Continuing To Be Not Of This World

In the third post of what is turning into a series (See We Are Not Of This World and Still Not Of This World) born of Greg Boyd's new book, The Myth Of A Christian Nation, I want to share with you an e-mail I got a couple days ago. It seems to me to be an example of the "mingling" of politics and Christianity that Boyd describes in his book.

"WHY ?

A mother asked President Bush,
"Why did my son have to die in Iraq?"

Another mother asked President Kennedy, "Why did my son have to die
in Viet Nam?"

Another mother asked President Truman, "Why did my son have to die in
Korea?

Another mother asked President F.D. Roosevelt, "Why did my son have to
die at Iwo Jima?"

Another mother asked President W. Wilson,
"Why did my son have to die on the battlefield of France?"

Yet another mother asked President Lincoln, "Why did my son have to
die at Gettysburg?"

And yet another mother asked President G. Washington "Why did my son
have to die near Valley Forge?"


Then long, long ago, a mother asked...
"Heavenly Father, why did my Son have to die on a cross outside of
Jerusalem?"

The answers to all these are similar -- "So that others may have life
and dwell in peace, happiness and freedom."

IF YOU DON'T STAND BEHIND OUR TROOPS, AND THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF
PLEASE, FEEL FREE... TO STAND IN FRONT OF THEM !!!"

How similar do you think they are?
I'm kinda wondering if that's what Boyd was getting at...
It might be one thing to say, "I think this is/was a just war and it was worth fighting and dying for because ________.

It seems, to me anyway, like this e-mail is saying that God and our soldiers are always on the same side, fighting for the same cause. That's something completely different.

While I'd be hard pressed to come up with an example of a war in which the US was on the wrong side, or was unjustified, (we always seem to be the good guys) this e-mail sounds quite a bit like the church service Boyd was talking about where the fighter jets were blazing over the three crosses, as if to say, "God and America: Partners for justice" or whatever. Trying to form a link between our government's agenda and God, so that any dissent would be seen as not only unpatriotic, but even evil.

I don't know, maybe it's just because my head's in that book. I used to pretty much think that way, that America always has only the purest of motives. I do think we are the good guys in the world, but that doesn't equal "God's country".

Tags: Boyd ,Religion ,Christianity