CHRIST-APP by philtierneyblog

The Corrupting Influence of Politics on Christian Faith

Third Story: Power breeds Control

It was 325 A.D., and Christians had been in and out of favor with the Roman Empire for more than 250 years. The intensity of the disfavor depended upon the policies of the particular Emperor and its administration by local officials. Despite persecutions of varied scope, the numbers of Christians in the Empire had swelled over the generations. Most attribute that growth to the quality of charity, hospitality and compassion local Christians and their communities demonstrated to those around them. Christians had shown themselves to be steadfast, faithful, charitable, and loving. They were also obedient subjects of the Empire.

Constantine was Emperor at the time and was sympathetic toward Christians because of his experience at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Nevertheless, he had a problem. The empire had not only expanded geographically, it had also grown in population. It was diverse and had diverse problems and needs. His driving vision was to maintain unity in an empire with increasingly divided government between the East and the West.

One of the linchpins for unity that he envisioned was to use the Christian Church to unite people. Alas, he discovered that the Church was divided, too. The Christian bishops in Rome and the West were largely united on matters of faith and practice, but the bishops in the East were divided. There were different schools of Christian thought about Jesus (Christology). Some believed that Jesus was always the Son of God. Some believed that Jesus was never really human. Some believed that he was completely human and adopted by God. Some believed he was sent by God, but not divine. There were other differences of belief, as well.

Constantine, the secular emperor, invited all the bishops to a meeting. It was convened at the seaside town of Nicaea in what is now Turkey. Not most, but many of the bishops accepted the invitation and attended. The Emperor was enthroned at the center of the gathering and oversaw it.

Some have called this the greatest temptation the Church ever faced – to trade autonomy for power – to wed Jesus’s community of faith with the government of the Roman Empire. Whether that’s true or not, there were consequences. The Council of Nicaea did what Constantine wanted by defining the only acceptable faith and forging unity by conformity and by giving the Roman government the right to enforce the faith.

Consequently, from 325 to 799 A.D., the main focus of the Jesus’s Church became the rooting out of heretics and using the state to punish them and making more converts to the Church by coercion. Ministry shifted its focus from trusting God to control, from love to obedience and from faith to following laws and rituals. Estimates indicate that more than 50 million “heretics” and “witches” were executed during the time between the Council of Nicaea to the end of the 19^th century.

Neither exposing heretics not exterminating them seems consistent with Jesus’s teaching, ministry or mission. In fact, Jesus never emphasized doctrines. He never defended dogma. He stressed trusting God, loving the neighbor, forgiving offenses and living in God’s Kingdom by personally living in God’s ways as guided by the Spirit. He resisted getting trapped in theological or moral and disciplinary arguments by religious leaders, let alone instructing his disciples to act as moral police (Matthew 7: 1-5). He told his apostles that those who are not against him are for him. He scolded them for wanting to exclude those outside their circle (Mark 9: 38-41) or wanting to seek God’s punishment of those who rebuffed them (Luke 9: 51-56). 

When Christians are seduced by the power of government to use force to impose their own beliefs, they become thought and moral police. That’s what has happened when Church and State have used each other for their own purposes. More often than not, it was the Roman authorities and government officials in “Christian” kingdoms, who executed the punishments against those accused of heresy and witchcraft by the Church.

American Christians, nowadays, may argue that those executions were probably perpetrated by people who called themselves Christians, but weren’t real Christians. That is pure supposition. The perpetrators were passionate about their faith and leaders of Christian churches in concert with their government enablers.

Story Four: St. Bernard

If ever there had been a Christian superstar in his time it was Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux. His ministries occupied much of the first half of the 12^th century AD. He became a Roman Catholic monk of the Benedictine Order. He experienced a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which he heartily advocated in his sermons and teachings. He emphasized the importance of lectio Divina, reading the Bible devotionally and meditating on its words. He had ecstatic experiences of the Holy Spirit and was said to have been a channel of healing to ill and disabled people. He helped to establish the Cistercian monastic order and a parallel order for nobles, called the Knights Templar.

Under his leadership as Abbot, Clairvaux monastery attracted record numbers of young men from poor and noble families alike. He wrote devotional books and theological treatises. He wrote poems that have become familiar hymns, like Jesus, the very thought of Thee and O sacred head, sore wounded. He delivered outdoor evangelistic sermons and taught the importance of personal devotions.

He was both an evangelical and charismatic Catholic before such terms were ever used. His charismatic or mystical spirituality are attested to, even nowadays, by the term clairvoyant. Bernard had visions and dreams and is believed to have had a gift of prophecy. Bernard was the single-most devout, gifted and celebrated Christian leader in his time.

Bernard heard reports that the Crusader kingdoms and churches that had been established in the East after the First Crusade were falling under the domination of the Islamic Seljuk Turks. He was deeply troubled by the news. He began to have dreams and visions about the shift of power in the Middle East. He believed they were God’s call to save the Kingdom of God in the Holy Land from the Muslim infidels.

Pope Eugene III tried to solicit the support of the kings and nobles of the Holy Roman Empire to join a crusade against the Turks. His call failed because the Christian princes were preoccupied with battling amongst themselves. And so, the pope called upon the most respected cleric in France to preach the call to a new crusade at rallies across the land.

Bernard was absolutely convinced that it was God’s will, and was eager to preach a crusade across France, which was still the seat of the Holy Roman Empire. Barnard ventured into politics driven by his faith. Bernard’s evangelistic preaching became linked with calls for people to dedicate themselves to fighting for Christ in the Holy Land. His sermons were galvanizing. People experienced healings at the rallies. The kings of France and Germany, nobles and peasants, too, were so moved that they immediately enlisted to fight for the Kingdom of God. 

And so, the Second Crusade was born. Bernard even joined the Crusade, himself. His belief that it was God’s calling, rooted in his visions and revelations from God, convinced Bernard that the crusading army would be invincible. God revealed it and the enemy were infidels. How could it not be?

That Crusade to the Holy Land turned out to be an utter failure. More than half of the crusaders were killed. Crusading armies slaughtered Eastern Christians and sacked their cities. Hostility between Eastern Christians and Western Christians intensified. The favorable relations between Muslim Seljuk rulers and Christian states in the Holy Land deteriorated. Jerusalem, Edessa and Damascus were eventually taken over by the Turkish Empire.

Pope Eugene III and Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux were blamed for the fiasco. Bernard blamed the weakness of faith of the crusaders, but much of Europe blamed him. He was crestfallen. But Bernard dabbled in politics, once again, to call for another crusade. This time, his ire was focused against the Western Slavic people. He felt called by God to defeat the pagan Slavs, and said this: We must fight “until such time as, by God’s help, they shall either be converted or deleted.” Morose in the end, nevertheless, after his death, Bernard was canonized a saint.

When religious faith and politics are merged to gain power, force has often been used to coerce people to preserve or expand God’s Kingdom in the name of Jesus. Those efforts have often failed, both undermining the faith that it has claimed to serve and subverting its declared goals. Jesus never in any way, either by his teachings or example, advocated any such ways of serving God. 

When a state and Christian faith have become wedded, both have been corrupted and weakened. Passion of faith is no guarantee that God’s will is actually being pursued.

Many American Christians may claim that was caused by the Catholic Church and has nothing to do with them. If so, they choose to completely ignore that Bernard’s spirituality was much closer to their own. That was the basis of Bernard’s convictions and actions, not the institutional church. That’s what caused Bernard to fuse his faith with politics. And that’s why he failed and it discredited his previously faithful ministry in service of Christ.