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At the recent funeral for
President Bush, critics pointed out that, unlike the other former White House executives
in attendance, Donald Trump did not recite the Apostles’ Creed. Putting aside
my personal feelings about the current president, I find it curious that the
recitation of a creed would be of such great national concern.
I was raised in a church that made
a weekly practice of reciting the Nicene Creed, which was based on the Apostles’
Creed and came out of a pair of fourth-century councils to unify Christian
belief and combat heresies. It was of great importance in terms of shaping the
Christianity we’ve been handed down.
But let’s be honest about this.
Reciting the creed doesn’t make you a Christian, nor does failure to recite it
mean you aren’t a Christian. Many, many evangelicals refrain from using creeds
and rote prayers. So the evangelicals who supported Trump in the 2016 election
wouldn’t care a bit that he didn’t recite the creed at Bush’s funeral. Many prominent evangelicals, in fact, have already chimed in to say just that.
My point is not to defend
Donald Trump but rather to address the implicit suggestion that words are more
important than actions when it comes to faith. This is how Christ gets buried
under dogma and his message obscured. Let’s recall some of the things he told
his disciples:
“Not all who say to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my Father in heaven.”
“Why do you call me Lord, Lord,
and not do as I say?”
“Whatsoever you do for the least of these, my brethren, you do for
me.”
The Quakers have a saying: “Let
your life speak.” What we do is far
more important than what we say. The Quakers have backed up that saying for
centuries, by being active in helping to bring justice, equality, and mercy
into a world sorely lacking it. And all the while, Quakers have steadfastly
refused to recite oaths, including religious creeds.
The closest thing to a creed
Jesus left us was the Lord’s Prayer. But what he did – healing the sick, embracing the outcasts, giving up his life
for friend and enemy alike – carried far more weight than anything he spoke. He
led by example. And so ought we, his followers, do the same, by letting our
actions speak louder than any creed or prayer we could ever recite.
Let us focus on what our
leaders do, rather than what they say — or don’t say. And let us strive to live
our own lives the same way.
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