The Tea
Party Comes to Church
In February of last year
(2/11/09) when Christian financial advisor Dave Ramsey appeared on Fox and
friends with a handful of teabags saying “It’s time for a tea party” he
probably didn’t imagine what was about to happen. The country was about to bail
out a bunch of badly operated banks and automakers and the train was getting up
a head of steam to deliver national health care of some kind. People who had
had enough government grabbed their teabags and joined in. Quickly a new
political power emerged shunning both traditional big-spending parties and the
Tea party movement was born.
It’s hard to get a clear fix
on the values of a populist (largely leaderless) movement like the tea party.
It blends one part fiscal conservatism with one part libertarianism and
attracts people with both leanings. However three values are common: they want smaller government, fewer regulations and
lower taxes. A large number of evangelical Christians quickly linked up
with this new political movement which is why I am writing about its effect in
the church, because increasingly tea party thinking is making headway in the
church. Indeed I think the movement was under way in the church even before it
became a political movement.
1. Smaller government
In the church tea partiers
dismiss denominational programs as wasteful spending. Tea partiers don’t
understand why a denomination needs a District Superintendent or three (or four
or six) General Superintendents. “What do all those bureaucrats do anyway?”
they ask. Tea partiers have little use for denominational offices and programs
believing that free market parachurch ministries and
companies can supply all the needs of local churches. They fear any new scheme
to expand district or denominational “ministries” that are supposed to “help”
churches adapting to the church Ronald Reagan’s famous most feared 11 words, “Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to
help you.” Tea partiers in the church think districts and denominations are
part of the problem, not the solution. They think districts and denominational
offices should be de-staffed and we should all become more like the Southern
Baptists—focused wholly on the local church with little “bureaucracy” above the
local level.
2. Less regulation
Political tea partiers see
little need for piles of government regulations messing with the lives of citizens.
In the church they see little need for denominations to make rules for members.
They want to get church government off the backs of the people and to quit
telling them what they can and cannot do. In some denominations this movement
has spawned fighting over denominational regulations requiring members to not
drink alcohol or attend movies or gamble. In other denominations tea party
thinking has spread widespread defiance of all centralized national rules as
they toss them overboard like bales of tea into the Boston harbor. “What can
they do—they can’t come and arrest us can they?” Tea partiers in the church
believe individuals have the right to
make these decisions on their own and no national (or much less International) denomination has the
right to regulate a member’s private life.
3. Lower taxes
But at its core, the tea
party movement is mostly about money—they want lower taxes. If you starve the
beast the first two problems are automatically solved—government gets smaller
and has less power to regulate. Tea partiers in the church push for lowering
denominational assessments—the church’s equivalent of taxes. “Where does all
this money go anyway?” they wonder. They ask, “Why pour 5% (or 10% or even 15%)
into supporting district bureaucrats, denominational headquarters, missions agencies and wealthy educational
institutions?” Tea partiers think church
money should stay local and not be “confiscated” to support programs and people
filling denominational positions and missionary offices. They think colleges,
universities should be self-supporting and not supported by “taxes.” They think
programs like church planting, missions and
discipleship ought to run on a “free enterprise basis”—competing in the free
market for money like everyone else, not through general taxes. One said to me, “If they can’t get people to
give money for a camp meeting then we don’t need a camp meeting—why are they
taxing us to support a program we wouldn’t support if they didn’t tax us?” They
feel similarly about universities, district offices, and even youth ministries,
church planting and spiritual formation programs—let them all raise their own
money and those that survive will be the most worthwhile ones. Tea partiers in
the church want to keep their money close where they can keep their eyes on it—in
the local church. Reducing
denominational taxes is #1 on their agenda—they believe “starving the beast”
will accomplish their other two goals. Have you seen this kind of thinking yet?
I’d like to hear your comments…
1. Have you seen any
evidence of “tea party thinking” in your church?
2. How does libertarian
thinking on moral issues (homosexuality, drugs, abortion etc.) square with
Christian values?
3. When it comes to local
tithing is anyone yet arguing their money should stay even closer to home—in their own pockets?
4. Is this a good movement
for the church or not? Why?
So
what do you think?
During the first few
weeks, click here to comment or read comments
Keith
Drury March 23, 2010