Mark Charles is a speaker, writer, and consultant. The son of an American woman (of Dutch heritage) and a Navajo man, Mark teaches the complexities of American history regarding race, culture, and Christendom in order to help forge a path of healing and conciliation for the nation. He was kind enough to accept the Charlottesville Clergy Collective’s invitation to speak during our “Charlottesville to Jamestown” pilgrimage on “The Heresy of Christendom and the Trauma of the Doctrine of Discovery.” The above video is a follow up conversation after his presentation.
Charles ends this conversation with this offering: “From Prophecy to Proverb” 28:41
Wise is the church that refuses to buy into the trappings of partisan politics
Remember my brothers and sisters, Jesus did not come to create a Christian Empire
He came to make disciples.
He came to offer his body as a living sacrifice.
He came to plant a church.
When the church merely lobbies one political leader and protests the other
When, for the sake of argument or political gain, the body of Christ turns a blind eye to one sin and magnifies another
We are not representing the headship of our body…
who is Christ.
As vile, repulsive and urgent is the separation of families at our border
it is not the first time…
Indian Removal,
the slave trade,
Boarding Schools,
lynchings,
Japanese Internment camps,
mass incarceration
the list of ways the United States government has worked to destroy the family structure of people of color throughout our history is as long as it is depressing.
So let’s stop pretending that President Trump is the God ordained savior, or the ultimate demise of our union.
The same with President Obama.
What our nation needs is not for Democrats to be better Democrats.
Nor do we need Republicans to simply be better Republicans.
We don’t even need our nation to be more Christian.
My brothers and sisters, the United States of America is not, never has been, nor will it ever be Christian.
Jesus did not come to create a Christian Empire.
He came to make disciples.
He came to offer his body as a living sacrifice.
He came to plant a church.
And wise is the church that refuses to buy into the trappings of partisan politics.
I agree with Kenneth Kaunda, the former president of Zambia, who said, “What a nation needs more than anything else is not a Christian ruler in the palace but a Christian prophet within earshot.”
~Mark Charles
