God Bless…America?
There has been some hype in the past few months over homosexuality. Again. You know…North Carolina’s Amendment One, Obama endorsing gay marriage….
I’m not trying to say that I’m for legalizing gay marriage. Or maybe I am. I haven’t quite figured that part out yet.
Or how about those abortion clinics? I’m all for protecting unborn children, honest. But what about those women who die because they try to do it themselves? Or because they go to black-market, gritty clinics?
What would happen if Christians pulled their picket signs out of everyone else’s backs and burnt them?
Sometimes, I think Christians are confused.
In the past 200+ years, America has crowned themselves a nation of God. With this self-applied label, Christians mix up being American with being a Christian. Yes, our nation was founded on religious freedom. Our nation was founded on the right to choose.
If you think about it - that’s EXACTLY how God created us, too.
Ehyeh created a beautiful place, separating it from the darkness and chaos. He put Adam and Eve in an Eden and sighed “It is very good.” In this Eden, however, the idea of choice was planted: the ability to choose Jehovah or to choose ourselves. And with that first decision (of many) to put ourselves on God’s throne, we have brought chaos back into the world.
Throughout the Bible, there is a recurring theme. The Lord of all powers puts us on a track and nudges us in His direction. We’ll get specific: He picked Abraham and his descendants to be His chosen people, the ones who were supposed to show everyone else what it looked like when your Maker was with you always. But they(we) kept veering off that path. Finally, our Father sent his Son to show us exactly how living Him looked. And we still don’t get it right.
But that’s ok. We’re human. He knows, and he knew we’d mess up. Thus Jesus.
Also in the Bible, if you look in the New Testament, Christ tells us not to judge other people, because we are judged by the way we judge! We are told to discern the body’s members, to lovingly keep them on track. I think it’s Paul who goes into further detail, telling the Church that they had no right enforcing the ways of Jesus on those who did not follow Him.
Please read that again. I, as a Christian and follower of my Messiah Jesus Christ, have absolutely no business shoving Biblically ordained teachings on those who do not believe in my Messiah.
Now, back to America. Consider something with me. What accomplishes more in the way of furthering Christ’s mission? To yell at the government that they CAN’T let homosexuals get married, that they CAN’T allow abortion to take place? Or to take their beliefs to the ballots (where allowed), and to stand as an example?
Does it mean anything at all when someone isn’t practicing homosexuality because the law says so? I think us Christians stand out a little more if something is allowed, but we don’t do it. It gives us opportunities to talk about why we live the way we do, opens doors to speak about our Savior, to share our beliefs, our whys.
Jesus says for us to give to “Caesar what is Caesar’s.” I’m going to modernize that a bit: “Give your country what it requires of you.” Also, “do not be conformed. Live in the world now because you can’t help it, but don’t let it rub off on you.”
Conforming America to what we consider Christian practices does not make us better Christians. It does not make America a Christian nation. It makes those on the other side angry, and MUCH less willing to listen. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he said to “speak the truth in love.”
I love my country. I can worship my Yahweh without fear of my government tearing me down. Yet, some Christians have stepped into the role of tearing down. I am supposed to build others up. It is up to God to break things that need breaking.
I consider myself a Christian first, and an American further down the list. Eventually, America will fall, just like Rome did. Just like the Mongolian Empire did. Just like so many others. I may stop being an American at some point. But I will never stop being a Christian.
Maybe it’s time for us to step away from the picket signs. Maybe it’s time for us to tear down the self-erected fence between us and them. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for us to fill the Church with the Broken, like it was meant to be.
It’s time for us to bless others, and maybe through that, God will bless America.
