Category: Blog

‘I have determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified’ (1Cor 2:2). So, what does that have to do with politics, political activism, and MAGA? 

I am going to tell you, so fair warning, if you don’t want to hear about Christianity and my faith, you should probably read another post!

What is a Christian, first of all.  Is it someone who goes to a Christian church, or who reads the Christian Bible, or even prays to the Christian God?  Is it the basis of being a true American? Perhaps it is a person who tries to live their life by the tenets of the Holy Bible.  You know, ‘Do unto others’.

The term Christian first appears in the Bible in Acts 11:26, where it tells us that the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. The word literally means ‘follower of Christ’. Some say, ‘little Christs’.  It may have been derogatory at first, but later became a badge of honor.

What is that? A follower of Christ?

We can take a walk down Romans Road…this is an easy guide to what it means to be a Christian.  First, the Bible teaches us that ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’(Rom 3.23)  ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ (Rom 6:23)…’ But, God demonstrates His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom 5:8)…If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’(Rom 10:9-10)…and finally, ‘Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ (Rom 5:1)

All have sinned. The word that is translated as ‘all’ from the original Greek is the word ‘pan’.  It means, all, each, every, everyone, everything.  Each and every human being alive has sinned and come short of the glory of God.  And the wages of that sin is death.  To be separated from God, eternally.  (See John 17)

Well, then we should just make it illegal to sin. We should pass laws that reflect Christian principles so that God will bless this country. If we live according to those laws and become a Christian nation, then we will be okay.

Let’s look back at the Israelites, at the Old Testament. Genesis tells the story of the beginning of humanity through the beginning of the Israelite people. Exodus through Deuteronomy recounts the giving of the laws that God required His people to follow to be a holy people. The rest of the Old Testament literally testifies to the fact that they could not keep the law!  They failed over and over again, including Moses, who actually met God face-to-face to receive the law from Him.

In Matthew 5, in His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said that He had not come to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. He said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven…..For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Hated a neighbor lately? Road Rage? Gluttony? Lust? Greed? Thought, even fleetingly about killing someone? Beaten your wife? Your kid? Your dog? Taken a pen from work? Had an abortion? Come into the country illegally? Are you LGBTQ+? Living with boyfriend/girlfriend? Had an affair? Kept that extra change the cashier accidentally gave you? 

All have sinned. You, me, ‘them’.

If our goal as Christians is to see others saved, to keep others from spending eternity without God, then it cannot be done through legislation.  Christian Nationalism is not the answer. Jesus Christ and Him Crucified is the Way, and the only answer.

Now, as a Christian, one who has accepted the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, one who has been ‘born again’, how I live my life does make a difference.  Being a follower of Christ, and one who has discovered the meaning of Love, means to try to walk in His way.

He left us with only two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

When I see people being marginalized or abused, stripped of rights and dignity, maligned, jailed, even murdered for the crime of being…I am going to step up.

I am going to do whatever is in my power to see people loved. Institutionalized hate…I am going to yell loud and clear against it. Discrimination, when I see it, I am going to point it out. Masked men accosting people on the street, in ways that not only clearly go against the Constitution this country is built on, but also hurt, dehumanize, and humiliate them, I will speak up.

I like to think that I am a Christian, living the life that Christ would have me live, speaking His love to all my neighbors.  I love you.

Christian Nationalism seems to be the battle cry these days. After all, we are a Christian nation, right?

I do have a lot to say about that, about whether a Nation can be Christian…but that’s for later I think.

Today, I’ve been thinking about what makes America America.

If you are reading this, you probably know the story of Israel. Allow me take a moment for a recap.

Abraham was called to follow God. And, to make a very long story short, he did. He married Sarah, they had Isaac. Isaac married Rebekah and they had the twins, Esau and Jacob. Jacob married Leah and Rachel, who between the three of them had 12 sons. They were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.

Josephs brothers sold him into slavery, where he eventually ended up in Egypt. While there, through a number of miraculous and very difficult circumstances, Joseph became a leader in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. There was famine in the land lasting seven years, and through that circumstance Joseph was reunited with his family, bringing them all to live in Egypt, in the land of Goshen.

Some 700 years later, out of fear of the number of Israelites living in Goshen, they had become slaves, and Moses was born.

God called Moses to set his people free from slavery. You may have heard of the plagues of Egypt? This is where they fit in to history, and finally Pharaoh allowed Israel to leave.

Now, Israel is in the wilderness, in the process of transitioning between a nation of slaves, to a nation of God.

From Exodus to Deuteronomy we read the commandments that God gave to this people. These commandments, these laws, were meant to separate Israel from every other nation. It is the following of these laws that demonstrated that Israel was other than every other nation. God’s chosen people, and very different from every other nation in justice, in mercy, in morality.

We find, as history goes on, that God sends His prophets to Israel to rebuke them every time they disobey the law. Especially the leadership. Because, without the law, without adherence to the law He had set before them, they were no longer different. They appeared to be the same as all of the nations surrounding them. Without the law, they were essentially the same as every other nation.

We have the Constitution. Now I do not mean to put the Constitution on the level of the laws of God. Bear in mind that I am speaking of what makes a nation, not a faith.

The Constitution is the law that sets America apart from every other nation. “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liverty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

Every time we disregard this law, this document, this foundational instrument of our government, we become less recognizable. When our leadership wantonly disregards the laws, articles and amendments, they are leading us in a direction that makes this great country less recognizable as the place of justice, tranquility, safety and peace that sets us apart from every other nation.

Although, America was built on Judeo/Christian principles, it was not built on the Bible. It was built on the Constitution. To protect America, we must protect the Constitution.