Pledge of Allegiance

Perusing some friends Facebook profiles, I am happy to say that I have friends on both extremes of the political spectrum. The truth is, there is room for gray areas more than the most outspoken critics liberals and conservatives are willing to declare. Disregardless of one’s political opinions, there are significant problems with the viewpoint most Christians employ when describing their allegiances. Derek Webb’s “King and a Kingdom” assists with this issue:

The truth is, I am both an American and a member of God’s Kingdom. I am not an American Christian, I am an American and and a Christian. The difference in one conjunction is massive, as my first allegiance is not to patriotism, stars and stripes, a Constitution, or elected officials. This system of government, however dazzling its foundation may or not be, is secondary.

By opting to be a Christian first, my ethics, political opinions, and viewpoints of current events should be subjected to the ethics, opinions, and viewpoints presented by the Church and Scripture. I am not a Republican, a Democrat, a Whig, a Reformer, a Libertarian, or any other flavor of platform. These each have platforms that, while each including some measure of truth, are not the expressed opinion of Christendom. Liberalism and conservativism are not necessary (though are not sin) for the Christian. These are both worldviews just as much as Christianity is a worldview, and therefore, are not necessarily a requirement to be a Christian. It is acceptable to study Scripture thoroughly and have views that are the same as another worldview, but any resemblance to a particular party or worldview are a coincidence.

Many Christians find their worldviews by following various entities, but border on making these their Gospel. Radio personalities like Hannity, Limbaugh, and Maddow should not be our only source of truth. Television entertainers such as O’Reilly, Cooper, and Olbermann can be consulted for opinions, but are not to be viewed as truth. Bloggers such as Huffington, American Thinker, or Savage are entities that, if they are not primarily pushing God’s Kingdom instead of a particular worldview, are not our only source of truth. Politicians such as Obama, McCain, Pelosi, Palin, and Gingrich will never be the saviors, gatekeepers, or builders of God’s Kingdom regardless of their rhetoric. Most of them are running for re-election more than their beliefs, anyways.

The ethics of the Kingdom are often in direct opposition to what we initially want them to be. We are conditioned from birth to have a certain worldview about economics, war, and other areas by our environment. This conditioning makes it difficult to truly allow God’s ethics to penetrate what we believe to be truth. Issues like torture, privacy, pregancy, are all subject to the Kingdom of God (though with room for gray in a lot of situations).

America is not the Kingdom of God. In fact, 96% of God’s good Earth is comprised of non-Americans. God is building a global Kingdom of people whose allegiance is not to Britain, Israel, Palestine, Russia, Brazil or America. This nation, this Jesus nation, wants to restore God’s creation to its original goodness, from people to planet. And my first allegiance is to this Kingdom, now and forever.

The Religious Right (A Critique)

This past week, while I’ve been reading Jesus for President, the Religious Right received the shock they feared most: a landslide victory for Barack Obama. The Republican party was punched in the chin like Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, watching their stranglehold on American politics smashed like a shattered glass jaw. Instantly, cries echoed from Christians that abortion would live to see another day, America would pull out of Iraq, and socialism would engulf America’s economic system.

The funny thing is, I really didn’t see the Republican Party (spearheaded by a McCain-Palin ticket) bringing about what they sought, either. We’ve seen the Republican’s pack the government (see George W. Bush term one). A Republican House, Senate, Court, and Presidency have all happened. Its not like McCain was a staunch supporter of killing all abortion (he actually supported it in some cases). Its not like war is bringing the literal Kingdom of God to the Islamic world (when did Jesus say they’d know we’re Christians by our bunker busters?).

Perhaps its time for Christians to re-examine what it is we’ve spent the last several decades attempting to do. God and country as one. Perhaps the pledge of allegiance could be paraphrased with what Christians have sought:

I pledge allegiance
To the flag
Of God’s United States of America.
And to His republic,
That stands entirely under God,
One nation, as His Kingdom,
Not dividing itself from Him,
With freedom to only worship Jesus,
And justice brought against those who don’t.

Along the way, it hasn’t been a very good PR move. Consider the methods:

• Picket signs at courthouses
• Abortion clinics blown to rubble
• Gossipping about leadership to belittle them as people
• Proclaiming “enemies” as “anti-christs”
• Standing by while 100,000 people are blown up a world away in their hospitals, schools, and homes of Iraq
• Praying for the assassination of people who “oppose God’s way”

Its no wonder that the rest of society know more about what Chrisitans are against than what we are for. We spend more time protesting than helping. We are pro-life in hospitals, but pro-death in Afghanistan. We burn every ounce of prophetic capitol we have with phone calls to Senators proclaiming troubling times for America if immigrants cross the border without completing a tiresome paperwork process.

Andrew Peterson seemed to have the same problem when penning his song “Come, Lord Jesus”

Tonight in the line of the merchandise store 
While they were packing up my bags 
I saw the pictures of the prophets of the picket signs 
Screaming, “God hates fags” 

But what of this Scripturally?

Jesus never sided with any political system. He had ample opportunity and plenty of movements to join:
– The Essenes – A hippie/monastic group that created an alternative community outside culture
– The Pharisees – An popular order of individuals who sought to bring cultural change through a movement of piety and strict religious observance to bring about a coming of the Messiah to rescue them from the world
– The Herodians – Those directly involved in government, who supported the system
– Sadducees – Strict adherants to Torah, anti-Pharisees

There were many other movements, all who would have loved to have gotten this popular Nazerene prophet named Jesus to endorse their policies. They even asked him questions to corner Him into siding with their point-of-view. Anything to sway His voters (followers) their way.

He didn’t.

Jesus preached a different Kingdom than the world system. A radical way of viewing earth. The Roman Empire had what they called “The Gospel,” which traveled throughout the world bringing peace by forcing other governments to surrender militarily to their system of government and rule (not unlike present times).  Jesus brought a different message of good news – this Gospel (the Beatitudes) would be proclaimed across the Earth.

• The poor are now powerful
• Those who have been crying can find comfort
• The weakest and least of society are now at the top of the heap
• Those who have wanted God’s real justice will be satisfied
• Those who forgive and give others what they don’t deserve are given the same
• Those who have the right motives  will see God
• Those who come with real peace are the offspring of God
• Those who bring this alternative Gospel will be beaten for it, but gain even more

This message was offensive. It was against the grain. Empire can’t sustain people who proclaim its ills. Who see its ability to crush the poor in decades of debt with no way out. Who gasp at the sight of other Christians desiring the death of other humans.

Babylon is alive. The harlot thrives with a lavish lifestyle of gold, pearls, corporate buyouts, $700 billion bailouts, trillion dollar campaigns, and anti-christ sayings.

Country first?
No. Kingdom first.

Yes we can?
No. That tower was built in Genesis 11 in a city called Babel.

Christians can be Americans. They can also be children of Taliban fighters. People crossing borders. (I’m not sure that the Canaanites thought of Israel as “legal immigrants”). Christians can be Australians. Christians can be Iraqi mothers, with their only child on his deathbed thanks to “collateral damage.” Christians can be homosexuals, not yet reformed in their lifestyles.

But these are all secondary allegiances. I pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of God. The longest running nation on Earth. Sure its morphed over time. We are real. We read Scripture and disect its meaning. We are controversial. We are liberal. We are conservative. We are His.

This election will not bring the end of the world. If Christians handle it correctly, this can still be an era long desired. Christianity hasn’t changed, but we must.

Political Jesus

It doesn’t take much these days to feel a crushing burden of confusion as one looks at the political landscape. One need only look at the limited choices we have in our “representative” government, designed to have the will and opinions of all people voiced publicly. Yet, the more I try to study the issues and candidates, the more I’m baffled at what chipping away the varnish reveals: this is all pre-fabricated spin. I can’t just blindly choose to vote for one party or the other when I know that more than half the time, they’re both wrong. Is it really right to vote for the lesser of two evils (doesn’t that philosophy admit to voting for evil)?

Reading the Bible through the lense of politics reveals a dangerous problem: the Bible is very political. Consider these Old Testament occurrences:

• God orchestrated a political revolution with millions of workers walking out of government jobs and becoming immigrants (bailing out of their lifelong contracts)
• God had a group of millions of people march towards cities and declare a literal war on other humans to establish borders
• God warned the Jews to take care of the aliens in their borders (illegal immigration commentary, anyone?)
• God authorized humans being removed from their communities for sins of certain degrees
• God was against the election of one person to serve as a monarch

What about the New Testament. This one is worse.

• Mary’s song about her Son said things like “He put down those in the upper seats and lifted up those below,” and “he filled the hungry with good things and the rich he sent away empty” 
• There were four main political parties on the scene when Jesus emerged. Jesus chose sides with none of them.
• A woman faced capital punishment for being caught cheating on her husband sexually with another. Jesus opted not to bring about the punishment.
• A wealthy man asked Jesus what to do if he’s followed all of God’s commandments. Jesus told him to sell everything he has (his oxen, his house, his stock, his Hummer, his mansion, his condo) and give it to the poor.
• Some of Jesus’ opponents wanted to ask Jesus about paying taxes. He told them to give the government what it asks, but also give Him what He asks.
• The “Gospel” was a term the Roman government used to designate its success in fixing the world. Sort of like saying Rome was bring “Change.” The disciples hijacked this term and used it for themselves. Country first? How about “Kingdom First.”
• Jesus said its easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a person of great wealth to experience His Kingdom. It makes me wonder which Kingdom Wall Street lives in.
• Roman emperors were designated as “Saviors.” Proclaiming that a “Savior is born unto us” was like saying, “A new, better President has been born.”
• Caesar was known for riding a steed into town for a parade with people waving. Jesus did a similar action (with a smaller crowd) and on a humble donkey.
• King Jesus was assassinated for his admission that He believed he was the King of the Jews. This was a politically charged statement, like telling Fidel Castro that the real leader of Cuba is a plumber from a small village.
• Jesus was known to have crossed the border a few times to go talk to the wrong people and help them out. I wonder what he’d do for Mexicans these days.