White supremacists and chest-feeding. Would Jesus or Paul have worried? No.

The story of Ted Cruz tweeting about the Brighton and Hove health authority calling breast feeding chest feeding instead of watching the damning film of the assault on the Capitol led by white supremacists brings together two extremes. Toxic tribalism stirred up by cynical politicians and extreme LGBT ism twisting life as we know it. Ted Cruz’s reaction suggests the two feed off each other.

 What should the Christian response be?

 Sadly we know that some Christians have swarmed down a dark tunnel in both the US and the UK playing the ends justify the means game. They know that Trump and Johnson are not angels, and yet to avert what their opponents would bring in (chest feeding, unisex toilets, Mexicans, Turks) they have sailed closely to the politicians’ tribal fear filled rhetoric. Worse, some have touted the nonsense that Trump is a latter-day Cyrus destined to deliver America. There has been similar tosh spoken about Boris and Brexit Britain.

 The problem is that while these Christians say they believe the Bible, they do not read the Bible well. For the Bible is clear. Christianity is not about individual nations, and certainly not about trying to force the Sermon on the Mount on entire populations. You can search the Scriptures. You will not find a comma that supports the idea that a whole country should be ruled in a Christian way. It’s not there.

 It’s the opposite. Jesus said there was a narrow way and a broad way, and most people are going down the broad way. His teaching, such as the Sermon on the Mount, was not for masses on the broad path. It was for His followers on the narrow path. If someone had come and said to him, ‘Jesus, how are you going to get Jerusalem and Rome to turn your sermon into law?’, He would have looked at them with frustration. His mission was much bigger. It was about changing people’s hearts across the whole world. And while that was happening Jesus is content to let Caesar collect the taxes. He said that bluntly: ‘Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, to God what is God’s. He was not going to interfere.

 But what if Caesar is a Roman supremacist, as Tiberius was? Jesus doesn’t seem to have a problem.

 But what if Tiberius is flag carrier for sexual perversity and promiscuity, even a paedophile, as Tiberius was? Jesus has no problems with the taxes going to him.

 It was the same for Paul. Can you imagine him sitting down with the church leaders at Ephesus and spending hours discussing what to do about Nero (another Rome supremacist with a colourful sex life)? Is this what you find in his letters? There is not a whisper. It’s the same for Peter who wrote, ‘Honour the Emperor.’ They were followers of Jesus and they understood their mission was much bigger than focusing on some ruling elite.

 This is the problem with Christians who obsess about their country being ruled by Christian values. Their mission is small. They think the only arena that matters is a Washington or a Westminster. It is not in line with the grand vision of Jesus and Paul and Peter to build a church across the whole world, barely bothering about who was in Rome.

 Their mission is small; and their way of trying to get results is wrong. These Christians think that God is going to do his work through a Trump or a Johnson. Where is that in the New Testament? Luke near the start of his Gospel makes a heavy point that God’s work does not originate with the politicians, but in the wilderness. He lists all the Trumps and Johnsons of his day and then says, ‘The Word of God came to John in the wilderness’. Mark underlines the same truth. The Gospel starts with the voice of one crying in the wilderness; Jesus goes out to John in the wilderness; Jesus is then sent for forty days into the wilderness. What else can the writers do to convince their readers that real change happens when a man or woman gets alone with God in the wilderness? God’s way is not when raucous crowds shout outside a building whipped up by some prophetess screeching fantasies about angels; or when silky dressed preachers try to get the ear of the President or Prime Minister for a Christian cause. God’s engine is prayer in the wilderness, not purring platitudes with the politicians.

 So what should be the Christian response to Trump and Johnson’s nationalism, or LGBT ism’s cruel extremism?

 Like John the Baptist we can speak out when something is wrong (as Sternfield Thoughts has done), but we should not get drawn in.

 We should follow Christ – preach his Gospel, serve the poor and build his church all over the world.

 Our arena of activity is our own church – not Washington or London. It is here that tribalism and LGBT ism and all the other isms must be kept out, it is here the Sermon on the Mount must be centre stage.

 Christians cannot stop all the grim things that happen on the broad path – the abortions, the promiscuity, the greed, the corruption. – but for those who want to leave this muddied way, then there is a refuge from the storm, a movement to join that has its eyes fixed not on any earthly king, but the King of Kings and the Prince of Peace. He is not worried about Trumpism or Brexitism or LGBTism – because He is much bigger. And on that great day He will silence every ism opposed to His glory.