Oct 26, 2026 0
The Necessity of Reforming the Church, Politics, and Ourselves
MONDAY MORNING MUSIC MINISTRY
10-26-26
The Necessity of Reforming the Church, Politics, and Ourselves
This season – this very week – can focus our attention on a crisis in American life, because of two related commemorations. That is to say, anniversaries we ought to commemorate.
Reform is the connective tissue. It is an impulse that has lost its attraction in today’s world. If we have challenges, frustrations, and crises, the contemporary mode is to settle into fatalistic inertia – what’s the use; things can’t change; que sera, sera – or instead, some form of revolution, going radical. Reform recognizes the importance of tradition and experience, while being willing to explore and improve.
Five hundred years ago the Roman Catholic Church had grown top-heavy as an institution (especially militarily and politically) and was hopelessly corrupt. Popes had mistresses; theological dogmas were invented apart from Scripture; assurances of Heaven were sold like time shares.
A German monk, Dr Martin Luther, read the Bible with open eyes and an open mind (at a time when lay believers were forbidden to read Scripture) and realized that God granted Salvation by grace through faith, not works; and that Christians could approach God without intercessors. His words in sermons, pamphlets, and books were thunderbolts in his community, in Germany, and through Europe.
Rejecting modernism, calling Reason the enemy of Faith, he faced a death sentence of the Church but courageously said, Here I stand. I can do no other. Then “Lutheranism” and myriad other denominations arose, and people have read the Bible for themselves ever since, blessed by personal relationships with God.
Reform: Luther, however, never intended to leave the Catholic church. He rather desired reform; Rome threatened to kill him and excommunicated him. Hence the Reformation.
Very much unrelated on the surface is this week’s anniversary of the birth of Theodore Roosevelt. I have spent much of my life devoted to this man… and what he stood for. I have written three books, dozens of articles, delivered many lectures, served on several TR associations, collected rare memorabilia, and even named my only son for the man.
I was not attracted to him early on because he resembled my grandfather. His honesty, patriotism, fearlessness, range of interests, and accomplishments all impressed me. As did his faith: he was to me the most observant Christian of any US president, or as much as any. What? some of you might respond; this man who hunted big game and lived in the Wild West and is famous as a Rough-Riding soldier?
Of course none of those activities negate a Christian’s life or lifestyle. While a student at Harvard, Roosevelt took up boxing but also chose to teach Sunday School at a local church. When that church thought his lessons were too strict, he volunteered at another church. His father died when TR was a student and he wrote in his diary: Nothing but my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ could have carried me through this, my terrible time of trial and sorrow.
TR titled one his books The Foes of Our Own Household (after Matthew 10:36) and another Fear God and Take Your Own Part. Roosevelt called his 1912 bare-the-soul campaign speech announcing his political principles “A Confession of Faith.” Later, he closed perhaps the most important speech of his life, the clarion-call acceptance of the Bull Moose Party nomination, with the words: “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!” That convention featured evangelical songs and closed with the hymn, “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
After Roosevelt retired from the presidency, he was offered university presidencies, editorship of major newspapers and magazines, and many other prominent jobs. He chose instead to become Contributing Editor of The Outlook, a small Christian weekly news magazine. He accepted a salary approximately one-eighth of those offered by major magazines that had hoped to snag TR’s services and celebrity.
TR was invited to deliver the Earl Lectures at Pacific Theological Seminary in 1911, but he declined due to a heavy schedule. Knowing, however, that he would be near Berkeley on a speaking tour, he offered to deliver the lectures if he might be permitted to speak extemporaneously, not having time to prepare written texts of the five lectures, as was the custom for guest lecturers. It was agreed, and Roosevelt spoke for 90 minutes each evening – from the heart and without notes – on “The Christian’s Role in Modern Society.” Near the end of his life he wrote a magazine article for The Ladies’ Home Journal, “Nine Reasons Why Men Should Go To Church.”
And so forth. Modestly but forcefully he was a committed Christian and an example as a man of faith. We mentioned the 1912 presidential convention above: the “Bull Moose” movement was forced upon the Republican Party when the presidential nomination was virtually stolen from the ex-president whose policies were betrayed by his successor William Howard Taft. Many politicians counseled Roosevelt to surrender, or compromise, or wait until four years later, or otherwise shut up. None of these options were in his blood… nor should they be with any of us devoted to righteousness.
Reform: He did not want to surrender his principles, nor did he consider revolution. He was neither “right” nor “left” politically – in truth, he usually appealed to both sides, even via his legacy today – but his whole career was devoted to Reform.
Today: Is Reform on the agenda in another way? Scarcely so, but it should be, more than ever before, in our churches, our nation, and in ourselves as Christians. We are facing crises of morality, of politics, of security, of confidence, of decency and respect (and self-respect), of responsibility, of international relations: Check the statistics in every category. The right and left might have different prescriptions, but share the common diagnoses.
Of course there is the crisis of faith infecting modern society and the contemporary church. Heresy has crept into every denomination. The Social Gospel has replaced Jesus’s teachings. Many churches are more concerned with filling the pews than filling worshipers’ hearts; or with secular agendas. By every measure, we live in a post-Christian world.
And as history (especially Bible history!) is our guide we cannot continue thus. Western civilization has lapsed into lassitude; is slouching towards Gomorrah, to paraphrase Yeats and to cite Judge Robert H Bork’s brilliant book. Awful as is that prospect, the other common reaction to moral stagnation is some form of Revolution… and that might come. Paris 2026 might foreshadow America 2027. Riots, anarchy, blood in the streets.
We cannot tolerate decline any more; and we cannot risk revolution. In this “week of reformers” we celebrate, can we discover the third path forward? Can the precious old ways be the most blessed of new ways for us and our children? The choice is not God’s: His way is clear. The choice is ours.
+ + +
Recent Comments