A Look Back: Critiquing My Earlier Writings with Fresh Eyes

In my seminary paper entitled “A Biblical Theology of Mission and Ministry”, I had a section called, “Not of This World.” This is what I wrote then:

In his book, “A Light to The Nations”, Michael W. Goheen dealt with the fact that the early followers of Jesus were “resident aliens.” They were outsiders in their local setting. The Apostle Paul addressed this in his letter to the followers of the Way who were at Rome.

He recommended that they not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. For far too long, we have just gone along with what American society has handed to us instead of us focusing on allowing the Spirit of God to renew and shape how we view the world. Nationalism has taken the place of Christianity. We have been conditioned to believe that the United States of America is God’s chosen country. The unfortunate part of this is that preachers and other church leaders have reinforced this subject from our pulpits, in our classrooms, and at Christian seminaries and conferences across the country. I believe this mindset has hindered our witness and has watered down the message of the gospel. Because nationalism has shaped our theology, we have suppressed the Spirit of God. Nationalism has become an idol. Therefore, it has become our god. We cannot be effective in our missional work in the local context if we continue to live our lives stuck in the partisanship of American culture. 

This will keep us divided racially, ethnically, socially, and economically. I know this firsthand because I have friends that are highly influenced by party lines. This scenario makes it difficult to have a theological conversation being that party lines divide the people. I believe that a multicultural church would help to teach and show the importance of living like Jesus.

In this blog post, my theologian self is critiquing my seminarian self by saying that nationalism has not replaced Christianity, it has amalgamated with American Christianity to create what we see as Christian Nationalism. It is not a badge of honor to wear as I have heard some of my fellow preachers try to convince their followers to believe. It does divide us into categories. It does exclude and “other” people who do not look or think like us. It is fused with a narrow view of American Political Conservatism interwoven with  biblical fundamentalist ideologies mixed in with arrogant ignorance, hate, indifference, paternalism, misogyny/misogynoir, and Whiteness. You can read more about this issues in my blogs entitled “Staying Spiritually Aware: Tips for Detecting Evil Influences”

https://www.edupreneurialtheologian.com/blog/staying-spiritually-aware-tips-for-detecting-evil-influences

and “Reckoning with Whitness”

https://www.edupreneurialtheologian.com/blog/reckoning-with-whiteness

In both of these blog posts I give more information as to why these evil spirits that influence Christian Nationalism are so dangerous. Unfortunately, this ideology has gotten stronger since my days of seminary. Forces that are controlled by this ideology have strengthened the false narratives projected from some pulpits, they have restructured some Bible Departments at schools of higher learning, they have sought to take over public school systems, and they have sought to ban books to suppress certain aspects of history that will support their agenda. I do still believe that it is an idol god to many in society. I not sure if I still believe my following statement, “I believe that a multicultural church would help to teach and show the importance of living like Jesus.” The way that we do “diversity” here in America is not the diversity that can be found in the Book of Acts. We can’t even be diverse in our leadership structures to represent the people that we lead. We are too busy trying to restrict women from leadership roles because of our remedial understanding of the entire Text. Since we cannot get the Creation Narrative right, I have very little hope that we can get a multicultural or should I say multiethnic church right.

However, I do have hope that efforts like the one in this blog, my podcasts (https://www.edupreneurialtheologian.com/podcasts), and other platforms of church leaders and theologians who love studying the Text and sharing what we have learned about the vastness and diverse perspectives of how the Creator has interacted with humanity since the Creation Narrative. I believe that we are doing our part to bring hope and liberation to someone for them to understand that the Spirit of God is still at work to remove them from the oppressive and narrow views of these spirits that control our society.