Quoted

March 31, 2009 at 2:48 pm · Filed under Quick Thoughts, Spirituality and tagged: america, Berry, bible, Bonhoeffer, Boyd, Bush, christianity, Douglass, flag, God, Jesus, kingdom, nation, Obama, patriotism, politics, quotes

I sat down yesterday and decided to write a post about how Christians should relate to politics. Before I started I was worried about one thing mainly: how those who are closest to me would take what I wrote, because I knew that there was a good chance they wouldn’t agree.

So I decided not to write anything just yet.

Instead, I found some quotes to get the theological wheels turning:

“My kingdom is not of this world, if it were, my servants would fight… but now my kingdom is from another place.” – John 18:36

“And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” – Ephesians 1:22-23

“Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” – Romans 13:1

“For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? The do what is right and you will be commended” – Romans 13:3

“What has a Christian to fear, so long as he remains faithful to his Lord and does that which is good?” “Let him live under authority as a doer of good, let him live in the world as a member of the Body of Christ, the New Humanity.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship.

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“Like all religions, this religion has its own distinctive, theologized, revisionist history (for instance, the ‘manifest destiny’ doctrine whereby God destined Europeans to conquer the land). It has its own distinctive message of salvation (political freedom), its own ‘set apart’ people group (America and its allies), its own creed (‘we hold these truths to be self-evident’), its own distinctive enemies (all who resist freedom and are against America), its own distinctive symbol (the flag), and its own distinctive god (the national deity we are ‘under,’ who favors our causes and helps us win battles)” – Greg Boyd,  Myth of a Christian Nation (Explaining the ‘religion of American democracy).

“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference – so wide, the to receive the one as good, pure, and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked. … I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ; I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity” – Frederick Douglass

Connected:

“The ideal of America is the hope of all mankind. … That hope still lights our way. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” – George W. Bush

“This country is still the last best hope on earth.” – Barak Obama

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“The government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.” – John Adams

“What, for Christians, would be the economy, the practices and the restraints, of ‘right livelihood’? I do not believe that organized Christianity now has any idea. I think its idea of a Christian economy is no more or less that the industrial economy – which is an economy firmly founded in the seven deadly sins…” – Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community: Eight Essays.

“The divine banner and the human banner do not go together, nor the standard of Christ and the standard of the Devil. Only without the sword can the Christian wage war: the Lord has abolished the sword.” – Tertullian

“If you enroll as one of God’s people, heaven is your country and God your lawgiver.” – St. Clement of Alexandria

“From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, ‘If you let this man go,  you are no friend to Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar.’ When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out… ‘Here is your king,’ Pilate said to the Jews. …

‘We have no king but Caesar,’ The chief priests answered.” – John 19:12-15

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