In the late 1960′s, a group called Creedence Clearwater Revival wrote a song entitled “Fortunate Son” which was a protest song about the Vietnam War….

As I looked at the lyrics (below):

“Fortunate Son”
Creedence Clearwater Revival

Some folks are born to wave the flag,
Ooh, they’re red, white and blue.
And when the band plays “Hail to the chief”,
Ooh, they point the cannon at you, Lord,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no senator’s son, son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no,
Yeah!

Some folks are born silver spoon in hand,
Lord, don’t they help themselves, oh.
But when the taxman comes to the door,
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no millionaire’s son, no.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, no.

Some folks inherit star spangled eyes,
Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord,
And when you ask them, “How much should we give?”
Ooh, they only answer More! more! more! yoh,

It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no military son, son.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me; I ain’t no fortunate one, one.
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate one, no no no,
It ain’t me, it ain’t me, I ain’t no fortunate son, no no no,

I saw another parallel in the modern church of today where millionaire’s sons of the 1960′s Vietnam is really no different from the millionaire’s sons of the megachurch attendee. Where the millionaire of the 1960′s kept their kids from getting drafted or got easy jobs in the service, it appears that the millionaire of the megachurch keeps their kids from getting volunteered into the war on the Great Commission or get easy jobs to take credit for the ‘success’ of the latest evangelism program. The Senator of the 1960′s who use their power, clout, and stroke to keep their kids from getting drafted or got easy jobs in the service is similar to the Elder’s son in the megachurch who use their power, clout, and stroke to ensure that their sons get favortism and easy tasks to do within the church.

Then again, it seems like the church is a parallel to the establishment of the 1960′s. The ones who bleed red, white, and blue and want to send God to a war against flesh and blood went from Washington D.C to the four walls of the church. As the politicians attempted to fight the Vietnam war from the Senate floor back in the 1960′s, the pastors turned politicians are trying to fight the culture war from the pulpit with the same common resourse:

Someone else’s flesh and blood but their own.

1960′s millionaires and Senators used the legislation of Washington D.C. to send out the sons of the poor to fight a war where the enemy was never determined not defined. The religious right and Pastors turned Politicians have tried to use the legislation of Washington D.C. to send out the affluent voted in by the poor to fight a war where the enemy has been determined but grossly misidentified.

In both cases, the war (Vietnam of the 1960′s and the culture war of today) has now ended up being fought by politicians / pastors turned politicians instead of the trained and qualified people taught to do the fighting. A soldier could not fire into the jungle to kill a real enemy but could experience loss of life and limb as politicians questioned the military. A praying people could not come against principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places to defeat a real enemy but could experience a loss of life and a decaying environment of low morale. Politicians, ‘experts’, consultants, and black-tie-dinner speakers became the Army that fought instead of letting a war being fought by the gifted and trained men on the battlefield (physical and spiritual). Politicians tried to fight against the ones who sounded more communistic than capitalistic. Pastors turned politicians are trying to fight against the ones who sound more like Democrats than Republicans.

George H.W. Bush stated in his televised speech when the first attacks of Desert Storm became known that:

…I’ve told the American people before that this will not be another Vietnam, and I repeat this here tonight. Our troops will have the best possible support in the entire world, and they will not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back.

I wished the church had heard this message in reference to Spiritual Warfare…..

Spiritual warfare today has gone in the same direction as Vietnam of the 1960′s. Instead of the annointed, gifted and Godly trained Army of God fighting the battles, the internal Church has either:

• Played politics by saying that only certain “political” leaders within the church can be the only ones doing warfare because of the fact that they went to a quickie seminar hosted by some known “expert” and “consultant”.
• Played politics by saying that since ‘God’s man’ is in office, politics will instead fight the war that the Bible commands us to fight.
• Don’t fight at all.

In both Vietnam and in the modern church, people have not gotten to the point of refusing to put their trust in the establishments that had control over the situations at hand. In the physical realm, government (a so-called representative of the people turned representative of the special-interest groups) is now sneered and it’s authority mocked. In the spiritual realm, the church (a representative of Jesus that sometimes turned into representative of the “special-interests” groups that claim the name of God) is now mocked and it’s impact on the people almost dead.

The scars from yesterday instilled the anger and fear of today to the point of a people refusing to fight when fighting was necessary. We go from one extreme of calling everything a demon to the other extreme of denying the presence of demons in our lives. We’ve killed everyone who disagreed with us to the other extreme of singing “Kumbya My Lord” in a circle holding hands. There has to be an inherent balance implemented in order to properly defeat the true enemies and advance the kingdom of God to truly storm the gates of hell, taking the kingdom by force, and see the results and change having a impact on out hearts, families, cities, nations and our world.

We have a choice. We can:

• Allow only certain “spiritual” leaders within the church be the only ones doing warfare because of the fact that they went to a quickie seminar hosted by some known “expert” and “consultant” and choose to fight against flesh and blood with ‘claim stakes’, spiritual mappiing, burying pieces of paper containing Bible verses at the city limits, etc.
• Continue to place our faith in a political system to pass certain legislations, enact new ammendments to the Constitution, or overturn Roe vs. Wade. instead of putting on our armor to fight against principalities and wicknedness in high places
• Do nothing at all and hide in our bunker

or we can learn to fight Godly. There is one difference between the war in Vietnam and the war in the heavenlies.

Infrastructure.

In Vietnam, we tried to kill an enemy without destroying it’s infrastructure and we failed. In spiritual warfare, try defeating Satan without defeating the infrastructure called strong holds. You can’t. True Godly warfare will involve defeating the enemy, coming against principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places by tearing down the infrastructure of strongholds simultaneously. If we think the warfare of passing a piece of legislature will do the trick, we are grossly mistaken. All it will do is say that a people have decided that whatever it was that was legislated is wrong but fail to get to the crux of the core matter of what generated the stronghold of sin.

I’m afraid that the Church of New Vietnam is trying to kill an enemy without killing the infrastructure/strongholds that empower the methods of the enemy.

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