Many of you will have seen by now Tucker Carlson’s recent speech at the Heritage Foundation or at least clips from it. If you have not, I recommend it as well as Doug Wilson’s brief interaction with it (HERE). Now before you fire off an angry response to this email— “We came for an evening devotional to help us worship, and instead we got a political advertisement for a right-wing think tank!” —hear me out. I am not recommending this in order to discuss Fox News’s suicidal, spin in the wind approach to journalism or to point out that God has raised up a largely secular, ashamed Episcopalian to say things out loud that too many Reformed ministers are too compromised to say. Both of those would be interesting conversations to have at another time. I am bringing up the infamous Mr. Carlson’s comments for a different reason, one that really should be on our minds as we prepare for the Lord’s Day tomorrow.
At the end of his talk, Carlson said the following:
But if you’re telling me that abortion is a positive good, what are you saying? Well, you’re arguing for child sacrifice, obviously. It’s not about, oh, a teen girl gets pregnant, and what do we do about that and victims of rape. I get it. Of course, I understand that, and I have compassion for everyone involved.
But when the Treasury secretary stands up and says, “You know what you can do to help the economy? Get an abortion.” Well, that’s like an Aztec principle, actually. There’s not a society in history that didn’t practice human sacrifice. Not one…. Well, what’s the point of child sacrifice? Well, there’s no policy goal entwined with that. No, that’s a theological phenomenon.
And that’s kind of the point I’m making. None of this makes sense in conventional political terms. When people, or crowds of people, or the largest crowd of people at all, which is the federal government, the largest human organization in human history decide that the goal is to destroy things, destruction for its own sake, “Hey, let’s tear it down,” what you’re watching is not a political movement. It’s evil.
…
They don’t want a debate. Those ideas won’t produce outcomes that any rational person would want under any circumstances. Those are manifestations of some larger force acting upon us. It’s just so obvious. It’s completely obvious.
And I think two things: One, we should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates… as if maybe I could just win the debate if I marshaled more facts.
I’ve tried. That doesn’t work. And two, maybe we should all take just 10 minutes a day to say a prayer about it. I’m serious. Why not?
And I’m saying that to you not as some kind of evangelist, I’m literally saying that to you as an Episcopalian, the Samaritans of our time. I’m coming to you from the most humble and lowly theological position you can. I’m literally an Episcopalian. And even I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will.
Our hope for the future is not political reform, societal revolution, or civil war—all of which are distinct possibilities given our current politi-scape. Our hope for the future is in the mercy of God, the grace of the Spirit, and the sovereign and efficacious intervention of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s it. Politicians cannot fix what is broken in this nation, neither can political pundits or cultural commentators in major media and on independent platforms. America’s hope, like any nation, is in repentance and revival. Apart from that, our country has no hope at all.
If this is true, and it is, then those ten minutes of daily prayer for our nation are the most important thing you and I can be doing to turn the ship away from the waterfall. It’s not the only thing we can or ought to do—see sermons on faithfulness, marriage, child rearing, godly vocation, and a Christian work ethic—but it is the most important thing we can do. God’s people have no greater weapon in their warfare against evil than righteous, persistent, biblically-oriented prayer.
If that is true, and it is, then the Lord’s Day is the centerpiece of human society, it is the first line of defense and offense in every cultural war: from chains in Egypt to exile in Babylon to persecution by the Roman Empire to the final days of the American Empire. Reformation must be ecclesio-centric, built around the believing and worshiping Church, extending out from the house of God as the waters of mercy flow from under the doors and the glory of the garden penetrates into the wilderness all around it. Going to Church is not secondary to the “real work” we do during the week in society. Worshiping as the Church is the work, first and foremost, we were made to perform. This is not to diminish the importance and value of obedience and godly activity in other aspects and spheres of life, but it is to elevate the importance and power of the Church as the Church doing what the Church alone can effectively do: worship God and intercede for his mercy and blessings upon this earth.
When we sing psalms and pray (but I repeat myself), we are offering sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving, and intercession acceptable to God in Christ. You may not need a mournful lament to be prayed, but your brothers and sisters in China do. You may not need a prayer for justice, but your brothers and sisters in Canada do. You may not need psalms and prayers of repentance… no, we all do. Reformation and revival begin here, not at the Heritage Foundation, not in the halls of Congress or the Supreme Court, and certainly not in the White House. If there is hope for this land, and there is, it is because God hears the prayers of his people. Let the Church rise up to worship, sing, proclaim, and pray! –JME
