PARADES, TOLERANCE, AND IDOLATRY

“You are commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, 5 that when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble, you are to fall down and worship the golden statue that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up. 6 Whoever does not fall down and worship shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire.” —Daniel 3:4b-6

For Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians, it wasn’t enough that their Hebrew captives tolerate idolatry; unless they celebrated it, they were fuel for the fire. A tolerance policy would have allowed them to respectfully decline—to take a knee—during the Babylonian anthem. Tolerance makes room for a diversity of conscience—if not active dissent—and yet, under the fierce fit of their cause, activists too can be rigid, inflexible, and equally intolerant.

When Daniel refused to bow down before the statue, Nebuchadnezzar’s pride parade was subverted—Nebuchadnezzar himself offended and disrespected—and the glory of his worldly kingdom threatened.

Tolerance policies never satisfy activists. It’s never enough for their cause to be merely tolerated, it must be celebrated. Whenever pride stands at the center of a movement, it soon becomes an idol—a grand statue to someone or a group of someones demanding respect and worldly glory. Momentum in the movement is always the goal and the chief agent by which their virtue becomes their god.  All who decline and refuse to bow down become targets.

This holds true across the political spectrum. It is as true for Kaepernick and those who took a knee during the National Anthem as it is for those who refuse to celebrate the “bravery and/or beauty” of Kaitlin Jenner’s re-gendering, etc.

The parade is the sign. Whatever people parade—be it holiday, nation, race, sex, sexual orientation, etc.—reveals their golden statue. For some, it is their god, and should you and I choose not to defer and bow down, we too shall become targets.

It is not simply a religious trope that declares pride the first of the deadly sins; it is reasonable.  There is no reason why a free society should demand that anyone be expected to bow down and do honor to a golden statue, but wherever the hot furnaces of pride fuel a movement, things reasonable, rational, and fair become increasingly dispensable. To be tolerated does not satisfy the fire; they must be celebrated.

During the 2018 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA, of which I am a Minister of Word and Sacrament), a march was staged from the Convention Center to the St. Louis City Justice Center, ostensibly calling for “social, racial and economic justice.” Viewing the news of this march with a colleague, I rolled my eyes. “What? You have problem with that?” he said. I said nothing. He added, “What do you think Jesus would say?” 

It may be my own character flaw or shortcoming, but I have a personal distaste for grandstanding and the collective spectacle of selfhood in all of its forms. I am embarrassed by the progressive furor of many of my colleagues. While purporting to be a march in the interest of others, there seems to be a sickening oversupply of self-congratulation accompanying such a march. I take a knee; I refuse to bow down.

“I think I know exactly what Jesus would say,” I replied, “Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them…Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.” (See Matthew 6). 

True tolerance always entails the freedom to decline participation in the self-celebrations of others. As people of faith generally hold that pride is a deadly sin and God alone merits all glory, our parades can never be a celebration of Christian identity. The only appropriate parade for Christians is called worship—the ceaseless praise and glorification of God—and for which we have built our houses of worship. Worship is anti-pride perforce and by nature. The self cannot be celebrated, nor can the collective selfhood of believers—to do so is to indulge pride and erect another golden statue. There is no Christian pride—there cannot be—there is only the glory of God. No statues allowed.

So much for parades.