America – THE MATTRIX

I love my country. Let me make that clear. If you know me in the least you are more than aware I am not part of the hate America or blame America wing of the political spectrum. On the contrary, I am a patriot. I love my country.

I love its flag. Our flag. I love how it represents men who fought that I might be free. I love how it represents men who died to set other people free. And if you want to get silly, attach the flag to any sporting event and the chances of me getting interested increase exponentially. I love that Superman’s outfit deliberately includes American colors. Captain America is even my favorite Avenger.

I love my country. I love the flag.

I just can’t pledge allegiance to it any longer.

Some Christians do not say the Pledge because, as Paul writes in Philippians 3:20, our citizenship is in heaven. I understand that point of view and, to a degree, sympathize with it. However, I also understand that as Christians, while we are on this earth, we have a dual-citizenship. We are not to have friendship with the world, for that is enmity with God (Jas 4:4). We are not of the world, but we are in it (at least for now). My home is with Christ and that is much to be desired, but for now I am also an American. So that’s not why I can no longer say the pledge. Continue reading “I cannot pledge my allegiance”

Barack Obama is the President of the United States, and that won’t be changing come January 20. As I type this out the President has taken a slim lead in the popular vote and will end up winning a second term with an electoral landslide of 332-206. Governor Romney is just beginning his concession speech (about an hour and a half too late).

For convictional Christians this is an awfully tough pill to swallow. To be sure, it is hard to imagine how Obama was re-elected given how under his administration the national debt has increased by over six trillion dollars (an increase of over 60%), unemployment is higher than when he took office, and a healthcare reform bill that will inevitably kill jobs and take away personal freedoms was shoved through without a single Republican vote or serious consultation.

Hard to imagine, for sure, but absolutely tragic that he has been re-elected given his unqualified support for abortion on demand, his abandonment of the biblical definition of marriage and his support for homosexual uber-rights, and his administration outright attack on religious liberty. I stand by what I said in my post last night, that it was a sin to vote for this man.

What does this say about our electoral process? What does this say about the nature of political campaigns? And more so, what does this say about the American people? Nothing good, in my opinion. Yet, while this is tough to comprehend from a patriotic, nationalistic perspective, when we look at our nation through the lens of Scripture, biblical theology, and the gospel, this is really just the natural state of man running its course. Continue reading “Electoral post-mortem: Where do we go from here?”