Jesus Untangled Quotes

“Our hope is not in our nation. We place no faith in politics or policies. Our eyes are set on Jesus. We are looking for a better country. Our goal is to follow our King as obedient ambassadors of Christ. So, if you want to live an untangled life, here’s what I recommend: Don’t allow yourself to become deceived again about the need to vote for the right candidate. Remember, Christians have more than enough power at their disposal to change their nation, and it’s much more effective than casting a vote once every four years. Or, to put it another way, presidents and politicians have much less power than the average Christian when it comes to transformation.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“Imagine what might happen if you could honestly strip away every label and scrap of tribal identity? What if you were not a Baptist, but simply someone who loved Jesus? What if you weren’t a Republican or a Democrat anymore, but simply a follower of Christ? What if you abandoned your identity as an American and saw yourself simply as a citizen in the Kingdom of God?”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“They see the culture moving away from God; and, instead of calling the Bride of Christ to take up the cross and lay down their lives for the lost, they reach for the sword and align themselves with the Empire as a way to gain favor and exert political influence over others. It’s a mistake, and it’s in direct contradiction to what Jesus told us to do.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“We know that legislation will never change anyone’s heart. We know that the Gospel is not spread through political initiatives or laws. Let’s just admit that, when we seek political solutions to the world’s problems, it’s because we’ve given up on changing the world by sharing the Gospel. Instead, we just want to pass laws to force people who are not Christians to act like we do so we’ll feel more comfortable in this society.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“So, while we cheer for Katniss in The Hunger Games as she defies her oppressive government, we would never tolerate anyone who refused to place their hand over their heart and pledge allegiance to our flag at a football game.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“If Jesus viewed the desire to acquire political power to be a temptation of the devil, why do so many American Christians fight to acquire as much of this political power as they can?”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“According to Jesus, whenever we do harm to another Christian, we are causing Him pain as well. That means that we, as followers of Christ, are not allowed to justify violence against other Christians by claiming that we’re simply following orders, fighting for justice, or standing up for liberty.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“Patriotism is for the ruled a renunciation of human dignity, reason, conscience, and a slavish submission to those who are in power. Patriotism in its simplest significance is for the rulers nothing but a tool for attaining their ambitious and selfish ends. Patriotism is slavery.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“The governments of this planet are of this world, not of God. Our allegiance is to Jesus alone. His Kingdom is our only true homeland.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“Whenever somebody’s trying to scare us, the question to ask is ‘Are they benefiting from it, and in what way?’” says Glassner. “If they’re selling us a product, if they’re selling us their political campaign or their cause or whatever it is, we should ask how big is the danger, really? Is it big, is it small, or is it just that they stand to benefit by making us scared?”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“As we’ve already seen, the Church first became entangled with Empire and enamored with politics and all that goes with it— nationalism, patriotism, militarism, and violence—during the reign of the Emperor Constantine.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“In other words, the way we stop mass murderers and terrorists is to show them the love of Christ before they pick up their weapons, not after. Christ’s plan involves preemptive love and proactive agape.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“I do not wish to be a King. I am not anxious to be rich. I decline military command. I detest fornication. I am not impelled by an insatiable love of gain to go to sea. I do not contend for military honors. I am free from a mad thirst for fame. I despise death. Die to the world, repudiating the madness that is in it! Live to God!”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“Politics is the church’s worst problem. It is her constant temptation, the occasion of her greatest disasters, the trap continually set for her by the prince of this world.” – JACQUES ELLUL”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“As one great Christian evangelist wisely observed: “It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it”(Billy Graham).4 On this point we would be wise to listen to the evangelist. However, we should be careful not only to avoid entanglement with the “political right” but with the left and the center as well. Both sides are off limits to us. We stand with Christ, not with the political elite.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“Some Christians argue that the Church is capable of carrying both the sword and the cross together. But that’s not what the Scriptures tell us. It’s not what we observe the Christian church doing in the first three hundred years immediately following the introduction of the Gospel.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.” – WILL ROGERS”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“To be a Christian, one must pledge their allegiance to Christ and his Kingdom. At that point, all other prior allegiances—including allegiance to one’s birth nation—immediately become null and void.” –BENJAMIN L. COREY”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“If you ever injected truth into politics you would have no politics.” –WILL ROGERS”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“For his “distinguished service to the Reich,” Henry Ford accepted the Grand Cross of the German Eagle—the highest medal that Nazi Germany could award to a foreigner—in July of 1938. James Mooney, a senior executive for General Motors, received his medal a month later.”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb

“From the earliest writings of the apostles, through the second and third centuries, the Church resisted military involvement and refused engagement at the political level—even requiring new disciples to the faith who already served in public office to resign or else be turned away at the Lord’s Table and disqualified from baptism.1”
― Keith Giles, Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics to Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb