06/08/2026
PASTORAL MESSAGE FOR JUNE 2026
RELIGION FOR ULTERIOR MOTIVES
There is a dangerous trend in religion currently happening in many places around the world. I see it in countries like Israel, Russia, and here in the United States. The dangerous trend is the weaponization of religion for cultural and nationalistic purposes. Vladimir Putin has utilized Russian Christian Orthodoxy, turning it into a symbolic war cry to justify attacks on Ukraine. Benjamin Netanyahu has done something similar in Israel, quoting the Hebrew Scriptures as part of his rhetoric to push for the complete destruction of the Palestinians and extend Israel’s war into places like Syria, Lebanon, and Iran. Here in the United States, a much more sophisticated version of this is taking place. A counterfeit version of the faith called “Christian Nationalism” is on the rise. Asserting that the United States was founded as a “Christian country,” Christian Nationalism enflames feelings of rage and aggrievement from believers who lament that their will and ways no longer dominate society like it once did. Short on love, grace, and humility, Christian Nationalists have long lists of enemies. Hollywood, universities, economic liberals, those advocating for human rights, the media, atheists, Muslims, and anyone in the LGBTQ+ community all show up on the enemies list. A racial component also usually creeps into Christian Nationalism, where ideal Christian ways of life are often mistaken for nothing more than Anglo-Euro culture.
What Christian Nationalists believe they have lost is their ability to control society; to police forms of expression, thoughts, dress, arts and entertainment, relationships, leisure, and personal habits across the nation. They bemoan the loss of power to collectively enforce their will, thus making their goal little more than a political project. Nobody is preventing Christians in America from believing what they want, worshipping how they want, teaching what they want to their children, and abstaining from whatever they want to abstain from. But that is not enough for Christian Nationalists. By fiat, and backed by the threat of the sword, they want to impose their way of life on everyone else.
Unfortunately, in Christian Nationalists’ fight to regain power, Christianity gets perverted into nothing more than a showpiece. Bible verses are quoted and Christian symbols are publicly displayed, not as an authentic expression of the awe and humility felt for having received God’s grace, but as a way to draw battle lines, as a way to say “we are not like those kinds of people.” Worship services turn into opportunities to demonize public figures rather than function as the community’s grateful response to God’s salvation. An unforgiving, gaudy, rage-filled, warlike ethos develops. Christianity turns into nothing more than a spear or gun in service of some political and cultural project of conquest.
Throughout his public ministry, Jesus had to deal with something similar. Most Jews living in Israel in the First Century hated the Roman Empire’s occupation of their land because foreign occupation meant the loss of cultural and political power. Some, like the Zealots, turned to violence and terrorism in their attempt to drive the Romans out. But the Zealots lurked in the shadows and lacked an advanced ideology or identity. The Essenes’ response to Roman occupation was to simply disengage from society and become monks out in the desert. They had an advanced ideology, but no public face. It was the Pharisees who most closely resembled today’s version of Christian Nationalists. Their sophisticated strategy of resistance, while non-violent, was in-your-face, nationalistic, arrogant. They were out in the public all the time, rigorously practicing only those aspects of the Law of Moses which separated Jews from everyone else, such as fasting, keeping Sabbath, and observing the food restrictions. Through their highfalutin prayers and ornate clothes they made a spectacle of faith (Matthew 6:5, 23:5), not just so as to be admired by others, but also as a form of protest against the loss of influence. Filled with entitlement, they believed that ethnic heritage alone (being “children of Abraham”) granted them divine right to control everything (Matthew 3:9, John 8:39).
Religion for the Pharisees was nothing more than a cudgel to swing at the Romans in some vain attempt to win back power, control, and influence. Over and over again, Jesus called the Pharisees out for their selective use of the Law of Moses. “Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). For Jesus, faith is a life spent in continual grateful response to the blessings God showers upon us. Gratefully responding to God means acknowledging our spiritual indebtedness to our creator, loving others, doing what we can to help and lift others up, and showing forgiveness to our enemies. Jesus’ teachings on how to live out the Law of Moses always defaulted to the most humane option that valued and enhanced all people’s lives—friend and foe alike. For the Pharisees, on the contrary, faith was something to cynically shape and manipulate so as to maximize their ability to exert total control. In the Pharisees’ system of religion, there wasn’t much room for humble and heartfelt thanksgiving to God our creator, our savior, and our guide.
Beware of those who in essence reduce religion to nothing more than a political yard sign. Beware of those whose outward expressions of their faith are merely intended to draw lines in the sand between “us” and “them.” Beware of those who use religion to whip up rage, and who use religion to mobilize foot soldiers to commit violence as part of some wider social and political agenda. They do not seek what Christ truly offers. All they want is naked, raw power.
The words of the prophet Micah echo loudly in this conversation. “God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). There is precious little justice, mercy, and humility to be found in Christian Nationalism. Instead of using faith to maximize our own power and influence, true faith causes us to take our eyes off of ourselves and fix them squarely on God. Instead of using faith to define the righteous insiders and the evil outsiders, embracing the one but shunning the other, true faith causes us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-45). Let us follow Jesus’ lead in rejecting and calling out cultural and nationalistic forms of religion. Let us follow Jesus’ lead in journeying on the path of true faith where justice, mercy, and humility are the norm.
Pastor Sean Brown
