Much sin has been committed in the name of liberty, and the church has far too often been an accomplice and supporter of those who live this way.
We have cheered our nation on in its struggle for national and personal freedom, while more often than not, what is meant by “freedom” is “freedom from accountability.” People do not want to answer to anybody, least of all to God. They want guidance from nothing but their own conscience and desires so they can be free to make their own decisions and do what they want, regardless of the consequences to other people.
People seek the “freedom” to leave their marriages, abandon their children, operate their business for profit and greed, eat as much as they want, spend their time how they want, and treat other people with disdain and neglect. The excuse of “personal freedom” often results in decadence, selfishness, greed, gluttony, self-centeredness, sexual-immorality, misuse of money, mistreatment of others, and a wide variety of other sins of the flesh (see The Myth of a Christian Religion,
And many Christian churches (thankfully, not all) are happy to grant people such “freedoms” as long as the people give a cut of their money to the church and fill the pews for an hour on Sunday morning.
Such liberty is not freedom, but is a license to barbaric living. Such freedom devours and demands. It enslaves. It forces others to comply with our desires against their will. In exerting our own freedom we restrict and remove freedom from others (The Subversion of Christianity,
Sometimes we go so far as to kill those whom we view as threats to our selfish freedom, even going so far as to make public calls from the pulpits in our country to call for the obliteration and destruction of whole groups of people in other parts of the world because we view them as a threat to our way of life.
Jerry Falwell once said, “You’ve got to kill the terrorists before the killing stops. And I’m for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes ten years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord.”
Over the centuries, the striving for liberty and freedom has become a religion unto itself, surpassing and overcoming most of the values and principles of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom.
Like all religions, this religion has its own distinctive, theologized, revisionist history (for instance, the “manifest destiny” doctrine whereby God destined Europeans to conquer the land). It has its own distinctive message of salvation (political freedom), its own “set apart” people group (America and its allies), its own creed (“we hold these truths to be self-evident”), its own distinctive enemies (all who resist freedom and who are against America), its own distinctive symbol (the flag), its own distinctive god (the national deity we are “under,” who favors our cause and helps us win our battles). This nationalistic religion co-opts Christian rhetoric, but it in fact has nothing to do with real Christianity, for it has nothing to do with the kingdom of God (see The Myth of a Christian Nation,
p. 150).
Responding to the siren call of freedom with liberty and justice for all, much of the American church has abandoned our loyalty to the example and teachings of Jesus, and fell head-over-heels in love with the goddess Liberty. And despite her name, she has proven to be a cruel mistress, especially when her power is threatened.
Very good thoughts. It seems more and more the case that the deity worshipped and called up and killing for in America is not the Lamb of God but some other being that desires American prosperity and victory.
Yes, killing others does not look much like Jesus…
Jeremy,
I cannot thank you enough for this post, and for the rest of this series. It boggles my mind that so few of our brothers and sisters are willing to even consider the possibility that the values and principles of the kingdom of God may contradict the values and principles of this country.
Thank you for being courageous enough to tackle this mystifyingly controversial issue. I long for the day, and will do my best to help bring it about, when this topic can become a major conversation among the followers of Christ, instead of being relegated to the fringe.
Forrest,
Thank you. I do think more and more people are starting to think about these topics. It is a relatively new concept to me as well… so I have much to learn.
Yep. Jesus said to love our enemies, not to bomb them. There may be a case for killing enemies in some situations, but it ought to be a last resort, if at all.
Right. I am reading a lot recently about the “third way” teachings of Jesus, which is neither pacifism nor war, but a sort of an aggressive peacemaking.
Oh wow! Somebody will find this on Google and accuse us all of being pink Commie sympathizers, or something like that. However, do we ever ask ourselves why these people are so mad at us? Could it be because we have gone to their countries and killed their people?
Send soldiers to another country, burn their holy book, slaughter their women and children and what would any sane person expect?
We defend this with God and Bible and Christianity, but say they are crazed terrorists with a violent religion and don’t understand how they could think the same or worse of us.
I do not see how this in any way correlates with the Kingdom that Jesus ushered in, the Kingdom of God.
Ha!
It is hard sometimes to see the difference between Christian pastors who call for the destruction of “Islamic states” and Muslim Imams who call for the destruction of “Christian United States.”
Religion has been around for a long time and we still have “decadence, selfishness, greed, gluttony, self-centeredness,
sexual-immorality, misuse of money, mistreatment of others, and a wide
variety of other sins of the flesh”. We see these issues in both Christians and non-Christians. Religion hasn’t been able to cure these evils yet so what makes you think it is the answer now?
I don’t. I am not advocating religion. I am opposed to religion. I think religion enslaves and usually masks the real problems. I do, however, think that Jesus lived in a way that shows how we can avoid the problems you mention, and if we follow His example, we will not be living a religion, but will be living like Jesus.