Should the Cross Endorse the Crown?

"Cross Endorse Crown" cartoon by nakedpastor David Hayward

“Cross Endorse the Crown”

I think the church’s relationship to the state should primarily be prophetic and not priestly.

The relationship should be determined incidentally and not contractually. Each and every law and act will be judged. Each and every day it will raise a fresh new voice!

The church should be constantly speaking truth to power rather than blessing its rule.

In the Christian scriptures, we can Jesus as a role model for this. He didn’t want to see the authorities destroyed, but neither did he want to see them continue unbridled. His role in the relationship was mostly a prophetic one.

In the Hebrew scriptures, we see the example of Jeremiah, who neither hated nor blessed the rulers of his day. Instead, he spoke truth, and they knew it. When all the other prophets provided lip-service to the king, he finally concluded he had to fetch Jeremiah to hear the truth, as hard as it was to hear.

What we see today is much of the church providing lip-service to the state when it is involved in violence, injustice, and inequality, even against its own people. And it is emboldened not just because of the church’s silence or complicity, but because of its explicit blessing.

The cross does not endorse the crown.

Ever.

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