Christian nationalism relies on a theology of control, asking us to take up our swords, gavels, and politicians to secure and enforce our own power. Christianity relies on a theology of self-sacrificial love, asking us to take up our crosses and love others in the way...
If Jesus told Peter to put his sword away after he used it against someone thinking he was “defending Jesus,” just imagine what he is trying to say to Christians today who are turning political power into a weapon against others while claiming to be “taking a stand...
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...
Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit. Meekness is a teaching of Jesus. Humility is the way God became human. Beware of any Christian movement that advocates otherwise, especially in the political sphere. It is simply trying to justify its own power by any means...
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...
Nationalism keeps telling us Christians to take up our swords and make nations "Christian" by any means necessary. Jesus keeps calling us Christians to take up our crosses and be like him, serving the world through grace, humility, compassion, and self-sacrificial...
We Christians can be sure that we are listening to Caesar more than Jesus when our political witness looks more like a sword and a gavel than a washbasin and a cross.
When love is the way, poverty will become history.When love is the way, the Earth will be a sanctuary.When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more. from "Sermon from the Royal Wedding"
We want the war horse.Jesus rides a donkey. We want the eagle.The Holy Spirit descends as a dove. We want to take up swords.Jesus takes up a cross. We want the roaring lion.God comes as a slaughtered lamb. We keep trying to arm God.God keeps trying to disarm...
War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. from The Two Towers