Citizens of the Kingdom
Posted by Joshua Claybourn on 4 July 2005 | 6 responses
Christianity Today offers an interesting editorial, Worship as Higher Politics, that seems particularly apt for Independence Day. I can’t say I agree with all of it (”The Enlightenment, we should recall, has never been much of a friend of biblical Christianity”), but the central thesis – Christian priorities in the political arena are often awry – is certainly one I can endorse. Read the piece, as it’s sure to spark some thought.
6 Responses to “Citizens of the Kingdom”
Is this story a joke?
Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church? What else do they harvest? Basil? Parsnips? Sage, Rosemary & Thyme?
I went to churches like that when I was a kid in the 1960s–the Landmark Baptist Temple in Evendale OH. It was funny as heck. They even had a gift shop.
Rod Parsley is hilarious. I wrote about him a good decade ago when I caught his show on a Christian TV station. I saved this quote and have quoted it before. He really said this:
I wish I was making that up. Just as incredible was that the camera then panned the audience and they were all shouting “amens” and “hallelujahs”, all of them apparently oblivious to the incredible idiotic statement he had just made.
How do I know that the bible is the word of God? Because it’s the only book that ever claimed to be the word of God.
Um, OK. This reminds me of the little satire Kissing Hank’s Ass http://www.jhuger.com/kisshank.php It’s funny as heck.
I have wondered for some time now, are there any other Christians in all of America that understand that JESUS WASN’T A POLITICIAN!??? The Jesus I know came to love, came to live among the poor, came for the oppressed and the marginalized who aren’t too proud or blinded by money to see the Truth. My Jesus was a radical, he was a revolutionary, and he was a peacemaker. I guess I shouldn’t say was…he IS!!! To be honest the hippie ethos is closer to the Gospel than the self-rightous fire-and-brimstone doctrine spouted by George W. Bush. But nonetheless he is venerated almost as a god in the evangelical community. My parents call him “The Burning Bush.” How sick is THAT???
Proof that American Christians are seriously delusional abounds just about everywhere else in the world. Because if they were right in their political leanings, you’d think that Christians across the globe would support them, right? Well, you would think. But I just got back from spending three months in India and I met dozens and dozens of the most God-fearing Jesus-like people I have ever encountered in my life…and not one of them had anything but negative words to say about George W. Bush and his America. It didn’t matter if they were Indian, German, Swiss, British, Kiwi, Australian, Canadian, or Bangadeshi…the sentiment throughout the world seems to be quite unified. Americans are the only ones who seem to have not gotten the memo that GEORGE W. BUSH IS NOT JESUS!!! and WAR IS NOT A GOOD THING!!! and IT DOESN’T DO ANY GOOD TO TRY TO IMPOSE MORAL VALUES ON A NATION THAT DOESN’T KNOW JESUS (and who won’t know him unless we SHOW him to them with our love!!!)!!! This is a tragedy beyond words…that this supposedly Christian nation is representing (and has represented since its conception in 1776) Jesus, precious Jesus, MY Jesus in the ways that it does. It’s shameful. And it’s sick. And we’ll pay for it on judgment day, I can guarantee you that.
I must sound angry. Well, I am. That’s the honest truth. I’m angry that my friends and peers at the secular university I attend have never been reached with the true gospel, and that not only have they not been reached with the Truth but they HAVE been reached with an impostor of the truth–a gospel of hate and violence and bigotry and self-righteous pride and legalism and hypocrisy that has the AUDACITY to declare itself representative of this Jesus that American Christians claim to serve. They are an unreached people group–but it is not due to underexposure to the True gospel (EVERYONE has heard about Jesus) but rather the overexposure to this gospel that is false. I am angry that when people find out I am a Christian they assume that I’m ignorant and closed-minded and racist and greedy and judgmental. I am angry that so many Christians I know have bought the lie and sold out for a faith that’s based more on their own built-up sense of morality than on the Cross. I am angry because my Jesus who I love and serve, my Jesus who redeemed me and who wants to redeem the world if they would only let him has been re-crucified so many times by the people who claim to follow him. Did you know that Mahatma Gandhi wanted to become a Christian…until he visited an American church???
My heart is so heavy when I think of these things…I should not neglect to mention how many American Christians I have met who actually do get it. They are out there…it’s just that their name has been ruined by all the rest. In any case this website is wonderfully refreshing to see and I am very encouraged by it.
Grace and Peace to you, Brothers and Sisters…
1st Cor. 14:1: Let love be your highest goal.
I’ll just point out that 1 Corinthians was a letter from Paul to the Corinthians. Parse that comment as you wish. As far as I can tell, the Christian churches have little to do with Jesus. They have mostly to do with Paul, with a smattering (mostly among the Roman Catholic Church) of a “Mary” cult.
I understand the Mary aspect–it’s very analogous to “Mother Nature.” But I do not understand the Paul aspect of the religion.
I saw a homeless man with a sign in downtown Indy last weekend that read, “Would you have looked upon the wandering apostles with such scorn.” It was Sunday, and it was a beautiful reminder to all of those who choose only the easy parts of their religion.