No Time Like the When?

This Christianity Today article by Sara Billups won't get the press coverage that Mark Galli's "out-the-door" editorial calling for President Trump's impeachment and removal did -- for one thing, the people who never pay attention to CT and who only did so because Galli's statement was anti-Trump have already gone back to not paying attention to CT.

But in the long run? If more if us Christian people paid attention to it, we might wind up doing more good than all of the temporary powers and principalities about which we might voice our opinions.

Billups talks about a year when she made a resolution to be more open about talking about her faith. Rather than gauging whether or not her conversation partners would be open to learning about it, she decided to just mention it if the occasion to do so presented itself. Some people had the expected reaction -- they quietly excised her from their lives upon learning she practiced a pretty basic and orthodox version of the Christian faith. But others, Billups said, were intrigued and wanted to know more. She said some were even more interested in talking with her once she was up-front about her faith, because they knew very few Christians in their ordinary circles and were curious about it.

Whether or not CT needed to take a position on impeachment is for them to decide. The magazine's editorial board felt that having done so when then-President Clinton perjured himself in 1998, they should do so now. Of course, they might have also come to the conclusion that they weren't justified in doing so then and might not be justified in doing so now, as well, but I don't own the magazine and they didn't solicit my input.

Interestingly, my Facebook feed was filled with people who quoted Galli's editorial and linked to it, large numbers of whom have never shared or cited a CT article in the history of their Facebook experience and might very likely never do so again. But if we people of faith were more interested in being open about our faith than in assuming that its mere existence would offend people, we might find ourselves surprised by the opportunities now and again we could have to talk about it. Of course there are people who treat every expression of Christianity as though it presages the resurrection of Tomás de Torquemada and his installation as Dictator of Everybody. They'll do that anyway.

But, as Billups notes, her resolution helped remind her that God, not she, was at the center of her story. And that is our goal and aim as Christians, to allow ourselves to be led by God at the center of our lives and answer his call on them. That's going to be a life worth a whole lot more talking about than the man of low character occupying the White House. Just because he thinks he's the only thing that ought to be on everyone's minds doesn't mean I have to agree with him.