The Vice President Berated My Church Yesterday

Yesterday, the Vice President of the United States flew to the Kansas City area and insulted the church I serve in front of a cheering crowd. He did so because he was campaigning for the Republican candidate for the United States Senate from Kansas. I watched the clips of JD Vance’s address circulate across the internet and felt the range of emotions you might expect.

Now, most of his comments were directed at the Senior Pastor of our church, Adam Hamilton, who happens to be the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate from Kansas. But Vance’s comments extended well past our pastor into the pews and the people who comprise Resurrection.

Now, I don’t want to get that much into the comments themselves. Some of the more tweetable ones were about beef, white privilege, and drag queens, oh my! Others, though, ventured into the manipulation of church funds for personal benefit, and Adam’s efforts to “insult your [Christian] faith and spit on your [Christian] religion.” Needless to say, Vance did not have nice things to say about Resurrection, and by extension he caricatured our congregants as hapless sheep walking off the cliff of orthodoxy.

Actually, that metaphor - sheep - is the one I want to talk about. The Bible has a lot to say about sheep and their leaders, shepherds. Sheep are oftentimes characterized as animals of blind allegiance, and the metaphor therefore portrays people who follow leaders without thinking. The Bible also has a great deal to say about shepherds, too, most often as a metaphor for religious leaders. In Ezekiel 34 in the Old Testament, Ezekiel criticizes shepherds (religious leaders of the Israelites) as corrupt guides who only feed themselves. Jesus picks up this theme extensively. Here’s what he has to say in Matthew 23:14 -

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.

So, then, the Bible gives us plenty of language to think about sheep and shepherds.

As a student of the Bible, I have a category for moments in which shepherds lead people astray. It doesn’t surprise me. So, when JD Vance, claiming the authority of his office and speaking with assumed credentials about the Christian faith, tells a bunch of onlookers that they should fear their “woke” Christian neighbors, I’m not really surprised. He’s doing what unhealthy people in leadership have done for a long time - instead of dealing with his fears, he’s taking a weak posture of childlike insults and jeers to get a few cheers. His insecurities bleed out from his “pulpit” like an open wound. They are immature words and I’m not afraid of them or intimidated by them in the slightest.

Here’s what gets me, though - the applause. This is the part that makes me sad. It is the applause of Christians applauding the demonization of their neighbors. As they applaud, they miss the words of Jesus.

Now, this isn’t about party affiliation and whether you’ll vote for Adam or his opponent. Democrat or Republican is not the point. The point is that, in this cultural moment, American Christians are sheeping their way into believing ridiculous, insidious things about other Christians.

I’ve experienced this dynamic myself. To be transparent, I spend some time on the weekends campaigning for Adam. When I canvass neighborhoods, I inevitably will meet Christians shuttered behind their doors in fear. I speak kindly to them, and tell them why I’m there. On occasion, I’ll get an anxious response about the kinds of heretical things Adam’s church allegedly stands for. Or I’ll get some kind of ominous reply that, well, “The Methodists are just going that way now.” I usually break from my campaign voice and disclose that I am a pastor at this evil church, and that I would love to hear more about what they think, or even come back later for a cup of coffee. To date, only one has taken me up on that invitation. Talking over and over again with people who think I and those in my denomination have gone astray does get deflating, though.

I guess the question that I really want to ask those people at the doors - but never do - is this: What do you think my decision making as a person of faith has been here? Do you really think I - and all those in my “camp” - woke up one day and decided to renounce the teachings of Christianity and follow a dangerous religion? Do you really think “progressive" Christians are wolves in sheep’s clothing? Do you actually know any?

The converse is true for my progressive friends who caricature all “conservative” Christians as Christian nationalists who use Bible-thumping to press their agendas. Do you really think all conservative Christians are like that? They are not. I know many. Many are trying to be faithful followers of Jesus.   

Which leads me once again to Vice President JD Vance, and more importantly, the cheers. Christians can often be sheep, but we are called to rise above that status. If you are one of those who cheer at comments like the VP made, no matter where you live, I would simply ask you to think more critically about that which you applaud for. Demonizing other Christians is simply not the answer here. Cheer for policy, cheer for wise government, and cheer for America. But if you cheer for insults, you might ask yourself if you’re behaving like a sheep.

And, again, the converse can be true. If you are a progressive Christian, cheer for progress, cheer for justice, and cheer for the promise of a better administration. Resist the temptation, though, to cheer when other Christians are belittled.

My personal opinion is that the current administration’s Party and tactics demonize Christians more frequently than the other Party - an irony so big and bold that the tragic nature of this development can only be pinned to the musings of a false shepherd.

As for Church of the Resurrection, many say our senior pastor is a false shepherd. I think something that makes him - and our whole staff - more than the sum of these insults is his repeated insistence that the radical impact we make in the KC area is the fruit, not of human labor, but of Christ Jesus, who empowers all of His Church by the power of the Spirit.

In fact, I think that, in our current moment, a good shepherd is one who leads you to actually rub shoulders with people outside your camp. As Jonathan Haidt has written about extensively, it’s only by knowing your neighbors can you exorcise yourself of demonizing tendencies.

No matter your political affiliation, don’t be a sheep. Think deeper about the people you jeer. And above all, don’t give any human shepherd your ultimate allegiance. We have a better Shepherd, and as he has said. “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep” (John 10:11).