“We Believe in…”

No matter what I seem to do my kids keep growing. Every year I break out the stick and put new marks on it. They went and grew again. As an individual with Hangry problems I can’t withhold food and books on the head hasn’t stopped the slow progression of days and months and years of accomplishing their appointed task upon my children and upon Kelly and I. So we had to make an appointment for Devin to get new shoe inserts and new shoes. We went to his orthotics doctor in Topeka and took advantage of the Friday afternoon to stay with Kelly’s parents.

The trip brought a stark reminder of the season, it is campaign season. The normal “______ for _____” were present all over the landscape in varying colors and sizes. Some with donkeys some with elephants. Yet one sign struck home. It was a small yard sign. I had seen it multiple times from the Orthotics office but hadn’t read it until we stopped at my in-law’s house and a few neighbors had it posted dutifully out front. I read it and was shocked not in an affronted way but rather at the depth of what was flippantly stated.

“In this house we believe: Black lives Matter, Women’s rights are human rights, No human is illegal, Science is real, Love is Love, Kindness is everything.”

At the top of this article I wrote the words “We believe in…” hoping that would trigger your rote memorization and you would complete the statement “…God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth…”. The creedal nature of the sign immediately set itself against the Christian Creeds of antiquity. Looking at the litany of issues on the sign left me a little dazed. Slogan. Belief only went as deep as the latest slogan. These home owners had been told the appropriate words to rattle off. They had the slogans and I assume the party line on all of the issues addressed. I said I was “struck” and “shocked” by the sign, to be fair I was rattled. Not because of the issues but rather by the hopelessness of their belief.

If asked what you believe in, what is your answer? Living on the edge of politic, these homes felt the most pressing need was to declare their belief in these causes to save humanity and society. I do not know the hearts of those who placed these signs, but I know their hope and gospel is a vain one. The Christian can never find his hope and security in the latest political slogan. The issues we face are much deeper.  We can never simply respond with the inverse and think that will fix the problem, “All lives matter, baby’s rights are human rights, back the badge, a gun in the hand…” is also a vain hope, if we raise it to the level of core belief.

The new faith is that, a new faith, a new religion. It has found its creed and plasters the new orthodoxy where it can. The Christian must meet such things head on. At the root of the problem. As the American church has fallen further from knowing the Creeds to which it is heir, many have fallen for a new creed, thinking they were still in the faith. Creeds help us know what we believe about the world, its problem, and its solution. I was in college before I first came to know the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed. That is a shame on the Protestant American church, and for my parents. Knowing the Creeds will not keep you in the faith, but it will help those in the faith articulate differences between Christian orthodoxy and pagan slogans. “Ancient words ever true, changing me changing you.” Let the bible and the creeds change you and mold your mind into the mind of Christ.

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO