Imaginary Centrism.

How centrism is weaponized in some Christian circles.

American Christianity suffers from what I’ve come to call “imaginary centrism.”

I gave my first Easter sermon when I was 13 years old and have been preaching ever since.

The majority of that time has been spent preaching in conservative Christian churches.

During that time, I noticed something deeply disturbing.

When I first began my preaching ministry, I could emphasize “pro life” issues and traditional views on human sexuality and receive nothing but praise from people. I’d hear thunderous “amens” and “hallelujahs” filling the sanctuary.

Yet as time went on, whenever I preached about our collective responsibility to help the poor or against the worship of political power, or caring for the immigrant, the marginalized, the oppressed, and holding those in power accountable to their needs, whenever I preached against racism, patriarchy, nationalism, violence, and sexism, I was often met with silence during the sermon.

After service I would get lectured by people about my sermon. They would say it was “too political” and that I just needed to “stick to preaching the gospel.”

I really beat myself up over this for years. These were people I loved and respected. Maybe I was wrong? Maybe I was just too immature? Maybe I wasn’t focused on the gospel of Jesus enough?

Yet every single time I read Jesus’ words and how he centered the needs of the poor and powerless among him, how he so echoed the prophets of the Old Testament who even held kings accountable to the needs of the “least of these,” I just couldn’t escape that central message. It had a profound impact on me. It is still changing me. Jesus just won’t let me go.

As time went on the hostility towards this message would just continue to grow. It turned from “just stop being political” to “social justice isn’t Biblical” and “you are advocating a weak and puny Jesus!”

People from the church could be as politically active as they liked for rightwing causes, yet I would get angry messages from people whenever I’d suggest supporting a cause that would aid our immigrant community or stand against racial injustice.

After hearing all the angry comments to my sermons, I’d go home feeling so discouraged and frustrated, only to log onto Facebook and see the same people who had just lectured me about “being to political” plastering their preferred politicians all over their pages alongside scripture verses and even pictures of Jesus.

It just felt like an impossible task I was faced with.

I then came to the difficult realization that this wasn’t me. This was a deep seated idolatry in the church.

Through my studying of American Christianity, I soon discovered that the religious right had so infiltrated churches like mine that conservatism and the political right were seen as being synonymous with Christianity by many people.

This had developed an extreme either/or mentality for many where “the left” was synonymous with “evil” and the right was synonymous with “truth” and there was no middle ground.

This is why pastors could openly preach right wing ideology from the pulpit and use the Bible to justify it and be met with applause, yet if a pastor preached anything that sounded even remotely “left,” even if it was just quoting Jesus’ own words, they would be swiftly reprimanded.

I remember witnessing this on steroids in my previous denomination. In one week’s time, I saw several pastors post pictures of themselves with their MAGA hats on as if that was just an acceptable thing for a pastor to do. That same week, I witnessed a pastor being removed from his church by his district superintendent for simply being seen attending a Black Lives Matter rally. His congregation was absolutely horrified and spoke out against his removal, but to no avail.

Pastors could lean as far right as they wanted to and be met with praise and affirmation, but if they leaned even remotely left, they would have a target put on their backs.

It is in this context where I constantly heard people lift up “political centrism” as the virtuous Christian position. Yet instead of actually being practiced, it was weaponized and simply used as a way of upholding the status quo.

It turned into a gross tool of spiritual bypassing and gaslighting. It sounded like “don’t preach politics” when it came to what was seen as “left” by the same people who cheered on right wing ideology in their churches and publicly.

It would sound like “both sides are just as bad” when the political right was criticized, and it was said by the same people who constantly raged against “the left.”

It would sound like “neither political party can embody the whole gospel” said by the same people who would tell you that “you can’t be a Christian unless you vote Republican.”

It would sound like constant complaints about “the left,” but the moment you bring up a criticism of the right, those same people would say “just focus on Jesus” and “just trust in God.”

It sounds like labeling you a “radical leftist” by the same people who have fused their Christianity with the political right.

I discovered that “political centrism” wasn’t actually believed by the people who advocated it. Rather, it was just a convenient excuse to pull out whenever anyone dared to call out what they had made synonymous with their Christianity: the political right. This is toxic rhetoric and idolatrous behavior.

I’ve come to the point now where I simply do not give any time or consideration to the criticism of those who condemn me for being “left” who can’t even tell the difference between right wing ideology and Christianity themselves.

It has taught me the deep importance of never arriving at the point where I believe I know all the answers, because the moment I arrive at thinking I know “the truth” and do not need to give it any further thought or questions, that’s the moment I’ve created an idol for myself to worship.

In my experience as a pastor, many in the church have made an idol out of the political right and therefore refuse to allow it to be questioned, challenged, or criticized. This shapes so much of what we are seeing right now.

So if you’ve felt a strong backlash like this as I have in my ministry, please know, it isn’t about you.

This is about an idol many in the church are refusing to repent from.

May we continue to faithfully call the church to repent from the worship of political power and the morphing of a political ideology into an idol.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” -Jesus (Matthew 7:3-5)