Go away! No, I mean, it’s Friday. Time to send you elsewhere to do some reading. Here’s some good stuff I’ve found lately:
Jay Guin has been writing some fascinating stuff. I know that should be no surprise, but his writings over the past week or so have been really outstanding. Here are three of the best I’ve read in a long time.:
The Church and Power
There’s been considerable discussion lately in our churches and among Christians over whether the United States is or should be a “Christian nation.” Much of the discussion centers on what the framers of the Constitution meant by certain words in the First Amendment and what Thomas Jefferson meant by his reference to a “wall of separation.”
But precious little time has been spent determining whether God wants the United States to be a “Christian nation.” Now, obviously, he wants all people to come to Jesus and be saved. He wants all Americans (and all Afghans) to be saved. And so, if we mean by “Christian nation” a nation filled with saved people, yes, God wants all nations to be Christian nations.
But what kind of power does God want the church to have in such a nation? Does he want the church to control the presidency, the Congress, and the courts? And that’s not quite so easy a question to answer. But, as is so often the case, history helps us gain perspective.
The Political Church: A Christian Commonwealth
You see, it’s not the ACLU’s fault. It’s the church’s fault. Had we taught our children at home and in our Sunday schools, rather than expecting a devo over the public school PA system to convert our children, we’d not be in this mess. Had we lived Christianity before our neighbors rather than expecting them to find Jesus in a Ten Commandments monument in the Judicial Building, we’d not be in this mess.
The early church didn’t grow by gaining control of the schools and the city squares. The early church grew by leading sacrificial lives of love, by works of sacrificial charity, by treating all classes and races as equals, and by being Christian even if it meant their own death. And that’s a plan that’ll still work.
In fact, had we been anything like the early church in the 20th Century, we’d be living in a nation of Christians today — and we’d not be worried about whether this is a Christian nation.
Rather, we’re looking for an easy solution. We want the government to build our monuments to Jesus for us and require people to say “under God” at school. We want the government to solve the church’s problems — as though goverment were the solution to a lack of Jesus. We seem to start with the assumption that we can’t even convert our own children unless the government endorses our beliefs. It’s a deeply mistaken way to think. It’s very nearly idolatrous.
We need to get over being mad at the ACLU and the courts and Obama and instead get back to our roots. Rather than trying to vote Jesus into office or write him into the laws, let’s be such sold-out, radical, convicted Christians that Christianity is once again so admired that people will risk death, torture, and imprisonment to become one.
The Holy Colony
For Christians today, the impact is, in a sense, far greater, because while we take our US citizenship for granted, we identify ourselves as Americans as much as we identify as ourselves as Christians. Our local Christian private school is the “American Christian Academy” — because it values patriotism and Christianity — not because there’s any risk that someone might think it’s not in America.
We want to be co-citizens, and we want to import Americanism into Christianity to create Amerianity — that peculiar brand of Christianity that studies the Constitution and Declaration of Independence in Sunday School as if those those documents were holy writ drafted by the holy apostles themselves.
But that would be like a Roman citizen in Greece declaring the laws of Greece equal to the laws of Rome. That would be, well, sedition against Rome. Rather, Greek law was to be judged by Roman law. They might obey the local laws for the sake of peace, but only if the laws didn’t conflict with the will of the Emperor. But the Roman citizen never asked whether Greece honored the laws of Greece. The true citizen asked whether Greece honors the laws of Rome.
Melinda Lancaster, a writer in Nashville, tells us about Christian politics gone bad on Facebook:
Is The Facebook Group Promoting Prayer For President Obama’s Death Wrong?
So what truth do we need to understand concerning a group that is promoting praying for the death of President Obama? It is wrong on every level. Freedom of speech is never a license to sin.
For those who may attempt to find loopholes in the Scriptures ask yourselves this question—what would Jesus do?
One morning as I drove to work, I heard an interesting piece on NPR, speaking of how politics have changed over the last few years:
Americans Distrust Congress? That’s No Surprise
He says there used to be a season of campaigning, and then a season of governing. Now, it seems the two parties are as focused on gaining or maintaining the majority as they are on legislating. And that, Ornstein says, requires strict party discipline, constant fundraising and no sleeping with the enemy — or what a normal person might call compromise.
On a more positive note, Christian Web Trends has a fascinating series of articles leading up to Internet Evangelism Day (which is this Sunday). This is good practical stuff. There have been 15 articles so far. Here’s the link to the category; you can find the different articles here:
Internet Evangelism Day
Doug Mendenhall did a wonderful piece in our local paper, emphasizing the need for longterm evangelism rather than short term mission trips:
Don’t Be Just a Stranger At The Door
This truth about the message, though, has been rediscovered countless times since the days of Jesus: The most effective channel of evangelism is from one friend to another.
Jesus himself worked hard to demonstrate this, taking plenty of time to get to know people at parties, dinners, roadside stops and weddings. Not to mention the countless miles of dirt road he slogged with a dozen close friends to whom he entrusted his precious message.
I’m sure I’m not saying anything new to most mission-minded believers out there, but when I read the tale of Dawes and Revere this week, this application jumped out at me.
Remember, if you want to share Jesus with people, don’t be just a short-term friend. Instead, be a long fellow.
Happy reading!
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