Monday, April 21, 2008

“If you are a follower of Jesus, a middle eastern man living in an occupied country who was crucified by the global military superpower of his day, and the leader of the global military superpower of your day, in celebrating victory and occupation of a middle eastern country, quotes hymns in the military victory speech about Jesus, if you are a Christian, this should make you nervous.The Bible is a story of people living on the underside of military super powers.The Bible comes to us from a small minority of peoples, who are conquered peoples.So when you read this story, and you read this book, as a citizen of the most powerful empire this world has ever seen, you may miss some of it’s central ideas.Because when it says some trust in chariots but we trust in God and you have 42.8 percent of the worlds weapons, You’re the one with the chariots.My interest is in how we understand the story of the scriptures, and in some way separate the cross and the flag, just long enough to make sure that we haven’t bought into somethings that are the very type of things that Jesus came to set us free from.- Rob Bell

(Read this on Carlos Whitaker's blog). Another validation to why I shudder when we mix following Jesus with American patriotism. Mustard and war do not mix.

1 comment:

father michael said...

I think another big part of the problem is seeing ourselves (Americans) as the measure of everything.

We interpret the Bible this way because we make everything about us.

Christianity isn't an American phenomenon. It's for all humanity.