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.
Remembering the Myth During Election Season
Given the current political furor in America right now, we thought we would post an extended quote from Greg’s book The Myth of a Christian Nation. This book was originally a reflection on Christian political engagement during the 2004 election, and how conflating “America” with Christianity is devastating to the mission we’ve been given in the world. We seem not to have learned much since then.
The myth of America as a Christian nation, with the church as its guardian, has been, and continues to be, damaging both to the church and to the advancement of God’s kingdom. Among other things, this nationalistic myth blinds us to the way in which our most basic and most cherished cultural assumptions are diametrically opposed to the kingdom way of life taught by Jesus and his disciples. Instead of living out the radically countercultural mandate of the kingdom of God, this myth has inclined us to Christianize many pagan aspects of our culture. Instead of providing the culture with a radically alternative way of life, we largely present it with a religious version of what it already is. The myth clouds our vision of God’s distinctly beautiful kingdom and thereby undermines our motivation to life as set-apart (holy) disciples of this kingdom.
Even more fundamentally, because this myth links the kingdom of God with certain political stances within American politics, it has greatly compromised the holy beauty of the kingdom of God to non-Christians. This myth harms the church’s primary mission. For many in America and around the world, the American flag has smothered the glory of the cross, and the ugliness of our American version of Caesar has squelched the radiant love of Christ. Because the myth that America is a Christian nation has led many to associate America with Christ, many now hear the good news of Jesus only as American news, capitalistic news, imperialistic news, exploitive news, antigay news, or Republican news. And whether justified or not, many people want nothing to do with any of it. (pp. 13-14)
Category: General
Tags: America, Myth of a Christian Nation, Nationalism, Politics, Religious Idolatry
Related Reading
What Power Do You Trust?
Governments and nations have always relied on fighting to survive. They punish criminals who threaten their welfare. They go to war against enemies who attack their borders or stand in the way of their agenda. This is how the kingdoms of the world maintain law and order and advance their causes. By contrast, the Kingdom…
Watch Greg on CNN’s “God’s Warriors”
This video is a CNN.com video of Greg’s segment on God’s Warriors. Greg’s interview starts at 2:07. The following was taken from a post on Greg’s blog (August 24, 2007): Thoughts on “God’s Warriors” from “The Heretic” Hi folks, I and a bunch of friends just finished watching Christiane Amanpour’s CNN documentary entitled “God’s Christian…
12 Reasons for Keeping the Kingdom of God Separate from Politics, Part 2
Image by the justified sinner via Flickr Satan is the “god of this age” (2 Cor 4:4) and “ruler of the world (Jn 12:30; 14:31) who “controls the entire world” (1 Jn 5;19) and possesses all the power of “all the kingdoms of the world” (Lk 4:6). While governments are ordained by God to preserve…
ReThinking the Source of Life
Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring the twelve convictions of the ReKnew Manifesto. The first of which focuses on where we get life. In many of my writings, I speak about the source of “life.” By this I mean one’s core sense of identity, worth, significance and security. Over the years, I’ve…
Jesus and the “Favored Nation”
Nationalism lies at the heart of the Old Testament narrative. This concept is intimately wrapped up with the law-oriented covenant God made with the Israelites at Mount Sinai, for at the heart of this covenant is the promise that obedience would bring national security while disobedience would bring national disaster (Deut. 27-28). What we shall…
A Kingdom Not of This World
Bruxy Cavey spoke at Woodland Hills Church back in May as a part of the Tapestry series, and this is a little snippet of his sermon. It’s a wonderful description of the Anabaptist approach to politics. Take a look!