A Sunday kind of faith
Is really no faith at all
Every Sunday, many people go to church with the idea in their heads that this time somehow “belongs to God.” Some of them (mistakenly) believe this is the “Sabbath” and they might even feel good that they’re observing it, the result being they’ve given God his due for the week.
And every Monday, many of them go to work, school, or whatever activity takes up the bulk of their week, with not another thought for God until the following Sunday.
I would argue that those who fall into this category are either: (1) not Christian or (2) new or immature Christians. Either way, this is no way to live abundantly. It also represents a false dualism – that God/spiritual things/church are for Sundays, not for the rest of our lives and activities. But when we belong to Him, we belong to Him in every aspect of our lives and activities. In her outstanding book Total Truth, author Nancy Pearcey decries that false dualism, and forcefully argues that our faith should permeate everything we do:
The promise of Christianity is the joy and power of an integrated life, transformed on every level by the Holy Spirit, so that our whole being participates in the great drama of God’s plan of redemption.
Total Truth, p. 95
So it’s not enough to plant ourselves in a pew on Sundays. We must bring light into everything we do, day in and day out. And it should go without saying that we must not bring darkness instead.
And yet darkness is exactly what one prominent self-proclaimed Christian has been trafficking in over the past few years. Dr. Francis Collins was the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) until a couple of years into the Covid debacle. He then went on to become “Science Advisor to the President” (Biden).
Multiple media outlets have reported on Collins’ “devout faith,” and renowned atheist Christopher Hitchens, a personal friend, called him one of the most devout believers he’d ever met. He also has what is an unquestioningly long and distinguished career in medicine and research.
And yet.
NIH is a wholly corrupt government agency. Alternative media (and a few brave traditional media outlets) have reported that Collins and Anthony Fauci schemed and colluded with a lazy, compliant media to purposefully discredit eminent scientists who disagreed with their approach to Covid. This only came to light after Freedom of Information Act requests brought their correspondence to the world’s attention. Collins and Fauci were on the attack against the scientists who’d published the “Great Barrington Declaration,” which laid out an alternative approach to Covid. Even while telling us all to “trust the science,” Collins referred to the Barrington scientists as “a fringe component” and said, “This is not mainstream science. It's dangerous. It fits into the political views of certain parts of our confused political establishment…. There needs to be a quick and devastating published take down of its premises."
Well, politics were definitely in the mix, but I’d tend to think that was more on the side of the government officials slandering fellow scientists and coaching ignorant reporters to publicize their take on the situation. Which as you may recall, ended up being the only allowed narrative (and still is, in most “mainstream” outlets).
But this is all old news, reported already three years ago. The reason Dr. Collins came to mind more recently is that just a few weeks ago another independent journalist got ahold of another stash of long-buried government emails (again using Freedom of Information Act requests, which can take a very long time to bear fruit). And in this one, the NIH liaison with Congress explains to her NIH bosses (including Collins) how to avoid answering questions put to them by various House committees trying to investigate their activity.
“We are going to draft a response to the letter that doesn’t actually answer the questions in the letter but rather presents a narrative of what happened at a high level…” the liaison wrote. “The Committee may come back for other documents but I’m hoping to run out the clock.”
So the agency was deliberately trying to mislead Congress as to what they’d been up to. And how did devout Dr. Collins respond?
“Sounds like a good plan,” his email reads.
This is a big bold example of what happens when your faith does not inform your life. It might start with a little lie, that you justify because you think you’re right. And then it might morph into badmouthing the people who won’t go along. And then you find yourself in effect lying to Congress.
This, of course, is just a glaring example of what many self-proclaimed Christians do. Once they’re home from church – after possibly cutting in front of the car that cut them off, just to show that guy who’s boss – they step inside their homes and don’t think about God until time to go to church next Sunday. He has no impact on their choices, their activities, their work life, their relationships, their thoughts. It’s an empty ritual.
Which means when they encounter thorny situations during those six other days of the week, they’ll tell the “little white lie,” they’ll cheat, they’ll gossip, they’ll rationalize and justify just about any wrong behavior. But following Jesus means following His teachings. As mentioned, a new or immature Christian might not yet have thought through his/her actions in light of his/her faith. Sanctification takes time, and for some of us, it takes longer than for others! Or, the person in question never really repented and sought to follow Jesus.
Dr. Collins has claimed his faith for many years. Only God knows his heart. But he seems to have dishonored the faith here. Now would be a great time for him to repent of both his unlawful behavior and his scheming to discredit fellow scientists – who, as it turned out, were more right than he was.
Because no matter who you are, if you try to compartmentalize your beliefs into a “Sunday kind of faith,” the Kingdom of God suffers greatly. Conversely, those with a holistic, integrated faith can accomplish much for the Kingdom. We’ll talk about this again.