An apology and a footnote to Kuyper

You can call them my words, and they likely are; but the ideas belong to Abraham Kuyper, around whose writing many of my ancestors organized their lives. Kuyper was an ordained pastor, but he wasn't afraid of leaving the pulpit to enter the political fracas of his time in turn-of-the-century Holland, not at all shy, so forward, in fact, that he served the Netherlands as its Prime Minister. 

Here's the passage we just read last night, my words, kind of--

Today, in the public square, faith is frequently shunned. Many people believe faith in God is barbaric, a remnant silliness of the dark ages. There may have been a time when belief could more easily prosper in the marketplace, but in today's world, faith is scorned. 

It's embarrassing to read that. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Kuyper was right in 1906, and, after a fashion, I wasn't wrong almost a century later. But these days we inhabit a different world, a world where faith is no longer silly.

Congressman Keith Self, who represents the suburbs north of Dallas where the latest mass shooting occurred, was asked on Saturday what he felt about doing something to stop the blood-bath, specifically of the criticism of people like himself, who only offer "thoughts and prayers." He ripped on such pols from his own religious point of view. "Those are people who don't believe in an almighty God who is absolutely in control of our lives." Then he added, "I'm a Christian--I believe that He is."

That his Pharisaic claim is dead wrong doesn't need to be said. Fervent believers line every division in the land. The congressman may well believe in "thoughts and prayers," but what he cannot do is impugn the faith of those of us who say that, given the madness today, "thoughts and prayers" are not enough. Can we talk about some form of political action?

When Kuyper wrote the meditations that became Nabij God te Zijn (To Be Near Unto God) in 1908, he was writing during what some call "the modern age," a time when questions of faith were often thought "remnant silliness of the dark ages," when human reason was advanced to help humanity escape "barbaric" clutches of the old-time religion. 

When we read that passage last night, I couldn't help feeling I needed to apologize. The world around us has changed immensely. These days, nothing could be farther from the truth, and the proof is clear: Congressman Keith Self wasn't risking anything but laying claim to his own deep Christian faith, and in what he assesses as the faithlessness of those who don't share his politics. With his conservative voting public, he had much to gain by saying what he did.

I paraphrased Near Unto God because I came heir to my grandfather's copy in a translation stilted with an old-fashioned, dominie-like, style, hardly readable today. If I were to paraphrase those meditations, I told myself, there might well be  believers who would not only appreciate them but grow from what Abraham Kuyper had to say in a book that lots of Dutch immigrants took with them when they came to America.

The general revulsion at faith of any kind, what Kuyper saw around him and what I didn't question when I paraphrased his work, was that just a few years down the line the selection of Donald Trump as a candidate for President of these United States--two, maybe three times--would be a result of outspoken "religious" people like Rep. Keith Self and Sen. Ted Cruz, people who call themselves "evangelicals." As long as ex-President Donald Trump draws breath, those evangelicals are in power.

Do some believe those Christians to be barbaric? Yes. But are they thought to be so because they believe in God? No.  

Religious faith itself is not scorned or shunned in our world today. It would be good for evangelicals to accept that truth. Congressman Self hasn't. Today faith isn't derided or disdained. It's often greatly lauded--the congressman knew very well he would stand to gain ground with his own constituency by saying what he did. 

The movement, some say, is from "the Modern Age" into "the Post-Modern Age." 

Whatever it is, that passage in the very first meditation requires a footnote.