As President of the Andrews chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha (The National Political Science Honor Society) it was my pleasure to invite pastor Ron Kelly to speak as our first religious liberty vespers speaker.
I decided to invite pastor Kelly after watching his sermon at the Village Adventist Church religious liberty weekend this year, held at the Berrien Springs Methodist Church. In that sermon Kelly bemoaned the decline in republicanism evidenced by threats of aggression from President Trump toward our NATO ally Greenland. Republican self government relies on the consent of the governed, and imperialistic force is at odds with that.
Pastor Kelly did not disappoint, his message at Andrews was a blessing to all who attended. Mrs White said that “Republicanism and Protestantism” were the secrets to America’s success and glory, and Kelly pointed out how the decline in authentic Protestantism gives way to the decline in the institutions of republican self government. He stressed the degree to which truth is central to both ideological constructs. In order for sovereign citizens to come together in a coherent and free political community, all sides of the political divide must have a reverence and respect for what is true. When our society loses that, and we are well on the way there—or long past, our political contests become death matches to control the levers of power and keep the other side from having any power.
It doesn’t matter if it is Republican congressmen allegedly covering up the crimes of the elite friends of Jeffrey Epstein, and their own congressional sexual abuse complaints, or Democrats saying that men can be women, marriage is not between a man and woman, or unborn babies are not people; a lack of respect for basic truth is corrosive to republican self government.
One of the things Pastor Kelly brought up is how in listening to a National Public Radio (NPR) segment on Trump’s threatened invasion of Greenland the hosts were struggling to say how and why that would be morally wrong, and that inability strikes right to the heart of the decline of republicanism in America. In throwing out truth, we lose the basic moral language of self government.
In true pastoral fashion, Pastor Kelly did not just talk about the political but dove deep into the root cause of the present dysfunction.
The decline in republicanism has been predated and outpaced by the decline in protestantism both in quantity and quality. Kelly talked about how the Church Growth movement sacrificed truth and hard callings for entertainment and convenience, and melded the protestant churches of America into a soft faith short on boldness for the truth.
And as can be expected, the people ultimately left these churches, today in America people of no particular religious faith outnumber Protestants among younger generations.
The second President of the United States, John Adams, said “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people and is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” Without the churches to instill private faith and moral strictures, it is unknown how long self-government can continue without either devolving into anarchy or turning to tyranny to enforce “moral order.”
Pastor Kelly did say that Adventistim cannot exempt itself from the declining trends present in the other protestant churches. I want to take the logic of his message even further.
If we as God’s Remnant people are going to stand against the American lamb turning into the proverbial dragon we must be able to differentiate between the values of lamblike America and dragonlike America. America’s lamblike values are outlined in the American Constitution, particularly the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence which declares universal human equality under Nature’s God. When America acts unconstitutionally or in opposition to the Declaration’s principles, that is dragonspeak, and when America does good by her founding charters, that is lambspeak.
But, are the basic human rights outlined by the Constitution and Declaration merely political statements, or are they political acknowledgments of deeper spiritual realities? I say the latter.
And if that is the case then as a Church we have an obligation to model these operating principles to the wider world. Leadership in God’s Church should not be quick to silence and censor pastors, elders, and lay people without due church process (and there ought to be due church process) because free speech and freedom of conscience are sacred human rights. When the global church comes together in session, no member (not even the president) should speak out of turn and in a manner not available to other delegates…why? Because universal human equality combines with the priesthood of all believers to say that nobody in the body of Christ outranks anyone else in worth.
The Adventists presses, institutional and self supporting, should all be granted full press credentials in all Adventist gatherings and institutions, because only a free press can help any polity, political or ecclessial, come to the truth corporately.
If we will not hold ourselves as the Remnant to these standards then how can we hold the nation to them?
How could a wannabe political tyrant not turn to an Adventist PARL director and say, “look how your church handled the Village Church fiasco—how can you judge me?”
The seeds of true protestantism still lie at the heart of the Adventist message, we must corporately repent and commit ourselves to be exemplars of truth, justice, and morality.
God WILL have a people who so represent Him at the end of the time, and their faithfulness will put to shame a nation that has abandoned these lamblike principles. Let us strive to be that people, and that generation.
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Joey Carrion is a political science student at Andrews University, and is very interested in the interaction of political conservatism and religious liberty. He is a co-host on the Gio and Joey Show, which analyzes political and cultural news and events from an authentically Protestant and Adventist worldview. In his spare time he enjoys basically anything outdoors, country music, studying prophecy and theology, reading, and volunteering with his church family in Gobles, MI.
You can follow him on X at the handle @AdventistCowboy.