Hauerwas challenges us, and calls Americans out on their blatant misuse of Romans 12 and 13. He says we read Romans 13 as an unchallenged support of the government while we read Romans 12 as a private rule of life. Americans forget that they are Christians before they are American citizens. Recovering our own place in God’s narrative means that we can no longer sacralize our own American democratic presuppositions about government. Romans 12 does not only apply to the Christian citizen, it is the measure by which we understand the kind of just government we can support. We cannot read Romans
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