Here at Conversatio Morum, i’m always looking into culture for what needs to be disregarded, what can be redeemed, and what is a reflection of our Creator. Due to this, there will most definitely be some things that are said here that are more radical than others and you may or may not agree with some of those things. You may, or may not, agree with what’s said here. It may make you angry and you may, or may not, continue to read this. I’m ok either way.
Either way, I must be true to how I believe the gospel should impact my life and the lives of others who follow Jesus.
So…since that’s out of the way, what i’m talking about today is patriotism and the church. If you haven’t noticed this, then I shall point it out to you now: on my profile on Facebook under religious views it states “See political views.” and under political views it states “I live in a different kingdom.” So now, what do I mean by this. Well, I mean that I live in a different kingdom. It means that I may have to take some hits at some point in my life due to my citizenship in one Kingdom trumping my citizenship in another country.
Let me give you an example of this. This may feel like a “what, too soon?” part. At the beginning of last month the news broke that Bin Laden had been killed in a raid on his compound. I had the thought of writing it the day after, but decided to let it sit so I could process for a while. Besides that, I didn’t want to jump on the “don’t celebrate cause someone evil had their downfall” train, nor did I want to jump on the “woot, woot, he’s dead” wagon. I mean, on both sides of it, he lost his life for nothing in the end and will suffer forever due to that, and people lost their lives trying to stop an evil and gain justice and some of them will suffer for it and some won’t. So it’s a bit more serious, I feel, than a one time comment on Facebook deserves. The question rang out in my mind. What am I, as someone who follows Jesus, to do when I have a country that has one goal (killing Bin Laden in this case), and i’m trying to be a part of a kingdom with another goal (seeing all be redeemed)?
Now, by that i’m not saying we should let things like mass murder slide. One attribute of God is justice, with that being the case who should stand up for justice more that followers of Jesus. That is one of the great things of the US is that we reflect God by being a culture that is obsessed with justice. We love it. How many cop shows are on TV now?
So here I am, feeling this tension between God and country. As I stated to my brother in regards to the Bin Laden situation: “Glad that any more injustice that could come from his life won’t happen. Sad that he’s in hell for following what he believed to be God.” That’s where I am. This is the beginning of this, I have a few more posts to crank out with a few more questions. So for now, here’s the question, what do we do when our kingdoms begin to conflict?