Crossed Fingers: We All Got in By Lying

Written by Pastor Calvin Lindstrom

Over a hundred years ago, a newly ordained Presbyterian minister was asked by a classmate how he could tell his examining committee that he believed the Westminster Confession of Faith when he clearly did not. He answered:

“I kept my fingers crossed.”

This incident was the reason why Gary North entitled his massive history of the takeover of the Presbyterian denomination, Crossed Fingers.

Also, about 100 years ago, Princeton professor J. Gresham Machen wrote a most important book titled Christianity and Liberalism. Machen pulled no punches in his assessment of many in his own denomination who traded orthodox truth for new ideas. Liberalism, he wrote,

“is not Christianity at all, but a religion which is so entirely different from Christianity as to belong in a distinct category.”

Just last month undercover video of Rev. Jim Rigby of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church showed that lying about believing the Bible continues. When Rev. Rigby was asked whether someone who wanted to join his church had to believe that a virgin gave birth to a baby, Rigby said,

“We all got in by lying.”

This undercover video did not indicate whether Rigby was referring to clergy or laity, but the difference is sadly not substantial. What makes this undercover video both theologically and politically significant is that Rigby is the pastor to U.S. Senate Candidate, James Talarico.

You might remember the infamous 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina where “God was booed.” This might be too simplistic a take, but the booing was in response to language taken out of the 2008 platform that was re-inserted into the 2012 platform: a reference to human potential as being “God-given” and also language that recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Today, however a number of Democrat politicians running for office are very happy to use Christian terminology. However, the use of words like “God”, “Jesus,” and “salvation” must be carefully examined. Two prominent candidates running for U.S. Senate are the one I already mentioned, James Talirico (Texas) and Rev. Adam Hamilton (Kansas). Hamilton is the senior pastor of the United Method Church of the Resurrection.

Both candidates claim to be Christian but do they truly believe in the God who has revealed himself in Scripture? Hamilton claims there are hundreds of mistakes in the Bible. Talarico does not go as far as his pastor in denying the Bible and the resurrection, but Talarico has been trained not only by his pastor but by one of the denomination’s liberal (non-Christian) seminary, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. [1]

So it is absolutely not a surprise that Talarico has claimed the account of Gabriel visiting Mary in Nazareth somehow is a justification for abortion rights. Further, Talarico has suggested that there are six genders and that God is non-binary.

However, as Ben Shapiro revealed in a recent video, Talarico has attempted to moderate his positions on some of these controversial issues. (See the chart at the end of this article). Is this moderating or simply lying?

Now, I should emphasize that candidates like Talarico seeking political office is hardly something new in our nation. Dr. Albert Mohler recently pointed out that from the 1950’s up until the 1970’s the vast majority of both the U.S. House and especially the U.S. Senate were upscale establishment mainline Protestant church members, liberalism at work. Especially the Episcopalians really had a tremendous influence for their size.

What is different today is that these mainline denominations have become far more radical in their unbelief and support of perversion than they were a generation ago. What has also perhaps changed is that far too many American Christians don’t really know the difference between orthodoxy and liberalism. And perhaps what is also now a shift, Democratic politicians who for a time might have shied from using religious language are happy to embrace it and promote it.

When a candidate uses religious language or speaks of faith, three questions should be asked:

First, what do the words mean? Biblical language for well over a hundred years has been redefined. Words like Lord, sin, love, and justice are easily emptied of their biblical meaning. Don’t just listen for vocabulary, be aware of how these words are used.

Second, what holds the final authority? Does Scripture or political party have the final say? For these liberal politicians, it is clearly the party platform that shapes Scripture rather than the opposite.

Third, who is forming or discipling the politician? Jesus declared in Matthew 7:21, “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom.” A man’s teachers shape what his words mean.

In the 1920’s, liberalism advanced through crossed fingers. Today it continues to cross its fingers while claiming to use the Bible in the public square.

As Christians we must not be deceived.

Sources:

J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism (1923)

Gary North, Crossed Fingers: How the Liberals Captured the Presbyterian Church (1996)

Ten positions that James Talarico has walked back, softened or recast since launching his statewide campaign, set beside his own earlier words and votes.