Dozens of Christian theologians condemned Christian nationalism in an open letter. Their sentiments are echoed in a document prepared by the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which condemns Christian nationalism “as a distortion of the gospel of Jesus and a threat to American democracy.” More than 10,000 Christians have signed on to that document.
Stanley Hauerwas, professor emeritus at Duke Divinity School and one of the letter’s signatories, argues that nationalism is inconsistent with Christianity.
The letter, was published in the liberal Catholic magazine Commonweal this week.
It was only a matter of time until patriotic Christians were going to have to accept that the last source from whence they could drink to find inspiration and solace – The Church – would become just another political action tool – Simply a PAC. Even though the IRS is clear that for a church to maintain its Tax exempt status it must remove itself from politics.
However under the cloak of the bible, little interest by the IRS, churches have ramped up their Progressive creed. Under the cover of “Social Justice” there are few boundaries. Patriotism gets lost in the discussion. This is not the beginning… earlier under Obama
EPA to study Churches, develop programs to combat climate change
April 28, 2015
Researchers to develop workshops for faith leaders to ‘implement sustainability initiatives within their congregations. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is spending $84,000 to study how churches can be used to combat climate change.
A taxpayer-funded graduate fellowship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is examining 17 faith-based institutions that have implemented “sustainability initiatives” in the hopes of developing workshops to teach pastors and other religious leaders how to change the behaviors of their congregants.
But now this latest letter and screed is a new and potent attack on conservative christians. Now they are into comparing the rising Germany last century with today’s American patriotism. Those who support a country with limited immigration are subject to the “hell fire and brimstone” sermons of long ago. This time, the punishment will be meted out by the church itself with this dire warning..
. ”ethno-nationalism…as grave sins against God the Creator.”
Without further adieu here tis:
Commonweal is pleased to publish the following open letter about the disturbing rise of nationalism, especially among some Christians, in the United States.
The signatories, which include Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant theologians, “reject nationalism’s tendency to homogenize and narrow the church to a single ethnos,” arguing that “[i]f the church is not ethnically plural, it is not the church.” They also condemn the “xenophobia and racism of many forms of ethno-nationalism…as grave sins against God the Creator.”
In the 1930s many serious Christian thinkers in Germany believed they could manage an alliance with emergent illiberal nationalism. Prominent theologians like Paul Althaus and Friedrich Gogarten believed that the National Socialist movement offered a new opportunity to strengthen social order and cohesion around Christian identity. But some Christians immediately resisted, most visibly in the Barmen Declaration of 1934, which rejected the compromises of “German” Christianity and its heinous distortions of the Gospel.
Our situation in 2019 is surely different, but American Christians now face a moment whose deadly violence has brought such analogies to mind. Again we watch as demagogues demonize vulnerable minorities as infesting vermin or invading forces who weaken the nation and must be removed. Again we watch as fellow Christians weigh whether to fuse their faith with nationalist and ethno-nationalist politics in order to strengthen their cultural footing.
Here are a few of their main points in the letter:
1. We reject the pretensions of nationalism to usurp our highest loyalties. National identity has no bearing on the debts of love we owe other sons and daughters of God. Created in the image and likeness of God, all human beings are our neighbors regardless of citizenship status.
4. We reject nationalism’s claim that the stranger, refugee, and migrant are enemies of the people. Where nationalism fears the stranger as a threat to political community, the church welcomes the stranger as necessary for full communion with God. Jesus Christ identifies himself with the poor, imprisoned foreigner in need of hospitality. “For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me” (Matthew 25:41-43).
5. We reject the nationalist’s inclination to despair when unable to monopolize power and dominate opponents. When Christians change from majority to minority status in a given country, they should not contort their witness in order to stay in power. The church remains the church even as a political minority, even when unable to influence the government or when facing persecution.
In charity and in hope, we urge our fellow Christians to repudiate the temptations and the falsehoods of nationalism. The politics of xenophobia, even when dressed up in high-minded social critique, can only be pursued in contradiction of the Gospel. A true culture of life welcomes the stranger, embraces the orphan, and binds the wounds of all who are our neighbors—all who lie lifeless on the road, as the pious walk silently past.
Here is the letter,
For the background- Read more
Just sit back and watch the building purity test that will be required of Christians in America and European countries.
Welcome readers from Doug Ross
Other than that all is well in the swamp. For the best in conservative news and so much better than Drudge click below:
Maybe these facts represent why the NFL players find rules hard to follow and a chip on their shoulder for being arrested by the police. Maybe it’s time for the NFL to let their bad boys go for good:
BUNKERVILLE | God, Guns and Guts Comrades! 