Obama and The PAJAMA Christians

No, I'm not referring to Christian bloggers, of which there are thousands, maybe millions. Or Christians who secretly are watching porn, listening to phone sex or gambling in their home offices at night on the internet. Or baggie pants Christians eschewing or setting current fashion trends chasing hip-hop idols. I'm talking about Peace-and-Justice-and-More-Aid ChristiansThe Christian reformers of the 15th-16th century had two problems with God's Word. First, they had to get it into the language of the people through direct translation and paraphrase from Greek and Hebrew into German, or English or French in a way that people could understand the simple, clear meaning of the Gospel. Second they needed to liberate scripture from the encrusted allegories that spiritualized or created retellings of Greek and Roman myths covering up the clear word of the Gospel, particularly in the Old Testament.

Over the years, scripture again became entangled in a variety of "correct" translations (with some American Christians believing only the KJV is acceptable, which is tough on speakers of French, Russian, Navajo, etc.) and fascination with prophecy with cherry picking of verses for seven dispensations and times of The Rapture, to extreme pietism that requires women to dress or fix their hair in a certain way or men not to use technological advancements (no TV but computers are OK), or scholarly treatises so dull and obscure with multiple editors and authors of various books of the Bible, they send the parishioner fleeing the pew into the waiting arms of the atheists, humanists or government program that promises to save the world.

The gospel preached from Jeremiah Wright's pulpit may have shocked some, but a quieter version of liberation theology has been recycled through American churches for years--actually predates Black Liberation Theology. PAJAMA Christians turn Christ into Moses, and he's not just leading them in some exodus from evil, Satanic capitalism. He's got a long list of rules to create a just kingdom on earth. However, instead of personal belief, behavior or sacrifice, they want the government to bring in the kingdom through our ever more bloated programs supported by taxes. (From my pocket to Washington, to a government employee, back to Ohio, to a government employee, then to a trust fund for the poor, to the pocket of a government employee with a few bucks left over for the poor.)

The Gospel isn't difficult, but you would think so, as seldom as it is preached, taught or sung either by conservatives or liberals. Luther writes in "A brief instruction on what to look for and expect in the Gospels":

For at its briefest, the gospel is a discourse about Christ, that he is the Son of God and became man for us, that he died and was raised, that he has been established as a Lord over all things. . . . Just as there is no more than one Christ, so there is and may be no more than one gospel. . . .Thus when Isaiah in chapter 53 says how Christ should die for us and bear our sins, he has written the pure gospel. And I assure you, if a person fails to grasp this understanding of the gospel, he will never be able to be illuminated in the Scripture nor will he receive the right foundation. . .

You should grasp Christ, his words, works and sufferings in a twofold manner. First as an example that is presented to you which you should follow and imitate. . . However this is the smallest part of the gospel, on the basis of which it cannot yet even be called gospel. For on this level Christ is of no more help to you than some other saint. . . before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own. . . .when you have Christ as the foundation and chief blessing of your salvation, then the other part follows: that you take him as your example, giving yourself in service to your neighbor just as you see that Christ has given himself for you."

Obama has promised to undo the "faith based initiatives" the federal and state governments now use to rebuild and change society by requiring "nondiscriminatory" hiring. This in fact means for Christians, their organizations would become non-Christian. Christian non-profits have become so dependent on the government for funding, using their own funds to build bigger campuses, I suspect most would rather give up the Gospel than give up their own idea of what the gospel is--i.e., helping people through government grants, most of which go to pay their staff, keep their buildings open, and provide an outlet for volunteerism and service for their members to feel more holy.

Martin Luther's Basic Theological Writings edited by Timothy F. Lull is google scanned.