In the world of Christian missionary activity, you often hear the term “unreached people group.” While this more literally refers to “a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians” (meaning they will need outside assistance if they are to be converted to Christianity)– might this category include certain subcultures of self-identified Christians themselves?
I regularly hear from people who consider themselves Jesus-followers, who lament they can find no effective way to “reach” family members and friends who identify as Christian but are outspoken in their support of the Trump Administration, and the White nationalist, MAGA agenda.
Of the approximately 40% of Americans who (according to polls) currently support Trump, at least half are White Evangelicals. Does their intransigent loyalty in the face of increasingly blatant deception, corruption and injustice show these people to be unreachable? Or does it perhaps show that they were never truly “reached” by the Gospel in the first place?
If Jesus had a mission statement it would include “love your neighbor (even your enemy) as yourself,” and the prophet Isaiah’s powerful words– which Jesus read at his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth referring to himself.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).
Could Jesus’ mission be any more at odds with the current Administration’s agenda? How can so many evangelical Christians miss it? Have they never truly heard or deeply received the Gospel message that “God so loved the world“–and not just America? (John 3:16).
Or have they ‘heard’ it but, under powerful cultural and political influences, discarded it? The writer of the Epistle of Hebrews said this about those he had come to see as unreachable:
“For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away,” he states, “it is impossible to renew them again to repentance” (Heb 6:4-6).
“Hardening of the heart” is another biblical description of what happens when people refuse the truth. Evangelical hearts seem to be getting harder and colder by the day as people justify merciless ICE raids, mass incarceration and deportations, and increasingly racist and violent rhetoric casually expressed by the highest in command.
The Apostle Paul prophesied of a coming “apostasy” and a “man of lawlessness,” “who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship… displaying himself as being God,” (2 Thess 2:5-6). He goes on to describe a “deluding influence” that God would send upon those “who do not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”
This delusion causes God’s people to “believe what is false” and “take pleasure in wickedness (including injustice)– with devastating consequences (2 Thess 2:11-12). This “deluding influence” most certainly seems to have fallen upon many, empowered by Fox News and other seductive media sources—that contribute to people being locked away in their silos—unreachable to anyone outside their increasingly cult-like team of fellow believers.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “Remove from your midst” believers who are openly immoral. He uses strong language: such a one should be delivered to “Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved” (1 Cor 5:5).
While Paul was speaking specifically of incestuous relationships, might he also have included open support of arrogant, corrupt, lying leaders, disregard for the poor and vulnerable, mass deportations of immigrants? Paul’s releasing them into enemy hands represents a kind of aggressive therapy of last resort. Could this be what is needed to save MAGA-slidden Christians now?
When Isaiah is first called to prophesy during the height of Israel’s idolatry, affluence and corruption, prior to their being carried away into Babylonian exile, the Lord gives him an ill-fated mission:
“Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed” (Is 6:9-10).
When the Prophet asks the Lord “how long” this sentence of spiritual blindness and deafness must last, the Lord responds with a prescription of a near fatal, chemotherapy-like, life-saving remedy.
“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, the Lord has removed people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land” (Is 6:11-12).
Like the younger son in Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son– who hits bottom and “comes to himself” in a pigsty before returning to his father, the remedy for the unreachable may involve utter devastation– an AA-like “hitting bottom.”
Humility is a prerequisite for true heart-felt change. Over the last 32 years, I have been a jail chaplain and pastor to people affected by addiction, incarceration and homelessness. It has grieved me to see many people’s lives fall apart as they remain caught up in their hustles. It is truly lamentable that it often takes complete devastation before people finally become humbled enough to repent and turn around.
It looks to me that America is sliding toward destruction. Can we turn around before it is too late? Can we hear the words of Jesus: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near”? To repent means to change our way of thinking. Can this be possible for those who are so certain that they’re on the side of the right? The side of God?
Jesus’ words regarding the powerful of his day may bring a glimmer of hope for those who seem unreachable. After saying that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God,” his disciples asked, “then who can be saved?” (Mt. 19:24-26). If many White evangelicals and others today remind us of these rich temple attendees, blinded by their political wealth, Jesus’ answer might surprise us as offering hope: “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
“Come now, and let us reason together,” writes Isaiah, showing God’s open, exemplary invitation to dialogue and offer of forgiveness.
“Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool.”
God’s final appeal is both hopeful and ominous, showing people the critical choice before them then and now.
“If you consent and obey, you will eat the best of the land; “But if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken” (Is 1:18-20).