Prologue Common to the Five Posts of Letters Written to My Church 2012-2019:
I trust and hope that these five postings of the letters I have written to my church answer to a sufficient degree the concerns and view that my letter of September 2020, withdrawing my membership from the Evangelical church I attended for more than forty years, was a response on my part without understanding or thought based on scripture, without prayer, and without the leading of the Holy Spirit. However, I think, all these letters as a whole, from 2012-2019, demonstrate a consistent loyalty to my church and pastor amid my growing concern for the spiritual misdirection and confusion, and the diminished focus upon Christ, His gospel, and prayer, that the multiple and cascading political pronouncements and preaching were engendering within the congregation and the church organization as a whole. I further hope that apparent within the letters on my part, is also a consistent witness of Christ and of the centrality of His gospel and Kingdom, a display of the leading of the Holy Spirit, and a deepening commitment to the two great commandments of love of God and of neighbor, so essential and central to our Christian faith.
Background to this Letter to Our Pastor
This letter is unique in that I wrote it out of concern for a proposed sermon series, not one already preached. I received a text in mid-July from an individual at church who was even more distressed and troubled than me at the political intrusions into the gospel message at Grace, informing me of an upcoming sermon series against social justice issues. A lengthy phone call followed the text message and I was informed that the series would include preaching against the various social justice movements, a negative critique of the person and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., and a strong anti-immigration stance. Below, from my notes on the phone call, are some of the very specific information items I received:
- The series is coming in late August,
- Series will attack “Black Lives Matter”, “Me Too”, immigration and social justice issues.
- “God loves Nations” – to be used to attack immigration. (“God loves Nations”, as I learned, is not a concept expounding on God’s love for all peoples and nations, but a concept used to teach that God wants the nations to be separate and not mixed – thus a useful anti-immigration argument and one with a long and varied history of social and racial use within the US, and one then currently being resurrected and updated by other evangelical leaders to also attack immigration.)
- Expecting protests within and outside the church after first sermon goes viral.
- Grace church’s mission is to win souls for Christ. Believers are to respect the police, respect authority, respect the authorities over us and submit to them, refrain from protesting.
- Not protesting against government leaders, officials, because they are placed there by God, and He will raise them up and bring them low.
- Christians shouldn’t be involved in these social issues.
- In the background to this proposed series, is much concern and disagreements with the conference, “MLK50:Gospel Reflections from the Mountaintop” about the work of Martin Luther King, Jr, held in April featuring some speakers usually allied with Grace church.
- Grace pulled away from hosting the upcoming, “West Coast Gospel Coalition Conference” in October in Los Angeles, one of the issues here, I was informed, being the views of one scheduled attending pastor who wanted Christians to reflect upon race and to respond to the issues deeply and be aware of the past.
- Grace church not endorsing “leftist socialist movements”.
I was concerned about this sermon series and its ramifications for the church as I had already heard rumblings against BLM, etc. as additions to the already present and growing political group-speak at church. I was concerned that the acceptance of the church’s views and teaching on these issues, without individual critical thought or honest prayer before the Lord, would act to further diminish a focused devotion to Christ within the heart, and the clarity of the good news of the gospel within the mind of many at Grace. Additionally, two Sundays after I received this information, as part of the “Sundays in July” series (In July, all fellowship groups were suspended and multiple seminars and discussions were offered to the church at large, always at least a few with a political bent to them.), I attended a panel discussion on “social justice, racial unity, and gospel priority” which seemed to me to be a semi-coordinated introduction and mini-preview of the upcoming sermon series. The hour and a half panel discussion, among many topics, included a negative critique on the conference honoring the work of Martin Luther King, which, as reported to me, was one of the factors generating the felt necessity for the proposed church-wide sermon series against social justice issues. So, after much thought and prayer, and pages and pages of pencil-written “morning notes” exploring the multiple issues arising from the phone call, and lengthy discussions/interviews with seven friends and family members on social justice issues, I wrote and finished a letter dated August 16, 2018, and sent it to our church pastor, to the Chairman of the Board of Elders to share with the elders of the church, and copies to the pastors and elders of my fellowship group.
Letter to Our Pastor
August 16, 2018
Dear Pastor MacArthur,
I have occasionally written to you expressing concerns I have had with certain sermons from your pulpit. I previously wrote to express my concern about your sermon on February 22, 2015, where in a sermon designed to honor the police, you used Romans 13 to state directly to the assembled police that they carried the sword with the right of execution, capital punishment implied, with an inclusion in that sermon of a segment preaching the right of “hegemony” of Israel over the Palestinians. My most recent letter dated September 5, 2017, expressed my concern over your full use of the pulpit, the seminary website, the media facilities of the university, and Grace to You (GTY) to disseminate your support for politically conservative policies and all Republican candidates thus, in my mind, putting aside the preaching of the centrality of Christ and diminishing the light and hope within the gospel. I also wrote of my concerns about the continuing and cumulative negative spiritual effects of these sermons and pronouncements within the church as a whole and in the lives of individual believers.
I write now to express concerns for the proposed upcoming sermon series, that will include among the issues touched upon, to the best of my knowledge, the “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) and the “Me Too” (MT) movements, immigration, and the issue of Christians speaking out on or protesting against social injustices. This series, to begin near the end of August, seems, to me, designed to be intertwined within the broadcasts over GTY leading up to the midterm elections – with the possible intent of again enjoining support among the evangelical voting bloc, especially in swing states and districts, for policies deemed biblical and politically conservative, thus factually by extension voicing support for Republican candidates and the present administration.
Black Lives Matter
Concerning the “Black Lives Matter” movement: In addition to perhaps politically labeling BLM a leftist social issue, I am not sure in total what religious arguments you will use to speak directly or by inference concerning BLM. One argument already in use is the premise that every individual Christian and church that speaks out against the historical, persistent, and even newly resurging racism within our nation and culture – the very issue that BLM seeks to bring to light and put center within the national conscience and debate – risks somehow making BLM a “gospel issue”, thus diminishing the focus on Christ and the gospel, and further risks elevating racial identity over all believers’ shared Christian identity, thus leading to divisions and factions within the greater church, seems short-sighted at best and dismissive at worst. BLM is a not a leftist social ploy for special treatment, but a desire and a demand, a just demand, to be treated with the same respect and value and worth as all other lives in our nation – and from a Christian perspective, as persons created in the image and likeness of God. It is not an offense against the gospel for a church to acknowledge the continuing injustice suffered by the black community in our nation, an injustice in the past factually supported and legitimized by major segments of the Christian church, especially in the South. Rather, to diminish or put aside the legitimate cry of the movement – that black lives also matter – is a wrong, a continuing wrong, against the black community and our nation as a whole. Yes, Christ alone can change hearts and lives and give eternal life. Yes, the work of the Holy Spirit is to bring reconciliation between God and believers, imparting eternal life, and among believers, thus creating unity within the body of Christ without regard or distinctions as to race, ethnicity, language or color. And, yes, the church should not change the central proclamation of Christ and the gospel. But when injustice is before us, not speaking out is an additional injustice and subverts the compassion and call for justice and righteousness inherent within the totality of scripture (Proverbs 25:26, Jeremiah 9:23-24, Micah 6:8). For to some, and perhaps many, who define themselves as Spirit-led, faith-driven Christians, speaking out against injustice is an imperative of their faith, and failure to speak, cowardice and a dishonoring of their Lord.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Also, on the issue of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr (MLK), as it relates to and intersects with BLM: If you are led to preach against certain Christian conferences “celebrating” the memory of MLK while also ignoring/not dealing with his reported infidelities and certain theological positions, or in response to the call of certain pastors for a national/church-wide repentance for the sin of slavery and its continuing injustices in our nation and perhaps even for reparations, I believe great caution and care must be taken to ensure that your audience at Grace Church and on GTY understand that your complaint is only against these particular positions of certain Christian conferences and pastors, but not with the civil rights accomplishments of the movement MLK spearheaded. In our politically enflamed racially dividing times, it seems that major segments of the national and evangelical religious mind are very open to any inducement, political and religious, to put aside the promptings of conscience, or even of the Holy Spirit, touching upon the embedded racial injustices within our land. Many, because of these inducements, quiet any promptings to recognize the righteousness of raising their voice to defend, preserve, protect, and expand where necessary, the accomplishments and gains for justice and equality of the entire civil rights struggle – the rights of others! (Proverbs 29:7, 31:9, 28:5) Another casualty of this putting aside many times includes just the willingness to listen to and understand the most central valid issue of the BLM movement – that black lives matter too.
“Me Too” Movement
Concerning the “Me Too” movement: The overall issues behind the MT movement should not be labeled and dismissed as “leftist social” or “feminist” issues. MT, I believe, can only be understood as a collective stand by women against sexual intimidation, abuse, unequal pay, and the social and cultural assumptions and thoughts that support such practices. There are of course different aspects and multiple opinions and approaches within this loose movement, but at its core, it is a rising up and demand for a basic respect and valuing of women as persons – and for Christians, as persons created in the image and likeness of God – that includes equality in educational opportunities, equality in pay and opportunities within the employment marketplace, and a work and social culture free from sexual intimidation and abuse. What is there to argue against in this?
Immigration Issues
If you preach on the national immigration issues, I wonder if you will use the concept of “God loves nations” – implying a preference by God, politically and socially, in keeping the peoples of the differing nations separate and thus opposing migration or mixing – currently employed by some other evangelical preachers/leaders especially those with media access. (This concept, I believe, was also once popular in certain circles of our nation and used religiously and politically to oppose race mixing and interracial marriage.) However, regardless of how you politically – border security, halting crime at the border, etc. – or scripturally frame a sermon on the influx of immigrants and refugees seeking entry into our country, the great concern among the majority of people, Christians and non-Christians, opposing and protesting the policies of the current administration is the treatment of the immigrants, especially the families and children separated – and still separated – through a separation policy of willfully designed cruelty. Further, this was a policy established and implemented against the backdrop of the overtly racist mentality and worldview of the present administration. And honestly, if you speak against immigrants and immigration to the U.S without first clearly and loudly condemning the evil racism and perverse worldview of this present administration – even naming names! – you may appear to implicitly concur with and embrace, and explicitly support these policies, and what the congregation will hear, and what will be heard over GTY, is a religious and political support for these policies and the current administration.
Immigration & Israel’s Right of “Hegemony” Over the Palestinians
Now, if this will be your basic premise and thinking on immigration, I will not be able to agree and follow, just as I could not embrace your holding to the right of “hegemony” of Israel over the Palestinians – a “right” which is now working to sanctify Israel’s suppression, control, and abrogation of certain civil and voting rights over the captive people and even of its own Arab Israeli citizens. In the case of immigration and what I think you may preach, and in the case of the Palestinians and what you have preached, for me to think and act as you teach, would violate what I know and understand of the righteousness and justice taught by the entirety of scripture and enjoined upon us (Proverbs 1:2-3, Proverbs 3:3-4, Again: Jeremiah 9:23-24, Micah 6:8). Rather, especially with the Palestinians, your teaching here has worked instead to further isolate and impoverish the Palestinians, factually erecting more physical barriers and further drying-up the already parched soil of gospel receptiveness – open minds and hearts, listening ears, appreciative lives, a discernment of the love and compassion of Christ – hindering the spread, preaching, and reception of the gospel of hope among these absolutely devalued, oppressed, and persecuted peoples.
Christians Lawfully Protesting & Submission to Lawful Authority
Now looming behind all these issues, important as they are, is, to my understanding, the proposed preaching of a biblical prohibition on Christians civilly protesting government policies and actions using the context of our submission to governing authorities coupled with the sovereignty of God in raising up rulers and bringing them down.
The Lord indeed raises up and brings down rulers, an aspect of the sovereignty of God. Scripture is clear on this. In our nation, the Lord generally uses the ballot box and appointment to place in office, and the ballot box, impeachment, recall, dismissal, and resignation to remove or bring down. These tools, these aspects of our democracy, and the lawful tools of free and unhindered voting, peaceful assembly and protest, cannot be scripturally taken away or closeted for Christians in the U.S., or for any group or individual within our nation.
In our democracy, in the Republic to which we pledge our allegiance, we submit to the U.S. Constitution, the various state constitutions conforming to the U.S. Constitution and to the rule of law. Loyalty to an individual, a political party, or ideological system is not enjoined upon or required of us as citizens (Rather George Washington in his farewell address strongly warned against such mindless loyalties). Rather there is an implied duty and obligation to be diligent in collectively guarding and protecting the constitutional rights of all others and our own, and in opposing with all lawful means laws and policies, proposed or enacted, that seem wrong or hurtful to our nation. This includes lawful opposition to any candidate, or government authority or group that works to subvert, abuse, or pervert the rule of law and justice within our land, or with those whose policies and proposals we strongly disagree.
Our essential submission, and implied loyalty, is to the rule of law. If a police officer pulls me over, I will comply with every request made of me. If a police officer willfully violates official procedures or exceeds his/her lawful enforcement authority, that person should be held accountable. The perceived and factual overstepping of legitimate police authority and power within the black community in the shooting deaths of many times non-threatening black men and boys is, of course, the main underlying issue generating the “Black Lives Matter” movement. In matters of immigration, the chief executive obviously has broad discretion in implementing policies. However, this administration implemented a policy separating children from their parents, even of those lawfully applying for asylum, with cruel intent and without any thought or plan as to how the separated children would be reunited with their parents. As a citizen, I have every right to express my concern for the plight of the children. In obedience, I believe, to Christ, and as a Christian seeking to walk with the Holy Spirit in living my faith upon the streets, and because of my understanding of the compassion of Christ inherent in the gospel, I took to the streets of downtown LA in June of this year to protest this policy and call attention to the long-lasting emotional, mental, and relational health of the children separated from their parents. At the rally and march, I carried a sign I made myself that posited my faith as my main reason for protest. The sign read: “I’m Here Taking my Faith onto the Street. I am Here for the Children! Listen, the Children are Crying! Reunite the Families Now!” Two crosses also upon my sign identified me as a Christian. Additionally, an added burden fueling my determination to raise my voice, was the fact that during the Sundays of the two weekends that this issue was initially gripping our nation, here at Grace there was no mention of the plight of the children nor any prayer offered for them, neither in my fellowship group nor in the main service. There was only silence; a silence that to me, spoke volumes about the underlying values and concerns of the church, which at that time did not include, obviously, the separated children.
The Issue of Protesting Unjust Policies & Sin
Now, in my mind, a great issue to consider, is that if you preach against these movements and issues, then will you also teach that a believer at Grace, or a Christian anywhere, is sinning if they involve themselves in addressing these issues by raising their voice to protest unjust policies, entrenched and systemic injustice, or unlawful or unjust acts of specific government officials? I do not know if you hold this position or if you will preach it, but I do believe you need to address this issue of whether it is sin for a Christian to participate in peaceful lawful assemblies, demonstrations, and marches. Moreover, if this is sin, will the willful continuance in such lawful practices then be a matter for church discipline at Grace? That is a logical conclusion. But then again, if there is not a sin issue, and if at least some of these sermons are based again on personal political ideologies/worldviews, then perhaps these sermons should not even be preached and/or broadcast on GTY, especially if they are designed, even in part, to influence the conservative evangelical vote. There would be no profit to Christ or the promotion of the gospel in such sermons. However if preached, the basic political nature of these sermons would become clear and potentially taint and diminish, I fear, all else that is preached at Grace and broadcast on GTY, including Christ and the gospel, historically always the big losers when politics and a politicized gospel is introduced and preached within the church.
Additionally, if, as it seems, this sermon series will be intertwined in the GTY broadcasts leading up to the midterm elections, this then belies any attempt to teach that the individual believer or a church should not speak out or be involved in issues of social injustice. Also, honestly, the church cannot retreat into a position of needing to preach against these movements/issues to prevent any supplanting of the gospel as the priority of the church, as, factually, the past actions of Grace Church and its use of all associated entities to influence the last election make this a manifestly untenable position.
Church Security & Sermons
Now, to my understanding, the church security staff is being cued to expect potential protests over these sermons within the worship center, or on the campus, or, once this sermon series gets going, even by non-church members on the sidewalks that may potentially generate outside media interest. Here, in all honesty, I believe, these concerns may stem from an elevated sense of the potential impact of the preaching of this series within the church and also its attendant outside media worthiness. I don’t think people are going to speak out in church on your preaching, as the main topics and lines of reasoning, as I understand them, seem aligned to follow generally just the traditional popular lines of thought of the larger politicized conservative evangelical church. I don’t believe either that there is a bent within the congregation at Grace to publically disrupt a church service and/or your preaching – you are held in high regard by the people at Grace – and also, again honestly, an evangelical pastor preaching against BLM, “Me Too”, and immigration issues is not really new, nor would it really be considered media worthy.
The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Individual Believer’s Heart
However, rather than speak against the BLM and “Me Too” movements and immigration to the U.S., I believe it would be far better to lead the individual believer and the congregation as a whole, by both word and example, to deeply examine their heart on these issues before the Lord. It would also be good to encourage believers to seek from the Holy Spirit wisdom and an understanding of the deeply scarring effects of our past national racist history and its current evil legacy of unexamined racial, social, political, and cultural assumptions, that ever springs from its cursed soil, continually impinging upon, polluting, and diseasing the heart and mind sometimes unto total blindness. Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in the individual’s heart have always been major casualties of the church’s heavy involvement in the political process, but you could help turn this around by preaching to lead God’s people to cry out for a heart renewed with the compassion and light and hope of the gospel, to honestly seek the direction and grace to walk a new path that liberates the individual from the national and cultural racist assumptions to which we were born into and which surround and at times engulf us. This would open up and free their hearts and minds to a deeper love for Christ and a more unhindered work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This would be a great blessing and a wonderful gift from your preaching to God’s people at Grace, and to all those who listen to you over GTY.
Ending
I’ve written this letter to you, Pastor MacArthur, but I will also submit a copy of it with a cover letter to the Chairman of the Board of Elders for the elders, asking them to consider any worthiness within my words and to pray about these issues and offer you any input or advice as appropriate to their role as leaders within the church and co-shepherds of God’s people at Grace.
I now close this letter, and state that I write this letter, I believe, in obedience to Christ, with a concern for your teaching and the legacy of your ministry, out of loyalty to my brethren at Grace, and with a heart full of thankfulness for the many, many, years I have sat under your teaching – I’ve been here since November, 1974! Just the fact that I can write a letter such as this makes evident the impact of your teaching in my life over the years. I continue to pray for you, for the leadership at Grace, and for my brethren at Grace.
With all respect,
Chris Orozco
Cover Letter to the Chairman of the Board of Elders
August 16, 2018
Grace Community Church
Chairman, Board of Elders, name
c/o The Office of name, Church Administrator
Dear name,
I am writing to you as the Chairman of the Board of Elders at Grace Community Church to share with you a letter I wrote to our pastor, John MacArthur, expressing my concerns with what I understand to be the sermon series on various social justice issues to begin near the end of August.
I have occasionally written in the past to our pastor expressing other concerns I have had with certain other sermons from the pulpit. I previously wrote to express my concern about the sermon on February 22, 2015, where in a sermon designed to honor the police, Romans 13 was used to state directly to the assembled police that they carried the sword with the right of execution, implying capital punishment. That sermon also included a segment preaching the right of “hegemony” of Israel over the Palestinians, meant to support the visit to the U.S. of the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his speech before the joint U.S. Congress within a few days of the sermon and obviously designed for immediate Grace to You (GTY) broadcast. This segment is no longer within the video or the text transcript of this sermon. My most recent letter dated September 5, 2017, expressed my concern over the full use of the pulpit, the seminary website, the media facilities of the university, and Grace to You (GTY) to disseminate support for politically conservative policies and Republican candidates, which thus, in my mind, put aside the centrality of Christ and the gospel. In that letter, I also wrote of my concerns about the continuing negative spiritual cumulative effects of these sermons and pronouncements within the church as a whole and in the lives of individual believers.
At the close of my current letter to our pastor, I stated that I would also submit a copy of the letter for the elders through the Chairman of the Board of Elders, asking them to consider any worthiness within my words and to offer him any input or advice as appropriate to their role as leaders within the church and co-shepherds of God’s people at Grace. I have enclosed a copy of that letter for your consideration.
With all respect
Chris Orozco
Letter to One Pastor of My Fellowship Group
Background to Letter
I sent the letter above to our pastor and a copy of the letter to the Chairman of the Board of Elders, and to the pastors and elders of my fellowship group about a week and a half before the sermon series, “Social Justice and the Gospel” began at church. One of the pastors in my fellowship group, as a way of responding to my letter, sent me a link to the blog of a pastor from a church closely aligned with Grace, whose post expressed his and another pastor’s very similar thoughts on the issue of social justice as those expressed at Grace. When I sent the letter below to my fellowship pastor responding to the content within the link, our church’s pastor had already preached two Sundays on the “Social Justice and the Gospel” sermon series.
Letter to Pastor
September 6, 2018
Fellowship Pastor,
Thank you for sending me this link from pastor one’s blog. I remember pastor two and always appreciated his teaching.
I have read the article and agree that all believers are baptized into the Body of Christ and are given a new life and identity by the gift of the same Holy Spirit, who is also now conforming all believers into the image of Christ, and that we have been rescued from the kingdom of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of light. I also agree with the preaching of our pastor last Sunday that justice, righteousness and the pursuit of good for people, persons, in a believer is Spirit-produced and an essential mark of any true faith in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. I expressed many similar thoughts in the letter I wrote to our pastor.
I understand that the stated goal of the sermon series at Grace is to address the issue of “social justice” being taught as an essential part of the gospel message within certain segments within the church.
Now, this last Sunday, in the second message of this series, our pastor used Aaron and the golden calf as an example of the deep sin of idolatry that Aaron then tried to blame on the people without acknowledging his own sin– a sin that the Lord confronted. With this image of the golden calf in mind, I have to say in all honesty, that this sermon series at Grace, to me, as I have heard and understand it, is shallow, contorted and mistargeted, and ignores through purposeful silence a more heinous and cancerous sin within the evangelical church – the sin of the public idolatry of major segments of the leadership of the evangelical church in their fawning, obsequious, and incredibly sinful and impure adulation and support of this man in the White House – a sin that is overwhelmingly hideous, deeply entrenched and pervasive, and clearly in target for the Lord’s judgment.
Last week, many of these evangelical leaders invited to the White House, heaped praise upon this man, many thanking and honoring him by affixing their signatures to a gift Bible for him, most praising him personally for his actions that have advanced the political and social agenda of the evangelical church. To me, in their adulation, these “leaders”, those who would say they are devoted to Christ and the gospel, are biblically an even greater abomination than the man they praise. They are praising a golden calf of their own design and making with this man’s head upon it – worshiping and bowing before it to advance their own political influence and purposes. Scripture preaches that those who worship idols become like them. Clearly, this is what is happening in their hearts, attitudes, words, and actions.
I cannot worship this golden calf forged by the political support of these evangelical leaders and brought forth in praise for this evil man – a wicked man advancing this own fractured agenda of godless self-glory by openly using and easily manipulating these leaders, and the evangelical segment of the church they represent, for his own aims. Honestly, it is as if he has taken these leaders to the mountaintop, and shown them the promised land of the greater good of a mythical pure American Christian nation with these leaders all sitting in glory and judgment, and promising to make it happen and to give it to them, if only they will bow down and worship him. And they have bowed down, and they have worshipped, and they are continuing to do so, only now bowing lower and worshipping longer. This is truly the monumental hindrance to the proclamation of the gospel within the evangelical church, and those evangelical leaders and churches that do not raise their voice to condemn this idolatry, join through their silence this idolatrous praise and abominable worship.
I bring this up, because this pervasive idolatry is the background clamor with which I hear this current sermon series at Grace. And just like the intent and result of this meeting in Washington, I believe that this series, as planned and designed, will also factually support everything Republican and therefore this man in the upcoming mid-term elections. Fellowship Pastor, this is so deeply sinful to me. For from the pulpit at our church, this idolatry, and this lecherous, immoral and biblically abominable man is not condemned or spoken against, primarily it seems to me so as not to upset or hinder the advancement of the evangelical church’s political agenda. And yet, while there is this absolutely deafening silence about this man, at the very same time from the pulpit, the “Me Too” movement is mocked and the women crying out against the attitudes and behaviors that this praised man himself has repeatedly indulged in and publically bragged about, are labeled as “rebellious, disobedient women”. Before the Lord, is this not sin and a true offense against the gospel? This silence, and this shallow understanding and preaching against any “social justice” issue that may impinge upon the midterm elections, to me, is a pernicious poison being pumped into the hearts of individual believers, into the church body as a whole, and into the larger radio audience – a message essentially in heart devoid of Christ and the true gospel because of its political intent.
At our church, the goal of this series, announced as defending the true gospel by countering an emerging teaching that “social justice” is an essential part of the gospel, has already been achieved, for in the two “introductory” sermons to this series, this defense has already repeatedly been preached. Continuing this series, preaching against and perhaps further mocking certain specific “social justice” issues, just illustrates the further political goal of this series, which is to promote and support further everything Republican and this man. Is this pursuit of a “greater good” by supporting through silence an evil man – who is even now being praised and worshiped by segments of the evangelical church – Spirit-led and consistent with the mind of Christ? Will the fruit of this pursuit be godly or blessed in the church by the Lord, and does it truly defend and proclaim the gospel? Isn’t this a dangerously corrupt, crooked, and polluted path?
Fellowship Pastor, you have been my pastor, and you are my friend, do you want me to walk down this path? Do you want me to stop my ears to the legitimate cries for justice and protection? Do you wish me to put aside my devotion and obedience to Christ and the ways in which I understand the imperatives of the gospel? Would you rather I instead just quietly acquiesce, not oppose this man, and at least in my silence support everything that supports him for the “greater good” of the evangelical church’s political and social agenda? Before the Lord, is this what you want for me?
I deeply believe Grace church needs to repent of this sin with a loud, directed, thorough and repeated condemnation and self-confession of the biblical whoring after this man and Republican support to advance the evangelical church’s political and social agenda – all a true hindrance to the gospel and a gross dishonoring of Christ – a repentance demonstrated with all the energy and media means with which this support was initially proclaimed – and all this before the midterms, regardless of how this affects the election.
Fellowship Pastor, I write this letter after much thought and prayer and passion, and since I am touching on matters of the entire church, I am also copying Second Fellowship Pastor and the two elders of Fellowship Group for whom I have emails. I will also send a copy to Pastor MacArthur and to the Chairman of the Board of Elders, this time by email, since this, at least for me, is a time sensitive message. I also continue to pray before the Lord for the church with just as much thought and passion with which I wrote this letter.
With all respect,
Chris Orozco
Background During the Writing of the Two Letters Above & Thoughts Stemming from Them
During the time of the writing of these two letters, much was going on around and within me that influenced their content and tone. Looking at my sermon notes during this time, on June 17, in response to a sermon in the Fellowship group, in the top margin of a page in my notebook, I wrote, “this church has become as the world and that is why I do not fit in, or feel comfortable, or find rest within.” – the “world” here meaning the ugly, divisive, and godless political realm that had enveloped the nation with its deliberately mindless noise and growing oppression of others.
Then, at the invitation of a grammar school friend of mine who was also an environmental/political activist, during the last two weekends in June, I joined protest demonstrations against the separation of families at the border, first on the sidewalk near the Wilshire Federal Building and then, on the second weekend, a much larger protest gathering downtown near the City Hall. I had taken into consideration my church’s already known position that for Christians, protesting was unbiblical, but what compelled me to protest, was the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I did not want to be one of those who remained silent on injustices – especially here against children and families – through spiritual intimidation or fear of men, or what others thought.
The silence of the church on these separations was incomprehensible and devastating to me, and I rejected outright the church’s support and defense of this policy by silence – a seemingly cynical silence – for what was happening and promoted as a deterrence at the border, as part of the administration’s planned focus on immigrant families, was widely known. Moreover, the church’s silence – based now upon an innate and overwhelmingly pervasive support of the political ideology that had planned, initiated, and enacted such a cruel and devastating policy against immigrant children and families – was a perversion and an attack upon the gospel. I could not understand why the church did not cry out for the children. However, at the same time, I was coming to understand even more clearly that with my church, there had always been an enthusiastic deep-settled agreement and applause for this man, and with everything he said and did, from the beginning. And now this clenched-fist support and agreement did not waver even with the separation of the children, some actually babies, a grotesque, uncaring, mockery of “Let the children come to Me”, something I was sure was unbiblical. Deciding to demonstrate, to speak out as best I could, was a big step for me, and a further big step away from my church, though at the time I did not consciously view it as such.
Other than the link sent to me, I did not receive any further response on these two letters. However, during this period, I was still hoping someone in leadership would engage me in dialogue about the things I had written. One of the pastors in the fellowship group was fairly new, and I introduced myself to him with my name and informed him that I was the one who had written the letter that he received a copy of that week, hoping for an invitation to talk, to share a cup of coffee, but that did not happen. I also attended at least two Sunday potlucks for the members of the fellowship group where both pastors and most of the elders from the fellowship groups were in attendance, but none engaged me in substantive conversation. During this time, I began to realize that I was probably not going to receive any thoughtful response, and the Spirit was now directing my steps onto a path very different and apart from what the church was further becoming. My experience of a diminishing sense of community and the isolation and estrangement I felt deepened. I became so thankful for the two like-minded friends at church, and the several friends not part of the church, with whom I could confide and receive support and understanding on the issues I felt and I was facing.
The church, as a whole, over the years, seemed to accept readily and easily the full-package of slogans, political directives, and opinions, taught at church, and these teachings flowed into the thought life of the church through multiple individual minds and hearts soon attuned to them, without much thought or prayer. The group-speak at church, repeating and validating the pulpit utterances on political and social justice issues, already present for years now, increased in scope and volume. Easy acceptance of these preachings deepened, and non-critical thinking spread as a gangrene within the congregation. Through pulpit introduced and eventual peer-pressure applied spiritual intimidation, and an ensuing fear of loss of fellowship, silence grew among those initially harboring some misgivings with these political/pseudo-Christian pronouncements. Fellowship, togetherness, and a shared life of faith – the life-substance of the church body – then, either intentionally or not, became in-fact weaponized, by fear of its loss at Grace, a seismic and almost apocalyptic event feared so acutely by some, if not many.
The church turned increasingly inward. If some pastors or church elders disagreed or expressed misgivings or qualms about the political direction and trajectory of the church, they did not make their voices heard or their views public. I never heard of dissent. On the contrary, in the fellowship group I attended, the spoken and taught agreements with the now de facto “official” political positions increased. The repetition of the political pronouncements from the pulpits, and the ease with which the congregation repeated them, deeply ingrained these as assumed truth within the life of the church. It became just the way and what most people automatically thought and acted upon. The proclamation of conservative political views and the promotion of the president’s policies and reelection, concurrent with the increasing exaltation of the pastor’s teaching and the primacy of Grace church as a whole, took precedence over the shepherding of the congregation towards their true spiritual good – a devotion to Christ and to His gospel and Kingdom, and a close walk with the Holy Spirit. The Evangelical/conservative/Republican information and talking points pipeline became even more effective, directive, and predominate in influence, and Fox News, ever in the background for years, emerged openly now as the main, if not sole, pulpit source of media truth on political and social issues.
I spent many hours thinking/writing trying to puzzle out why this political influence and support of the president seemed to have so easily taken over and deepened within the church. I eventually came to understand that because of being continually primed by the political undercurrents and pronouncements within the church since the 2004 election, that from the beginning of the 2016 presidential campaign, there existed already within the church leadership, and perhaps a significant percentage of the church membership, a basic and essential agreement and support for who and what the president attacked, what fears and national threats he promoted, and the scapegoats he labeled and the solutions against them he offered and promised. To deeply thrilled and soon totally enthralled Christian leaders and congregants, he preached his political vision, ideology, and worldview – which in a short time, became the church’s. Wow, finally, someone promising to deliver simple, definite, and final solutions! Amen! Finally, finally, someone the church could place their faith in and trust! Glory!
This path of mind and soul – what had been then playing out for years – had long past already been chosen, very deliberately by some, mindlessly for others, from the first words of this lawless man. This soil of the soul, fertile, open, and self-blinded to this man’s lies, scapegoating, ethnic and racial misrepresentations, concealed evil and violence, and self-exalting pride, plowed the Evangelical church into an enthusiastic, easily manipulated, and essential part of his base. For, as with a mirror, his words and worldview reflected easily and brightly into the historically same mind and soul already within the church leadership, and these leaders then became embedded within the church as keys easily turned by the deceptions of this man to influence, sway, and even – incomprehensibly – have them praise and bless him before the congregation, without whispering even a hint of a need for careful thought or prayer, their souls and mouths then mirroring this man’s image and words into the hearts of many sitting upon the pews within the church week after week. Wow, political bingo for this man, yes and yes! But for the church, all this now a lasting stain of shame. I realized that I had been writing/speaking to a shallow and stony ground, one with little or no receptive soil.
In addition, what became even clearer to me in putting together these five posts on the letters sent to my church, was the then growing tendency within the church to designate, explicitly or implicitly, the political pronouncements and teachings either as “biblical” or “scriptural” In the panel discussion on social justice issues, from my notes, a panel member introduced one topic as, “Why Affirmative Action is wrong from a biblical view”. This was and is an almost “necessary” designation, required to align the teaching with the church’s written mission statement: “Our mission is to glorify God and extend His kingdom by living and proclaiming His truth in the world” – truth, of course, within the church, derived only from scripture. After further reviewing my notes on various sermons and fellowship group teachings, it seemed now that whichever conservative political position was preached, taught, or touched upon, it implicitly, and by necessity, eventually became the accepted “biblical” or scripture-wrapped view. The church was now in fact implying that many of the its political views and opinions were “biblically” based or scripturally-validated, and thus subtly, by extension, binding upon the minds and actions of Christians – or something close to binding – and through the radio ministry, binding and directing not only upon those physically at Grace church, but also those listening to the radio programs, especially those in swing states – targeted “applied” theology at its best! The political pronouncements and preachings were not designed as precise theological statements, but rather were more crafted as “sound-bites” to influence and persuade on political candidates and issues, and as a call to specific political actions, such as for who to vote.
The Lord preserved me from this binding and blinding aspect of the church’s political sermonizing, as I never believed that the conservative political opinions and viewpoints were biblical, and I instinctually rejected them as devoid of the voice of the Lord, and not taken captive to the mind of Christ or Spirit-led. To me, these pronouncements diminished and even put aside Christ and His Kingdom and dimmed the saving and restoring message of the Gospel. I never understood why others did not see what was so blatantly empty of Christ and sinful to me. I believe now that as the Lord preserved me from the leader-led path of the church community away from Him, and that as the church withdrew from a true Christ and Gospel-centered faith, the Holy Spirit was also withdrawing the church as community from within me, sharpening and using the loss of community at Grace I experienced and felt to begin leading me elsewhere. Even a few years before these two letters, the Lord, one Sunday morning, actually stopped and forbade me from even entering the Worship Center, testifying to me that upon the pulpit, something other than Christ was being enthroned.
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Some of the Letters Written to My Church Subsequent to This Letter
Edit Post “Letters Written to My Church – 2019” ‹ Writing In The Shade Of Trees — WordPress
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