Sunday, June 22, 2008

What does that even mean?

I was driving from my parents' house this morning and saw this bumper sticker:
"God will bless America when America turns back to God"
Really?!?
Let's break this one down...
So this person is assuming that God isn't blessing America currently. We are the richest nation in the world, we are the richest generation that has EVER LIVED right now, we spend and spend and spend and use more of the world's resources per capita than any other nation, we retire at the age of 60 and spend 20-30 years of our lives just playing and traveling. And this isn't blessed?!? I mean, we have so much land and grow so much food that, instead of sharing with those nations who are starving, we use food to fuel our cars now. Blessed. We are highly educated, live in houses with rooms dedicated to crafts or to computers, have access to health care that costs way more than we could ever afford (but we are blessed with insurance), can go anywhere in the world and people will make way for us because we're Americans. Again, how are we not blessed? Perhaps someone sees us as not being blessed because of 9/11 or the war or because of the bizarre and violent weather that we see more of or because of the detioration of the family structure. But I guess all of that begs the question, what does it mean to be blessed?
And let's move on to the "when America turns back to God." In the words of Greg Boyd, at what point in history was American ever fully on board WITH God? I mean, it's a country built on religious freedom, but that was never totally defined by Christianity alone. And in what point in history were we totally for God? Was that before or after we slaughtered thousands of Native Americans, took their land, moved them onto reservations and cheated them out of land time after time after time? Or was it before or after we ripped apart their families and tribes and took their children away to put them in Catholic schools, in order to strip them of their cultural heritage and their native religious beliefs? (Talk about religious freedom there). Was it before or after we took hundreds of thousands of Africans, sold them, and then made them work as slaves in our fields? Was it before or after we doomed blacks in America to poverty by denying them the same rights as whites, by treating them as a lesser class and a lesser people? (So much for liberty.) Was it before or after we allowed the rich to get richer in America and the poor to simply stay as such by keeping higher education just out of their price range and forcing them to work for minimum wage that keeps them below the poverty line at all times? I truly don't believe the nation has turned away from God. True, there may be less and less people going to church and claiming a belief in God, but that's the fault of the church, culture, people who do awful things in the name of Gpd/Christianity- not the fault of the gov't.
If this person was implying on their bumper sticker that it's the gov't's fault that America hasn't "turned back to God", then they are pointing fingers at the wrong entity. It's up to the people (of America) to be fully devoted to God, not the gov't of America to be fully devoted to God.
I really think that it's unreasonable to assume that because we have a large number of Christians in America and because we have religious freedom, it means that the entire gov't ought to be making decisions about our country based on Christian principles. For those of us who are Christians, I think that our faith will always shape the way we make decisions and how we view others, but it's unreasonable to assume that those who don't share our religious views will make laws, decisions, etc based on Christian moral virtues that they don't even claim as their own. If there are laws that are passed that don't uphold the beliefs of Christians, it's understandable- the gov't is a political system, not a church. I'm not saying that I always agree with laws that are passed- but what I believe is that my faith as a Christian needs to supercede what the gov't is choosing to do. All over the world, for thousands of years, gov'ts have passed laws that have offended Christians or have persecuted Christians, yet it doesn't stop people from being blessed nor does it stop people from knowing God's love. God's love cannot be contained within a political system and whatever laws we pass or freedoms we try to protect cannot possibly "win" people over for Him- He's already triumphed over all things through the resurrection of Christ and He doesn't need our political system to show His strength or power.
How's that for a light Sunday afternoon conversation piece?

1 comment:

Joe said...

Nicely said, I'll have to add your blog to my rss feed. :)