Guns And Athenagoras: Inverting The Order (part six)

Quoting from:

http://www.npr.org/2014/03/10/287311237/kentucky-southern-baptists-draw-crowds-with-gun-giveaways

That article provides an example of a church appealing to people's self-empowerment drives, and calling it evangelism. 

It's an hour before suppertime, and the line outside Lone Oak First Baptist Church in Paducah, Ky., is wrapped around the building. The people are waiting for more than a Bible sermon; there's a raffle tonight. Twenty-five guns are up for grabs.

There's nothing new about gun raffles in Kentucky, even at a church. Last year, there were 50 events like this one in the state. The Kentucky Baptist Convention says it's a surefire way to get new people through church doors....

In attendance is Tom Jackson, who's not a particularly regular churchgoer. "I do believe in God and I do believe in living the way that he wants you to live, let's put it like that," he says.

Jackson says he believes in turning the other cheek, but also in the right to defend himself and his family how he sees fit. You can turn the other cheek, he says, only to a point.

"[If] somebody kicks your door down, means to hurt your wife, your kids, you — how do you turn the other cheek to that?" Jackson asks.

"Turn the other cheek, only to a point."  I don't recall that being the theme of Christlike response to abuse and threats.  And back when Judas led to Gethsemane the Roman soldiers who kicked down the door with intent to hurt Jesus, the one man who fought back was rebuked by Jesus.

The early churches, who faced real kick-the-door-in mobs as well as hateful magistrates and emperors, provide us with a refreshingly different but very difficult answer to Jackson’s question, “How do you turn the other cheek to that?”

Let’s return to the Epistle of Diognetus for help first, then I will introduce a new early church writer.

Christians are in the flesh, but they do not live according to the flesh [so much for shooting people]. They live on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven [if they don’t take up arms for Lord Jesus (do medieval crusaders get some exemption?), why would they take up arms for Lord Caesar?]… They love everyone, and by everyone they are persecuted [they don’t shoot them].  They are unknown, yet they are condemned; they are put to death [they don’t shoot back], yet they are brought to life…  They are dishonored, yet they are glorified in their dishonor [glorified by God, not by Smith and Wesson].  They are cursed, yet they bless; they are insulted, yet they offer respect [they don’t get even].  For doing good, they are treated like evildoers [they don’t pull the trigger]….  Epistle to Diognetus 5:9-16a

The author then moves into a lengthy analogy, which I think is very relevant to provide:

In a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world. The soul is dispersed through all the members of the body, and Christians throughout the cities of the world. The soul dwells in the body, but is not of the body; likewise Christians dwell in the world, but are not of the world. The soul, which is invisible, is confined in the body which is visible; in the same way, Christians are recognized as being in the world, and yet their religion remains invisible. The flesh hates the soul and wages war against it (even though it has suffered no wrong) because it is hindered from indulging in its pleasures; so also, the world hates the Christians (even though it has suffered no wrong) because they set themselves against its pleasures. The soul loves the flesh that hates it, and Christians love those who hate them [love is not expressed with gunfire]…. The soul, which is immortal, lives in a mortal dwelling; similarly Christians live as strangers amid perishable things, while waiting for the imperishable in heaven. The soul, when poorly treated with respect to food and drink, becomes all the better; and so the Christians when punished daily [by someone kicking in the door looking to cause harm] increase more and more. Such is the important position to which God has appointed them, and it is not right for them to decline it [it is not right for them to shoot].  Epistle to Diognetus 6

The entire feel, theme, intent, and message of the preceding words flies in the face of the idea that we turn the other cheek only to a point.

The new writer I will introduce is Athenagoras, who wrote Plea On Behalf of the Christians to the emperor around 177 AD.  After commending the emperor for allowing the multitude of religions in the empire (yet 200 years later Christians revoked that openness toward the others), he turns to making a plea for equal openness toward Christianity:

While admiring your mildness and gentleness and your peaceful and benevolent attitude towards all, everyone enjoys equal rights; and the cities, according to their rank, share in equal honor; and, through your wisdom, the whole empire enjoys profound peace.

But you have not cared for us who are called Christians in this way; and although we commit no wrong, but as it will be shown in this discourse we are of all people most piously and righteously disposed toward God and your reign, you allow us to be harassed, plundered, and persecuted – the mob making war upon us only because of our name….

The injury we suffer from our persecutors is not aimed merely at our money, or our civil rights, or our honor, or anything of less importance – after all, we hold these things in contempt (although they appear of great importance to the masses), for we have learned not only not to return blow for blow, or to bring to court those who plunder and rob us, but to those who strike us on the one cheek to offer the other, and to those who take away our shirt to give also our coat – for when we have given up our property, they plot against our very bodies and souls….  Plea On Behalf of the Christians 1:2b-4

These statements from among the great cloud of witnesses point so clearly to Christlikeness.

Compare them with the words of the main speaker at the gun raffle evangelism show:

"I brought a gun with me tonight," McAlister says. "I know that's very controversial."

...And he welcomes the controversy; the best seats in the house are reserved for reporters. On stage, he cocks what he calls his most valuable gun.

"There's no government on the face of this earth that has the right to take this gun from me," he says to thunderous applause.

The closing line of the article quotes the speaker's own justification of his message:

"If simply offering them an opportunity to win a gun allows them to come into the doors of the church and to hear that the church has a message that's relevant to their lives, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that," he says.

Your “relevant” message would have no relevance at all to a persecuted church, like those who lived and died the Christlike way 1900 years ago.  Your message feeds the virus of self-empowerment.