense Secretary Michael Flynn served under President Donald Trump. He was charged with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigations in 2017. Flynn was pardoned by Trump in November 2020.

After one group chanted “Let’s go, Brandon” (a stand-in for insulting President Joe Biden) in San Antonio, I finished up a message at the Galveston Convention Center to 1,500 Texas Christians, also ready to say, “Let’s go.” But in this case, I called them to go in the way of Jesus.

One mission is the way of anger, conspiracies and more. The other involves showing and sharing the love of Jesus to a broken and hurting world.

Christians are going to have to choose which way is the way of Jesus.

Ed Stetzer is a dean and professor at Wheaton College, where he leads the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Michael Flynn, we don't need 'one religion'; we need Jesus