Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

by Keith Giles

So, in exchange for a place of honor and acceptability within the public square, the Christian Church sold her birthright and bowed her knees to the State.

My hope and prayer is that Christians would renounce everything that Constantine introduced to the Church and would return to the words of Jesus for instruction, wisdom and guidance.

We are immune to the irony. We are immune to the culture of violence in which we are immersed. Even those who claim to follow the great “Prince of Peace” will threaten to beat you if you dare suggest that violence isn’t something that Jesus would allow them as an essential right of expression or self-defense.

When people are afraid, they are easy to manipulate. They are quick to adopt an “us versus them” posture, and will more readily participate in scapegoating—in which an entire people group, political party, religious group, race, or other faction may be pinned with the blame for whatever threat has been identified, whether real or imagined.

Throughout history, we can recognize the way those in power have rallied people together under an identity rooted in nationalism, and leveraged that to incite large-scale acts of violence and war.

if someone identifies themselves more with the State than with the Church, they have placed themselves in a group that is by definition immune to the teachings of Christ.

Because Christians who align themselves with the State have the power of the sword, historically they have used that power to imprison, torture, and even put to death any who disagree with them—even their own brothers and sisters in Christ.

Those who follow Jesus know that the solution to society’s problems will never be found in politics. If we hope to change the hearts of men and women by laws and policies, then we are both mistaken and misguided.

It is not in the power of politics to legislate morality.

Christians have only the right to share in the sufferings of Christ, give up their individual identity, and love and serve others as Jesus did.