HIGH SPIRITS: Politics of the Holy Spirit
Aitken, Jonathan
HIGH SPIRITS JONATHAN AITKEN Politics of the Holy Spirit VATI and becoming ELICAL CHRISTIANS are interested in remarkably effective at exercising it. Who says so? The New York Times...
...In that role He (as evangelicals usually refer to the Holy Spirit) is the source of all manner of spiritual blessings starting, St...
...championing the plight of persecuted Christian churches in countries like China, Laos and Indonesia...
...Bringing peace to the Sudan, halting sex trafficking and fighting the spread of AIDS in Africa are just the sort of items that ought to have been high on the Democrats' agenda...
...The timing is right in biblical terms because this concept was first revealed at Christmas some 2003 years ago...
...Now, with the 2004 election approaching, the evangelical leaders do not seem to be in a mood to contain their view of power merely to "render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's...
...Later on the Holy Spirit (which Jesus described with words like guide and advocate) was established as one of the Trinity's three persons of God...
...Whichever liberal subeditor from Mr...
...It maybe helpful for those trying to understand what all this is about to go back to the original biblical statements on the Holy Spirit...
...Moreover George W. Bush's well-reported daily readings from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers indicate that the President is well attuned to evangelical theology...
...This explains their belief that they have been empowered to become America's largest Protestant denomination and also its most influential Republican voting bloc...
...Although the New York Times did its best to reduce the importance of the evangelicals' political influence to a realpolitik assessment of percentages and charts tabulating religious support levels among voters, this view is flawed because of two significant omissions from the paper's report...
...From their novel but soon to become universal experiences flowed three of the most beautiful prose poems in Biblical literature, known to Christians of many denominations as the Magnificat, the Benedictus and the Nunc Dimittis—a trio of signs that the Holy Spirit had arrived with the power to reassure, heal, inspire, renew and change...
...Whether that power comes from the Holy Spirit or from "liberals joining the effort" or from good old vote-counting politics, we should see it as a good use of power and rejoice about it this Christmas...
...In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is a rare and elusive concept, specifically mentioned just twice (Psalm 51:11 and Isaiah 63:10-11) and then only in relation to great men such as Kings and Prophets...
...And in modern political terms the timing is right too, for it is not just the journalists of the New York Times who are becoming intrigued by the spectacular growth in numbers and influence of a wing of Christianity whose central tenet of faith is the power of the Holy Spirit...
...an answer suggesting that the new effectiveness comes from "liberals joining the effort" would be far more likely to get a horse laugh than a poll rating...
...However, it has taken evangelical lobbying power to get them into presidential speeches and congressional legislation...
...DECEMBER 2003/JANUARY 2004 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 57...
...These staffers say so openly to outsiders who take part (as I have done as a speaker) at the regular Thursday prayer meetings in the White House...
...prohibiting international sex trafficking...
...Anyone who spends a little time with evangelicals in their churches soon discovers that they are constantly talking, praying and preaching about being "empowered" by the Holy Spirit...
...In the 2,000 word article by Elisabeth Bumiller that followed, the Times reported in surprised but favorable terms on the results of the campaigning efforts by evangelicals to win presidential and congressional support for a number of foreign policy and human rights causes...
...The positive response to this shopping list from the White House and on Capitol Hill was explained to readers of the Times by an inventive subheadline atop its story: "Liberals Join Effort...
...Those causes include ending the civil war in the Sudan...
...They want to make a difference with Caesar because that is what their theology teaches them to do...
...Luke's Gospel at the very start of the miraculous process of the Incarnation, it is revealed how ordinary humble people suddenly start getting filled with the Holy Spirit...
...The same point was rather bluntly made in the New York Times article by the tellingly titled vice president for governmental affairs of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Reverend Richard Cizik, who was quoted as saying: "Evangelicals today are more 56 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR DECEMBER 2003/JANUARY 2004 JONATHAN AITKEN interested in making a difference than in making a statement...
...And the reformed theologians whom evangelicals revere— from Calvin and Zwingli in the sixteenth century to Carl Henry and B.C...
...The Christmas edition of the new American Spectator provides a well timed opportunity to offer some theological musings on the power of the Holy Spirit...
...In prime front-page position on Sunday October 26 it published a big story under the headline: "Evangelicals Sway White House...
...The first omission was that nowhere did the Times mention that President Bush and many members of his staff are themselves genuine believers in the evangelical view of the power of the Holy Spirit...
...But in the New Testament, particularly in the opening chapters of St...
...For if a poll were to be conducted among America's 50 million evangelicals on the question "Whose power do you think is helping us to get such good results in Washington for our favorite causes...
...For as the New York Times article reported, evangelicals accounted for about 40 percent of the votes George W. Bush received in the 2000 election...
...It sounds good in New York, but it doesn't play in Peoria, let alone in the Bible Belt...
...It comes from God's power, or to be more precise, according to evangelical interpretations of the doctrine of the Trinity, it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit...
...Paul tells us, with Love, Joy and Peace, and extending to the power to stand firm against dark powers and principalities...
...Many of their hymns and songs focus on this theme...
...From this point onwards in the New Testament the work of the Holy Spirit accelerated through the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ and culminated in the empowerment of the Apostles at Pentecost...
...The New York Times no less...
...Sproul in the twenty-first— agree that it is the duty of a good Christian to pray for the Holy Spirit's empowerment for civic and community purposes, i.e., for political causes...
...fighting the AIDS epidemic in Africa and supporting faith-based solutions in domestic areas such as prison reform and restorative justice...
...Any true evangelical believer knows exactly where the new political effectiveness is coming from...
...Jonathan Aitken is a former British MP and cabinet minister...
...They included Mary, Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist, Zechariah, Anna the prophetess and Simeon the tired old priest of the temple who first recognizes the Christ child...
...Sulzberger's stable composed that headline must have been seeing through a glass darkly...
...He is the author of seven books, including the award-winning Nixon: A Life...
...All Christians acknowledge the power of the Holy Spirit but only the evangelicals give it such primacy of theological importance...
...Evangelicals today are more interested in making a difference than making a statement...
...The second omission was the Times' failure to emphasize that the causes for which the evangelicals have so successfully lobbied are admirable causes, hitherto badly neglected by liberals...
Vol. 36 • December 2003 • No. 7
