I know my blog is extremely insignificant and as much as Charlie, Scott, Pastor John and other like minded bloggers carry out our little cyberspace war, civil religion will persist. But I simply cannot let this go. My conscience would harass me and I'd go home and be curt with my wife and neighbors and dog and would be too distracted to work on my paper that is due before Friday and none of this would be any good for anybody. So let's take a little look at this shall we? This will at least let me think I've done something.
"The thing that separates the American Christian..."
- Wow. In seven words George Washington has succeeded in rending the Body of Christ that Jesus gave his life to establish. It is fitting that he does this in seven words (seven being the biblical number of completion) because he has completely set American Christians above and against every other Christian in the world (remember, England was a Christian nation too). This is a classic (in both senses of the word) example of the powers that be using peoples' faith to subsume them into a nationalistic identity and agenda. If people can be made to believe that their government is the only one that truly sides with God then they will do anything for that government. Even kill other Christians. Because they are no longer seen as true Christians. Because the are not American Christians.
- What really separates the American Christian from every other person on earth is those who understand themselves as AMERICAN Christians have bought into exactly this type of rhetoric. It is no longer our identity as a part of the redeemed, as one of those from every nation and tribe who have been washed by the blood of the lamb and bought with a price (Revelation 5:9; 14:6), that allows us to see others who are radically (culturally, ideologically) different than us as brothers and sisters in Christ (Romans 10:12-13; Galatians 3:28; Colossians 3:11), but our being born into or submitting ideologically to a specific, divisive, nationalistic agenda that estranges us from our Christian brothers and sisters. (FYI: most Christians is the Holy Land are Palestinians. How close are we to them?) This is supposed to be a good thing? That American Christians are better than all other Christians?
Whatever happened to the catholic Body of Christ? Precisely this type of evil. The sheep no longer recognize the voice of the Shepherd, so we answer the insatiate calls of the wolves.
"...from every other person on earth is the fact that he would rather die on his feet than live on his knees."
- Now, forget restricting this to being an issue between Christians. This gorgeous little bit elevates the issue to a whole new level of ethnocentrism. It separates us "FROM EVERY OTHER PERSON ON EARTH?" Seriously? What about the slaves who initiated rebellions (The Stono Rebellion, The New York Slave Insurrection of 1741, Nat Turner's Rebellion, etc. etc. etc.) against the white American Christians that forced them to live on their knees? What about the 1851 Indian Tax Rebellion in San Diego? Or the Texas-Indian Wars, et al?
Well...sorry. My emotion got the best of my pragmatism and I got off track there. Obviously they were inferior to the American Christian's who rebelled against England because they lost to said American Christians. Butt-kicking = verification of truthfulness. Job was soooo wrong. I can't wait to tell him in paradise.
- And I said we'd forget this being an issue between Christians, but I cannot help but ask, "What about the Christians in the colonies who were against rebellion? Some who formed their stance on their Christian beliefs?"
Oh, sorry, I made the same mistake twice. They lost.
It's not like Christianity was founded on losing or anything. I think I'm starting to come around and see how much of a good thing it is that we no longer follow a gospel that is foolishness to the world, that confounds the wise, and uses the weak to shame the strong (I Corinthians 1:23-31). Who wants a gospel that doesn't guarantee us bloody victory over our enemies of flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12)?
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