Today's reason I want to live as a Christian in a multi-faith nation: Because as much as I appreciate the country where I live, my faith always has to come first, and when the two conflict, I had better know the difference.
In my devotional reading for today, Jesus warns his disciples that if any part of you draws you into sin--even a hand, a foot or an eye--it's better to cut it off than risk your relationship with God.
Thankfully, no major Christian movement has ever taken this literally. It's hyperbole. Jesus doesn't really want his followers maiming themselves due to the tiniest mistakes. But he does challenge us to examine what we hold dear--the things that seem as essential to us as our own body parts--and question whether they are helping us or hurting us in connecting with God and our neighbor.
In our congregation's Bible study, we've been talking about civic life and faith. One of the terms we learned was "mega-identity," a combination of social and political factors that is causing people to increasingly identify their political affiliation with who they are at the deepest level. I've seen it in increasingly passionate language on flags, signs, and bumper stickers dotting the countryside, no longer just during election season, not even just in election years, but all the time. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say for many in our country, political partisanship has become a religion, as dear to us as any faith we find in the scriptures--or perhaps so entwined with our religious faith that we think of them as the same thing.
Echoing my Lord, I'm going to ask: is it time to cut it off?
I'm not saying we shouldn't vote. I'm not saying we should hold our tongues in matters of national significance. I'm not even saying it's inappropriate to give money to causes or candidates we believe in. I'm asking, have our mega-identities delved too deeply into our hearts? Can we see God's image in the faces of people who disagree with us? Can we still tell our faith and our national or political identity apart?
This series began because I was looking back on my last ten years of ministry, and asking these questions, and I didn't like the answers I was seeing. You may think I'm blowing it all way out of proportion. I hope I am. But I care deeply for Christ's church. And I would much rather see it enter a new phase of life, cut off from some of its worst impulses, than make life more hellish because we didn't dare question them.
For more background information read this statement from the ELCA's presiding bishop, or learn about Christians Against Christian Nationalism.
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