A Moral Foreign Policy

When the esteemed Senate Majority Leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, addressed his colleagues on this day in 1919, the nation was already in the midst of a “Great Debate” over its future foreign policy.  What was then called the Great War—what we call the First World War—had just ended.  Should the country now join the new League of Nations that President Woodrow Wilson had hammered into shape at the Versailles Peace Conference, or should the nation retain its traditional commitment to neutrality—as articulated in Washington’s hallowed Farewell Address? 

Utilizing carefully measured phrases and appealing to the mood of the audience Lodge’s speech somehow bridged the gap between the two positions and unleashed a storm of applause from the packed galleries.  A group of Marines, just returned from France, pounded their helmets enthusiastically against the gallery railing; men and women cheered, whistled, waved handkerchiefs and hats.  It was minutes before order could be restored, and when a Democratic Senator attempted to reply to Lodge’s arguments, his rebuttal was greeted with boos and hisses.

Lodge argued against any possible infringement of America’s sovereignty:

“I object in the strongest possible way to having the United States agree, directly or indirectly, to be controlled by a league which may at any time, and perfectly lawfully and in accordance with the terms of the covenant, be drawn in to deal with internal conflicts in other countries, no matter what those conflicts may be.  We should never permit the United States to be involved in any internal conflict in another country, except by the will of her people expressed through the Congress which represents them.”

Likewise, he argued for a strong moral stance regarding the horrors of war while at the same time ringing the bell of patriotism:

“In the Great War we were called upon to rescue the civilized world.  Did we fail?  On the contrary, we succeeded, succeeded largely and nobly, and we did it without any command from any league of nations.  When the emergency came, we met it, and we were able to meet it because we had built up on this continent the greatest and most powerful nation in the world, built it up under our own polices, in our own way, and one great element of our strength was the fact that we had held aloof and had not thrust ourselves into European quarrels; that we had no selfish interest to serve.  We made great sacrifices.  We have done splendid work.  I believe that we do not require to be told by foreign nations when we shall do work which freedom and civilization require.  I think we can move to victory much better under our own command than under the command of others.”

His logic, resounding with the moral fervor of his dear friend Teddy Roosevelt, won the day.  In the end, the League of Nations treaty was defeated and the policy Lodge elaborated became the foundation of all American foreign relations for much of the rest of the century. 

But alas, no more.

Not Just Passing Through

"Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through a station: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind." C.S. Lewis

The Democracy of the Dead

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about." G.K. Chesterton

Uttermost Challenge: Week 1

This summer I'm running 500 miles, biking 1500 miles, and swimming 13 miles--along the way, I'll be joined by some of my friends and students. 

Why would we take on such a huge challenge, you ask? 

Well, we want to raise $30,000 for the Chalmers Fund to provide scholarships for worthy, needy students. Won't you support us?  You can give online right here, right now.

Meanwhile, here is the progress report for the first week:

Total running miles: 45.92

Total biking miles: 80.55

Day 7: Sabbath Rest

Day 6:  3.5 mile run and 22 miles on the bike

Day 5: 10 mile run and 22 miles on the bike 

Day 4: 3 mile run in the Firecracker 5K

Day 3: 8.25 mile run and 12.75 miles on the bike

Day 2: 11.4 mile run and 11.8 miles on the bike

Day 1: 9.77 mile run and 12 miles on the bike

The Great Condescension

“The study of everything that stands connected with the death of Christ, whether it be in the types of the ceremonial law, the predictions of the prophets, the narratives of the gospels, the doctrines of the epistles, or the sublime vision of the Apocalypse, this is the food of the soul, the manna from heaven, the bread of life. This is meat indeed and drink indeed.” John Angell James

“It was great condescension that He who was God should be made in the likeness of flesh; but much greater that He who was holy should be made in the likeness of sinful flesh.” Matthew Henry

Gaining Our Liberty--and Losing It Again

On June 9, 1776, the Continental Congress accepted a resolution of Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee to appoint a committee to draft a declaration of secession from the dominions of the English King and Parliament. On June 29, the committee—composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston—presented their draft for debate and a vote. It was defeated twice and sent back to the committee for revision. Finally, on July 4, a newly amended version of that draft was accepted. The war that had been raging for more than a year had finally driven the reluctant revolutionaries to sever all ties with their motherland.

The document they finally approved was based on the “covenant lawsuit” sequences from Old Testament books like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah and influenced by classic historical works of political, literary, and theological profundity such as Scotland’s Arbroath Declaration, Richard Hooker’s Laws of Polity, Richard Baxter’s Holy Commonwealth, and William Walwyn’s Good Samaritan. Not surprisingly, it contains some of the most beautiful and enduring political rhetoric ever written. Soaring phrases abound:

“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self‑evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.”

“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”

“We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name and by authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states.”

“For the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

From the opening refrain the Declaration ringingly affirms the absolute standard upon which the founders hoped that liberty might be established. Appealing to the “Supreme Judge of the World” for guidance, and relying on His “Divine Providence” for wisdom, the framers committed themselves and their posterity to the absolute standard of “the laws of nature and of nature's God.” A just government exists, they argued, solely and completely to “provide guards” for the “future security” of that standard. Take away those guards, and liberty was simply not possible.

That is precisely why they felt compelled to so boldly declare their autonomy from the British realm. The activist government of the crown had become increasingly intrusive, burdensome, and fickle and thus the possibility of genuine liberty had been thrown into very real jeopardy. The founders merely protested the fashion and fancy of political, bureaucratic, and systemic innovation that had alienated the inalienable.

They said that the king’s government had, “erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” It had, “called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant. . .for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with the king's measures.” It had, “refused assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary to the public good.” It had, “imposed taxes without consent. . . taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our government.” And it had, “plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, destroyed the lives of our people. . .and excited domestic insurrections amongst us.”

The founders believed that no one in America could be absolutely secure under the king, because absoluteness had been thrown out of the now ideologically-tainted political vocabulary. Because certain rights had been abrogated for at least some citizens by a smothering, dominating political behemoth, all of the liberties of all the citizens were at risk because suddenly arbitrariness, relativism, and randomness had entered into the legal equation. The checks against petty partiality and blatant bias had been virtually disabled. The private sector had been swallowed up by the public.

Thus, they acted boldly to “form a more perfect union.” They launched a sublime experiment in liberty never before surpassed, never again matched. Author P.J. O’Rourke comments, “There are twenty-seven specific complaints against the British Crown set forth in the Declaration of Independence. To modern ears they still sound reasonable.” Reasonable, because they could all too easily be leveled against our present Federal Government in Washington.

The men who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor for a very risky proposition indeed. In so doing they established a precedent for a courageous defense of principle which has been a hallmark of American civilization ever since--but which, alas, seems to be all too rapidly slipping away from us.

Your Legacy of Truth

The glories of the ages past, 

Long held for you in trust, 

Are deeded now for your employ, 

Are ceded now in grateful joy; 

The splendors of the ages past, 

Reserved but for the just. 

The rich bequests of Christendom, 

Insured against default, 

Are brought to flower on this day, 

Are sought in valor just this way: 

The vast endowments of Christendom, 

Braced against default: 

These benedicted majesties, 

These propitiated certainties, 

Are laid upon your company, 

Are stayed upon your destiny; 

These covenantal indemnities, 

These providential sureties. 

Take hold, therefore, of this, 

And all your own troth; 

Inheritance and sworn relation, 

Vigilance and vowed succession; 

Take charge, therefore, of this, 

In midst of fullest love: 

This is your legacy of truth.

--Tristan Gylberd 

Take Us Back

On May 18th the Ryman here in Nashville will host the first concert in a 36-city tour featuring the pioneers of contemporary Christian music: Andrae Crouch, Chuck Girard, Evie Tornquist, Randy Stonehill, and the Archers. According to Evie, “The One Way Experience Tour,” will hopefully “rekindle a pilot light in many of our hearts.” 

Indeed, just thinking about the concert called to mind an old Andre Crouch song: 

“Take me back, take me back dear Lord,
To the place where I first received you.
Take me back, take me back dear Lord,

Where I first believed.” 

It also brought to mind the day, forty-one years ago now, when I was first introduced to each of the artists who’ll headline the concert tour. 

Explo 72 was a landmark event hosted by Campus Crusade for Christ in my hometown, Dallas, from June 12 to June 17, 1972. The goal was to gather 100,000 high school and college students together to train them in personal evangelism and to prepare them for a lifetime of Christian service. 

The daily schedule included discipleship training, Bible study, intensive prayer sessions, and evangelistic outreach in the morning--with hands-on service each afternoon. Each evening concluded with mass worship gatherings at the Cotton Bowl, then the home stadium of the Dallas Cowboys.  

Billy Graham spoke at each session including the final event on Saturday which was a public, eight-hour long, Christian music festival--with the likes of Johnny Cash as well as Love Song, Larry Norman, Randy Stonehill, and Andre Crouch. Later dubbed the "Christian Woodstock," the event drew an estimated attendance of nearly a quarter million singing, praying, exultant believers. 

 The now defunct Newsweek magazine described the crowds as being “militant Christians.”  And, I suppose that by today's standards, we were--at least we were in the Acts 4:32-37 sense of it: one in heart and soul, no one claiming what was theirs as their own, meeting the needs of all, declaring our testimonies with power, and abounding in great grace.

Though I have no nostalgic illusions that those were by any means halcyon days of theological substance or maturity, there was remarkable ardor, vision, and hope.  And so, given the difficult days we live in, I can sincerely say, "oh Lord, take us back."

Holy Boldness

By the spring of 1521 a 38-year-old theology professor from a tiny university town in Saxony Martin Luther had surprisingly become a powerful and popular voice of reform—much to the chagrin of both the secular and the ecclesiastical authorities throughout late Medieval Europe. The situation was more than a little distressing—and threatening—to the authorities. So it was that Marin Luther was summoned to the city of Worms to recant his dangerous views by the young Hapsburg Emperor, Charles V.

It was there that the emboldened Luther uttered the words that genuinely launched the Reformation:

"Since your majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason—I do not accept the authority of popes and councils for the have contradicted each other—my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right not safe. Hier stehe ich, Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen." 

Later, he would elaborate: 

“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every part of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, then I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all battlefields besides is merely flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point” 

And, again: 

“Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.” 

His boldness recalled a much earlier stand, that of Peter and John before “the rulers and elders and scribes who gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family.” When this council was convened, the leaders asked the disciples, “By what power or by what name” did they proclaim their Gospel and perform their good works? 

Peter, like Luther so many years later, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: 

“Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:5-12)

Activism

Just as the first law of heraldry is to wear your heart on your sleeve, the first law of activism is to wear out your welcome. It is a paradox that seems to contradict every vestige of sound logic in this poor fallen world; which is precisely why it is so effective.