It is not the task of the church to "Make America Great Again." The contemporary task of the church is to make Christianity countercultural again. And once we untether Jesus from the interests of empire, we begin to see just how countercultural and radical Jesus'...
Christmas reminds us that God didn’t become an emperor controlling an empire. God didn’t become a general commanding legions. God didn’t become a creed, a Bible, or a set of doctrines to be imposed. God became a helpless baby born to a poor family desperately in need...
If the church is not political, it's irrelevant to the world that God so loves. But if the church is partisan, it becomes a tool of the empire.
I’m so weary of the kind of Christianity that is so convinced it is going extinct that it is willing to abandon all the teachings of Jesus in order to “win” by “any means necessary.” This is not only a belief deeply rooted in fear, it is also a belief that deeply...
Easter is about listening to women preach resurrection. Easter is about switching the sword for the cross. Easter is about rejecting the ways of empire and rising up for the oppressed. Easter is about paradise for the humble and power for the lowly. Easter is hope for...
Preachers don't get to stay out of politics. We are either chaplains of empire or prophets of God.
Christianity loses its truthful witness and ability to prophetically critique the empire the moment it seeks to become an empire itself.
Advent is a good time to remember that “biblical womanhood” must include the scene in Luke 1 when two pregnant women celebrate their new motherhood by passionately discussing the overthrow of every earthly empire. “He has brought down the mighty from their...
If Jesus wanted a Christian nation, he would have established one, but he didn't. He established the church. Whenever we Christians forsake our call to be the church for a "Christian empire," the results are always catastrophic. We are called to be the church, not an...
I know it’s easy to be cynical, to look at the disastrous effects of Christianity’s complicity with empire and want to give up on the whole endeavor, but I also want to proclaim that the flow of grace is a truly wonderful thing.