Jesus never asked us to defend Christian values. He wants us to live them.
The church, Christ’s body, is not to be the architect nor enforcer of particular behaviors for the world at large. We are to love our neighbors, rather than by law and legislation to dictate how they must live.
Unfortunately, for decades some of the church has had a self-understanding that its holy duty is to establish and protect a certain social order in the world that is based on so-called Christian values. But this can only be done through domination, compelling others to respect and sometimes even submit to those “values” out of fear and not faith. We have been encouraged, but not by Jesus, to be culture warriors, as if this is how to enter into the Kingdom of God.
My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight. John 18:36
Because many Christians believe we are called to fight rather than lay down our lives, the clear instructions of Jesus are tacitly rejected for an agenda which abandons the cross of Christ and chooses instead worldly power and social domination. They welcome a strong worldly kingdom which will use its power to uphold so-called Christian values. The church becomes aligned with Pilate, not Jesus.
The astounding and blatant contradiction in this distortion of the Christian mission is that there is no instruction from Christ to enforce or create an order for society generally, as if “they will know you are Christians by how you dictate the shape and values of society.” It is one thing to be leaven in a society and another entirely to compel others, under threat of punishment, to live as Christ-followers whether they want to or not. Such a society some would call “Christian”, but it is antichrist.
The willingness of faith is essential, not optional, for someone to take up the cross and follow Jesus. As soon as anyone is made to conform to what Jesus taught, as those are construed into laws and ordinances, the resulting social order is in no way of Christ. History, to the shame of the church, records how supposed Christian laws were enforced sometimes by capital punishment, the church becoming the crucifiers in this world rather than the cross-bearers.
Satan continues to deceive us into thinking God approves of violence and that our enemies deserve to die, metaphorically or literally. Once we believe we must fight for Christianity, to engage in a war for Christian culture, we have lost Christ and will find ourselves fighting him and his, for he is Lord of all.
Fighting in this way in the public space is not about following Christ but pursuing the self-interests of a Christian identity as a cultural and social force. Being Christian is equated with an identity that must defeat other identities which are seen as competing for supremacy in a society or nation. Being Christian is not about ensuring cultural and civil dominance, but rather the way of living by faith and loving our neighbors.
And Jesus wept.