Mouthing Off

Here is a word to American Christians. This is not directed to anyone in particular, but to a cultural phenomenon.

Please remember that there is absolutely NO implicit reationship between being a Christian and being an American. America is NOT a Christian nation, and it never has been. The founding fathers were not Christians, they were Deists. God has done amazing things in this country, in terms of revival and freedom, but that does not make us any more Christian than France.

I find myself being increasingly frustrated by the association of Christianity with America or being American. This happens unintentionally across the globe, but also intentionally as a means of bolstering political support. It should not happen regardless.

Why do we forget (or are convinced) so easily that being American means being Christian? Or more recently, that being Christian means being Republican? Why is it so hard to see that salvation will never come through the political process--not if every member of Congress and the President were all born-again, bonifide believers. Why is it that if you walk into almost ANY church in this country, you will find both the Christian flag AND the American flag up front near the podium or altar? That doesn't happen in other countries--do we realize that?

Folks, this just shouldn't be. Our citizenship is in heaven first. We belong to the Kingdom of God, not to any country on earth. Nationalism and American pride have no place in our lives. And don't get me wrong--I'm not in favor of separation of church and state, at least not the way the current cultural trends have been pushing (from both sides). I think believers should be (and in fact are called to be) active in their communities and in the land in which they live. Even the simple act of voting can be an act of worship no matter who who vote for, as long as you do it wisely and prayerfully making the best decision you can make. But we need to recognize that we are aliens and strangers in this land, on this whole planet, called to live our lives in different ways, with different purposes.

As children of the living God, I hope we can be wiser than this. I hope we can see through the smoke, and recognize that the devil has been using even some of us for his own purposes--that we are being deceived, and that the deception has soaked into our culture to such a degree that we don't even think of it anymore. Sin has corrupted our ability to see sin as sin.

This was just a rant, and not very organized. Feel free to comment. Maybe next time I'll rant about how Christians have been wooed into the trap of materialism. (Myself included.) I'm left wondering why I still try to serve both God and Money/Culture/the Jones', when Jesus said that is impossible.