The (Christian) right has the same problem as the old left – there is always someone more extreme

For every Charlie Kirk, there is a Nick Fuentes. Always someone more extreme. Someone who will push things harder, who will accuse you of not going hard enough.

And currently, we see a prime example. Michael Jensen’s sermon at John Law’s funeral, believe it or not, has become such an example.

Michael, in this writer’s view, preached a fine, even great sermon, designed to attract John Law’s mourning friends to consider Christ. 

Let me quote the ending (again) 

“John signed off as we’ve heard a number of times already today, by calling us to be kind to each other. The voice from above broadcasts God’s eternal kindness to us. If we have [been] shown the kindness of God himself, it presses on us more urgently, John Laws’ daily challenge. And so I ask us all, are we a kind nation or have we become more mean, more cruel, more greedy, and more judgmental? 

“Do our politicians and media figures call us to a greater kindness, or do they awaken our resentments? I think Laws’ call to us is more pointed than it seems. We’ve received more than we deserve. Amazing grace. Indeed. How could we not be kind? 

“Now, John Laws has made his last broadcast; we cannot hear his voice again, but we can tune into another voice, the voice from above. We can pick up today the gospel of this other John, the one who tells us of the man John Laws admired. We cannot hear it read in the voice of John Laws. I’m sad to say, but we hear in these pages the voice that offers to us the eternal kindness of God in Jesus and the hope of eternal life in him. Amen.”

Michael Jensen’s whole sermon is here on the Sydney Anglicans website. Brett Lee-Price, Reformed Baptist pastor, criticises Jensen in the recently re-launched Reformata site for failing to “actually proclaim,” the gospel “in its complete, sharp, personal form.” Reformata is a rebranding of an older magazine called Evangelical Action, recently acquired by Tulip Publishing, which is led by Lee Price, his wife Lucy, and Stephen McKay, according to their ACNC listing. Its editorial board includes well-known Presbyterians, including Darren Middleton and PeterBarnes. (The Other Cheek does not know if these men reviewed the Lee Price article, but simply includes their names as indicative of the Tulip Publishing constituency).

“Yes, there was talk of forgiveness, guilt, and grace. Yes, there was a hint that Jesus’ death is somehow for us. But the connection between the congregation and that forgiveness is never made concrete. There is no, ‘You must repent.’ There is no, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.’ There is no warning that we will stand before this Jesus as Judge, not merely as ‘a good bloke’.”

“An omission of a biblical exhortation is not a minor stylistic choice. It is a theological decision. Where there is no call to repent and believe, there is no full proclamation of the gospel—only a description of it from a safe distance.”

Sandt Grant, the Dean or senior minister of the Cathedral, has published a defence of the sermon, and among other things, makes the strong point that the liturgy contained the things that Lee-Price thought were missing. 

“As with most Anglican funeral services, the following words were heard (emphasis mine):

“In the midst of life we are in death. From whom may we seek for help, but from you, Lord God, though you are justly displeased on account of our sins? And yet, Lord God almighty, most holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us from the bitterness of eternal death. You know the secrets of our hearts; mercifully hear us, most worthy judge eternal…” – from the prayer prior to the Committal, also led by the Archbishop.  

“…We face the certainty of our own death and judgment. But those who die in Christ share eternal life with him… God our Father, you alone are holy. Forgive us all our sins and failures” – from the welcome and opening prayer, given by the Archbishop.

“In the midst of life we are in death. From whom may we seek for help, but from you, Lord God, though you are justly displeased on account of our sins? And yet, Lord God almighty, most holy and most merciful Saviour, deliver us from the bitterness of eternal death. You know the secrets of our hearts; mercifully hear us, most worthy judge eternal…” – from the prayer prior to the Committal, also led by the Archbishop. “

Grant also makes the point that this Anglican funeral is what the family asked for.

John Law’s funeral furore serves as a local example of there quite often being someone who will criticise within a subculture that a presentation or argument has not been strong enough.

Lee-Price, Jensen and Grant are all within the conservative evangelical subculture in Australia, where both the Sydney Anglicans and the Presbyterian church of Australia have very strong similarities.

The old Communist subculture had “lefter than thou” issues, of people competing to be the most revolutionary or the most extreme. That is why Vladimir Lenin wrote “‘Left Wing Communism’ an Infantile Disorder” to rein in overenthusiastic supporters.

Locally, the old Communist Party of Australia had its Maoist, Trotskyist outflankers, particularly in a period of decrepitude as it succumbed to the factionalism that brought about its end.

This writer does not want decreptitude or factionalism in Christianity, especially in evangelical Christianity. But the same impulse to be the most out there seems to be present.

Ironically, there will be those who outflank Lee-Price, just as the Sydney Anglicans have plenty of Christians who position themselves to their theological right.

These intermural battles within evangelical Christianity take up energy, and, taken to extremes, will have a similar effect to what ended the Communist party.

Or perhaps more relevantly, to the death of the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) in NSW. Depending on how you count them, three or four factions, each of them tiny, battled over which party branches were kosher, ending up in horrendous legal actions in the equity division of the NSW Supreme Court. Each thought itself purer than the others. The Other Cheek, while closely reporting the CDP, found the episode a deeply disturbing example of Christians seeking to advantage themselves.

Christians who might consider themselves broadly on the conservative part of our society might want to consider what has happened to the left-wing Christians. There have been a couple of pretty disastrous outcomes.

In South America, the liberation theological movement, which blossomed for a couple of decades late last century and remains a source of inspiration for many concerned with social justice, was outflanked by openly Marxist movements that resorted to violence. In time, rising Pentecostalism provided hope and joy to the Latin countries as Catholic influence had declined.

For politically conservative Christians, the current situation in the US, where Nick Fuentes, regarded by some as a successor to Charlie Kirk, who pulls Christians to a mix of nihilism and antisemitism, should see the same outflanking problem recurring.

Recurring, because earlier generations saw extreme conservative social movements that badged themselves as Christian. William F Buckley, the founder of National Review, is owed a debt by US conservatives for destroying the influence of the John Birch Society. Perhaps the defeat of Mccarthyism in a more secular sphere by a combination of Ed Murrow’s (and his TV series See It Now) and other journalists, the US Army and finally the Senate turning on one of its own, is better known. In both cases, the Birchers and McCarthy served to undermine the causes they espoused. This is the general outcome ISTM of all such outflanking.

The John Birch Society was full of conspiracy theories, and Senator McCarthy (ditto) is a historical reminder that conservative Christians are not immune to the dynamics of outflanking.

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