Part 1c: Value and Ethical Priorities
Hospitality vs. Protectionism
Word association quiz: What comes to mind when you hear "refugees at the border"? Does your mind go to "people fleeing war and violence" or to "crime, drugs, sex trafficking."
What comes to mind when you hear the phrase "social justice"?
Social Justice ... Economic Justice
A third dimension of deconstruction is that of value or ethical priorities. A common theme among many deconstructing Christians who are vocal in continuing to engage issues of faith is their emphasis on a Jesus centered ethic emphasizing love of one's neighbor and concern for the oppressed, an open handed perspective finding expression in concepts of ECONOMIC JUSTICE and SOCIAL JUSTICE. These ethical principles come into relief by contrast with the way social justice concerns have been hijacked and demonized by conservative political rhetoric which is rehearsed in many evangelical spaces. Nevertheless, these ideas have always maintained a powerful significance in the moral ethos of movements of beloved community. This stands contrast with the protectionist stance of Christian nationalism espoused widely in Christian teachings and woven into the fabric of political rhetoric upheld by many evangelicals. By PROTECTIONIST is meant the ethical practice of emphasizing the protection of the interests and the property of deserving American citizens against any threat. High priority is given to protecting what is mine and what is “ours” (i.e. the true deserving Americans) against others, outsiders, foreigners, and against government efforts to redistribute resources to an undeserving social underclass. (Note the 12 red states, including all of the Bible-belt southeast and Texas, that refuse Medicaid expansion.)
Concepts of social justice and economic justice as representative of the responsibility of society to demonstrate concern and uplift for the poor, oppressed and marginalized have significant treatment in the Bible prophets as well as in the teachings of Jesus. Yet the priority of social justice is generally rejected by evangelicals and opposed as a hostile ideology. For many, the simple logic is as follows: capitalism plus freedom creates a meritocracy. In the mythic capitalist ideal, anyone can prosper with intelligence and hard work. Therefore, those who prosper deserve to prosper, and those who are poor deserve to be poor. It is simple as that. As such, social justice as a theological and societal concern is rejected in favor of reliance on individual responsibility to cure all ills.
Consider the uproar over critical race theory, defined simply as the study of ways in which systematic racism, as a factor in economic prosperity and wealth disparity, can be embedded in our legal and cultural structures and institutions. Substantive discussion of racism in our nation's history is a threat to the status quo, and confronts the holders of wealth and power with the uncomfortable truth that systematic racism has tilted the playing field in their favor for the past 300+ years. Many Christ followers who find themselves questioning the role of the church in structures of power say - "yes, let us work to understand the impact of racism on our nation's history." Evangelicals recoil, however, preferring to define racism as an individual issue of race prejudice that requires no deep analysis of the structures of society. Rather than biblical and moral ideals that can help guide a process of healing, ideas of social, economic and racial justice become evil forces to be demonized and fended off in the culture wars by associating them with unfavorable ideologies such as socialism and Marxism.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, evangelicals are working overtime to shape the law and the government to serve the institutional interests of Christian evangelicals evidenced by a surge in political energy, effort, and massive amounts of cash devoted to lobbying, legal activism, and political activism properly described as Christian nationalism.
With dramatic impact in recent months, the supreme court and some state legislative bodies are doubling down on the tactic of using law and legislation to promote the interests of evangelicals in the public sphere. This comes in the form of using law, legislation, and tax supported forums (e.g. schools) to promote Christian moral norms, church activities, and Christian religious practices in the public sphere, while simultaneously restricting speech and other practices and freedoms that fall outside of evangelical norms as defined by evangelical Christian values. Prominent examples of this include attempts to restrict marriage to heterosexual relationships, promoting censorship of LGBTQ themes in literature, in school textbooks, and teacher-student communication, and criminalization of abortion from the time of conception - causes promoted by the evangelical establishment and extensive multi-billion dollar supporting political machinery. Supreme court rulings and also state legislation in 2022 are serving to support Christian speech and practice by school employees, on school grounds, at school events, under advocacy of conservative evangelicals, while on the other hand attempting to restrict literature, speech, and in some cases even the mention of LGBTQ themes in school environments, because these are not approved within conservative Christian doctrine.
This is common playground bullying; its duplicitous, dishonest, inauthentic, it’s a power play, and this is why an entire generation as well as many people of all generations are leaving evangelicalism as fast as they can get out the door.
(Please note that a segment of Christian political thought reaching all the way back to Baptist "founding father" Roger Williams has properly understood the constitutional nature of the church-state separations and freedoms, but this history is mostly unknown to many contemporary evangelicals.)
Law and order
Another feature of Christian nationalism is an emphasis on law and order, a long-standing political dog whistle which speaks to the priority of protecting and maintaining the status quo for interests of power and privilege. This sentiment is often used to delegitimize protest movements against racism, for example, or to restrict immigration and withhold citizenship rights and privileges from those who “haven’t earned” or “don’t deserve” the generosity and grace proclaimed at the the Statue of Liberty. On immigration, law and order Christians lean into the legal limits on welcoming immigrants, and typically support spending money on protection, i.e. “the wall" rather than supporting creative and effective ways to address immigration issues. For many evangelicals, “the law” is an absolute justification for restricting if not preventing generosity and hospitality to outsiders. Often this argument is enhanced by espousing the rhetoric that immigrants are more prone to criminal behavior than existing citizens. Many deconstructing Christians prefer to overlook or set aside human laws of questionable moral status, choosing to affirm higher spiritual / moral values which they find in Jesus or in other resources of ethical value and thereby favoring efforts to welcome and assist immigrants and refugees without qualifying them by legal status.
We must admit that the issue of cross border migration, combined with multiple ongoing refugee crisis situations, is a complex international issue faced by many countries. Diverse priorities and values collide, and multiple complementary strategies are needed; challenges beyond the scope of this article. But as we engage these issues, it is the first impulse that exemplifies the tension at hand: to welcome the stranger vs. to protect the stuff.
Image Credit: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Statue-of-Liberty