April 10, 2008
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i'm going to take back a portion of my last post, and then add a little more to the discussion.
what is so "progressive" about "progressive christians"?
i'm starting to think that when we assign ourselves these titles (liberal/progressive/conservative), we're really only taking our political selves and trying to form-fit them into our spiritual selves. this kind of situation can be seen on both sides of this political/spiritual construct. a good example for this is how a christian who supports war would look at the old testament as a justification for the use of violence by a seemingly "christian" state. the problem in that situation is that christianity is not at all defined by the laws of the old testament, and part of being a christian is accepting Christ's new covenant which states that we should love our enemies. a lot of us have grown up in a situation (me included), where patriotism is put on the same pedestal as our faith and the lines between them have been blurred. we are not called to an allegiance with anything other than God, and therefor we are only called to defend our faith and not defend what our worldly nation does.
inversely, we are not called to build nations that will serve as the hand of God, and that leads us to the other side of the spectrum. the problem with this can be seen in someone who sees the welfare system as a way for God's work to be done throughout the nation. the problem with this being, Christ never called the nation of Rome to care for anyone. he definitely did call everyone personally to feed and clothe the poor. we've all read "give to caesar what is caesar's", but i think we too often use this as only a way to justify giving taxes. i think if we read further into it, we can see that Christ is basically saying not only should we pay the taxes that are asked of us, but there is an understanding that the nation will do whatever it wants to. we don't operate through an earthly nation though, we are a larger nation with God as it's leader. if we see suffering somewhere, our first reaction shouldn't be "how can the country solve this?", it should be "how can i, or the church, solve this?"
we have arrived at a situation where our party affiliation determines what kind of christian we are, but there should only be one kind of christian. we take these titles upon ourselves, and become content with the division it causes between brothers in the same faith. the biggest thing to understand here, is that regardless of the involvement of christians, war and welfare will still happen. it doesn't matter who we elect, or what party we vote for. in the end, rome will do what it wants to, and only with rome in mind. we, however, are called to something bigger than rome, and therefor should only be called children of God.
i am guilty of this.
Comments (7)
hey buddy
your three paragraphs are more interesting and effective than the ten page research paper i've spent the last three days writing.
i agree with everything you have said here.
and it warms my heart.
also heart-warming and agreeable:
arrested development #3 is saturday the 19th
anytime after about 6:15
bring what you want to drink,
if you don't want to drink a) apricot weizen, hefeweizen, ipa, or curveball by pyramid beers
b) kahlua wheat beer (its hawaiian!)j
c) helles 99 (its shiner!)
d) or the two mikes hard lemonades left in the door of my fridge.
Truly, I believe you - there should only be one kind of christian. We concentrate on what is important to us and then start feeling so passionate about it, that we think everybody should feel the same way. Meanwhile, your brother is concentrating on something else which the other party is know for and he thinks you're the one with the problem. That's why I like it that we are a democracy. Theoretically the majority will decide what we as a country need to concentrate on. We need to enjoy the process even when it works against whatever we believe.
God bless the USA, I tell you!
@AliasUndercover - haha
BARRACK 666 OBAMA 08!
RYC: What type of a career are you looking for?
"if we see suffering somewhere, our first reaction shouldn't be "how can the country solve this?", it should be "how can i, or the church, solve this?"
this is sooo true. change happens on a 'microcosmic' level first.
"we have arrived at a situation where our party affiliation determines what kind of christian we are, but there should only be one kind of christian. we take these titles upon ourselves, and become content with the division it causes between brothers in the same faith. the biggest thing to understand here, is that regardless of the involvement of christians, war and welfare will still happen. it doesn't matter who we elect, or what party we vote for"
God (no pun intended), this is sooooo true. Politics and religion should be separate but unfortunately, it always surfaces during election time and divides so many people.
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