CREEDE HINSHAW: The extreme beliefs of ‘binary Christians’

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I am forcing myself to read to the end of Brant Hansen’s “Unoffendable,” which overpromises in the subtitle “How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better.”

Hansen’s 203-page offering (revised and updated) is padded with stale stories, predictable scolding, and failed efforts at clever humor. A good editor – maybe even a bad editor – could have pared down the commendable main idea — We would be better off in life if we didn’t get outraged or self-righteously angry — to a pithy, 15-page booklet.

In one chapter of the book, Hansen observes that we should stay cool and loving with each other, regardless of how bad the other person may be. To drive home the point, he sets up an imaginary encounter between himself, who he describes as a “pro-life, limited-government Jesus-follower” and an “atheist socialist who is pro-choice and thinks Jesus is for losers.”

This drastically overdrawn contrast encapsulates why our nation is so divided. Not only does Hansen use the unhelpful, ill-defined “pro-life/pro-choice” labels, he also employs the equally unhelpful, overdrawn “limited government/socialist” contrast. Topping the list, of course, is his “Christian/atheist” contrast. Whether he intends to do so or not, Hansen has implied that somebody who opposes “limited government” is a socialist, that somebody who is not pro-life must therefore be “pro-choice” and that these rigid categories therefore mean the person must, of necessity, be a Christian-mocking atheist.

A large swath of the conservative, evangelical church subscribes to this binary, black-and-white way of thinking. It has apparently never occurred to these dualistic believers that citizens who believe in a government safety net for the poor and uninsured, who work for an approach to the environment in keeping with God’s creation, who support public education, and who value a generous, tolerant spirit could also be people who believe that the crucified and risen Jesus is the Son of God who is returning to judge the quick and the dead.

For binary Christians, the terms of salvation are all or nothing: their definitions of all and nothing.

Hansen’s scenario was creepily replicated this week when Pentecostal evangelist Donnie Swaggert (yes, the son of that disgraced man) lectured the black church for voting for “the anti-God party.” In Swaggart’s binary muddlement there is only one “God-party” (as defined by Swaggart.)

Brant Hansen at least helped me remain unflappably unoffended by the scurrilous self-righteousness of Donald Swaggert. Though I reject Swaggart’s simplistic thought, I write without anger. Hansen suggests that once a Christian learns to expect such idiotic blabber, he/she can let it go.

The world is not simplistically divided between good and evil, redeemed and cursed. There is no Christian political party in this nation, nor is there a Satanic political party. Jesus taught that at the final judgment there will be sheep and goats. And that at the harvest, the wheat will be separated from the weeds. I get that. But God will be doing the separating.