Christianity and Politics: Three Current Perspectives in Light of Jesus, the Early Church and Rome - Intro

This paper was originally going to be called "Religion and Politics," but to talk about religion and politics in America is to assume the religion in question is Christianity. I think that's kind of interesting and says something about the place of Christianity in America. I had to make the most of the limited scope I was given in writing about this. That said, I'm not sure Boyd's arguments are necessarily complete, or even that I 100% agree with him on everything, but compared to the religious Right and Left I think he sheds an enormous amount of light. So here's my intro, I'll try to post more soon.
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Since its inception, Christianity and political systems have been closely intertwined or at odds with one another. Christians were fed to hungry animals by the Romans; Christianity was made the official religion of Rome under Theodosius; Christians fought both to abolish and sustain the institution of slavery; many Christians insist that America is a Christian nation; and some Christians insist America is an enemy of Christ. For the past 25 years, Christian groups, in America, both on the political Left and Right have fought to inject their religious convictions into the political system; and, arguably, those on the Right have been the most successful. But I want to ask the questions: What is the role, if any, of Christians in politics, and whose perspective, in America today, looks most like Jesus and the early church? To answer these questions I will first look at Jesus’ actions and message in the context of various first-century Jewish factions and the Roman Empire; and, from there, look at Paul and the early church, also in the context of the Roman Empire. I will then examine three leading views amongst Evangelical Christians today: The religious Right, the religious Left, and view of Dr. Greg Boyd. I believe, in light of what we know about Jesus and the Jewish and first-century Christian struggle with Rome, that Dr. Boyd’s ideas best reflect the church’s role in present-day American politics.

It's Done!

I am finally done with my research paper I have been working on for the past two weeks. We had to write a 7 page paper about anything we wanted, so I chose to do mine on something I was really interested in. The title of my paper is: Christianity and Politics: Three Current Perspectives in Light of Jesus, the Early Church and Rome. So yeah... it was a little longer than I expected. Last week when we needed to hand in our rough draft I had 6 and a half pages, I was half-way done, and it was in font 10... Needless to say, I did tons of revising and re-working. This was the hardest paper I have ever done, but I learned a lot about writing. The two biggest things I learned that much of the time you won't get to use some of your best material, and that outlining, structure and sticking to your outline are crucial.

I plan on posting this paper in chunks with commentary. I don't know if I'll post the whole thing, but I think it could generate interesting discussion. Until then...

In a Few Short Sentences, Define Freedom...

That's what our research writing prof asked us to do tonight. I sat there for like 10 minutes just staring at my paper. I honestly didn't think I was going to come up with anything, but I finally ended up with this:
Working from the idea that human beings were created with an intent and purpose, freedom is the ability for one to be what one was intended to be regardless of time, place or circumstance.

Yeah, I figured that I'd just stay as vague and abstract as possible and it'll sound brilliant.

Drinking on the Sabbath

I listened to this story yesterday on Marketplace. Georgia is one of the few states that has leftover prohibition laws on buying alcohol on Sundays. The governor is against repealing the law saying that: "Six days is plenty to gather up. We've got refrigerators. You've got different places to store. I think we need a little relief on Sunday." Another Georgia citizen says that repealing the law is further chipping away at the sabbath.

I'm sorry-- actually no I'm not-- but this drives me bonkers. Firstly, Sunday IS NOT the sabbath!! To make one specific day of the week THE sabbath misses the point of the sabbath! But unfortunately missing the point is nothing new to many Christians in America. There's nothing magical about Sunday, yet in the minds of many there is. This is nothing more than superstition and it has nothing to do with Christianity or Jesus or God. And if Sunday is sacred to these people then fine, but don't enforce laws on the rest of the citizenry to abide by certain restrictions on YOUR special day! American IS NOT a Christians nation!

Secondly, I would argue, that the tremendous stigma that so many people, Christians or not, place on alcohol is part of the reason it's abused. Alcohol IS NOT evil, it's ABUSE is! And the more you tell kids, "no, no, no you can't drink till this specific age" the more kids are going to want to drink. And thanks to this law, the age of 21 is the sacred day when the birthday boy or girl goes out with the intent on getting as shit-faced as humanly possible! Quit putting alcohol on this pedestal and maybe, just maybe we might see less abuse. Parents should model responsible drinking habits for kids. And maybe if we were more like Europe in this area, and kids started drinking when they were 12, it would be no big deal and wouldn't lead to abuse.

Listening to America's Critics

Much has been made of the clips of Barak Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright. For one, this is nothing but guilt by association. Rob Bell's my pastor so I must agree with everything Rob Bell says? Thankfully, this morning on Meet the Press Clinton supporter Nita Lowey said that Obama's condemnation of Wright's remarks should be good enough and nothing more should be made of it. Honestly though, I didn't find the remarks all that offensive.

Days after 9/11 Wright said "We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost"
Aside from the parts about Palestinians and black South Africans of which I know little about, I find a lot of truth in this statement. He's essentially saying that when it comes to the people the U.S. killed in other countries, namely the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Americans show little regard for the hundreds of thousands of lives lost in those bombings. Our motives might have been just, but what we did was horrible. He's also pointing out that those who live by the sword die by the sword. Violence breeds violence.

The other quote from Wright referred to the way America has, in the past, and currently treats black Americans. Wright said, "The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
Once again, I'm not incredibly knowledgeable about all the topics he hit, but even if half of what he said is true I'm not seeing the huge controversy. Sure, he's being hyperbolic and provocative. And perhaps rather than saying "God damn America" pastor Wright should have said "God have mercy on America and empower your church to bring change by being the image of Christ." But, the fact is that when most Americans, and especially Christians, see statements like these and immediately cry "anti-Americanism," they are just confirming the last portion of what he said. Americans think this country is supreme and above all criticism. Any suggestion that America reaps what she sows is met with angry charges of anti-Americanism.

When all is said and done America is just another country. Like Tony Campolo says, and I paraphrase, "America is the best Babylon there ever was, but she's a Babylon nonetheless." Some of the critics might need to tone the fire and rhetoric down a tad, but I believe much of that fire stems from a deep thirst for justice and peace, and some of their voices (NOT ALL!) should be listened to. And I would argue that some of the MOST outspoken critics of America should be Christians. Because, after all, many times the kingdom itself is anti-American.

Like People are Actually Offended...

The other day at work my manager and another employee were discussing the 3 hour free coffee promotion at Biggby's. During the discussion my manager noted that he thinks the name change from Beaner's to Biggby's is kind of dumb and he doubts anyone was really offended. I, so badly, wanted to ask the Mexican cleaning guy Miguel, who was standing in the same room as us if he agreed, but I figured that wouldn't be very wise. I've heard other people express these same ideas, but, apparently, according to the news story I linked to people did take notice. In fact, a couple friends who moved to Michigan a year ago were shocked that the name of a popular coffee chain was a derogatory term for Hispanic Americans.

My question is why do we caucasians have such crappy attitudes when other people feel offended by something? Shouldn't we respect other culture's feelings on such matters? Who are we to judge what other people are offended at? I understand that some groups take things too far, but I really don't believe this is one of those instances. Don't get me wrong I liked the name "Beaner's" very much, and I'll probably continue to call it that. The name Biggby-- don't ask me why, it's probably something from my childhood-- make's me think of a large, dumb cartoon dog Maybe they should have compromised and changed their logo to a large coffee bean to drive the meaning home.

But, in the end, shouldn't we consider this progress? Not that long ago in the 50's the government actually had a deportation program called, "Operation Wetback." We thought nothing about throwing around racially disparaging remarks. I'm not saying we should be politically correct, but historically we (caucasians) have done a lot of evil to other people in this country, and the least we can do is respect a racially oppressed people's right to be offended.

Poverty in Michigan

In keeping with the topic of poverty, Michigan Radio political correspondent Jack Lessenberry did an essay on poverty in Michigan.

When discussing whether the poor can actually be helped Lessenberry writes: "I think some of that came from experiences people had during the War on Poverty. Some of the starry-eyed were disillusioned when many of the poor turned out not to have good work habits. They also tended to be lacking in social skills. Helping them proved to be harder than just finding them a job interview.
Well, guess what. Most really important things aren’t easy to do. If they were, someone would have done them already. "

More importantly, he writes about children born into poverty saying: "But there are more than half a million children in this state who are poor through no fault of their own. If we don’t do what it takes to help them, we aren’t even a good, let alone great, society."

Thoughts?