This Will Come Across As Anti-Patratoic But...

“The flag and the cross are both spiritual. And they are both political. It is a dangerous day when we can take the cross out of the church more easily then the flag…It’s difficult to know where Christianity ends and America begins.”
Why do we always think that Jesus is a white, six foot man, with light brown hair, who glowed? This bothers me. In case you haven't caught on - Jesus was Jewish. Not only Jewish but from the Middle East. Meaning he probably had tan to dark skin, dark brown hair, and might have hit 5 foot 4. And no, while he was the son of God, he did not glow. Where did we get off placing this image of Christ in the minds of little American children? I guess this is really a world wide issue though. When I went to Israel, at the church of the Immaculate Conception (the Catholic version), there are all of these pictures of Mary and the Christ child out behind the church. Each depicted Christ and Mary as their own nationality. We are so eager to make Christ like us that we forget who he really was. And I'm left here wondering if that's okay. Christ WAS for everyone, but he was still the unique son of God and son of man. When we try to hard to make him something he's not - like American - are we losing his uniqueness?
I think part of the reason that we cannot separate American from Christianity with a clean break is because of this warped nationalistic view of Jesus we hold. Oh and the fact that we somehow see America as the honored nation of God (which we are not). The founding fathers placed Christianity at the center of the US government, this is true, but we have fallen far from there. I wouldn't want the rest of the world to think that we are Christian. It would give Christianity a bad name. We have become so religiously laxed that we have become morally laxed.

“Anything involving humans living together purposefully is political.”
I would not have considered myself to be overly political before reading this statement. I vote both locally and nationally on an informed level (which is about ten steps ahead of most of the population) and I send letters to my congressman about certain issues that touch my heart. But I have yet to attend a lobby - maybe someday. Or get arrested at a political demonstration - yet again, maybe someday. Or stir together a large group of people for what I believe. But wasn't that all at the heart of early Christianity? What have we lost? The UMC was at the beating center of the Civil Rights Movement along with other denominations. We have wanted to separate politics and religion so much that we forgot that they both involve people - a hurting people who need to have someone speak for them. We need to be that voice again. We need to not be afraid of getting our hands dirty. We need to be the rallying cry in Washington. We need to be political again.

“We vote every day by how we live, what we buy, and who we pledge allegiance to.”
Fair Trade. I was so surprised when I got to my second college and hardly anyone had heard of fair trade while my secular school had hounded it. Why is it that non-Christians can be more concerned about what they purchase then Christians? More to come about this after the 8th - my next presentation date.

“We have family members who are starving and homeless, or dying of AIDS, or in the midst of war.”
We now not only have a biological family but a family of all of God's children whom we should be concerned with. If someone in your "real" family or immediate family was homeless you would care and chances are you would go out of your way to make sure that they were taken care of. So why don't we show that same concern for our brothers and sisters in Christ? Aren't we called to love one another, show compassion, and provide for one another? Or have I missed the hidden part in the Bible where its perfectly okay to shun people and leave them homeless or not care?

“And the lives of thirty thousand children who die of starvation each day is like six September 11ths every single day, a silent tsunami that happens every week.”