If you haven’t read this article or the newsweek artcle about America being
a post-Christian nation you should definitely check these two out.
I like the response and input Driscoll gives in this article.

Read it here

Respond to it here

*Kyle

On Thursday’s I attend chapel. At chapel there is singing, preaching, and good ole tom foolery (Not some much on the last part, I just like saying that).

Today, I listened to a soldier speak at chapel. Now you might be wondering why this is a big deal…refer here
No matter if you agree or disagree, one of the big issues I have here is that it was an assembly, not a chapel. If we are going to have chapel, it needs to be chapel. We have almost had more assemblies during chapel than actual chapel service. What is a chapel service? The usual church like service: music, preaching, and the uniting of believers in worship. More often than not, we are having people come in and not preach, but just talk about something that they are doing or are interested in, not preaching. Maybe I am making something out of nothing, but it can be a big deal when you have to go each week. You start wonder why we have it.

Well, today we had an assembly, not a chapel. The plan for today was to have music up front, then go into a time of prayer and prayer groups. Not a bad chapel service.
Well, at the last minute a soldier and his wife walk in to the service. Out of no where people started clapping. I thought that was strange that people were clapping, but I guess that is not out of the ordinary, go to any airport and follow around a soldier and you will see people saying “thank you” with their hands in applause. After they stopped clapping, we started chapel off with some music. The last song was “The Wonderful Cross.” A song that deals with the death of our savior, the opposite of what the world would say is a “great victory.” I was expecting to enter into a time of prayer, but I was mistaking. Before I could shut my computer down, the soldier had the mic and people were giving him a standing ovation. I started to wonder how he got here today. Thankfully he answered the question for me by telling me that he received a care package and wanted to come and thank us. He told us where he served, and told us about his family. He said this, “While I was in the army, I missed the birth of my 7 month old baby girl, all three of my sons birthdays, but it was worth it because I am here to see the next generation who will rise up and serve our country and protect us.” Wow, I sure would have a hard time missing all my kids birthdays and birth to serve others in Iraq, to each his own.
After about five minutes, he said that was all he had for us and opened up the floor for questions. I could not help but sit there and here people ask him questions about what was war like? How long have you been there? Are you helping other people and not just killing people? Questions along those lines.

Now, as you read this, you still might be wondering what the big deal is here. That I am making a big deal out of nothing and I am just wanting to be rebellious and find problems with anything. Maybe I am, but I could not leave this one alone. This is my thoughts about nothing, take it or leave it.

Here is why it bothered me. When I look at the military, all I can see is the picture of redemptive violence. This is the idea that violence will bring redemption to save others. Now, it is interesting to see that Jesus used an act of violence (death on the cross) to save the world. But, this was an act done to Him, not Him doing the act. “Kill one man, and be considered a murderer, kill thousands, and be considered powerful.” For a long time, America has been the moral police. And the way of enforcing things is power, power to use force. This idea of redemptive violence brings about the acceptance of using violence to bring peace. Just look at the idea of capital punishment. You did evil, and now we do evil to you to repay you for the evil you did to someone else and call it even. This is suppose to bring some sort of peace and closure. To me this is counter to the Bible and to Jesus. Redemptive Grace is preached from the Bible, not an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Now I don’t know this dude that spoke this morning, and I don’t know his heart. But I feel sorry for him. I feel sorry that he has to miss his children, I feel sorry that he has to kill people because he is told he is protecting us. I feel sorry that he is going to have to live with this “sacrifice” of killing others to bring us peace for the rest of his life. This goes back to why I think that we need to separate America and Christianity. To promote the sword over the Bible is wrong. “When you pick up the sword, you put down the cross” -Dr. Gregg Boyd from his book The Myth of a Christian Nation
We had many students line up after chapel to ask him questions about his life, and to ask him about what it was like. Am I saying that we should not support the army? Yes, I am. If we support the army, we are supporting redemptive violence. I have been really struggling through this, and have been going back and forth on whether or not I support soldiers. In good conscience and in light of what the Bible teaches, I cannot support the act of war, and the soldiers that carry this act out.
Today, I felt that we were supporting the act of war by bringing in a soldier to speak to our students during chapel. A time set aside each week for our school to come together and worship our God, our creator, and the one that gives us grace.

I am working through this stuff, and you might think I am out of bounds and crazy here. Maybe I am crazy, but I know one thing, if i am crazy because I reject what America teaches about war and peace, than I am fine being considered crazy. Someone else was also called crazy in the Bible, Jesus (Mark 3). Not calling myself Jesus, just trying to be like Him.

Blast away
*Kyle

As I conclude this series of war and piece and I have really been stressed by comments and questions that have been posed to each post. Great conversation and good responses. I am glad that I did this.
Last but not least I want to talk about how we respond or like I like to call it…

What Now?

This question is something that I often forget to ask myself. Whether it be an idea or a problem, I never ask the question…What Know? Many times I feel like I bring problems up but never have a solution. I don’t want to do that with this issue of War and Peace, offering up the problem, but having no solution. But I feel like the solution is a very personal issue. Something that has to be decided you and God. There is one thing that I am continuely working on, and that is I am trying to respond with love in situations that drive me to respond with hate. I really have a hard time with this. Sure I can say that I am loving my enemies in another country that I don’t know, but the hardest people to love are the ones that surround me. I always wonder if I will never have enemies, it seems like I always do. Maybe, God is trying to teach me that I need to love my enemies. The reason I would offer up peace in times of war is because I have not seen that demonstrated. I would be interested to see the response of another country if instead of responding with war, we respond with the other cheek. Maybe they would attack us again and kill some more, but maybe, just maybe they would see that we care about them and not that we want to get even with them.
The “now what” will always be with us. Something that will constantly plague our problems and complaints. I will leave you with the words of David Crowder and let him explain the now what:

And the problem is this
We were bought with a kiss
But the cheek still turned
Even when it wasn’t hit

Oh, the world’s about to change
The whole world’s about to change

Now What?

*Kyle

I have been getting some great comments and thoughts. I apologize if I have been a little hazzy on some things. Part of it is that I am still working through a lot of this on my own, and the other part is that I don’t want to bore you with a bunch of words. I would much rather you talk and fill in my holes that I am creating. Sorry though if I am driving you mad with incomplete thoughts and confussion.

CoExisT
I am going to take a little right handed turn off the highway here and talk about something that was brought to my attention in the year of 2006. It was in the afternoon, me and my Dad were watching our newly purchased U2 DVD. Half way through the video the song “Love and Peace” came on. Me and my dad were enjoying the concert when all of a sudden I saw Bono wearing a head band that said CoExisT. In the song Bono said:
“Some graphitti was written up on a wall not too far from here
It says coexist
Jesus, Jew, Mohammed, it’s true
Jesus, Jew, Mohammed, it’s true
All sons of Abraham
Father Abraham, Father Abraham
Where are you now
Father Abraham, look what you’ve done
You’ve pitted your son against your son
Father, Father Abraham
No more, no more, no more”

I thought, “how interesting, I guess that is a good point.” I started to do a little more research about this and I found an article in relevant about it, read it here (interesting).
I tend to agree with this idea, but only on the surface. The idea that we are all sons of Abraham and that we need to get along is a great point. Scripturally, this will not happen. Unfortunately, Isaac and Ishmael will always be fighting. But I like the call to peace. I like the idea of getting along and showing peace to all. That is why I like it on the surface.
This brought about a ton of questions to my mind. What about Love instead of hate? What about Peace instead of fighting? What is going on?
I say all of this and bring in this idea of coexisting to ask this question. Do you think it is Biblical to go to war?
When I say go to war, I mean to respond with vengence. Whether that be with war or maybe an insult. I am asking, how do we respond to hate?

Romans 12 and 13 speak to this issue.
I will give my quick answer to this question (sorry I don’t have a ton of time to go into all of it). I do not agree with war, I think that this is the opposite of what Jesus has called us to. Responding in anger and vengeance is wrong and I am trying to live that out. The main questions that come to my mind out of all of this is a level of protection or defense. Is it wrong to defend ourselves? Looking at scripture, I see that I am to respond in love and not anger. People have said to me often, “if someone breaks into your house and is going to kill your family what are you suppose to do?” Good question, honestly I can’t say that I would respond in a peaceful way, my first inclination would be to protect and defend (can’t say that is completely wrong) but I would say that our first (sinful) response is to get revenge, to protect with fighting, to get back at them. This is best demonstrated with 911. We were attacked,  now we need to attack back. Is that the right way to handle it? A couple of years ago I would have said yes, but now, I don’t think that is right.

There are so many things that we could say (and I hope we do on the comment section) about this issue. I will stop there, though abrupt and maybe not giving all the answers, I am intersted to see what you have to say about this issue.

I leave you with this quote from John D. Caputo’s book “On Religion”
“Finally, to dare to love someone far above our station, like a beggar in live with a princess, or to dare to think that someone so wonderful could love us, to dare to love in such an impossible situation, that is love worth its salt. Or, to go to a further and still more paradoxical etreme: to love someoe who is not lovable. It is no great feat, after all, to love the loveable, to love our friends and those who tell us we are wonderful; but to love the unlovabele, to lov those who do not love us, to love our enemies-that is love. That is impossible, the impossible, which is why we love it all the more.”
God takes the Impossible and makes it possible…

Go and comment

*Kyle

Wont waiste anytime talking, lets begin…

Christians Response to America
If America is not indeed a Christian Nation then how do we respond to it? This has been a question that I have been wondering and still to this day wonder. I think there are two Kingdoms that are represented here that give us a response to America. Lets look at the idea of a Kingdom, then at what we can do with this Kingdomship.
First, this idea of the Kingdom.
There are two kinds of Kingdoms that are available for citizenship. The “Upper” and “Lower” Kingdoms. Greg Boyd in his book The myth of a Christian Nation talks extensively on this. I will give you what I got from it, a response I guess you could say.
The upper kingdom represents America, the way of America, and the Kingdom that we can fall into.
The lower kingdom represents Jesus, the way of Jesus, and the Kingdom that is hard to be a part of.
Jesus came to represent the lower Kingdom, the one that does the opposite of what a dictator or King would do. The King of the Jews coming to not set up a Kingdom of this world, but to set up a Kingdom that will last forever.
The upper Kingdom represents the worlds kingdom, the temporal type of Kingdom that last for one or two generations. Basically, it subscribes the the very typical way of gaining power of rulership over selected groups of people through government, power, and fear. Jesus was thought to establish this type of Kingdom. Even his closest followers up to His death on the cross thought this was the way that Jesus was going to set up his Kingdom. Look at what John 18:36 says and then look at what James and John asked in Mark 10:32 and on (really before this talks about Jesus Kingdom as well). They wanted to be in power, a part of the Kingdom that they thought Jesus was going to be establishing on this earth. Good place to be if it was an earthly Kingdom. But Jesus suprised everyone when he died on the cross, the worst way to die, the ultimate sign of weakness and humiliation. So embarressed the discisples ran, peter denied him, and Thomas doubted him. And thankfully the story doesn’t end there. Jesus rises from the grave and defeats death and sets in motion a Kingdom that is not of this world. Philippians 2 speaks to the kingdom that Jesus was apart of and the example He showed all. This was the lower Kingdom, one that considered the least the greatest, one that turned the cheek when struck, one that showed love to all, one that did not respond with anger and fitting when put on trial, and one that was a servant leader giving Himself up.
The Upper Kingdom looks a little different. Though it is powerful and makes sense on a lot of basis, it is one that is limited to this world. It does make sense to be apart of this Kingdom because it looks safe, it looks plentiful and it is the in place to be. In most churches this Upper Kingdom is represented. Like my dad likes to call it, “the good ole boys.” This Kingdom will do anything to protect themselves. They see that power equals influence, and so they protect power with thier lives. They use fear to get where they need to be and what they want. The upper Kingdom looks good on the outside but dirty on the inside (Matthew 23:26). The upper Kingdom represents any Kingdom that is off this world.
I will stop with that, Greg Boyd does a much better job of playing these two Kingdoms out, but I will ask the question. Which Kingdom do you want to be apart of? Now I know the obvious answer is the lower Kingdom. That was my choice too, but I started to think about what this implies and means for me. It means that I turn the other cheek, that I love my enemies, that I don’t respond with anger, that the troubles of this world (economy, war, taxes, etc…) are not my concern because I do not belong to this Kingdom. It puts a lot of things in perspective for myself and I hope it does for you as well.
I am not on a rant against America and Christians here, I am simple telling you the journey that I have been on for the last several months and my response to America.

What is your response? What Kingdom do you belong to?

*Kyle

Appreciate all the comments that were left yesterday and am excited about the rest of the week. I encourage everyone to continue to comment and read, I have a lot of smart friends out there and look forward to hearing what you have to say (that includes you O’Malley).

The Myth of a Christian Nation*
Before I get into what a myth is and why people are believing in myths, I want to first address something that was brought to my attention through an email from my Grandpa. He brought up the issue of defining something. And so I think it is important that I first define what a Christian is (in my mind) before I move on.
There is a song that I remember as a kid that is ringing out in my head right now, “they know we are Christians by our love by our love, they will know that we are Christians by our love” (sung in my Grandma Reeds voice). Cheesy song, but a lot of truth inside of it. Looking at Jesus what separated him the most from other great teachers and prophets was His love. Many believe that Jesus was a great teacher, that is undeniable, but where the problems start to arise is whether or not he was God in human form. To me, this is answered by the statement “God is Love” found in 1 John 4:7-8.  What separates Jesus from any other teacher was His love in all things, a perfect love. That was best demonstrated by his servant leadership (great demonstration of love) and his ultimate death on the cross (the ultimate show of love). For further understanding on this go and listen to Rob Bell’s love wins sermon, amazing. To be a Christian is to love, which might be too simple of an answer. A Christian is someone who prescribes to the love of God, taking the Holy Spirit as his/her guide, and being Jesus (love) to all. I might have missed some things there for you, but I don’t have time to get into everything.

So what is this thing about America being a Christian nation all about? For the longest time Christianity for me has been associated with white people. My whole life I have been surrounded by white people. Leades, church paritioners, family, and politicians, white people have been the face of Christianity. If you don’t think this is true, go and look at most depictions of Jesus in art/media and tell me who He looks like. As well, most white people are associated with America, amazing enough we did not settle America, but the Indians were the founding fathers. And yet for some reason, America has turned into the white mans home, which means that America has believed what the white man believes, and that is Christianity. Now there are several forms of Christianity that are represented (unfortunately) but for the most part, %90 of people would say that America is a Christian nation. I was one of those people for a long time. Until I started to look for what America stood for, or at least what people see America standing for. America was founded on freedom, which is great because I might not be the man I am today if not for that fact. But for some reason, that religious freedom that America was founded on has become more of an after thought when it comes to people believing differently (more on this later). For the most part America is seen as a free country, but inside this freedom comes a whole new set of problems. These problems are what America is known for. Capitalism (which I heard from Shaun Hannity that capitilism is dead with Obama being president) pursuit of Happiness (american dream) free market, freedom of speech, all that good stuff that America is known for leads one to believe that this is what Chrsitianity is known for. People would characterize Christians and Christianity a couple ways: Hypocritical, Narrow Minded, and Egocentric.
Can you see the relationship that Christianity has with America. A place founded upon the idea that money brings happiness, that you need to look a certain way so that you can fit in, that what you believe is right and if someone disagrees with you then they are wrong. I have heard all of these messages preached in one form or another over my life time. I think we all know someone who fits into this mold, and to be honest maybe I fit into this mold, but that is not the mold that Jesus was in. If you are willing to say that America is a Christian nation then you are willing to claim the fact that we killed innocent people (Indians) for the sake of “freedom”, that we told men (African Americans) that they were not men and they were animals that work for us, and that we let the desire/greed for money and power make decisions about war and peace. These are just a couple claims (major ones) that are associated with America which in turn is Christianity. I am not free of any of this, I am sinful man who is bent on sin saved by the grace of God. But I am slow to claim America as a Christian nation. That is not the Christianity that I know, that is not the way of Jesus that I know. Never do we see Jesus associate himself with a nation or a city, actually he did the opposite. For the sake of brevity, I will stop there.
America is not a Christian nation, we have bought into the idea that if we are or can continue to be we can control and make people better. The fundamental problem with that idea is depicted in the picture of a blind man leading another blind man around a room full of chairs and expecting them to not get tripped up, funny to watch, but we know the outcome.

So what is the myth that we are believing? That America is a Christian nation, and that becuase of this Christ will use America to make people “good,” that through rules set up by America people will come to believe in God, and that if we continue to keep Christian principles and men/women in places of power to rule people will fall in line and Christ will be glorified.

I will stop there, thanks for reading. Your turn, blast me for what I said or agree with me. But make yourself heard on a very important subject.

*Kyle

**The myth of a Chrsitian nation was stolen from the book “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Greg Boyd. Great book, got a lot of new thoughts out of this book. At the end of the week I will provide a work cited page for resources and places I got most of my thoughts.

I have been giving this a lot of thought over the last 4 months, and have decided to stir up some thoughts about nothing (actual important thoughts about something). I know that I might be pushing some buttons, or maybe playing with a hornets nest, or maybe I am just stating the obvious. But, I want to hear what others are saying on this issue.

Starting today, Monday the 16th of February, Presidents day, I am going to be doing a 5 part “series” on the issue of war, Christianity, and peace. I would love to hear from everyone and anyone this week, whether you want to blast me for what I am saying or agree with me on something, please feel free to weigh in. I encourage everyone to have some thoughts on this very important subject. So here we go….

War and Peace Pt. 1
The state of Christianity in America

Over the last 7 or 8 years I have been able to think on my own. Meaning, I have been able to learn and come up with rational thoughts that were formed by my own experience, opinion, rationality, and lessons learned. Obviously, I am wiser than I was 8 years ago (I think) and so I have been able to think and form opinions in new ways. One of the biggest ways that I have learned to think is through experience. Whether it be at church, something that has happened to me good or bad, books, or things that happen to others that I hear about, I have been able to learn from all of these situations. Growing up in this last decade, I have been exposed to many new thoughts and ways of doing things. One thing that has always stuck out to me is the way that Christianity is represented in America. For some reason I never felt right about it and never wanted to really be associated with it. I remember the first time I read the phrase of “christ follower” in Don Millers Blue Like Jazz and thought, “Ya, that makes sense, that is what I am.” Not a Christian like these other crazy people, but a Christ Follower that follows what Jesus said and only that. For the generations before, it is what Dr. Campolo said, “Red Letter Christian.” And yet that phrase “Christ Follower” has even adapted to something that I really don’t want to be associated with today. I guess you could say that it was humanized or Americanized and has become something different than what I know or thought it was in the past. And when I say Americanized, I mean that it has been turned into an American version of Christianity. Now obviously we know that Christianity is not exclusive to Americans, actually it spreads to ever tribe and generation (Acts 1:8). But for some reason I missed this, I often clapped when someone said “God Bless America.” I think a lot of this came around the time of September 11, 2001. I was a junior in high school and was really starting to question/learn about Christianity and what it meant to be a Christ follower. This was a very critical time in my development of how I viewed religion in America. In 2003 the war in Iraq was starting/heating up and I was all for it. Wanting our soldiers to bring piece in the way of force. In 2004 when Bush was running for re-election I punched my vote in the way of God and voted for a “Christian” man to continue to run this country. I put my allegiance in the cross but also in the nation. I was starting to think about the possibilities of if people would just follow christian ways America would be a better place and a lot of our problems would disappear. Then came the gay marriage issue and I started to feel threatened and afraid that marriage was being re-defined and that we needed to protect our beliefs and the Christian principles that this nation was founded on.
All these events, along with many other things led me up to this most recent election. I was torn, do I vote for a new way of thinking, or do I go with some of the same principles of the last 8 years. But I knew that there was something more to this, like there was a whole other issue that was missing and I could not place my finger on it. Until finally one day it clicked, and it clicked when I was at my teacher orientation and the issue of the pledges came up. The principle started to talk about how we need to pledge to the American and Christian flags every morning and that this was very important because the two were not separated and that we needed to take back this country for God and that is what we were doing in our high school. That statement continued to ring in my ears, over and over. Take back this country for God. What does that mean? Does that even sound right? Does God care? All these questions started to run through my head. After hours of reading and conversations had, I have come to this thinking, America is not a Christian nation. It never has been and never will be. And I am glad it is that way. Over the next week I am going to discuss why I think America is not a Christian nation and why I disagree with war.

This might sound like I am turning into a liberal, it might sound like I have no clue what I talking about, and it might sound like I am trying to stir up trouble. Maybe all are true, but I want to bring up an issue that has been going in my mind for a little time now, and I would like for you to think/weigh in on this issue.

Umbrella of Grace is here, we are under grace of God and the umbrella goes to all who want to comment.
Over the next week I am going to talk about:
1) the myth of a christian nation
2) why i disagree with war
3) christians response to america
4) what now

Hope you come back for more
*Kyle