What are the weapons of our warfare?

Julie Neidlinger has a post from a week or so ago that begins this way:

It appears groups like "Focus on the Family" and other similar religious groups from the right are making an effort to prohibit Moore's latest film from being played in theaters. FotF has also given out his home address to their supporters, no doubt meaning he will face a deluge of angry mail that is anything but Christian. Lovely.

Julie is pretty non-plussed by this whole thing and I'm with her on this. At first I was a little concerned that she may have received some bad information, but I've confirmed that this is true - it went out in an e-mail. You can follow up on it here , here and here.)

Julie rightly worries about the deluge of angry hate mail Michael Moore may get from Christians in this matter, and another blogger whose name I forget worries that some lunatic who calls himself a Christian may do property damage or bodily harm to Michael Moore. Any of these things would hurt the cause of Christ terribly in our day.

I have no problem with Focus or any other group speaking their mind on a particular political matter. However, there are several problems here.

First of all, Focus seems to be calling on it's Christian base to support a particular political cause. I doubt that this movie is an attack on Christians per se. Maybe it is, I don't know, I haven't seen the movie and I don't plan to. From what I have heard it is a spiteful, vengeful, malicious, dishonest attack on George Bush and the war on terrorism. This is bad in and of itself and Moore deserves the criticism he has received from the right and the left.

But this is not an attack on Christians. Which makes me wonder if the folks at Focus haven't fully syncretized their faith with their political agenda. It makes me wonder if they haven't lost their ability to distinguish the cause of Christ from the cause of the Republican party, or the cause of George W. Bush, or the cause of the war on terrorism. To call Christians into battle on this, Focus or any group would have to demonstrate that this is an assault on the kingdom of God, but I don't think they can prove this. I could be wrong about this, I haven't seen the movie and don't plan to see it. It could have a particular anti-Christian agenda, but from what I heard it is an anti-Bush agenda and the two are not the same thing.

But even if it could be proved that there was an anti-Christian agenda here, this would still not justify Focus's tactics. The Bible gives some pretty clear instructions on how to respond to persecution and an anti-Christian agenda.

If Michael Moore were persecuting Christians we have a pretty standard playbook on how to respond.

Matthew 5:43-45 says:43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Acts 5:41 says: So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Hebrews 10:32-34 says: 32Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. 33Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

I Peter 2:23 says:23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

So, if it could be proved that Michael Moore had a definite anti-Christian agenda in this film then it would be appropriate for Focus or any other Christian group to launch a massive campaign calling Christians to demonstrate the love of Christ to Michael Moore, to pray for him, to rejoice in being persecuted for the sake of Christ and to warn Christian against hurling insults or threats against Michael Moore. Somehow I doubt those things came across in the e-mail.

I would also say that if Michael Moore were attacking Christians these more passive responses I have listed here (although love, prayer and rejoicing are not passive) are not all that is required. In the great tradition of the Apostle Paul who appealed to Rome in order to present the gospel to them and in the great tradition of early Christian apologists it would be appropriate to mount a defense of the Christian faith in view of the attack. It would be incumbent upon us to defend the faith against lies that were told against it.

This week I had the opportunity to listen to Os Guinness at the Jonathan Edwards Institute conference. For years now Os has been saying (and he said it again) that Christians have made a terrible tactical error in positioning themselves as a persecuted minority in the culture wars. Christian culture warriors have played the victim card and have reacted badly when we have been maligned or persecuted. We need to respond to insult and persecution with good humor and blessings if and when we are misunderstood or persecuted.

I understand that in today's evangelical climate to disagree with Focus on the Family is often treated as the equivalent of hating your mother or spitting on the flag, and so I am setting myself up to receive some serious criticism here. However, I would beg my readers to consider the wisdom of II Corinthians 10:4-5

4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Are the things advocated in the Focus e-mail weapons of the world or divine weapons. Does anyone really think that Michael Moore won't get a barrage of hate mail from professing Christians on this?

Speaking of hate mail, I'll tell another Os Guinness story in closing. Os says that several years ago one of the big network news anchors whom we see on TV every night was seriously considering the claims of Christ. However, he finally decided to completely turn his back on the faith simply because of the volume of hate mail he received from evangelical Christians. The sad thing here is that in choosing to use the weapons of the world in these so-called "culture wars" groups like Focus on the Family are only shooting themselves, and Christians, in the foot.