There’s a meme circulating on ex-evangelical social media that tries to answer the question, “What radicalized you?” It’s a question Trump’s evangelical supporters sometimes ask of those Christians who are critics of Trump. The meme contains an image from the popular Christian animated series Veggie Tales. There are several variations, but the one I see most often is from the episode “Rack, Shack, and Benny,” a riff on the Nebuchadnezzar story found in the third chapter of Daniel.
In essence, the meme is communicating, “The Bible. It’s the Bible that radicalized me.”
The idea is that if Rack, Shack and Benny can stand up to Nebby K. Nezzer and refuse to bow to a giant chocolate bunny, then surely Veggie Tales fans can see a thrice-divorced, bankrupt casino man descending a golden elevator for what he is. Certainly, the meme implies, adults raised on a steady diet of Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and Junior Asparagus would never compromise their devotion to God for such a clearly compromised man.
The first collection of Veggie Tales episodes was released in 1993, the year I graduated from high school. So, although I was aware of the phenomenon just by being in the evangelical ecosystem, it wasn’t the formative childhood experience it would become for many of my younger friends.
The Fellowship of the Unashamed
This recently led me to wonder, what radicalized me? I had yet to come up with a clear answer until yesterday, when I remembered these words:
I am a part of the fellowship of the Unashamed. I have the Holy Spirit Power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by presence, learn by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power.
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few, my Guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes.And when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear.
My generation of evangelicals heard those words countless times at youth retreats and discipleship conferences. They were delivered around campfires and, later, through mass email chains forwarded to us from that strangely intense lady at church.
In an age before Snopes, the words were attributed to various Christians in far-off lands facing persecution. In reality, they were likely penned in the lazy daytime hours by a traveling evangelist looking for a new hook to pull more souls down the center aisle.
For many years, I found the zeal expressed by those words to be quaint and embarrassing. Later, as I would learn about deconstruction, I interrogated the why behind those words. Why did they resonate so much with so many?
Dangers All Around
Have you heard the theory that anxiety in humans is a vestige of our prehistoric past, a trauma response passed down from our ancestors, whose survival depended on a constant awareness that a hungry tiger may be sneaking up on them? I wonder if the persistence of “The Fellowship of the Unashamed” is akin to that phenomenon.
The Christian faith was forged in the fires of opposition. The Roman Empire expected all its people to declare that “Caesar is Lord.” As you might expect, this was a teeny little problem for people nurtured by the original story of Shadrack, Meshach, Abednego, Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol, and whose sole confession was that “Jesus is Lord.”
You know the rest of the story: The Christians refused to bow to Caesar, they were persecuted, and strangely, through it all, their numbers grew. The persecution eventually stopped and Christianity was given a privileged position within the empire. But by that point, the suspicion that the hungry tigers are always around the corner had been embedded deep within our collective consciousness, and we still can’t shake it.
The result was that teenagers in the 1990s, like me, living in communities where Christian devotion was celebrated rather than denigrated, ended up “bravely” declaring, “I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity.”
The great cloud of witnesses would be so proud of our boundless courage.
Wanted: More Radicals
The irony is that although I’ve now deconstructed the why behind those words, their intensity remains. They are my new “tiger around the corner.” And maybe they have remained in my consciousness for such a time as this. I think they are why I have so little patience for Christian “moderates” or “centrists” in the age of Donald Trump.
What is the “centrist” Christian stance on praying in the name of Jesus for success in a war that began by dropping bombs on a building full of Iranian schoolgirls?
What is the Christian moderate’s response to a young mother being shot in the face and a young VA nurse being shot in the back of the head for daring to stand up to state power weaponized against the most vulnerable among us?
After the president celebrates the death of a Vietnam War veteran and distinguished public servant with a post stating, “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” what is the “middle ground” Christian to say? Is silence ever acceptable when such degradation is on full display?
I don’t know what it will take to radicalize some among us. I just know we need more people to “step over the line” and refuse to “negotiate at the table of the enemy.”
Preach up;
Pray up;
Pay up;
Store up’
And stay up for the cause of Christ.
Be unashamed and, for Christ’s sake, when he comes for us, may he not find us on middle ground.
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Senior Editor at Good Faith Media.