I read a great blog today that really challenged my perspective. I've been pondering the effects that culture has on my faith and I've realized that patriotism and Christianity need to be two sepparate things; two distinctly unique and in no way equal kingdoms. I think every Christian should be aware of world events, involved in their community and actively seeking ways to improve their world through the political chanels available.
At this point in my life the only way I am doing this is by keeping tabs on current events, voting and signing petitions that I have thouroughly read and understand (I don't usually sign them right outside the grocery store since I can't get a firm grasp of a petition from a 1 paragraph synopsis.) I'm hoping that as the kids become more and more independant I'll find a way to be more involved politically but I'm still trying to define one apart from the other.
In my quest to sepparate the two I've found the following hallmarks of our great country to be the most detrimental to my faith
1.) individualism!!
2.) greed, wealth, discontentment
3.) democracy
4.) self reliance
... the list goes on...
My brain is so fried right now I am having a hard time putting my thoughts together on this subject but this article (read this one first) was very helpful in my quest to understand how detrimental my culture is to my faith.
1 comment:
This is an interesting subject and the blog you linked has a few post in their archives on the subject patriotism and Christianity.
It's funny but most American Christians don't realize they have more in common spiritually with an Iraqi believer than an American soldier fighting in Iraq.
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