We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

473047670_9128a398c9

Anti-American?

Kurt Willems posted a response to the accusation he often gets that he’s anti-American. He also included a video of Greg giving his own response to this question. Take a look!

From Kurt’s blog:

I am not, in any way, anti-American. In fact, I’m not anti-anyone. I believe that the way of Jesus compels us to be “for” everyone. I’m for Iraqis, Egyptians, Canadians (barely :-)), Mexicans, Peruvians, and every other people group on the planet. I’m also “for” Americans. This doesn’t mean that I’m for the ways in which the church often partners with the sword-bearing government, but I’m “for” the people of this nation. I long, more than anything, that all Americans would redefine their allegiance around the reign of God — the God of enemy love, justice, and salvation. This God, namely Jesus, is my King, President, and Lord.

Related Reading

Thinking Biblically?

Olga Caprotti via Compfight Micah J. Murray over at Redemption Pictures posted this reflection called Beware of Thinking Biblically. The image of a google search on the topic is worth the price of admission. Christians throw around this phrase in some really damaging ways, as Rachel Held Evans demonstrated in her recent publication of A Year…

Jesus and Nationalistic Violence

Throughout the Old Testament, we find Israel spoken of as God’s “chosen nation.” The Israelites were to be a nation of priests whom God wanted to use to unite the world under him (Ex 19:6). Since nationalism and violence inevitably go hand in hand, as Jacque Ellul and others have noted, the covenant God made…

God’s Non-Violent Ideal in the OT

While God condescended to working within the violent-prone, fallen framework of his people in the Old Testament—as I argue in Crucifixion of the Warrior God—the OT is also full of references to how God worked to preserve his non-violent ideal as much as possible. He did this by continually reminding his people not to place…

God’s “Ways” and “Thoughts” are Higher

Isaiah 55:8-9 is one of the more often quoted passages in the Bible. It reads:             … my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways … As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (vss. 8-9). This…

Topics:

Should Christians Recite the Pledge of Allegiance?

A number of years ago I attended a basketball game at a Christian school. Just before the game everyone was asked to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance. So I stood, placed my hand over my heart, and began to recite our national creed. Halfway through, however, I began to wonder what I was…

Do You Need to Starve a Little?

Sarah (Rosenau) Korf via Compfight Here’s a challenging reflection on Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent by Kurt Willems. He notes that Lent is a season where we choose to starve ourselves of our little idols in order to join Jesus in the desert, and he lists several benefits of this particular kind of…