I looked this morning at sojourners.com, hoping that maybe Jim Wallis was laready up, or maybe had never retired from election eve, to write a response and a call to action — I started to say “call to arms”, but the language of that is not what I want to convey. Violence must END. Massive war protest must take the place of blind allegiance to a heretical melding of Christiannity and venegeful and blind retribution. The scary thing about the Bush administration is that it’s not really vengeance, but an “excuse” and “permission” and “an opportunity” to deceive us into their trimphalistic and empire-seeking plans to gain control of the Middle East. A plan doomed to fail, and certain to plunge the world into further chaos. Christians, we need to put up or SHUT UP. War is NOT the answer. Jesus weeps for Jerusalem, the city of God’s people.
Take Action: God is Not a Republican. Or a Democrat.
We believe that claims of divine appointment for the President, uncritical affirmation of his policies, and assertions that all Christians must vote for his re-election constitute bad theology and dangerous religion.
The angel of light still reigns (this “angel of light” in the guise of truth), and now it is time for more serious and widespread “Dean campaign-like” grassroots efforts to revolutionize the Church so that it begins to have its voice again. As the Cluetrain Manifesto exhorts businesses to “join the conversation”, the Kingdom of God and the God who reigns in this world CALLS us to “join the conversation” which the Spirit has already begun. Sojourners and their “Call to Renewal” movement already has a base begun for this, and it is crucial for the Church in America to find its voice again, and stand up for Christ over politics. This is NOT rhetoric. It is the essence of the call of Jesus to “follow”. To walk in Jesus’ steps. To love your enemies, until they are no longer our enemies. This is the opposite of what this Bush administration has proclaimed and lived for these past 4 years. These people MUST be defeated. And I’m not talking about in another 4 years. They must be EXPOSED and held to account.
But first on the list is the faithfulness to Christ; a CONFESSING Church, and an item on that list is to seek just servants who will serve the common good. That is clearly not what we have here.
Tonight is my first visit to your blog. I agree–where are we seeing the “Love your neighbor as yourself” in the administration? Lip service and acting on your faith are two very different things, and I fear that the Christian conservatives here (middle TN) can’t make the distinction. Why do people think being pro-life only applies to unborn babies? Why not innocent civilians?
Thanks for commenting. I hope you will visit again soon. I just bought a couple of books, one by Stanly Hauerwas “Performing The Faith” (Bonhoeffer and the Practice of Non-Violence) and In Search of Paul : How Jesus”™s Apostle Opposed Rome”™s Empire with God”™s Kingdom, as I begin to prepare to help communicate the idea of a “Confessing Church”, which Bonhoeffer made famous by resisting the Nazi”™s when most of the German Church supported the Third Reich.
Dale
I’m in Nashville (live in Lavergne).
Around here, it’s really bad Bush. Our neighborhood had us swamped with Bush signs. Pro-life is the most abused concept in Christendom, since amazingly, it doesn’t seem to apply to people who have already been born, especially outside of the U.S.