Mary's Friday Newsletter 5/9/25

Christians, Politics, and the Fear of God

May 09, 2025

*The Capture of Christ* by Fra Angelico, c. 1440 The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain

Hello there dear ones,

I have been thinking about many things this week, so today I’m going to try to weave my disparate thoughts together into something coherent.

This train of thought started with reading Sharon McMahon’s article, “The Messages That Broke Me,” about her experience with online hate, and how the meanest, nastiest, most vitriolic comments and DMs she gets are almost invariably from Christians.

Also in my inbox was a message from World Relief, a Christian humanitarian organization, saying that “1 out of every 12 Christians in the United States is vulnerable to deportation or lives with someone who is.” World Relief has published a detailed document on “The Potential Impact of Deportation on American Christian Families” that you can read HERE. World Relief also shared this letter from Christian leaders across the political spectrum asking the administration to protect Afghan Christians currently being threated with deportation.

What is happening with Christians in America, I wonder? Why are we the meanest people many have ever encountered? Why do so many in the American church unconditionally support and even cheer on an administration that is oppressing our very brothers and sisters in Christ most in need?

I was listening to a reading plan on my Bible app this week and something caught my attention in Genesis 20 that I think may have some relevance to these questions. Bear with me as I tell the story.

Abraham, God’s man to launch the line of God’s chosen people, and his wife Sarah were traveling in the territory of Gerar. To protect himself, Abraham told the people of the land that Sarah was his sister. He had already done this same thing this while in Egypt in Genesis 12, with disastrous results for Pharaoh and his household. Apparently, Sarah was a very beautiful woman and caught the eye of the king of Gerar, Abimelech, who took her into his house.

God then came to King Abimelech in a dream and warned him that his destruction was imminent because he had taken Sarah, a married woman. Abimelech defended himself (still in the dream) to God, arguing that he had no idea that Sarah was married and that he had not yet touched her. God acknowledged that the king’s conscience was indeed clear and that he would have the chance to right the situation.

When he awakened the next day, Abimelech immediately informed his officials, and fear spread among them all. The king summoned Abraham and asked him why he had done such a thing.

Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife. Besides, she really is my sister, the daughter of my father though not of my mother; and she became my wife. And when God had me wander from my father’s household, I said to her, ‘This is how you can show your love to me: Everywhere we go, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Abraham’s reply stopped me in my tracks.

Abraham assumed that there was no fear of God in them, so he felt justified in letting his fear lead him to take actions that he knew would hurt other people.

His wife would again be taken into another man’s household and made vulnerable. Her safety and dignity would be sacrificed to his fear.

The people of Gezar would come under God’s anger, just as Pharoah’s house had.

Abraham’s priority became self-protection, and in doing so, his revealed his own lack of fear of God.

The irony was that God was completely capable of communicating to the king of Gezar, and that the king responded to God’s admonition with great fear and respect. Abimelech sent Abraham away with silver and instructions to “live wherever you like” in his kingdom.

Why does this story remind me of our current political and spiritual situation in this country?

I think we are much like Abraham.

We assume that they (our real or imagined opposition) have no faith. They are out to destroy our way of life. They will ruin “our” country. They will take away “our” limited resources. They will harm us.

Our fears, cultivated, stoked and exaggerated by media businesses that benefit from unsettling us, lead us to justify things that we should not.

We break democratic norms. We squash our empathy, thinking it makes us weak. We put our trust in immoral men and women, hoping their “strength” will protect us, while feeling justified that their cruelty and greed are not directly our own. We think of the fruit of the Spirit and the instructions of Jesus as optional in moments of crisis.

Our fears tell us the lie that our actions are justified because of those people.

Contrast this with the way of Jesus.

Jesus simply did not fear people. He saw each person as a member of the family of God or a potential member of the family of God.

There is an interesting little story in Luke where Jesus’ mother and brothers come to see him, but a crowd prevents them from reaching him. Someone alerts him to their presence, and he replies, “My mother and brothers are those who hear God’s word and put it into practice “ (Luke 8:21).

While some in today’s politics will grade familial loyalty over love of one’s neighbor, Jesus was inaugurating a reimagined kind of family and family loyalty, with himself as the head. This is a family in which everyone is invited and resources are abundant.

In the culture of Jesus’ kingdom, you can’t see a potential grandmother, father, mother, brother, or sister as your enemy. You also can’t ignore the needs of family members.

These ways of Jesus don’t become optional when we are afraid or believe that we are under threat.

The apostle Peter learned this during the arrest of Jesus in the garden. Peter was overcome by fear and swung his sword, possibly missing the head of the high priest’s servant Malchus and instead cutting off his ear. Side note—isn’t it interesting that John gives us the servant’s name? Jesus, always training his disciples even in this dangerous moment, tells Peter, “Put your sword away. Shall I not drink from the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:10-11). Luke adds in his gospel that Jesus says, “No more of this!” and heals Malchus’s ear (Luke 22:51). Malchus, despite the corruption he was swept up in, was valuable and invited into the family, too.

I wish Christians were be the most thoughtful, rational, careful, calm, kind, wise, loving, and fearless people in the eyes of their neighbors. I wish experiencing someone who claims the name of Jesus felt like an experience of the actual Jesus.

I don’t care as much about the box we tick in the voting booth as the people we are becoming and the way we are representing Jesus to the world.

I don’t know how we change this tide, but I know that it won’t be through fear.

This week, I added another video to my “Getting Started with Watercolor” series for paid subscribers. This was a fun one that walks you through the basics of color mixing. I also give you two fun abstract art projects to try!