this is ham trimp h-a-m-t-r-a-m-c-k Michigan population 28 000 and what got them on our radar this week radar words is hard what got them on our radar this week is they've decided to forbid the pride flag in the state of Michigan uh in their town they can only have the American the the Michigan flag the city flag and the pow Mia flag according to the Washington Post we're going to talk about how this town that is now made up mostly or exclusively of Muslim City Council Members how this kind of theologically based policy making can break the church and what we can do to fix it this is Church's lame
so I don't want to Kink shame but I mean whoever named this town I I I'm like I'm looking at this I'm like you had spelled that wrong but I know you didn't right apparently like they were doing a lot of shopping at Ikea back then but no evident evidently um the town um back in the day was heavily of Polish descent okay hence the name yeah so I I don't think I did a good job of summarizing so let me go through this again we have hump Trump I'm assuming it's the short a sound population 28 000 has uh was predominantly polish but as immigration um has displaced a lot of uh people a large Muslim Community has been established here and now the city council is exclusively Muslim we're seeing as we're going to show just in a second here that their Town policies have become predominantly beneficial to the Muslim Community specifically and what's surprising about this and why it's on the show is because you'd think that the church the Christian Church would go very bad but apparently they're kind of raising this up as a how-to of theologically based policy yeah that's that's a pretty disturbing thing right there I mean because like theocracy is something that I have a very very severe allergy to that's a great way to put it yeah that's true um yeah and it's I don't want to say this flippantly um like in my opinion like one of the worst things that ever happened to the church with Constantine right um is because when when the Christian church was able to find its footings within the halls of power it became something perverse um yeah and if there's anything that I think that like Christians need it's to have their political power stripped of them for once um and into something like this I think is just going to embolden um some of the the wackier elements out there to to Really make the world of living hell for anybody who's not you know professing Christ absolutely and I take issue with that we're supposed to love our neighborism we're supposed to love our enemies so yep so let me just really quick do a quick synopsis of some of the more um eyebrow raising policies that have been enacted in this town and then we can start like then we can grind our axes until the cows come home which is like more metaphors squished together than should be allowed by law yeah I mean there's no cows around here well it is Indiana so you never know if One's Gonna Come like like moseying through okay so here's just a few of the things that have been um enacted a noise ordinance that allows local mosques to issue the call to prayer over a PA system in the town uh doesn't sound like that's not too crazy right um you know so it doesn't sound too crazy business owners located within 500 feet of one of the four mosques are prohibited from owning a liquor license so if you have a bar you are out of luck if you have a hotel that that has a cat like a mini for a mini bar or a bar built in restaurants you know liquor stores if you are within 500 feet of a mosque you are SOL yeah so those are just a couple of the things that they've done in recent times to put forward a a clearly Muslim forward agenda you know and you would think and you would think that the modern day religious right would go crazy over it but um the Christian Action Network um who was wrapped by Martin Marr m-a-w-y-e-r mayor Mahler man we've just picked the lottery for for hard to pronounce no kiddings so he's quoted as saying um they did so what so many Christians are too timid to do they fought back we must be unwavering stand firm in our convictions make our voices heard politically and defend the word of God with Zeal and passion so to the Christian Action Network this is the template for how to move forward with Christian politics yeah and I'm I'm gonna go ahead and have to disagree with you there Bob uh this is this is not the way yes yeah and then that's I'm not I'm just accidentally kind of referencing the Mandalorian then um I would have loved to have done it on purpose but hey yeah I mean that's just that's demented I mean like allowing them to you know issue the prayer column it's like we have churches with church bells so like I've got no problem with that um but then just saying that you can't sell liquor within 500 feet like that's that is the definition of imposing a religious standard on a community that doesn't you know necessarily practice your religion right um so how that's the like the the standard for um like how Christians should engage in politics is yes it's absolutely absurd to me it is it's interesting because one of the Bedrock things we learn about as children in America is a fundamental separation of church and state is what makes America unique and one of the original ingredients that have gone into America being as prosperous and as consistent in its blessing over time is the ability to understand that a state-sanctioned religion hurts far more than it helps and we seem to have lost that we seem to be yeah regressing back to a point where nobody can think about policy unemotionally so now all policy is tied to something emotional whether it's some sort of um nostalgic vision of what America used to be or sometimes some sort of religious Vision or you know Theocratic Vision or something like that like there's there's everything now is attached to an emotional whip that is meant to get you into a frenzy uh you know and this is on both sides of the political Spectrum but like we seem to have lost the ability just to look at numbers and to look at the original rights that we've been endowed and say what is good or what is bad to maintain these rights and to to maintain the the original intent of wanting to separate our ourselves from a monarchy that seek to use an oppress us you know we seem to have lost the ability to think of those terms and like there's difficulty I think when like we we look at scripture and we try to apply scripture to like you know like the present moment right yeah um because nothing in the Bible was written in a in a cultural situation that is the same as ours governmental situation which is the same as ours yeah so you know we we have to to take principles and then try to move them forward yeah um but in in no way shape or form is there any you know principle in the New Testament that nothing that Jesus taught nothing that Paul taught or John or Peter anybody that would allow for this kind of just this savagery toward people that aren't part of our believing Community yeah um and then and and I think what makes this maybe even worse is that the same person that's looking at this and saying oh well this is a template for us like these these Muslims they fought back for their faith well yeah but these Christians are going to come in and they're going to try to kick those Muslims out right because like these are the same types of Christians that were happy to prevent people from coming to this country simply based on on religion which is not loving sorry right I mean there's so many bad metaphors coming up this uh this episode but you live by the sword you die by the sword right yeah and so it doesn't matter what faith tradition you come from but if you come in and you overtake a town a state a country by force there then there there's no reason to think that you yourself will not somehow sometime be taken over in the same way you know because you by you doing it you've basically said it's okay to do it this way like these are the rules of the game and this is the law of the Jungle the strongest survive right and I'm having a hard time at the moment in in today's climate envisioning the status quo allowing for a a Muslim theocracy to become the norm yeah or you know for Christians to follow suit well um that part's at least easier to Envision even though it's it's it's hard to Envision it it's easier to Envision yeah I mean I'm I'm hoping that with at least like this this like um this liquor man um I'm like I'm hoping that somebody takes that um to court because um I I feel like that is the definition of you know gear establishing like a religious principle here like so like that's an issue so maybe that will hopefully it'll happen that will discourage Christians from moving it forward um but it's not I mean it's it's not any let you know more encouraging though when like what basically Martin Marr here is trying to say is that we need a Christian holy war yeah he's like like him and his elk are never going to call it a holy war because of that term being associated with Islam which is the hypocrisy here um but that's what like that's what this guy is legitimately calling for and and that is that that's not that's not Jesus man we we are now very much short-term thinkers in America right we love Twitter and we love to communicate 140 characters at a time instead of telling somebody a good story about our vacation we'd just rather share some pictures you know we're very short-term thinkers and so we see this one city that is is has become muslim-led and and we kind of just let roll off our back because it's just one city but nobody wants to look forward to the day where there's more and more Latinos doing things they want to do the way they want to do it there's more and more Muslims doing things the way they want to do it there's more and more Christians doing things the way they want to do it and guess what as more and more people are doing things they want to do there's less and less space to work together and eventually they're gonna have to confront one another you know and this idea that oh when we get to that point that'll be the point where we learn to live together in harmony like when we get there it's like no I don't think I don't think that's how it works you know no no because like when you're when you're using the power of law to um enforce a particular Behavior merely because it comports with your religious ideals yeah um I mean that's that's Force yeah that is force I'm not going to call it violence but it is force right um and and I do think that you know we as Christians should reject uh uses of force like that um and and it's and like trying to say it's because merely because it's like you know it's a freedom or anything like that it's just like no it's because it like that scripturally it isn't Our concern with somebody who doesn't believe what we believe do absolutely and not only not only is it forced but it's also just cruel and unusual punishment it's like okay so today Muslims are in charge so we have Muslim law and then tomorrow Christians are in charge so we have Christian law and 10 years from now um the wiccans are in charge so now we have Wiccan law right and it doesn't do Society any good for laws to wildly swing back and forth without anybody being able to predict what tomorrow's normal is going to be you know what I mean that to me is the very definition of cruel and unusual from a policy standpoint and then the other thing I wanted to say about how this breaks the church specifically because I know that we've been talking a lot about law today yeah churches are not unions the idea is not to collectively bargain in order to break the back of the man right the order the idea is to collectively pull our resources to ease the burdens of the world to bring the kingdom here to make real the love and the compassion and the charity that Jesus had for all of us and to make that real in in tangible ways not to break anybody's back as you know whether they're good or bad or evil or whatever that's that's a distortion of it's like a combination of prosperity this Prosperity Gospel and now this new generation of of I don't even know like fundamentalist thinking all put together you know that we're just gonna break the backs of anybody who doesn't think the way we do and we're gonna do it together because somehow the more of us that do it makes it more right or something you know yeah it's like I mean I'm thinking of Jeremiah um you know because like I'm like it's just a section of text I was I was looking at like for writing my sermon for Sunday yeah you know and it's just like you know on that day no one will say to another know the Lord because the law will be written on their hearts yeah like that's that's an this this wonderful eschatological vision of what like the final age will look like yeah is people will just do this from within yeah and like like that's that's the that's the kind of Christianity that like I I want us to be projecting forward yeah absolutely um so yeah so I think we have a pretty good idea of of why this irks us so much so let's talk about how we can fix it um and how we can make sure that the church doesn't follow suit in in a way that that is really ultimately um self-destructive um and so I said this if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it's a duck and if the duck is religious zealotry in in public policy drag don't be that duck right and so when you see the thing that you hate and your goal is to be more like it the thing that you hate is not the problem your goals are and so it's really important that the church not get not get swept up in this tidal wave of Might makes right because that that's that was not the message of Jesus on the cross you know the message of Jesus on the cross is sometimes you have to die for people to see the big the to see the bigger love the agape love the god kind of love like sometimes you have to die to sell for that to happen yeah you know I I think like you know Christians you know um you know being who we are is like we we venerate the you know the Golden Rule as you know like the the the ethical standard like the ethical standard you know just this this is where we kind of start from right is that you know like you know whatever you don't want to have somebody do do you don't do to somebody else exactly um and so like this kind of behavior really kind of jumps the shark uh and you kind of forfeit your moral Authority when you don't live up to that standard um and I think this is there that like like most Americans religious or not are more than happy to agree with I think so too absolutely yeah I think that like um you know we need to remind ourselves and each other as Believers um that that is our ethical standard that at least be like my fix but I think um you know it's not as fun as dressing up in drag I guess but you know no never like you can never have enough there's nothing wrong by the way with dressing up in drag that's not I just watch the bird cage last night yep such a fun movie like if you just enjoy being that kind of exuberance by all means live your best life just don't call what it is in Christ's name necessarily
all right so we're churches Lane you may have watched this episode and thought Man Mark and Scott really have it out for the church but we really don't we actually love the church we participate in church we serve the church we want to see the church do well we want to see Jesus name spread everywhere but there's no doubt that the uh Christian Action Network and all the other Christians who think that it's time to you know take it to government whatever we know by whatever means necessary we think things like these ultimately break the church and this show is a place where we take these examples of what break the church we put them in one place so when the question asks how come nobody takes Church seriously anymore here's your answer you're welcome so if you've got something to say by all means um shoot us an email churcheslanepodcast.gmail.com or go to YouTube and leave a comment and press those thumbs up and thumbs down and super thanks and all the likes and shares and click click click click click click click and like And subscribe drink with that go in peace and serve the Lord amen and hey if you got something out of this episode in particular that you want to see more of somewhere up around me is a card that'll take you to our playlist called pathetic politics by all means feel free to click and enjoy thanks a lot
