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by
Brian Zahnd
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November 2 - November 5, 2019
when we reach the point where Romans 13 is used to teach German Christians that supporting Hitler is their Christian duty, we know that this interpretation of Romans 13 has gone off its Christian rails!
Why are the American Revolutionaries of 1776 exempt from Romans 13?
Is the use of Romans 13 to call for Christian support of American waging of war principled and consistent, or is it self-serving and inconsistent?
are we using Romans 13 to endorse the militarism of our favored empire?
the man who wrote Romans 13 was executed by the government for not submitting to the governing authorities out of fidelity to Christ!
The project of Christendom—trying to “Christianize” the world through complicity with Caesar—has come to an end. Secularism has triumphed over Christendom. This is obvious in Europe and is becoming increasingly apparent in North America. The Religious Right may not know this yet, but it will soon enough. Christendom is dead...but Christ is risen. What may appear to some Christians as a loss is actually an opportunity for the church to return to its radical roots. Tying the gospel to the interests of empire had a deeply compromising effect upon the gospel, as seen in the sordid history of the
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It’s not the task of the church to “Make America Great Again.” The contemporary task of the church is to make Christianity countercultural again. And once we untether Jesus from the interests of empire, we begin to see just how countercultural and radical Jesus’ ideas actually are. Enemies? Love them. Violence? Renounce it. Money? Share it. Foreigners? Welcome them. Sinners? Forgive them. These are the kind of radical ideas that will always be opposed by the
the cross is where the world is forgiven, but not before the world is found guilty.
The violence of the cross is not what God does, the violence of the cross is what God endures. The cross is not what God inflicts upon Christ in order to forgive.
The syncretism of the kingdom of heaven and violent empire that created Christendom has been a blight on the gospel since the fourth century.
Instead of hearing Jesus tell Peter to put away his sword, a church with a superstitious reverence for armed combat imagines Jesus leading soldiers into battle—as a thousand Facebook memes attest.
The failure to see the clear difference between Jesus sacrificing his life while forgiving his enemies on the cross and the sacrifice of a soldier slain while waging war on a battlefield is an indication of the degree to which a commitment to militarism has obscured the implications of the gospel. But when waging war is regarded as a religious sacrifice, such confusions abound.
America is a religion—a religion complete with creation myths, holy days, holy ground, founding fathers, canonized saints, canonical texts, revered hymns, hallowed temples, sanctified statues, liturgical gestures, and sacred liturgies. To dispute the sacrosanct nature of any of these things is to court controversy and contempt. (Ask Colin Kaepernick.)
It was America that pioneered the experiment of secular governance. America is not a Christian nation; it never was and never can be. The only institution that even has the possibility of being Christian is the church. When we confuse the nation with the church, it may not do any particular damage to the nation, but it will do irreparable harm to the church.
One of the most vital things an American Christian can do right now is resist the hijacking of Christian faith by American nationalism. We need to make it abundantly clear that “America First” is incompatible with a global church whose mission it is to announce and embody the kingdom of Christ.
When Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,” how was that received? Well, it depends on who is hearing it. The poor Galilean peasant would hear it as good news (gospel), while the Roman in his villa would hear it with deep suspicion. (I know it’s an anachronism, but I can imagine Claudius saying something like, “Sounds like socialism to me!”)
Economic superpowers always need a source of cheap labor to support their affluent lifestyle—whether to bake their bricks or pick their cotton—and they generally prefer to exploit an ethnic minority that can be readily identified as an outcast “other.” Oppressors have an easier time psychologically justifying their cruelty if their victims are a vilified other.
Feed on a lot more Philippians and a lot less Fox News. Feed on a lot more Luke and a lot less Rush.
If our gospel is not heard as somewhat threatening to the one percent who are most privileged by the current arrangement of things, we may want to question if our evangelistic news is really gospel. If our gospel is not especially good news to the poor, Jesus and his apostles would not recognize it as the gospel of the kingdom they proclaimed.
Most fail to see American culture as something we need to come out of. Instead of coming out of an American culture built on consumerism and militarism and being the church, many Christians are attempting to return to a mythical past where they imagine America as a kind of New Israel.
We need to read the Bible as honestly as it is written and not try to domesticate it into the saccharine clichés of sentimental Christmas cards.
a consistent pro-life Christian ethic opposes the death-friendly practices of abortion, capital punishment, torture, war, predatory capitalism, environmental exploitation, unchecked proliferation of guns, neglecting the poor, refusing the refugee, and keeping healthcare unaffordable for millions.
Christ as a victorious conqueror on a white horse is not something waiting to happen, but a reality that has been ongoing since his resurrection and ascension.
how can we say that evangelicalism in white America is anything other than a failed experiment? When more than half of the adherents of a Christian movement cannot identify torture as immoral, what is there left to say?
We’re not called to win but to be faithful. When we adopt a win-at-all-cost approach to our participation in partisan politics, the cost may be our soul—our Christian authenticity.
How did a thrice-married playboy, a braggadocios real estate tycoon, a pompous and profane reality television star win, not only the votes, but even the hearts of the vast majority of people who spent decades calling themselves the “moral majority,” lecturing on “family values,” and insisting that “character counts”?
If you’re looking for God to work his will through a pagan king (who will always coincidently belong to your political party!), I’m thinking you haven’t spent much time seriously reading and digesting the New Testament epistles. God is no longer raising up pagan kings to enact his purposes, God has raised Jesus from the dead, and the fullness of God’s purposes are accomplished through him! The
