Rev. Austin has written here on this thread that the recently deceased U.S. Representative John Lewis was “as great a Christian hero of our time as we will ever see.” Lewis gave the benediction at the National Prayer Breakfast a few months ago. He spoke to the audience as his “brothers and sisters” and said that we are a “people of faith.” Then he added, “It does not matter whether you worship one God, many gods, or no gods. We are all brothers and sisters.” Later on, near the end of the benediction, he said that we must believe in one another. We need not all believe in the same God, but we must believe in one another.
Rev. Austin, this is what I found after spending about a half an hour of my time searching the internet to find something from John Lewis that would indicate what his religion was. I could not find anything he had said about Jesus as the Savior of sinners who died for us and rose again. He said much about Jesus’s moral teaching, but I was not able to find anything he said about who Jesus is and what he has done to save us sinners from our sins. You know much more about this man than I do. Perhaps you can share with me something Lewis said that actually communicated the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I don't think that it's useful to ask whether Congressman Lewis meets any particular definition of being a "Christian." We should leave those matters to God. Raising them here will do little more than spark a side-spat with Pr. Austin. That would be tedious indeed.
Well, I sure don't want to start a side-spat, but I do think that there is a confusion of categories going on. Civil doctrine is pawned off as a Christian proclamation. Call it the social gospel. The transcendent and eternal truths of the gospel of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection are translated into temporal political categories. The gospel disappears into moralism. Call Lewis a hero. Fine. But to modify that with the word "Christian" claims for political dogma a Christian pedigree. As a conservative Republican, I was offended by all of the references to Mitt Romney's "faith" during the Republican convention of 2012.
Many years ago, I read an article by Lyle Schaller in which he noted that different Christian church bodies tend to center on different persons of the Trinity. LCMS Lutherans, like most other Evangelical churches, center on God the Son and his death and resurrection. Charismatic churches obviously focus on the work of the Spirit. Progressive churches--and the American Baptist Church and National Baptist Churches fall into this category--emphasize God the Father.
If this is right (I think it is) then we can understand Lewis' words at the National Prayer Breakfast. His emphasis is on a God who is Father to all.
The other part is would be his understanding of Christ and culture. I'm sure he would be a "Christ transforms culture" person--it is our job as Christians to change the world into a more biblical model especially in terms of social justice issues.
The problem is that those social justice issues--important as they are--are not necessarily Christian. They all come under the first use of the commandments. Slavery is wrong regardless of one's faith or lack thereof. Jim Crow laws were objectively evil, even for Democrats like LBJ, Bull Conner, George Wallace, etc., whether or not they said they were Christian or Hindu. That led to alliances that were broader than Christian and probably impacted his thought.
Don't know if my thinking is correct or not, but it would help us understand why he said what he did.
As it is, he was a great hero and our nation is richer for his having lived.
