Complicit Christianity or Courageous Christianity? A Response to House Resolution 59
by Robert Crux | 4 February 2025 |
According to a February 2023 study by the Pew Research Center, 32 percent of Americans believe a military regime or authoritarian leader, described as a strong leader who can make decisions without interference from Congress or the courts, would be a good way of governing the country. The same study found that 38% per cent of Americans under the age 30 support nondemocratic alternatives compared with 29% of those ages 50 to 64 and 26% of those 65 and older.
They are expressing a frightening new trend. Democratic decline and authoritarian leadership is likely to characterize the new administration, which already has a history of election manipulation and executive overreach. The Adventist church could be facing a crucial moral choice in the weeks and months ahead as this administration has threatened to end separation of church and state. and to confine religious liberty to those who follow one particular kind of Christianity.
House Resolution 59
The first notable challenge to religious liberty is House Resolution 59 (H. Res. 59). H. Res. 59 could be a moment of profound choice as to whether Adventist Christians will resist the politics of harm. If you’ve not heard of this bill, here’s the story behind it.
Tradition surrounding presidential inaugurations calls for a prayer service. This year the Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde gave the homily in which she implored the president to foster American unity despite political differences and to have mercy on people in this country who were afraid of him and his promises of retribution.
Bishop Budde’s sermon did not go over well with the president who promised that his administration would focus on political revenge on his enemies. Nor did it go well with some members in the House of Representatives. To at least one representative from Oklahoma, the idea of a Christian leader respectfully asking a self-proclaimed Christian to be Christ-like was deemed offensive.
Three days later, John Brecheen submitted resolution H. Res. 59 to the House of Representatives, condemning Bishop Budde’s sermon as “political activism” and distorting the biblical message. Acting in contradiction of the First Amendment to the Constitution, conservative representatives dared to offer what amounted to censorship of a clergyperson.
Rodney Kennedy writing for Baptist News Global said:
“Imagine the House of Representatives taking time away from its current agenda on taxes, tariffs, immigration, birthright citizenship, and cutting food stamps to attack a bishop’s sermon. This is absurd.”
The backlash to Bishop Budde’s sermon threatens to set a new precedent. For generations, faith leaders have used their pulpits and public ministries to call for justice and speak truth to power, even when it was uncomfortable or unpopular. H. Res 59 says that speaking the thoughts of Jesus should be interpreted as offensive—in this case, to those Christians who see the new president as anointed by God.
The same day that Donald Trump took office, the nation celebrated the life and legacy of a prophetic preacher, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In one of his famous sermons, King said,
“The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool….”
Res. 59 portends a trend toward a faith characterized by theocracy and religious persecution.
For such time as this
Adventists don’t like being labeled “political activists.” As with many churches, the Adventist church has tended to practice a complicit rather than a courageous Christianity.
But in fact, we have a history of standing courageously against those who undermine the ideals of religious freedom and practice. Caught in the current political maelstrom it would seem that the Adventist church must ask itself whether it wants to be a bystander or a resistor. In the face of H. Res. 59, Adventists need to decide if it is God’s plan for them to acquiesce to a religious-liberty-denying brand of Christianity.
I believe that the church cannot afford to take a pass as it did in World War II Nazi Germany and in the American Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s and ’70s. House Resolution 59 may go away, but the mere fact of its having been introduced prompts a historical moment when faithful followers of Jesus must demonstrate a more visible, public, dramatic enactment of our faith.
A website has been set up where you can weigh in. By clicking here you have the opportunity to contact your member of the U.S. House of Representatives and urge him or her to vote “NO” to H. Res. 59. A pre-written letter is available for you to use, or you can adjust the text to make it your own.
As people of faith who have a strong tradition and heritage of supporting religious liberty for all citizens, I ask fellow believers to take action. As much as Adventists would like to remain distant from political struggle, the commandment of love urges the Christian to stand up for their neighbor.
The God of the beatitudes revealed in a woodworker from ancient Palestine started a radically inclusive movement defined by acceptance, compassion, and love. Some of his followers are today telling the world a much different story.
We must choose religious liberty over a too-often complicit Christianity.
Robert D. Crux, Ed.S, worked as a teacher, principal, and superintendent of schools over a period of 35 years in Adventist education before retiring in 2016 to Lawton, Michigan, where he enjoys writing, reading, biking, model railroading, and, most of all, his grandchildren.