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On January 23, 2002, Minneapolis pastor and prolific author John Piper (1946 – ) urged his congregation at Bethlehem Baptist Church to strive for justice throughout their lives. In the wake of both National Sanctity of Human Life Day (January 20) and the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 21), Piper called for “coronary” Christians. Reflecting on his ministry among them for more than twenty years, he reminded them that God’s people were to prize racial harmony and human life wholeheartedly throughout their lives and not simply in fits and starts.

I am glad for adrenaline; I suspect it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it doesn’t do much for Mondays. I am more thankful for my heart. It just keeps on serving—during good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never lets me down. It never says, “I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I’m taking a day off.” … Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline—a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of racial justice and justice for the unborn is coronary Christians. Marathoners, not just sprinters. People who find the pace to finish the (life-long) race.

O, for coronary Christians! Christians committed to great Causes, not great comforts. I pleaded with you to dream a dream bigger than you and your families and your churches. I tried to un-deify the American family and say that our children are not our cause; they are given to us to train for the great causes of mercy and justice in a prejudiced, pain-filled, and perishing world.

Desiring to witness a “never-say-die, Christian commitment to great causes,” Piper pointed his flock to the one Englishman who, more than anyone else, was responsible for the abolition of the slave trade—the “deeply Christian, vibrantly evangelical, and passionately political,” William Wilberforce.

Now there was a coronary Christian in the cause of racial justice. . . Battle after battle in Parliament he was defeated, because “The Trade” was so much woven into the financial interests of the nation. But he never gave up and never sat down. He was coronary, not adrenal. On February 24, 1807 … the decisive vote was cast (Ayes, 283, Noes, 16) and the Slave Trade became illegal. The House rose almost to a man and turned towards Wilberforce in a burst of parliamentary cheers, while the little man with the curved spine sat, head bowed; tears streaming down his face (John Pollock, Wilberforce, p. 211). . . .

The coronary Christian, William Wilberforce, never gave up. There were keys to his relentlessness. The greatness and the certainty of the rightness of the cause sustained him. . . . He saw that adrenal spurts would never prevail: “I daily become more sensible that my work must be affected by constant and regular exertions rather than by sudden and violent ones” (Pollock, p. 116). He had learned the secret of being strengthened, not stopped, by opposition. One of his adversaries said, “He is blessed with a very sufficient quantity of that Enthusiastic spirit, which is so far from yielding that it grows more vigorous from blows” (Pollock, p. 105). . . .

Most of all, the secret of his coronary commitment to the great Cause was his radical allegiance to Jesus Christ. He prayed—and may this prayer rouse many coronary lovers of Christ to fight racism and abortion with unwavering perseverance—“[May God] enable me to have a single eye and a simple heart, desiring to please God, to do good to my fellow creatures and to testify my gratitude to my adorable Redeemer” (Pollock, p. 210).¹

Footnotes :
¹ John Piper, “A Call for Coronary Christians,” Desiring God Ministries, January 23, 2002

Through Amos, the Lord asked rhetorically, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3) and the European Union is a striking, modern illustration of the problem. Though member states may reach accords on currency, passport, and tariffs, they face deep divides at the most basic level of religious faith and worldview. Where once the land from the Urals to the west coast of Ireland, from the Artic Circle to the Mediterranean, was the bulwark of Christendom, today, one finds a patchwork of faiths and departures from the faith:

Czech Republic: University of Chicago professor Mark Lilla has observed that contemporary Europe is “the closest thing to a godless civilization the world has ever known,” and the Czechs are a prime example of that spiritual malaise, with only 19% of the population believing in God. Only Estonia has a lower percentage. Catholic priest and Prague philosophy professor Tomas Halik gives much of the credit to Cold War Moscow, which made the country “an experiment in the total atheism of a society.” The result is as much widespread ignorance as hostility. As Baptist missionary Lori Gregory puts it, “When we bring up the subject [of faith], it’s like asking if you believe in UFOs. . . . In the States, you can assume most kids know why Christmas is celebrated. In the Czech Republic kids think baby Jesus is like Cinderella or Shrek. . . .”1

England: Though 72% of the population called itself Christian in the 2001 census, only 8% regularly attend church. Furthermore, studies project 2% church attendance by 2040, with two-thirds of that being people over 65. For many, “Christian” means merely “Englishness or Britishness.” As a result, former Archbishop of Canterbury Carey has compared Anglicanism to a feeble old lady “who mutters away to herself in a corner, ignored most of the time.” Some blame the demoralizing casualties of World War I. Others, such as University of Dundee historian Callum Brown, point to the 1960s which spawned the sexual revolution and feminist movement; beginning then, women, once pillars of piety, forsook the Church, and their families followed; so now, “Britain is showing the world how religion as we have known it can die.”2

France: Opposing reference to the continent’s Christian heritage in the EU constitution, President Chirac explained, “France is a lay state, and as such she does not have a habit of calling for insertions of a religious nature into constitutional texts.” His nation reflects this studied indifference to the faith: Though 88% identify themselves as Catholic, only about 5% (mostly elderly women) attend church regularly. Not surprisingly, Islam is France’s fastest-growing religion, mainly through immigration from North Africa. But even among them, France’s secularization is having an effect—their birthrates are declining, and 64 % say they do not practice their faith. Still, that leaves 1.5 million devout French Muslims, and their number is growing in the spiritual vacuum that is France.3

Poland: With 57% of its vast Catholic majority attending mass each Sunday, Poland cuts across the European grain of unbelief. Her president, Lech Kaczynski is opposed to abortion and same-sex marriage. In 2003, the Polish government led the push to include reference to God in the EU constitution, and in 2006 the Polish delegation to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, upset many by erecting an anti-abortion display in the hallway. Here and there, one finds embarrassments to the Church, such as hints of anti-Semitism on Catholic Radio Maryja, but much of the Church’s influence is wholesomely vital.4

How then shall the EU proceed as a mixture of vital faith, dead faith, non-faith, and rival faith? Perhaps it will not, for a people must share something to be a people, and it seems unlikely that the dominant secularism can either emerge triumphant or provide a hope for common ground.

Footnotes :

1 Tom Hundley, “On Holy Ground, a Hollow Sound,” Chicago Tribune, April 30, 2006.

2 Tom Hundley, “Church of England Flock Strays Far from Its Pews,” Chicago Tribune, May 11, 2006, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605110197may11,1,6901929.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-utl (accessed August 4, 2006).

3 Tom Hundley, “A Crucible for Secularism,” Chicago Tribune, June 19, 2006, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0606190200jun19,1,1195704.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-utl (accessed August 4, 2006).

4 Tom Hundley, “Poland Digs in against Tide toward Secularism,” Chicago Tribune, May 23, 2006, http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605230186may23,1,343732.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-utl (accessed August 4, 2006).

Wow, what a whirlwind! Over the last six weeks I have traveled on 12 different flights. I have most certainly met my quota for peanut and ginger ale consumption.

Trying to decide what to share with you is the hardest part. From communicating Christ to Sicilian espresso shop owners in Bologna, Italy to preaching at a mini concert in Battery Park, NY there have been many colorful experiences and interactions. For now, however, I think I will relay the following quote which comes from the theologian Peter J. Leithart. In many ways it reveals the common thread which runs through each of my trips. He writes:

“Truly we face a vicious attack from powerful enemies in high places. And yet in the midst of the battle, we are very blessed. Despite the war, we can give thanks. We constitute the greatest nation on the face of the earth. She is in fact the greatest empire that has ever existed, truly the “last great hope of mankind.” We enjoy a degree of justice and liberty, prosperity and peace beyond the imagination of any other people. We have an unsurpassed heritage, boasting many of the greatest thinkers, artists, and leaders in all of human history.

Indeed, despite the present conflict and turmoil, we will overcome our adversaries and endure forever. No matter how powerful our enemies, no matter how vicious their attacks, we will rise up to advance across the globe, and other nations will, like birds seeking refuge in a spreading tree, find security in the shade of our branches. We will defeat any and all enemies, within and without, in our cosmic warfare.

Do these last statements surprise you? Have I lapsed into the overheated rhetoric of an extremist patriot? I assure you that I am completely serious, and I believe every word that I have written.

But perhaps that little pronoun “we” has confused you. You may have assumed that “we” meant “we Americans” or “we conservative Americans” or “we right-thinking” Americans.” What I have been describing is in fact not the United States of America, but the church, the priestly kingdom and holy nation of God (1 Peter 2:9). Men and women find true liberty, peace, and joy only in the church. She is the original melting pot. Only citizens of heaven have access to true riches and enjoy true security. The kingdom of God is the cosmic tree in which the nations find shelter. It is the church against which even the gates of hell shall not prevail.1”

Footnotes :

1 Peter J. Leithart, The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1993),7-8.