mark tidsworth

If somehow they could time-travel to present day United States, those early disciples of Jesus Christ would double-over with laughter. “What? Let us get this straight. You are upset because your government is no longer as ‘Christian’ as it was? You are feeling shunned because your government does not promote your religion in it’s laws or activities? You are angry because your government doesn’t abide by the same moral and ethical guidelines as you? Those of you on the political right believed your previous president (Obama) was the destroyer of your faith? Those of you on the political left now believe your president (Trump) has the power to tear down everything good and spiritual? Surely you jest.”

After they realized this was not a hoax, the early Christians would be incredulous. Were they able to compare their experience with government and popular culture to present-day Christians, they would not know what to say to our ridiculous concerns. These might be their particular observations:

• You expect your faith story (Christianity) to be the golden-child religion of your government; the religion to be promoted above others. We tried to stay off the radar screen of our government for fear of persecution.
• Speaking of persecution, you believe you are currently experiencing “trials by fire” because you’ve lost a bit of cultural prominence and popularity. We literally experienced trials by fire.
• You’ve grown to expect your government to subtly promote your religion, while we just hoped our government would not kill us due to our living in the Way of Jesus.
• You are intimidated because your religion is declining in popularity while other religions are increasing, while we were seen as a minority, cult-like, negligible faith movement with no assets or power from the beginning. We were one small faith movement among far more prominent and powerful religions.
• You own property and are respected institutions in your communities….we can’t even imagine this. Wow, you must be turning the world upside down with your cultural privilege!
• You just open church buildings and expect people will come to your worship services because Christianity is so culturally embraced. Again, we cannot imagine sitting, leaning on culture for a steady stream of newcomers into our Christian communities. How do you avoid growing lazy and apathetic?
• You seem like a really angry bunch. How does following the Lord of Love and Prince of Peace influence you to be such angry people? We just don’t get it.

And, they could go on. After observing and listening to us in 2017, their laughter at our current angst (which seems so trivial to them) may turn to tears. “How did the Way of Jesus, this beautiful way of life for which many of us gave our very lives, become so culturally submerged? We hardly recognize this faith story.”

Unfortunately, the early Christians would laugh…then cry.